For someone that likes to talk its surprising that I have suffered a little from writers block this week. It happens to everyone who writes, be it a little or a lot, at some point I’m sure. I just wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon. I’m only a few posts in! I do what every blogger does and have planned and planned content to the extent where if my life went to that plan I’d have enough for a whole year! I have a fairly clear idea about what types of posts I’d like to do, but this week I looked at the plan and just couldn’t find the inspiration to write about any of it.
I had a choice of about ten different things to write about from my plan and not even my top three favourites: the best blogs to follow for style and beauty inspiration, my wanderlust list (top ten places I want to travel to and why) or healthy changes to make this year, made the cut this week!
I decided on a roundup of the things we’ve done this week instead, perhaps there’s something here you may want to do with your family or dare I say it have a bit of grown up fun doing kids things!
The kids have been happier this week as they’ve been able to join their friends playing outside in the close, all socially distanced of course. Our road is the only one that’s had a full resurface and is the smoothest on the estate so we have most of the kids from surrounding streets playing there, it’s also a small close or cul-de-sac so its super safe for them to go crazy on their bikes and scooters. It’s lovely to see them all playing together, some we knew from school, some we didn’t know and kids do what they do best and make friends and have fun. My youngest is only five and there aren’t any girls of her age playing out yet but it’s just so sweet seeing the older girls and boys involving her in their games and helping her up if she falls off her bike or trips over on her roller skates. Its been a joy seeing their smiling faces. Bedtimes have been so much easier too! Worn out children mean they drift off and sleep in – win, win for me!
It’s been the second week of the school summer holiday, and we haven’t done as much as we had initially planned. Lock down easing has definitely made things easier but we are still a little cautious of where to go to keep us all safe. The kids like their funky face masks and although I know they don’t have to wear them they asked for one. We did have a trip out to the Cotswold Lavender Farm near Broadway, just before their season had finished which was lucky as we’d originally planned to go to a nature reserve called Greystones on the edge of Bourton-on-the-Water but there were road closures and I got lost. If I’m honest I was ignoring Sat Nav! I’d zoned out and with the kids been noisy in the back I could hardly hear it anyway, especially as I had forgotten my hearing aid – not a bad thing sometimes 😊.
Having suffered being stung by a wasp on the back of the arm whilst putting the washing out I was left with an ever increasing red hot rash spreading brilliantly down my arm I decided against doing too much driving for a couple of days as I had that horrible heavy feeling in my arm and it wasn’t from covid calories this time! A week on and I still have a hot itchy rash but it’s not as sore as it was thankfully.
Hubby had a day off Monday and now he has his fishing (or is it angling?) licence he went to some local fishing lakes and we met him there in the afternoon with a picnic. The kids had a go at fishing but were disappointed they didn’t catch anything. I’m beginning to wonder if hubby managed to catch as many as he said he had. But, that said, he’s a lot quieter than the kids and I’m sure their running around scared the fish away. Even the duck army came over chastising us as they quacked and flapped across the water! The kids had a great time and have asked to go again. I’m wondering how long it’ll be before I become a fishing widow? I suppose it could be worse, it could be golf! 😉
Tuesday we decided to pop out to the local garden centre which has a huge pond with equally huge fish in it which always makes for a good trip out. My two are happy with the simple things in life. We had some food there looking out over the big pond which would have been even better had the weather been sunnier, but it was lovely all the same. We even had discount on our food as I hadn’t realised restaurant was participating in the UK Government ‘eat out scheme’. Nice when your bill comes to half as much as expected. Having had the bonus of discounted food I let the kids run riot on the reduced plant section and spent a further £30 on a boot load of pretty plants for the kids part of the garden. I love a bargain me! They badgered me to let them plant them all when we got home to which I almost ran to get the trowels out of the shed for them to get started. I had visions of getting a coffee break with my feet up. Fat chance! But it was lovely seeing their excitement at getting more colour in their little patch. They even planted some broccoli and cauliflower plants so who knows what we may get.
Most of the things we have been looking at doing over the summer holiday involve being outside as much as we can as I just feel a bit more comfortable about it, I’m just doing what some mums do and being cautious trying to keep my family safe. The kids have both been given a summer challenge pack from school and there’s plenty in there to do. I also have a freebie book from Sainsbury’s I managed to pick up a few years ago now and these have some fab things to do in them so I think we’ll look through it again and pick an activity to do. I like the Sainsbury’s book as it has age appropriate activities for kids (and for the whole family).
Here’s some of my favourite things to do from the book:
1. The one that always falls top of my list is den building. It can be done indoors or out. Soggy days aren’t going to stop us having fun!
2. Creating a scary zoo out of old tights, socks and fabric is always fun – if you don’t mind the mess. But isn’t that what messy play is about?! Just watch they don’t pinch your wooden spoons to make bats with!
3. Go pond dipping. Grab a net and explore. Just make sure they don’t fall in. Although my two would find it hilarious if they did. We have a small pond in the garden and my two are always poking around in it, I feel for the fish they see wiggly fingers and think its food!
4. Gisbee, where golf meets frisbee. Go to an outdoor space such as a park or wood and set yourself a course (e.g. trees as target points) and the aim of the game is to do the course in the least amount of gisbee shots as possible.
5. Make your own instruments and hold a concert for the family. Uses up the recycling!
6. Create your own wacky races. You could have the one trouser leg race (a bit like a sack race but using a pair of your trousers, but beware skinny fit as that makes it a little tricky!). Then there’s the cartwheel continuum, longest head/handstand, 20m roly-poly, tug-of-towel, water bomb catch, flapping balloon race, crab scuttle race and a fancy dress race.
7. Build a nature pond. You can go as big or small as you can fit with this one. A simple washing up bowl will do as long as you have a few large stones to one end so that hedgehogs and other animals can escape if they fall in. Pop in in a water loving plant and you’ve got a wildlife pond. Just wait for the frogs they’ll find it.
8. Have a picnic but with a twist. Theme it. Do fancy dress, whatever you choose, you could even have a grown up Downton Abbey style one if you want! Your picnic your choice.
I know there are so many other things to do, but those are just a few we had on our list of summer fun. There’s no shortage of places to go and things to see in the UK, so many beautiful unspoilt places, just make sure you check where ever you choose to go is open to save yourself a wasted journey. Remember, we are still easing out of lock down and not everywhere is fully open yet.
Where ever you go, whatever you choose to do, stay safe and enjoy it.
Becks
xo
My life and style over 40 