A day off in lockdown

So I almost managed a full day off today in lockdown. This is an almost impossible task in level 5 lockdown as all the kids are at home being homeschooled, so its like trying to make the great escape to manage some time on my own. Well actually I didnt even manage that but it was still a lovely day. So it started with getting up at 8.30am which is pretty late these days, but my youngest insists on waking me every morning with one excuse or another. So after her breakfast I got her started on her tests (friday is now the easiest day as it consists of mainly tests! I think that's ironic). Meanwhile my older lady is doing her work at the dining room table. She can mostly get on with stuff herself. She was calling me at one stage to ask her me to call out her spellings, but by the time I got to her, she had it sorted. She recorded herself calling out the spellings, then played the recording. Fecking kids are so clever! Then my eldest girl is in her room giving out about the ridiculous gaps between online classes, so she is trying to fit workouts in between classes. Then my son who lives in the shed, I am not sure whether he is asleep or he is up doing on line lectures for Uni, god only knows. But I know I will see him when he wants food, a shower or is heading for a surf. So we get through the tests, with minimal amount of crying but lots of "mammy you don't know what you are talking about", she knows best apparently. I will skip along to my day off part. My mother had an appointment at the doctor. She said she could drive herself but i was like "God no! I need the excuse to escape!" So my morning off, was being able to venture to the doctors in a neighbouring village. I haven't driven that far in an age. We did the doctor visit, then we went to look at the pier as I thought I might go for a swim but the tide was too low. We were entertained for a while looking at the seagulls and cranes. Then we drove back home and did some shopping for my mother in the local shop. We then popped out to our local pier and I got a swim in there and a couple of others happened to be there so that was nice, as it feels like forever since I met any of our swim group. I had a glorious swim, I swam between the big and small pier and there was a gentle swell, I ventured out into the bay a little and lay on my back with the sun blazing in my eyes and let the waves bop me about. It was a wonderful feeling, just letting go. But on the other side of the wall to the big pier it was something else, with huge rumbling waves crashing on the shore, only possible to swim at low tide otherwise those waves would have crashed over that wall. We decided after I had changed to get a takeaway coffee and lunch. So we sat in the car and ate our lunch looking out at the wild waves and cliffs. What a treat to get a lunch made for you and to have a yummy coffee. I dropped mam home with her shopping, then came home to my own house. The kids were all grand, no injuries, or starvation or stabbings... so I decided to go for a walk with my eldest girl. We did a 12km walk where she pretty much talked constantly about her life and what she would do when she goes to college. She has great plans, college, then "van life" which means living in a van, travelling the world with her new puppy dog, and surfing all over the world. Then get a job, maybe continue her education so she can get filthy rich and make loads of money. Great to have such ambitions. My ambitions at that age was to go out and get hammered and party into the wee hours of the morning if I could get away with it. I love my kids, they are pretty sensible so far. A few hiccups along the way with the eldest lad. But he is alright. When we got back from the walk, I made dinner, then vanished up to the shed with a bottle of wine so i can paint. Then I decided to write about my day, as it was a good one. 💘