In attempt to get myself back in the habit of blogging and to record some of our experiences here, I'm trying to write a month in review post. Considering how often I used to update this, that shouldn't be so hard, right?
Overall, its been a bit of rough month. England is still in pretty tight lockdown state. I haven't actually been in my car since before Christmas. 6 weeks without driving anywhere is probably a first for me. I do have plans to go somewhere next Tuesday though and its a kind of lame paperwork appointment (note: moving overseas means endless paperwork!) but I don't even care, I'm excited! So, the lockdown has clearly brought about some mental health challenges for me and the kids but we're muddling through.
Some good things about this month.
School - We started our next term. The kids aren't on the same term of the year (Jonah's on Year 2 Term 3, Lucy's Year 5 Term 2) which is fine but bothers me what I want to say "We started our second term" or "our last term" and can't. Either way, the term has been started. And its really going amazingly well. Last term we were so worn down that without even doing much in the way of riches or foreign languages and even some of the standard weekly things, we were barely making it through. This term is so different! We're easily getting the AO readings done in 4.5 days (Friday is a short day) plus everything I had planned for our together time and still have extra time. Its all just going so smoothly! I'd like to credit it with my amazing scheduling skills but I think we just needed those few weeks off and a fresh start.
My reading life - I started 2020 reading strong but boy, by the end of the year, my reading stack was bad. But everyone's reading lists and challenge ideas on social media got my inspired. I read 15 books in January - and mostly good ones! I have three classics challenge books to review but my favorite reads of the month were What is a Family by Edith Shaeffer (So SO GOOD!), Range, and Pachinko (with caveats. You have to know what your getting with Pachinko and most of the criticism I've seen of it are not wrong but I also found it enjoyable and thought provoking.)
Family time - Hopefully Craig will be back full time in his office soon but for now, he's still rotating weeks in the office and home. And I want to appreciate the time he's had home lately. Its very nice to be able to keep working on a math problem with an older kid even when the toddler suddenly needs to go potty! But also just to have him around for meals and join us for tea time and singing and the fun stuff we do as a group.
Our Anniversary - We did a bad job of spreading out the gift stuff in our marriage. My birthday and our anniversary are sandwiched right between Christmas and Valentine's day! But we still managed to have a fun anniversary date night at home. Sugary desserts the kids aren't allowed to have were involved, as was Exit: The Game. We did the Pharoah's tomb and it was challenging (took two nights for us to finish but that's because Jude could sense we had plans and had a rough bedtime and I turn into a pumpkin at 10pm). I'm pretty sure we'll be doing another of these in the future.
I'm not really a big party planning person. Well, that's not totally true, I used to love that stuff. But I just haven't had it in me lately to do big parties or themed things for kids at this stage of my life. It's a feeling of being perpetually behind what I'd need to be . But its been really helpful to have things to look forward to here whether that is a family New Year's Eve Party or at home dates. Just something on the calendar (preferable even more fun that driving to a military base for a paperwork appointment :-) I just got a package from a friend that reminded me Valentine's Day is coming up so I'm off to try and plan something for us all for that. I probably should have started a week ago but were there is a will, there is a way! Onward to fun!
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