Category: This week…

So, we have had our final week all together as Little Man and I prepare to return to school next week, whilst Little Miss has an extra few days at home to enjoy. We have had 23 weeks together at home and this week was similar to the others, long walks, home baking, the skate park, Nintendo Switch, family games etc.. However , you can always find something special in the ordinary and here are our highlights from Week 23 of lockdown!

I have read (and listened) ..

Desert Islands Discs is not being broadcast at present but on my Sounds app, they are highlighting previous episodes. This week’s guest was the poet, Wendy Cope, someone I’ve always admired for her work. I still have my original well thumbed copies of Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis and Serious Concerns from my uni days, inscribed with my maiden name and in the beautiful Faber and Faber print. After listening to the episode, I ordered Family Values and have loved reading it. There is something hauntingly simple and honest about her work and her poems do stay with you. In Desert Island Discs her childhood was discussed and the sadness of it is reflected in some very personal pieces, Daily Help was a beautiful read. I also loved Christmas Ornaments, as I am that person who likes to pick up a new decoration on our summer holiday so our Christmas tree reflects happy times and memories. Sadly with this year’s cancelled holidays there are no new decorations yet, although I will definitely be buying a rainbow inspired decoration for 2020.

I have played ..

On Monday, Little Miss and Mr S went to visit Granddad again. They had planned to do some more gardening work for him but the weather was pretty poor so they simply enjoyed some time with him. This left little Man and I with a day together to plan. I asked him what did he want to do together and his wish was to teach me how to play Minecraft, something totally out of my comfort zone. However, I gave it a go and learnt a few moves and strategies. Little Man was a patient teacher, even when I knocked down part of his house in my enthusiasm but I think he prefers playing with his sister.

This week we have also had a few games of Monopoly on the wet afternoons, its a really good game for all of us to enjoy together. Lockdown has presented us with the time to do these long games on wet afternoons without feeling the need to be doing something more productive. Lockdown has taught us its okay to be in the moment.

I have made ..

Its been harvest time Chez Sparkles, as my gardening squad have been harvesting and tidying their garden patch, our neighbours and Grandad have also been harvesting so we’ve had a glut of home grown produce (and freshly lain eggs) Little Man and I baked a ginger and plum upside down cake, it was delicious, the flavours went very well together. Little Miss made stewed plums, which have become a favourite with a dollop of Greek yoghurt. I made a fresh tomato sauce for a pasta dish and have been recommended a beetroot pasta sauce by a neighbour. I love experimenting in the kitchen and we all know that home grown produce tastes so much better than any shop bought produce!

And finally

There is one more thing I would like to do before the holidays end. In previous school years, the children and I would always go down to the ice cream parlour after the first school day of school as our little treat. This year, both are taking school transport and will be home later so this won’t be possible :(. However my plan is to do this on the last day of the holidays instead. There is a new ice cream treat in town this year, ice cream waffle cones, who could resist?

Have a happy week.

So what is a famiversary? Its our little family’s word for the day on which the children came to live with us, a day special to only us. The birth family don’t know the exact date of when the children left care to be welcomed into our family, so I feel its our exclusive day to celebrate. It also isn’t the day of the legal adoption which was a very uneventful day in our lives six months later, as the hearing is done in a closed court case. We did have a court appearance where we met the Judge who presided over the case and met up with our social workers and this was our celebration day, a month later. Our day in August is just for us and as it normally lands on holidays we always have a special little treat. As it was 10 years this year, I had started to make some plans at the beginning of the year, options included afternoon tea at the Ritz or a trip to Harry Potter world but sadly these have all been put on hold temporarily. Perhaps 11 is the new 10 for celebrating!

This week it did feel like we all had all seasons in a week, we went from a wet, stormy day to a hot day on the beach bathed in sunshine. Here are some of the things we did this week.

We celebrated our famiversary ..

On the day of our 10th famiversary, we went to the beach. It was the place we took the children on their first weekend with us (I remember a cold, damp day) but this year with bright sunshine it was the best place to go. Our bay is normally calm and gentle, but on this visit, the waves were incredible and they were definitely the highest we’ve ever played in, the children loved it! After a morning at the beach, we then chilled for the remainder of the day before enjoying a takeaway of everyone’s choice, an Indian for tea. A simple day, perhaps not quite what we had imagined, but it was spent together as our little family and that is all that matters.

We helped to celebrate a big birthday ..

My lovely cousin celebrated a big birthday on the same day as our famiversary. She is a special person in our family and has always been so kind and caring to us all so we were keen to join her in her celebration at the weekend. It was a very well organised with guests coming at different times of the day and Covid secure. We joined her for morning coffee and cake at the local airfield, which was a great spot and kept the children interested as the adults chatted. We took a picnic on the day too and then went to a local beauty spot along a river to eat and play, making it a lovely, relaxed day.

We played games ..

Wednesday was a very wet and miserable day and we had a little mini games tournament. Little Man bankrupted me and Little Miss and thrashed Mr S. in Monopoly, he was so chuffed! We also played my favourite Qwirkl, but again I was beaten by one of my children, they’re good at strategy! I am competitve when we play so for them, success is all the sweeter.

We spent a lot of time the skate park.

Little Man has become obsessed with his scooter and tricks this holiday and we have spent a lot of time at the local skate park, this week we even did two trips in one day! He’s seen the poster for a ‘jam’ next week, organised by a local charity and is practising very hard. He’s now at the age, when we’re not willing to leave him at the skate park alone, but he wants others to think he’s independent. Our compromise is that I sit on the grass opposite the ramps and read or walk around the park where I can keep eyes on him at all times. Its a compromise which is working well so far.

We bought school shoes.

I dread buying school shoes any year but this year the thought of a busy town centre, queues, wearing masks was just too much, however I came up with a plan. Little Man’s new school is in a small town which has a small Clark’s shoe shop. I decided to use the trip to time the journey from home to school so booked an appointment in advance on the website for 9am. The plan worked perfectly and we were the only customers in at 9am and were out with the purchased shoes before 9.15am. The organisation in the shop was seamless and its a plan I’ll definitely use again.

And finally

For Little Man, next week is the final week of the school holidays, as he goes back a week before our daughter (same local authority) and the same week as me. We are all ready and even though its a new school, he seems genuinely excited by the return to school. There will be a few final treats next week, it seems that it is simply not just the end of the summer holidays but also the end of a strange period of our lives as we’ve been home together since March 20th. Its been hard at times, but I think I’ll remember this period with fondness for the time we got to be together.

This week has an outdoorsy theme, with superb weather, its been a good week to explore. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten outside so much as this year, if we’re not out with a picnic, we’re in the garden for lunch or dinner. Whilst its been a heatwave, we’ve avoided the beach as it is so busy here at present, even busier than a ‘normal’ high season. However I do get up early and run along the beach to get my ‘vitamin sea’ and a little peace. Here are some of our adventures from our week.

I learnt how to survive in the wild.

On Monday, Little Miss and Mr S went to see Grandad so Little Man and I had a day out together. It was another activity in the local council’s summer scheme (which I still know little about) and this time was about surviving in the wild. With the weather forecast, I was worried about surviving in the heat, but whilst it was warm, the clouds made it bearable and it was perfect conditions for the day, spent at a lovely outdoor centre. By the time we got home, the clouds had broken and we enjoyed an incredibly hot spell in the paddling pool too. During the day we learnt how to make a fire, some local history, orienteering and map reading and building dens. We were in very small bubbles to help make the day Covid safe and Little Man made a new friend, both were well into the day and it was good to see him so happy and involved. We were able to get into another activity day on Thursday and Little Man’s new friend was there too.

I walked and ran a lot of miles.

On Wednesday with the whole family back together we took the bikes out. Its only the children who have bikes so we took them to the local forestry and we walked, as they cycled ahead, looped us etc.. We ended up with a 6 mile round route which we had found online, it was a lovely route and perfect for the morning’s ride. Fortunately a lot of the ride was under the shade of the trees so we managed to keep cool’ish’ in the heat and it kept us all quiet and resting in the afternoon.

I’ve also upped my running mileage this week, with an extra run and extra miles. I signed up for a 500 miles in a year challenge and had thought that it was now unachievable due to losing a few months in lockdown when we were only allowed out once a day to exercise and I did this with the children in the form of walks. However when I started to calculate my miles for the year, I realised that with a few extra weekly miles to what I’m doing at present (4 runs) I could achieve the 500 and am now focused on this. I have a Fitbit and this week I did my highest weekly number of steps.

I heard a lot of thunder

On Thursday, Little Man did another summer course, Mr S took him to it, whilst Little Miss and I tagged along to visit the local town. The town has a beautiful river and park, so we planned a walk and a little potter. I was also keen to see where the parkrun course was so I can run it one day. Thursdays was one of those days where a big storm seemed to be brewing and our walk was one of those really eerie journeys, the heat was stifling, but the sky was pretty dark and we kept hearing deep rumbling thunder without the heavy rain. It was so strange that there wasn’t an end to the weather with a big storm, just the stuttering’s of a start.

I had my eyebrows shaped.

Of all things, eye brow shaping was one of the last services to be allowed to reopen in beauty salons and with the announcement on Friday that they could be done again, I was quickly on the phone for an appointment on day 1. I tried plucking and waxing during lockdown but nothing beats an expert doing it. Its one of those little things which just make me feel neat and tidy.

I laughed at Fortunately

I do love a good podcast and with doing lots of miles this week, I’ve been listening to lots. Fortunately was on top form this week and a description of a lockdown rucksack had me giggling. When the podcast finished it went straight to the latest I hadn’t listened to, which started with a description of a trip to Ikea. I was listening to it in quiet disbelief, it was only part way through that I realised that I was listening to a 2 year old episode and just showed how much our lives have changed in the past 6 months.

And finally

We are living in this strange limbo of lockdown, more and more is opening and life feels it is getting back to normal and then suddenly people returning from some European countries are put in quarantine for two weeks. Our decision to cancel our holiday is a relief and we are probably having our most healthy and fittest summer holiday ever. However, I do miss those lazy days on a sun lounger with a cocktail and a good book.

It’s a rather flippant title for this week’s post in what has been another difficult week. We’ve all had to examine our values and our need to empathise with others’ experiences to fully understand #blacklivesmatter. Sadly this has reignited the far right movement and suddenly after the unity of the lockdown parts of our society seem very fragmented.

However, this post is supposed to be about our little family’s week and here are some of our highlights…

I’ve read …

I’m slowly reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, the slowness of my reading is because it is disturbing and uncomfortable reading, it doesn’t feel like fiction in the current climate, with a black teen killed by the police. I’m reading it for a variety of reasons, I want to broaden my daughter’s library to include more black authors and I wanted to check this book out so I could address the content. Its also been on my to read list for a while and if not now, when?

I’ve listened …

After reading Gretchen Ruben’s book Better than Before, I started a daily meditation and have now found a podcast, the Daily Meditation Podcast to support the meditation. I never thought I would last longer than a few days, but I’ve now done 15 days and am enjoying the daily quiet time. I like that as the podcast is released daily it is able to address the issues in our current lives.

I’ve refreshed and refreshed web pages …

I never thought I would be the sort of person to be chasing after the latest craze but for the past month I have been in my quest to find a Nintendo Switch. The children have been amazingly resilient in lockdown and really good, despite so many nice things being cancelled, holidays, cub camps, school residentials, birthday days out so we decided to treat them to something special for their birthdays and replace their old Wii with a new Nintendo Switch. What we hadn’t thought about was the impact of a global lockdown and increased demand so what we thought would be a simple purchase turned into hourly refreshing of web pages, signing up to email alerts etc.. This week, I managed to respond immediately to an email alert and buy a Switch which arrived this week just in time for a lockdown birthday. It was worth all the effort to see the delight on the children’s faces.

I had a takeaway coffee …

This morning, I had to pop to the Post Office and stopped off at my favourite indie café for a takeaway cappuccino. It was my first in 12 weeks and was divine, I bought little man a drink too and we sat on the beach wall to drink, with the sun on our faces, blissful. I’m a regular at the café and it was lovely to catch up with the owner and support one of my favourite local businesses. My friend and I go there every Wednesday for lunch and I can’t wait to resume that little ritual.

When we were in town there were signs for the first time of our little town and its businesses awakening after the lockdown, lots of shops are reopening next week and I’m looking forward to more normality, although I’m becoming more desperate to see my parents and have my hair cut, there’s a strange priority list from the government.

Normally this is a great week as the school in which I work has a two week half term and I have a week in which to meet friends for lunch, potter about and simply relax. However, this year it was a week simply without work for me, or formal work as the teacher became home teacher again and we resumed home learning. I do like the little projects the children are doing but I yearn to be out and about. I’m going stir crazy at home and that’s with a daily walk with the children and time playing in the garden too.

I needed a focus this week and inspired by Gretchen Ruben’s book I read last week, I looked at developing new habits and foci. I have been out first thing everyday alternating with a run or walk. On the days Mr S works this has meant I’m out at 5.15am, but I have felt so more energised and positive. I’ve also done meditation daily for the last week. Of course the challenge now is to continue this next week when I’m back at school.

This has been a difficult week on the international stage and the racism witnessed in America has reverberated around the world. This is 2020 and the images are horrific, I do hope to do a post on this topic but I do not believe that racism is exclusively an American problem it is a world wide issue which we all need to address. There have been too many cases in my lifetime which should have changed our perspectives. Stephen Lawrence was a teenager similar in age to me and his murder really hit hard and we felt that it was for our generation to change society. Stephen would have been 46 this year and we are still fighting racism, its heart-breaking.

With the news coverage of Covid 19 and the waves of protest against racism, its a tough week. I came across this poem and it feels just right for this week.

It feels a little wrong to write about the sparkles of this week, after the preceding paragraph but for my own wellbeing, I need to recognise the highlights of week 11 of lockdown.

I read ..

I am part way through a book at present, but I did read a short story from Jojo Moyes catching up with Lou Clark, the main character and hero of Me Before You, After You and Still Me. I know she’s a fictional character but Lou feels like an old friend and I loved the catch up and got the feels from the happy ending. It was just what was needed this week.

Read on www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/june/lou-clark-in-lockdown-jojo-moyes-exclusive-new-story/

I listened

I’m a big fan of Desert Island Discs, but this week’s episode was a bit different asking members of the public to nominate a song which has significance in lockdown. It was so emotional and I was a sobbing mess. Again, it was just what was needed this week, a reminder of the good in our world and our communities.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000jpfd

I recorded

One of Little Miss’ homework tasks this week was to learn the signs to Shotgun and to send a video through to her teacher. In my work, I use the sign language Makaton and was delighted with this homework. She worked so hard on the task, without my help and I was so proud of her when I videoed her, she was a natural. I think she would make a brilliant teacher when she’s older.

Next week…

I’m back to work on Monday and back to our new normal. Its unlikely that the children will be back to school this year as they’re not in the year groups invited in, so it’ll be another 6 weeks of home learning and then the summer holidays. 2020 is the strangest year.

This week was a toughie, no school or work and gorgeous weather. It sounds perfect but this week we should have been in our family’s happy place, Butlins for the week and with such brilliant weather we would have made the most of all the outdoor activities which the children love. I was planning a spa morning too.

Instead we’ve been at home and with the ambiguous guidelines, we’ve avoided the beach as so many day trippers have come down for a beach day and its too busy. I was in town on Monday and it was obvious that visitors don’t feel that social distancing and safety measures put in place apply to them on their day out. Our R rating here is high, 0.9 and its even higher at 1.2 in other neighbouring seaside towns too. I did have another Covid 19 test this week for work, we are having them regularly as we have to contain the virus on our site. It was another negative, I was really surprised how empty the testing site was, its huge and I was the only person being tested.

Whilst we haven’t been on the beach, we’ve had lots of walks in the countryside and on the coastal path which is more rugged and quiet. There have been lots of tree climbing and games of hide and seek to keep us amused. Mr S and his gardening partner, Little Miss have spent the week painting our fences, the garden looks so much better.

Here are a few of the things, I have manged to do this week.

I read

I’m a huge Grethen Rubin fan and her podcast is a must listen each week. I bought Better than Before in January but quite simply wasn’t in the correct frame of mind to read and develop the ideas. I’m ready now and its been an ideal read, I have pages of notes and have already acted on lots of advice. There’s nothing quite like a lockdown to refocus your plans, aspirations and values.

I made ..

With Little Miss and Mr S busy painting, me and Little Man have been play mates. We made lots of rainbows this week, his favourite was the Lego rainbow, I liked finding flowers and plants (and weeds) of all the colours too.

It was Little Man and I baking in the kitchen this week and for one lunch we made cheese and olive scones. They were delicious. An added bonus this week is that we’ve been able to sit outside for meals. We’ve also had a couple of barbecues, if we can’t go on holiday then holiday will just have to come to us!

I splashed ..

Again it wasn’t quite the amazing pool at Butlins complete with slides and wave machine but we got the pool out this week and there was a lot of fun had by everyone. Mr S added a pure comedy moment when he grabbed a t-shirt to go with his red trunks, it was yellow and he was a dead ringer for a lifeguard, it only added to the experience!

I wore

New trainers! I have an injury that needs to be seen properly but having looked at my well worn trainers I decided that new shoes may help contain the injury as well as heavy strapping. The new trainers have arrived and I managed to run 5k today, my Achilles is a little sore now but I also managed a 3 mile walk this afternoon so I’m definitely taking that as a win. I had planned a little parkrun tourism this weekend, doing the Bognor parkrun and again it just made me a little sad that we’ve not been able to have these things to look forward to.

I watched

We started series 3 of the A word this week on catch up and have watched the first three episodes. I like the series, I work with children with autism and I think the show is a fair representation of the condition. It also has a real human element, its not simply about autism but about a family.

And finally

So May is nearly finished and we are near to 10 weeks in lockdown. The children return to home schooling on Monday but I have another week’s holiday (we lose a week in the summer holidays) Normally this is a great week with the children at school, lots of catching up with friends, lunches out, getting ready for summer and getting organised for birthdays and celebrations. Its going to be a little different this year, I suppose I’ll really appreciate my extra week in 2021!

Sadly another week when I suffered a really bad migraine and vomiting. To be honest it’s unsurprising since I am working onsite where we are in the midst of a Covid 19 outbreak. Its so busy and I come home drained and exhausted. However even with a couple of days out sick I still managed to have a few sparkles to celebrate this week.

I read …

I finished two books this week and both were excellent. I read Half a World Away first which is about a birth brother and sister being reunited. As an adopter I was hoping that it wouldn’t be too fairytale’ish’ and fortunately it wasn’t with a real understanding of childhood trauma and the effect on adult life. It was an emotional read and another great book by Mike Gayle.

The second read Daisy and the Six is my book of lockdown and the year so far. It was one of my infamous Kindle 99p deals, although I’ve bought and sent a copy to my mum today as it is a book to be shared. It’s about a rock band in the 70s and is brilliant. It has an unusual style, you simple get comments from the characters as the story progresses, each piece a line or two up to a paragraph in length. But the book draws you in, you’re in the 70s and the characters are real. It’s so good that I feel a little bereft now it’s finished.

I watched …

Having slept for 36 hours I woke alert in the night and found the BBC documentary Hospital being repeated. It is filmed in a Covid 19 hospital and was so moving, informative and filled you with love and respect for all involved. Our nhs is simple amazing.

I learnt …

One of the home schooling projects this week was a bionic hand to illustrate how our skeleton works. Although it was Little Miss’ homework Little Man joined in too and they made a hand each. It was a good project to all sit around the kitchen table and do together and I hope we all learnt a little more about how our bodies work. I love a little project like this. As you can see Little Miss was pleased with her idea to paint the nails!

I appreciated

I came across this quote online and it resonated with me, it’s the simple things which make life special. This week the meadows are bursting with wild flowers and it’s indescribably beautiful to see my children running though them, as the quote says ‘ the ordinary comes alive’

Mr S and I are really reflecting on life in this period, there are changes a happening and we have time to pause and really think about what’s important to our family. Life will change but I feel good about the plans we are making as our little team.

It was a strange old week in lockdown as I was poorly with a really bad migraine for a few days. You think that in lockdown you’ll only be ill with Covid 19, but the reality is different. I had to use the e-consult service with my GP for my anti sickness medication and it worked really well and efficiently. For simple medical requests, I hope this system continues. I felt I lost a few days this week and with still being in lockdown there’s less variety in life. However, I did manage to do a few things …

I walked and appreciated our natural world.

We live on the border of a huge country park and farms and are able to walk for miles in a beautiful, tranquil setting. Access to the area for vehicles has been closed so you can only enter on foot at present, meaning its quiet and you can feel comfortable walking around, you rarely have to social distance from others. The area has always been a special place for us, but at the moment it seems to be full of little wonders. This week the lambs and calves have been so animated and are skipping and jumping around the fields, they are so amusing to watch and a wonderful distraction. The beautiful sunshine has added to our walks too. When all this is over, I’ll miss our afternoon walks together. We normally do this on a Sunday but its been so much better daily.

I decorated our house

Whilst Little Miss is a pretty good student online, I need to be more creative with our son’s work and interpreted the history project on VE day as making a display for our front window. He did enjoy it and really concentrated on his pictures of the spitfires and Winston Churchill.

I shopped ..

This was a real novelty as its Mr S who does the food shopping in our house. However, with us both working long hours, shorter supermarket opening hours, one person to shop and rural living, food shopping has become increasingly difficult so we were grateful to get an online shopping spot for today. Its Tesco, and has a 80 item limit but it was kind of liberating, as we focused on what we really needed not just clicking away. We got everything we needed and the simpler approach is a good one to follow in the future.

I saw

This was one for our son this week because as we walked one afternoon, we saw 5 military helicopters fly past in formation. The new navy aircraft carrier is on exercise in the Solent and they were involved in the training. Little Man was so happy to see them, its always the simple things which bring the sparkles of life.

Have a happy week .

The return to work after the holidays means life has been busy again. Its the juggle of longer work days onsite, home schooling and adhering to the government guidelines of lockdown. Life is pretty full on and thus my need to do a catch up of the past two weeks and not just one. So here are some highlights of this fortnight …

I have read

A few weeks ago I said how magazines seemed outdated in these times, with their articles on fashion, travel etc.. all those things we can’t be doing. However I have started reading The Big Issue as it is now available in shops and it is a great read in these times, with ideas of things we can do. Thanks to the magazine, I did an online tour of the Tate’s Andy Warhol exhibition and have a few book recommendations too.

I only finished one book this fortnight, although am halfway through another, and that book was Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. I loved Normal People by the same author and was a little disappointed by this novel. As in a few books recently, I just didn’t sympathise with characters.

I have watched

I’m not a big tv fan and don’t normally binge watch a box set but this week I have been obsessed by Normal People and have managed to watch the full 12 episodes (they are only 30 minutes each.) It is so good and refreshing on so many aspects, normal sex (the scene on consent is one I would love to show every teenager) real mental health issues, the anxiety about belonging, the effect of domestic violence etc.. Its a series which will stay with me for a very long time for its brilliance, the main actors are so perfectly cast and are Marianne and Connell.

I have done some ‘culture’

As I wrote above I followed a Big Issue recommendation and found the Andy Warhol presentation by the exhibition’s curator on You Tube. It was fascinating and I learnt lots about the artist and his work. I’m keen to do a few more gallery tours now, I missed the Mary Quant exhibition so this is next on my list.

On my favourite podcast With Me Now, the presenters started a conversation about post boxes. It was one of those conversations that spiked my interest and on our walk on Thursday we started to look at the different ciphers on the letter boxes. I then found a visual about the insignias and on each walk since, we’ve been looking for different post boxes. Its a great idea and has added something to our daily walks. With this week’s wet weather we’ve been on the streets rather than through the fields which could be a bit muddy.

I have made

Again, more lovely home made meals this fortnight, on my non work days we have the time to spend preparing food and we do it as a family. I’m sure when everything gets back to normal this will wane as we return to busy lives, but for now its a lovely time.

On Thursday, we made millionaires shortbread from a friend’s recipe. The idea was to make the biscuit and then Zoom her for virtual tea and cake. It worked really well and it was lovely to see our friend. I’ve never made millionaires shortbread before and it was gorgeous, the caramel was easy to make and so sweet and gooey, a new favourite. Its such a good way to stay in contact too.

I have listened

On Thursday, we were out again at 8pm to clap for the nhs and all our key workers. The town band are playing a song every Thursday at 8.05pm from their own back gardens to unite everyone, we’ve had Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Bring me Sunshine and this week, Amazing Grace. It was spine tingling. Thursday at 8pm is my favourite time of the week, we’re all outside on our paths and the sense of community is strong.

I’m writing this on Sunday night, getting ready for the week ahead, with more school projects and VE day on Friday. This was going to be a big event in our town but sadly its all cancelled. As Little Man is very interested in his history we may do some extra things and I do fancy decorating the house. Any excuse for a decoration or two!