What I did while my husband was away

I'm used to my husband being away for work one or two nights a week, but occasionally he goes away for a longer stretch. Recently he was away for over a week, and now that the children don't need my attention quite as much as they used to I enjoyed having some time to myself.

The first thing that I did was to build myself a 'nest'. I set myself up on the sofa in our orangery and I had plenty of space to lay out all my things without being disturbed. There is space to do a jigsaw, keep a pile of books, my cross stitch and my notebooks. Of course I have a lovely warm blanket, cushions, and space for a drink and snacks.

On the screens I had a list of television programmes to work through. My son and I watched the latest season of Percy Jackson, and we also watched the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures that we didn't get around to over Christmas. I had a playlist filled with longer Everest documentaries - my current fascination - and I've also recently been investigating Substack so I had fun setting that up and finding some new writers to subscribe to.

I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of screen free time too. I'm working on a cross stitch which although small is quite complicated, and it's stitched on dark fabric which means that I can only really work on it during the day. It's vaguely Christmas themed, so it would be nice to have it complete ready to display this winter!

I treated myself to a book order from World of Books, delivering me a nice new selection of Everest books. I'm building up quite a collection! Some of them are quite niche, so buying second hand is the cheapest way to get them. I also had a big pile of fiction books borrowed from a friend to add in the mix.

I worked my way to the end of my pile of new and new-to-me jigsaws, and I'm planning on re-doing some of the older ones in my collection before passing them on to new homes. I very rarely want to do a puzzle again, especially when it's so easy and cheap to find new or secondhand jigsaws in charity shops. This large Zodiac puzzle was only £5 new from Hobbycraft, and free to me as I used my Hobbycraft birthday voucher to buy it!

As well as indulging myself in my hobbies, when my husband is away it gives me the chance to clear the decks a bit. I gave his desk a good clean and got all the washing done that he had left lying around. I also saw the chance to work through any food that needed eating up. We spent the week eating leftovers from the freezer - like the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings from Christmas that I had forgotten about! 

Of course I can and do indulge myself in my hobbies when he is at home, but it is nice to be able to catch up on some of the things that I enjoy doing by myself so we can do things together when he gets back!

What I've been up to lately

I've been blogging a lot lately but it's been ages since I did a proper catch up post! My work has calmed down recently but I still feel like I've been busy, so here are some of the things that I've been up to:

Watching

I'm always one to follow a trend and so we watched Squid Game on Netflix as we wanted to know what all the fuss was about. It was really good! Although very gruesome, I had to hide behind a blanket at some points and I'm definitely not letting the children anywhere near it. We've also just started the new series of Tiger King and I really loved the musical Tick, Tick...Boom! I thought it was very cleverly done. We are definitely getting full value from our Netflix subscription!

Playing

Mia took her first flute exam last week. She has been learning since May and this was the ABRSM Prep Test, it's like a practice exam before taking Grade 1. It isn't marked as a pass or fail, instead they get a feedback sheet, and it's a great way to sit a proper exam without too much pressure. She did really well and hopefully she'll be ready to take her Grade 1 next term, I'm so pleased with how well she has taken to the instrument. 

I've also been doing a bit more piano playing myself. I reviewed a book a couple of weeks ago, Notes on the Piano, and one thing that it inspired me to think about was trying to memorise a piece or two. I've never been able to play the piano without music, and I'm finding it really hard! I'm beginning with River Flows in You by Yiruma and Snow Prelude No. 3 by Einaudi as we have arrangements of them which aren't too difficult and sound really good when played. 

A different sort of playing now - I'm currently slightly addicted to Pikmin Bloom, the latest game from the creators of Pokemon Go. It's a glorified step counter to be honest, but it has been getting me and the rest of the family out and about together, planting flowers and growing seedlings. 

Reading

I have organised my to be read pile with some new bookends and this was how it was looking a couple of weeks ago. It's a little daunting but I think it's achievable, I just need to stop reserving books from the library as I have to read those first. What you can't really see is the Kindle tucked away on the left which also contains just as many unread books!

I'm currently reading A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, which is a sequel to Life After Life in the pile above, and I'm enjoying it very much. We are going away for a week in December so I'm already planning which books to pack.

Listening

I spend quite a lot of time in the car driving to and from school and so I'm very grateful for our Spotify subscription. I always enjoy listening to songs from musicals, especially ones that I know the words to for a good old singalong. I've also made myself a playlist of relaxing piano music for the days when I'm feeling a bit anxious about the driving. 

I'm not really into podcasts as I'm too easily distracted, but I have discovered Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee which I enjoy listening to from time to time. I've picked up some really useful and interesting information as well as tips about exercise and stress management. I also downloaded a new app, Smiling Mind, which is a meditation and mindfulness app that I'd really recommend, it's all free and there are plenty of different meditations and activities to work through if you need to clear your head from time to time. I'm trying to do a ten minute one at some point most days. 

Eating

I'm ashamed to say that we've made a start on the festive chocolate boxes. They have been on special offer in Tesco so we've been buying a couple of boxes each week for Christmas...hopefully one or two will make it that far!

I've been really impressed with Harry's food and nutrition lessons at school. He's made all sorts of things - a delicious cheesecake, cheese straws, proper meals like lasagne, quiche and green Thai curry. Yesterday he brought home an amazing Swiss roll - much better than the one that I attempted a few years ago! I've lined him up to make us a chocolate yule log for Christmas in a few weeks.

Crafting

I've been sharing lots of recent festive crafts on my blog lately, like my tin can beaded lanterns and my free mini Christmas cross stitch designs. I've just started work on one of my mini Christmas cross stitch kits from Hobbycraft. It's a snow globe design and it's really pretty with lots of different stitches as well as the basic cross stitch.

Blogging

With my paid work taking a bit of a hiatus I've been spending a bit more time on the blog, both writing posts and improving the design. You might notice some new picture sidebar buttons to the right to easily access my themed content, and I've also updated my profile picture which was several years old. I've got lots of Christmas content to work on and I'm making plans for New Year and spring content while I have some time. I love writing blog posts, I'm just terrible at the promotion side!

So that's what I've been up to lately, how about you?

The good things that happened this year thanks to Covid-19

It has been a strange old year hasn't it? Who could have imagined a year ago how much all our plans for 2020 would change.

Soon we'll be saying goodbye to 2020 and hoping for a much brighter year to come. But while I'm in a reflective mood I thought I'd take a positive look back at some of the things that have happened to me this year thanks to Covid-19. 

Spending more time together as a family

This has to be number one, as it really is the best thing to have come out of this year. Although I admit I do often find it overwhelming having everyone at home, all of the time, it really has been lovely and I think we've all benefited from time spent together. In the summer we went out walking and exploring in the local area and this winter we've been watching films, playing games and reading together.

Exploring new parts of the UK

We had three big holidays booked for 2020, and although we were hoping that at least one of them might be salvaged, in the end we had to accept that it wasn't to be. But we were lucky enough to instead enjoy three lovely holidays in the UK. We spent a week in Westward Ho!, in Hunstanton and in Torquay, each time in self-catered accommodation and in our family bubble. 

Each holiday was a wonderful break. Even though we didn't get out to any of the usual tourist attractions and we mainly went for walks or chilled out in our accommodation it was still fantastic to visit some different parts of the country and spend time exploring and relaxing as a family. 

Making time for new hobbies

I was really pleased to complete a 100 Day Project this spring. Although it was one of my goals for 2020, I honestly don't think I would have done it if I hadn't found myself at home for a long period without any interruptions. At a time when my anxiety levels were super high it really helped me to set aside half an hour or so each day to play around with paints.

Spending time in the garden

We spent so much time in the garden this year, far more than we would have normally. Working on the vegetable patch, sitting on a garden chair with a cup of tea and watching Mia playing, having discovered a new found love for our swing set. We enjoyed eating pizzas from our pizza oven, regular barbecues, and we spent time outdoors with friends and family when it was allowed. On the few hot evenings in August which coincided with the Perseid meteor shower we lay out on a blow up mattress and gazed up at the stars.

Decorating and improving the house

When it became obvious that Ram was going to be working from home for the foreseeable future we made the decision to turn one of our upstairs rooms into an office. We bought the desk almost as soon as the first lockdown started, but it wasn't until later in the year that we gave the room a proper clear out and decorated it. The bright pink walls that we inherited from the former owner were replaced by a calming cream and white colour scheme and it's now a pleasant and relaxing place for him to work. At the same time we also decorated our dining room, replacing dark red with the same cream, and it has really opened up the room and made the whole of the downstairs much brighter.

We evaluated the storage in some of the bedrooms and found it lacking, so we bought new drawer units from Ikea which have made a big difference to the tidiness level of the rooms.

Watching theatre from home

I was so excited to have tickets for Hamilton in July, having only started listening to the musical at the beginning of the year. Of course that didn't happen, but my disappointment was somewhat assuaged by the fact that I can now watch the original cast perform on Disney + as often as I like. Over the summer I watched several plays streamed by the National Theatre, including Small Island, Frankenstein and Coriolanus, which I enjoyed very much. 

No more supermarket trips

We used to do a weekly big shop as well as several top up shops during the week. No more! Now we have a regular Tesco delivery, we are organised with what we buy, and when we rarely run out of something we pop to the local Co-op in the village. I've only been to the supermarket when I've needed things that can't be bought online, like school uniform and shoes over the summer that needed to be tried on or at least held up against a child. 

Lots of time reading

I have always used the library fairly regularly, but since the summer I've been in the routine of visiting our local library most weeks. I'm loving the fact that I can reserve books for free, and when it has been open I've been stocking up on big piles of books to keep me going through the weeks when it has had to close for browsing. This year I've read an enormous amount of books, and I want to keep that going. 

No illness

Luckily none of us have tested positive for Covid. However Ram was very ill in late February with all the Covid symptoms, and both children had symptoms when their school closed in March, with Mia having been sat next to a suspected case. 

I always seem to be ill with a bad cold at Christmas and I never get the full enjoyment from our Christmas dinner and assorted snacks. However I can't even remember the last time I had a cold - I think it may well have been Christmas last year - and although the children both caught a bit of a sniffle when they went back to school in September I have been illness free all year.

I'd love to hear about the positive things that have come out of this year for you!