It snowed again but melted fast on the sunny side. No energy to hit The Flats agains so we broke the school day with a stroll to the sweet shop sans walking boots and waterproof trousers, taking the long route round via the high street and school.
Do you keep the routine or let it go? As we head towards half term tomorrow and with school it’s been pretty impossible to get them to do all their work and my instinct this week is to let it go in the afternoons anyway. The minute the structure is gone and there’s no organised activity though, my two just hit a wall though and the fall out can be pretty epic. Instead of getting some work done while they take it easy, I do nothing but break up fights or take a beating myself.
I’m pretty sure this much time on screens during the day is taking its toll. They don’t appear to anything at the moment unless there’s one involved and it’s hard to give them more leisure screen-time on top of the 6 hours they’re already getting. Currently I’m sat in my studio playing bad cop with every single device I can find in the house stashed in a tote bag under my desk until they stop kicking off but it’s not sustainable. I hope for their sake they get back to school soon so they can engage with the world in person. I’m hoping if I leave then to it for an hour, they will at least be drawing or playing with LEGO. It appears pretty quiet…
Anyway, the stroll was nice, the sunshine hopeful and the short peruse of front gardens inspiring as I wondered, for the millionth time, what to plant alongside our new front wall. It’s north facing and under two substantially rooted trees with clay soil so a bit tricky to find a permanent solution. Last spring and summer, the East side of the front path was parched as there was more sun than I remembered while over on the West it’s almost permanent shade as also in the shadow of another large tree. Perhaps when the evergreen ferns and the grasses grow bigger, it will take care of itself and I just need a little more patience. Quite obviously this is not my strong suit today.
Anyway, I procrastinate. It helps to get these things off ones chest, the kind of offloading one usually does on s street corner after the school run. Miss that. I may now just about be able to get an hour’s work in if all stays quiet on the home front. No doubt they’ve probably found the ‘music phone’ (my old phone) that I didn’t manage to sweep up in the storm out to the shed and are using it as a remote control. At least they’ve got initiative I guess!