Carpe diem with kids

A week of all of us being stranded at home with my family and I am wondering how long until we drive each other crazy. Funnily enoughy hasn’t happened yet, but I know that one way or the other it’s imminent and I am wondering how we’ll all cope. This isolation-honeymoon that many of us claim to like so much will surely not last forever. Or it might do, who knows? I identified 6 types of relationships between the 5 of us and probably the safest one is Dan and my Mum who get along really well (mainly because they have the same 'enemy' in common, so they’ve got to stick to each other) For the rest... God help us all. 😂  As much as I love the girls, and as many deep breaths I try, I know it’s only a matter of time until they will drive me insane. I will not dwelve into the other ones, but I WILL be living with my Mum for the next God knows how many months. Need I say more? It is tricky, really tricky, and high level diplomatic skills will be required. Someone was telling me re...

Yesterday during my run with Ariana, neither of us felt like going on much longer, yet we've only just started. We walked a bit, then ran again, but felt tired, and having to keep social distance from others being outside felt a bit overwhelming. But eventually we got into a rhythm and the loveliest big girl of mine said: ' You know Mummy, it's sort of like Dumbledore says - you can always find strength even when you’re week. But he says that you can always find light even in the darkest of times '. OMG!!!!!!!! I was speechless and my heart burst out with love, pride, sadness. I was able to tell her how amazing her words were and how much truth is in them. I wanted to tell her that it's all going to be ok, but I could speak no more. Just decided to swallow all the tears and keep running. We ran in the sunshine, away from it all, just the two of us and felt really nice. On the way back we did a little detour to see the lovely hyacinth display that is not goin...

I bet all the parenting books authors in the world did not see this coming and are currently in a mad contest on writing the first one to deal with ‘Best parenting practices while staying/working at home for months with your kids’. I can imagine titles like ‘how to stay alive and sane parenting tactics’, ‘breathe, drink and pray”, “hypnoparenting for dummies’. For those of us having done the stupid thing called ‘attachment parenting’, ‘unconditional parenting’, I can only put it simple: you’re f... doomed! 😉And for those of us having done/read/heard anything related to hypnobirthing and know what I’m talking about, there may be a slim chance, but cannot guarantee you ending up sane. Basically, it is only now that all the breathing we practiced in preparation to giving birth really becomes helpful. Strategies to remain calm: close your eyes (not right now!!!), imagine you’re by the sea, the wind is blowing in your hair, listen to the waves and feel them tickling your toes, smell the...

Love a good spring day! This one maybe not so much, but we’ve got to deal with what we have. And having that bit of outdoor space to be these days just feels like winning the lottery. And this gorgeous little tree we planted a few weeks ago makes me so happy and gives me so much hope. And look at that gorgeous blue sky. We actually bought it a year ago, when we were expecting to move house by May. One of the lovely guys at the garden centre told me it will be ok to stay potted as it was for a couple of months, but not longer. However probably due to another twisted karma’s temperamental moods, moving didn’t happen until end of August. During the summer this it had been abandoned in our garden and looked like it had no chance of survival. When we finally moved and managed to sort out the garden it was already winter, and poor tree remained ISOLATED in the pot, abandoned and lonely in a corner. Eventually we managed to decide on the right spot for it and finally planted it, our s...

2020!!! Less than 3 months ago we were getting fed up with all those positive posts on Facebook about what a fantastic/amazing/ extraordinary year this is going to be!! Then karma went like 'hold my beer' and turned the world upside down. Generally I am quite calm about viruses, flues and other 'light' stuff and ignore all the media around the subject, but last night I found myself wide awake at 3am with my mind wandering in places and couldn't stop it from doing so. I am sure we all stayed awake recently and wondered whatever next. People buying food as if there's no tomorrow, empty shelves, events we were all looking forward to being cancelled, reduced social interaction due to staying home, school closures and most likely a general havoc for many families. WTF 2020?! We had a deal, I know I said you’ll be amazing, asked you to bring it on, was so ready for you, but it was all a façade, it was not the intention to challenge fate. What we really meant is we...