Catching Up - It's Been A While

Hello friends, I apologise for being away for so long, but with the horrific bushfires here in Australia at the start of the year, then coming down with shingles (something I wouldn't wish on anyone) and then a worldwide pandemic I haven't much felt like writing. But now that life is slowly starting to get back to normal, I thought it would be a good time to catch you up on what's been happening since my last post.

Due to COVID-19, I was off work for ten weeks as my workplace is a community house and they had all been ordered to close, I have been back at work for five weeks now and I have to say that as much as I enjoyed my time at home I really like where I work and it is good to see my work colleagues again.

The first week of staying at home I didn't really do much more than wander around aimlessly, but the second week I got stuck in and I did a massive decluttering of my house, every single room (apart from my daughter's bedroom and her craft/art room) has had a thorough decluttering and deep clean. I have decluttered enough stuff to fill the boot and back seat of the car which is amazing seeing that I did a declutter about six months ago. It took me a good two weeks to finish the decluttering/deep cleaning, but it was so worth it as the house feels so much lighter.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

After getting the house in order I turned my attention to the backyard and finally ticked off all those jobs that I had been meaning to do but had been putting off, why do I do that?

I spent some time in my vegetable garden putting in new brick borders along the path, I removed the plants that had died over summer from the flower garden and pruned those that needed it, and I planted out my winter vegetable garden (I will be writing a garden update post soon), and everything is looking very healthy.

The two bright spots in this year so far have been the long-awaited marriage of my second daughter (she is the oldest of my twin girls) in mid-March on Kangaroo Island. She and her husband first met in high school and have been together ever since and they celebrated nine years together one month and three days after their wedding. The day of the wedding itself was cool and overcast but it didn't affect our spirits and the wedding its self was beautiful, very simple, but perfect for my daughter and her husband who are both easy going and don't like a lot of fuss. It was only a small wedding with just close family and two of their closest friends from high school.

It was a beautiful day!

We stayed on the island for five days which is more than enough time to see everything. We stayed at Rose Garden Cottages and we could not have asked for better accommodation, the couple who own the cottages have renovated them beautifully and anything you could want has been provided for you even down to the Vegemite just in case you forget your own. I can highly recommend the cottages if you're looking for somewhere special to stay. The wedding was actually held in the gardens of one of the cottages that's how nice they are.

The only negative thing I could say about the island is that it is expensive if you ever plan a trip there make sure you take everything you think you'll need as groceries are about three times that which you would normally pay as everything has to be brought over from the mainland.

The other bright spot this year is that I became a great aunt again for the fourteenth and fifteenth time when my niece gave birth to twin girls in early June, and just like my own girls they were born two and a half months early, both girls are doing fine, putting on weight and hopefully they will be home with their parents very soon. My niece and her husband had been trying for three years to have children and to find out they were having twins was just amazing news. I am so, very happy for them.

I think that is just about it, for now, it's good to be back posting, and I will be back to regular posting, at least once a week from now on.

 Before I go tell me how have you been coping with the COVID-19 pandemic? For myself personally, being an introvert and a homebody nothing really changed apart from the fact that I couldn't go to work.  I did find going to the grocery store a bit stressful as not everyone was willing to stick to the social distancing rules so I started ordering my groceries online, something I will continue doing for the time being.

 Now that restrictions are being lifted will you be going back to your "normal" life or are there things you were doing during the lockdown that you will keep on doing.

Until next time, stay safe and be kind to each other, Jan.