At least that is how it feels!!!
Yesterday I was talking to a colleague in Chicago (via Skype of course) and he was saying how he just wanted to get back to normality. I asked if he meant normal as in how life was back before anyone had ever heard of coronavirus or social distancing or lockdown or did he mean a new post-lockdown normal where anything a little bit less lockdownish felt like a win and a step towards normal. We laughed but the truth is that we are a long way from getting all the way back to life as we knew it aren’t we?
Lockdown has been hard on everyone for so many different reasons, many of my friends are furloughed or find themselves without work. I am one of the lucky ones as I am still working full-time in my IT job. We started working remotely 10 weeks ago and honestly it took some time to get used to, even Fridays stopped feeling special! We always worked from home on Friday but once I had to work from home full time Friday felt like every other day. One thing I certainly do not miss is my commute - the most frustrating futile waste of time - how it took an hour to drive 12 miles I do not know!!
The week after I started working from home the kid’s schools closed and home learning began - where do I begin with that? There have been so many ups and downs and tears (mainly mine) and just when I think I have it all worked out it all falls apart again. My three kids are different ages and all at different schools so the juggle is real! The support from the schools has been amazing, I know that it was a herculean effort to switch to online learning in such a short space of time and I know more is being asked of the schools now as they prepare for some children to return to the classroom. Unfortunately my three kids do not fall into the year groups that will be returning to school in the near future - or fortunately none of them are in critical years at school is another way of looking at it!
Honestly somedays have been a breeze juggling home working and home schooling and other days have felt like I was doing everything badly. I have trained adults all my life, teaching your 12 yo son about the chemical reaction between metals and acids or explaining the difference between past perfect and past imperfect tenses whilst doing back to back Skype meetings for work is a whole new ballgame! I was not good at Physics and Chemistry when I was at school, evidently I am still not good at Physics and Chemistry!
The thing is that no matter how hard and stressful it has been trying to keep it all together I am extremely fortunate to still be working in these crazy times and as tempting as it has been to quit, I am a self-employed single mum of three kids and I am under no illusion that it would be near on impossible to find another job right now and could be for the foreseeable future so I just need to stick with it.
Of course there have been good things to have come out of this extended lockdown - I cherish the time spent with my kids, all too soon they will have grown up and leave for university (except for the little one, she says she will never leave me!). The big girl has taken to baking every week - she started with macarons and this week we have had blondies - I think I have managed to instill in her now that a good cook cleans up after themselves - the first week I was left to deal with a mess akin to the Icelandic ash cloud!! Bless her heart she is 14 and missing her friends and finding that hard but she makes time to FaceTime my 89 year old Mum every single day. Even the boy has learnt new skills in lockdown - he is now able to tie his own ponytail - a skill that will stand him in good stead if he is blessed with daughters in years to come! If lockdown goes on for much longer he may well master plaiting his blue hair!
This week the kids are officially on half term holidays so no home schooling - hurrah as I think we all need the rest!! Looks like the English weather is at least going to play ball so a staycation in the sunny Costa del Backyard it is!!! And after that who knows what the next few weeks and months will bring?!
Much love xxx