During the third #lockdown week, we tried to do our best to keep things as normal as possible. The main thing for us is to maintain the routine, that is, spending the day in a certain established rhythm. But don’t worry: we don’t have a strict regime: 6:30 alarm clock and morning hygiene, 6:45 breakfast, etc. But we try to schedule a day for the morning and afternoon program and include all the activities we plan. Starting with school homework and household chores, ending with playing, doing some sports and handicraft activities. This routine helps us not to be able to keep track of what the day is, and especially when it is a working day and when it is weekend. And what made me happy last week?
1. Time change
Last Sunday I was woken by the regular ringing of church bells at 7 am. But the whole apartment was quiet! At 7 am? A quite unusual thing with us! Other times, everyone is up at half past seven, every day, even at the weekend. This gave me a moment to lie back in bed and take a book. At 7:15, I heard the beds creaking behind the wall. And at 7:25 the room door opened, and three pairs of bare feet ran into the living room to watch fairy tales. And then I realized it! 1-hour time change!
This 1-hour change would have an adverse effect on getting up early during the “normal” school year. I would have to wake Dominik to school at 6:25, but actually it would only be 5:25. Yuck! But now, without a regular school schedule, adapting to the new time is not so necessary for us and we are taking much longer to adjust. I don’t mind getting up at 7 or even half-past eight. Unless otherwise, it does not hurt our daily rhythm, which I wrote above.
Even though I sometimes wonder how, for God’s sake, we are going to get back to waking up at 6:25 am four times a week when all this is over? I don’t even want to imagine that.
2. I’m gonna be a fitness star!
Haha 🙂 Hold your horses, my dear! Anyway, the thing is, that my dream came true on Monday and I became a participant in a fitness video of my friend 🙂 My friend, a fitness instructor, has decided to shoot short videos with modules for warming up, strengthening and stretching for those, who now stay at home (for obvious reason) but want to move a little. And she invited me to cooperate. And I nodded enthusiastically, because when do you get such luck in life? 😉
Don’t worry, the shooting took place in a carefully disinfected environment, we’ve kept the proper distance 😉 Working on these videos has given us another idea that if we succeed, it will be a blast! So keep your fingers crossed for us!
3. Dominik & Harry Potter
What to do when Dominik has to read 20 minutes a day and then write about what he read as a part of his homework, but he has already read all the children’s books we have at home (and does not want to read them again) and libraries are closed?
I thought I could buy him an ebook and download it to his tablet. So there was a discussion about what a book it should be. I suggested if he wanted to read Harry Potter books. He was quite crazy about my suggestion, telling me that they have books in the school library, but the books are too thick (well, are they, right?). But in the end he agreed and I bought him the first part – “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”. He is reading it… and he enjoys it! He also said that if it’s an ebook, at least he doesn’t see how thick the book is 😀
It made me happy! A lot! I mean, I am far from being a Harry Potter books fan. By the time the madness broke out around the little hero of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I was no longer a target audience as a reader. But I thought Dominik was at an age when he might be entertained. But to persuade our Dominik to try something new? This is a slowly superhuman task. For he is a terrible diehard. He would like to read the series of”Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Die Drei ???” and other his favorite series over and over rather than trying something new. And that’s why I’m glad he decided to try it and he enjoys it.
4. Grated cottage cheese
One consequence of our “new normal” is creating a weekly meal plan. And when compiling the menu last week, the boys remembered how they had the great big apricot dumplings on their ski holiday in Austria and if I couldn’t do them either. Well, why not, recently I saw them in Lidl, so no problem to buy them. But I like steam boiled dumplings with grated cottage cheese on top of them. And I can’t get it here in Switzerland. What now? I remembered a recent comment on my Facebook post, with the recipe on how to do it. So I found the right comment and went for it! I was so nervous! But in the end, I succeeded! I did my own grated cottage!!!
5. A gift behind the door
On Saturday afternoon we found a small, sweet and funny gift outside our apartment door. A beautiful gesture that made me cry. Because you realize what great friends you have found here in Switzerland, who do not forget you even in this strange time.
And what made you happy this week? Write to me! I look forward to your comments!
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