The airfryer, Peppa Pig and homeschooling part 2

It’s the first working week of the year and I’m feeling a little meh, much like a lot of you, it seems. No one is really bullet journalling, planning trips for the year, creating vision boards or doing much beyond one president or prime minister’s announcement to the next. I usually start off my years battling to find the spring in my step, and that’s after lovely summer holidays sipping gin.

This “holiday” we stayed at home and in a winter lockdown with a toddler around 24/7, I use the word holiday loosely. Also, we worked through December, and I had two days off (I work for a great agency that gave us two free days off), which were well spent doing crafts with said toddler (sob!).

When not mustering up energy to colour in Peppa Pig printouts and marvel at pipe cleaner crafts, I did manage to cook and bake a bit, read and watch some series. I got an airfryer for Chanukah, which is my next best thing. I was worried it would be a space hogger in our little kitchen, and end up being one of those gadgets I buy and never use, but we have used it almost daily and I’ve been eating more veggies than ever before.

I had been dreading December in many ways – the dark days, being away from family and their beautiful Eastern Cape holiday spot for the first time in six years, and being in lockdown. However, it went much better than I expected. There were some wobblies – and still are – but I feel that I got through the “worst” of it with a smile, and with lots of good memories behind me last month.

The kids are doing well – as long as there’s a good wifi connection for the one, and ample crafts for the other, they’re both happy. Rebecca has had a few playdates, and even had her bestie sleep over, which went well – despite being tired, then overtired, then tired, and repeat. We are in the throes of homeschooling – Max goes to school for Dutch lessons as there’s a special allowance for kids learning Dutch that they can go in. He comes home around 12, and then logs on to his virtual classroom to join “normal” classes with his grade.

Rebecca also has online school, and I’m battling to keep up. There are worksheets, lessons, stories, and one-on-one sessions. It’s not meant to take up their whole day, but it’s something to keep them engaged and learning, I guess. School is supposed to start again on the 19th, but I’m bracing myself and putting on my big-girl panties for days at home with Rebecca beyond then. While we’re used to no school during lockdown, in South Africa we had the help of our nanny to entertain and help craft while we worked, so it’s a bit more challenging now.

Other than this:

• I’m starting an online Dutch courses next week.
• I’m waiting for my Dutch driver’s licence to come through
• We’ve put an infant seat on my bike, but I’m yet to ride with Rebecca – we’ll try have a go of it this weekend (eeek!)
• We also got a steam cleaner which comes in a close second to the airfryer. It’s fantastic for cleaning bathrooms and windows
• There’s a strong’ish chance of snow this week and I’m all ready to don my thermals and spend time watching snowflakes. I’m so excited by the prospect of it
• Despite fireworks being banned here, there were loads on New Year’s Eve/midnight. We took some videos as some of them were quite spectacular (I realise that fireworks are not great for pets, and I don’t condone them, but they were right by us, so we took in the sight of them)
• A lot of my recipes are coming from The New York Times app (I’m paying for content), and if I had more time on my hands, I’d do more cooking and baking

I haven’t gotten out much lately, but here are some pics from a few weeks ago when Andrew and I went to see some of the night lights.