It’s been really nice to have sunshine streaming through the windows lately.
It reminds me of nicer things that are to come.
And then the skies in the evening… look I have nothing else to post, so bear with me. This is the only highlight of my day:
Ahh. That pretty sky. Sunshine during the day, then the glow at night. At least things are still shining. 🤩
It’s nice.
I mean, I can’t go anywhere right now.
But then mother nature presents me with this sky, and like… I feel like I’m not missing anything really. 😍
Today was so crazy, it was almost funny.
But it wasn’t funny. Just sometimes, you gotta laugh, despite everything.
I tested positive today. Yesterday my symptoms were the worst. I was weak, fatigued, achy, I could barely get up from my lying down position all day…
And yet today, where my symptoms have progressed to more runny nose, less tired, I tested positive.
Go figure.
It sucks majorly because baby girl gets out of iso on Friday… me on Monday. Hubbie, well who knows for him… we are hoping he avoids it altogether, or he gets it super quick so we can go through as much of iso together as possible.
But I realised something today. Something that the Education Department must put into the high school curriculum.
Firstly, home economics MUST be a compulsory subject. Why? Uh, we eat our whole lives don’t we? This ain’t no women’s world anymore friends. Everyone should learn how to cook the most basic of foods to get by, to nourish themselves and to feed themselves, their family, their friends.
And chicken soup, of course, makes sense to be on the list.
It is HEALING. It is comfort food. It is healthy, and at the crux of it, it is OH-SO-EASY.
I pondered this today as I got up in the morning and started putting together the chicken soup. I thought of how much I needed this yesterday, but alas Hubbie doesn’t do chicken soup…
Don’t get me wrong, Hubbie cooks, A LOT. He is a massive help in this household, despite working many hours a week. He’ll get food on the table, night after night after night if he had to and if I was out of it, but…
Chicken soup is not on his menu of items.
This is why everyone should learn how to make it, EARLY in their lives. Us women suffer the most when we’re sick. We suffer because the world doesn’t really stop, does it? We still need to get up, tend to the kids, cook, clean up…
I thought of all of this as I was shredding chicken hours later, broth done.
Chicken soup. It is necessary, it is for our soul.
And it should be a life skill.
Day 1 done, and lucky for me, I have a few days worth of chicken soup left. 🙏🍲
Day 2 of iso for baby girl due to covid is also my day 2.
We are getting through it. But it’s boring, and it’s cold, and we’re just ugh.
She’s coughing, but alright for now. 🙏 Had about 8 camomile teas today (she counted) and spent endless time on her ipad and watching TV.
What else is one to do?
I am still negative, but am feeling tired, like soooo fatigued. It reminds me of January, when we think we all had covid, but back then when we were finally able to get our hands our RATs, we were negative. 🤷♀️
Hubbie is fine. He said he feels great in fact, but still shit, because all Winter he has felt shit… but good too.
So baby girl is getting there, I’m flying under the radar, doing my best, and Hubbie is feeling great, while still shit.
Day 2 vibes. 💪
Lockdown ain’t much different than a Winter’s night.
I don’t know. It just felt like, same-same to me today.
And though it isn’t Winter yet, we’ve gotten PLENTY of previews lately. We were planning on staying in tonight anyway, so when lockdown was announced, we just upped our Saturday cook-at-home plans, and put on the heater.
I made some vanilla muffins during the day from the Rachael Finch program…
I pimp these up with bits of chocolate, because make these healthy treats a little more ‘family-friendly’ that’s why, and also we have enough chocolate from Easter to last us ’til Santa comes around again.
And at night, I made a recipe I had bookmarked, perhaps last lockdown? LOL.
Marion Grasby’s Hoisin Beef Noodles
Now this, OMG. Droooool.
That is all.
The longer we are in iso, the longer I’ll just make more recipes, read and write more, and clean the house more in a mad frenzy (OK that one not so much, but a little more 🤣🤣)
Today, there were people in our house.
There were people in our house!
There were people in our house!
It has been a long time…
Since March? Early March.
WOW.
It was so exciting.
It was my sis and nephew, and it might have been a quick visit, but still…
WOW. It felt great having company over. 🥰💖
And the skies are already looking bigger and brighter…
Like Roger Taylor from Queen, in the 1975 famed album ‘A Night at the Opera’ who sings “I’m in love with my car…”
I’m in love with my chair!
Yes, A CHAIR. And before you think ‘she’s gone mad,’ this is a desk chair.
I’ve been working from home since March.
Using a stiff, un-desk, un-suitable dining room chair with blankets on the seat to bring me to desk height.
Yes. I’m in love with my new, functional, appropriate, desk chair.
I found the chair I wanted online months ago, but every time I went to order it, I was told it would take a month and a half for two parts to arrive…
There were two parts to the chair, and I just didn’t get why?
I couldn’t collect it either, because it was out of my km area. And every time I checked online, to see if by chance it might get delivered sooner…
It took later, and later.
For example, in July, it said September.
In August, it said October.
In September, it said November.
Last week, it said DECEMBER 17.
I was OVER it. And knowing I was going to be in the vicinity of an IKEA yesterday, I hopped on over with baby girl in tow.
Tired. Hungry. Hot. In a rush.
A real good mix for an IKEA visit, right? 🤣
But somehow, we did it. Baby girl was awesome. We found the chair, I found help, and then we proceeded to try get out of the maze that is IKEA.
OMG. I am convinced, escape routes aka escape chutes are required in that place. Why must I walk through every single room and area when I’m in a rush and need to get to the registers, like pronto?
Each room/area needs like an escape point, something that propels us immediately to the exit area. Something like this:
Or this:
Either will do. I was flying around corners, saying to baby girl “what is this maze?” while she laughed her head off at me.
What were the two parts for? Well the chair can come with armrests… but they’re out of stock.
Was that it? I spent all this time waiting for armrests, while using a dining room chair padded with blankets instead???
Stuff that.
But after all the running around, today Hubbie pretty much single-handedly built it for me, and I am loving it.
You know who else is loving it? Baby girl. This is her at my desk, on her iPad, pretty much proclaiming the chair and entire space as hers.
I am actually looking forward to work tomorrow, because of that chair.
I am in love.
And going through the IKEA catalogue today, I feel like our house could seriously become an IKEA house. We already have a few key items, but soon we’ll be taking people through our house going –
“And that’s IKEA, and that, and that, and that” –
Pointing every which way like:
Yep.
You know, 25 has always been a special number for me, being the date that Hubbie and I first got together, all those years ago.
But having been restricted within 25 kms of our home as of late, has been just an extension of the lockdown we’ve been living for months now.
Because all our friends and family are outside of those 25, the recent loosening of restrictions has been much of a muchness.
But today? Today I eagerly watched the announcement by our Premier Dan Andrews, and although it was fairly expected, given our recent brilliant track record of 0 new coronavirus cases for 9 days straight already, when he actually said those words…
That the 25kms would be LIFTED.
That the state was one again.
I unexpectedly, broke down a little.
Baby girl looked at me concerned, giving me a pat on the back.
“It’s okay honey, I’m just happy. Happy tears.”
They were. And they will be.
Getting there, more and more, every day. 💖🙏
I took Hubbie off the beaten track today.
It was a path I ventured down with baby girl some weeks ago. It’s in a popular location, between a big park and a beach.
But the winding, narrow, and pretty path, overrun with shrubs and spring flowers climbing along jagged orange rock, still feels like it’s taking you to someplace special.
And it does.
It was so quiet. It almost felt like it was ours, what with the still air, softly lapping waves, and sun beating down and blinding us as we shielded our eyes.
But people were dotted throughout. Locals, like us.
The pensioners who came around the corner, greetings coming forth happily as their small and excitable dog tried to sprint down the stairs towards the water.
The woman in exercise gear, who kept running up and down the steep path, trying to beat her last sprint every time. She placed a rock at the end of the path each time she made it down, keeping count of her fitness.
The young Mum with her toddler in the waters below, chasing after him as he went from sand to water. Scooping him up in her arms before carrying him to where he needed to be.
It was all so peaceful, so perfect. We stood there, taking it all in, looking at all we had missed out on in the last few months.
And accepting all the beauty that was yet to come. Better. Brighter.
This afternoon after school, baby girl and I started playing some Melbourne Monopoly.
In total we probably played for about an hour and a half, and you need to play for this long to really get the game going. Baby girl is getting it more and more, and my God is she a property hoarder. I’m all picky with what I buy, but I find myself having to buy more than I want or else I’d be paying her rent constantly.
We played for so long, that only one property was left unbought from the whole game board. We even had houses – 5 of mine, 3 of hers – laid down. That’s the sign of a good game. When HOUSES appear.
But this was a Melbourne version… so instead of Old Kent Road, you got Hosier Lane.
Instead of Northumberland Avenue, you’ve got the Chapel Street Precinct.
And instead of the exclusive Mayfair… it’s the MCG.
I think it’s pretty cool, and though I’m a stickler for originals (I have the original tattered version too) I came across a card today, and well, it’s just Melbourne:
I don’t know about you, but this made me miss being out and about even more.
Even the annoying hipsters. I think I even miss them. 😜☕
carcrashgratitude 