Holidays Already?!

Gosh, doesn’t time fly when your head is in a spin! Easter is here and that means it is time for lots of chocolate and entertaining children every day. As we know, this has always proved challenging for me.

I have been known to rely heavily on the free baby sitter in the corner of the living room during the holidays. Such good value for money on the days when it feels like an uphill struggle to make it to the end of the day.

However, at least the holidays can not disrupt my usual day to day activities as it doesn’t feel like there has been enough time to develop any day to day routine yet.

The past few months I have been becoming more and more confused about what I should be doing and teaching my children and I have finally come to the decision that I am not going to change anything at this moment in time. I am going to allow my common sense to guide me and make adjustments if and when it makes sense.

I have big plans for the upcoming holiday. Hopefully we will spend a few days at the allotment and manage to get some stuff planted in the ground ready to enjoy any produce that may grow. Time will tell. It’s the first time I have actually attempted to grow fruits and vegetables so it is going to be a learning curve. If it doesn’t work then we can try again until we get it right.

One lesson I learnt in my life is to keep trying and learn from the experience until you are successful. Therefore, it’s a safe bet that it will remain an important principle to teach my children for the future.

Lots of people are getting very excited by the thought of freedom. The group chats are coming alive with ideas to reward the children who have coped so well during the past year and had to miss out on so much. It’s a lovely sentiment but I’m afraid the cynic in me cannot share their optimism, given previous experiences.

I do also feel that children are much more resilient than we give them credit for and actually the people who deserve a reward are the adults who have been working so hard to support, protect, nurture and guide the children through this period of time, despite our own fears and uncertainty.

I am aware that this makes me selfish but where’s our party? Or the party for the teachers and support workers who have all worked so tirelessly. Personally, I would prefer to contribute to a fun treat for them so they can let their hair down at the end of the school year, but that’s just me.

There are lots and lots of things happening in the world at the moment. We have birthdays to look forward to and the gradual relaxation of lockdown which we await with bated breath and, if I’m honest, an air of skepticism. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we may be able to have some parties in the summer and enjoy a few alcoholic beverages. Maybe we will get our party after all but to protect myself from disappointment I am not going to hold my breath.

I also made a recent discovery which has perturbed me a little. I was gifted with an air fryer for Christmas. I have not been very experimental with it yet but I have been receiving tips about what I can do with an air fryer from an unexpected source. My father, of all people.

Why is that an unexpected source you may wonder. Well, when I embarked on my journey as an adult I did not think I would receive cooking tips from a blind man! Yes, you read that correctly, my Father is, in fact, blind. I suggested that he invest in an air fryer as it is, obviously, safer for him to use than a deep fat fryer and his microwave was getting a lot of use. Everyone needs a little variety, however, I did not anticipate phone calls informing me how to cook various items. Alas, his skills have put me to shame.

Easter means there is extra temptation in our house at the moment. The children always get spoilt when it comes to Easter eggs. We were mean this year and haven’t done an Easter egg hunt but the children do not seem too bothered about this omission from the weekend.

For me, the temptation is not the eggs but the Trunchballesque chocolate cake that my mother in law has baked. It is, by far, the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. It looks just like the one in Matilda and I have to be really strict with myself not to pull a Bruce Bogtrotter on it as soon as the children have gone to bed. I have been told off for eating the last peice, by them both, in the past.

It’s just too good! We have a birthday coming up in the household so if we are very lucky we will be treated to another one. Two in one month! That’s just greedy but well deserved, wouldn’t you agree?

All in all, my heads a bit of scramble and life is feeling rather upside down, the way I imagine life feels for Mr Topsy Turvy most days, but I am going to focus on the things that bring me joy for a while. I am going to take pleasure in the small stuff and hope all my other thoughts fall in to place in time.

Life carries on and I continue to laugh and find humour in all aspects of my life because, ultimately, that is preferable to spending my time crying and living in fear that the fact I even exist offends everyone from what I have seen in the media.