The Ordinary Moment // These Two

These two are the closest in age out of my children.  There is 16 months between them, but when they were little it felt like less.  Finn had a difficult start and took longer to meet some of his initial milestones which meant he was still very much a baby when Cora arrived.  They grew up together and they have had a special relationship since very early on.

As toddlers they were so close but things inevitably changed when Finn started school and the age gap between them seemed to grow hugely in that year.  Now they are both at school in year 1 and 2 and I can see such a difference between them but when you get them away from it, their special relationship is still there and they can be the best of friends.

I like to take just the two of them out sometimes to encourage it. With the bigger boys around, Finn is desperate to be one of them, but when these two are on their own, they play so well, they encourage and share and are back to being the best of friends.  We love the woodlands but to get to a decent sized area we have to drive quite a way, so we visit this tiny woodlands in our town to play amongst the trees and set up our swing.  

I loved listening to their conversations, watching them play and connect and be close again.  The age gap between them looks bigger than ever as one is shooting up at an amazing speed and one is growing much more slowly, the academic gap grows with school but I hope they will always have a special relationship as brother and sister.

These pictures are from a little trip out this week.  The bigger two had friends over so I took these two out for a few hours, to the tiny woods and then the park and I realised how much I missed time with just them.

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The Ordinary Moments // The End of Home Learning

For nearly three months, the children have all been home full time and today schools reopened for all pupils marking the end of this period of home learning.  It has been challenging in every sense, it has been full of battles and tears and I am desperately hoping we never have to go through that again.  I think I have focused so much on our failures though, that I neglected to see how well we have done.

During a time when just staying sane seemed an accomplishment, we got on with it.  We logged in every day, the big two worked semi-independently at times and it took Dylan getting a headteachers award on the last day of term for 'unwavering effort over lockdown' to realise that we didn't fail at all.  He may have lacked enthusiasm which I can't blame him for, online learning is not the best for anyone, but he got up each day and did it.  I got up each day and encouraged and motivated them (bribed at times, yes).  We have come out the other side of this strange period and I have confidence that the resilience that helped us all through the past three months will help us as we readjust back to school routines.

I wanted to mark the last day before school with a treat so we went for ice cream and to the park (our options for a special day are still very limited).  I wanted to let the children know that whilst I may not have been the most patient teacher, I am immensely proud of them all.  I am so thankful that I get to just be their Mummy again now and I am looking forward to picking them up from school and asking about their day, because for the first time in a long while, I won't know every aspect of it already!

These photos are from our last day before school, before I laid out their school uniform, dug out the water bottles and set the alarm for a time earlier than I have been awake in months.  I write this in a house quieter than it has been all year surrounded by the mess that seems a natural part of having them all home for three months.  It is going to be strange!

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The Ordinary Moment // Cliff Caves

The bigger boys are reluctant to go out now, I think they have got to the point in this pandemic where they would rather hibernate until we are allowed to see friends again.  The littler two are much easier to persuade out and I thought we would explore a different part of the beach this week.  Just a little further round the cliff from our main sands is this beautiful stretch of beach with natural caves eroded into the chalk.  The ground is not the soft sand we usually visit but it is covered in stones and rocks, seaweed and sea shells and anything else nature leaves.  

We went exploring, making adventure trails across the rocks, looking at the spaces the tide has created and of course jumping in and out of the waves. Welly boots didn't stay dry for long and they loved this change of scenery that we managed without actually leaving our home town.  It is getting harder to think of things to do that aren't just the same walk and going to the same place and I know once we can travel again even going 10 miles down the road is going to feel exciting (for me at least!)

We didn't last long before the rain really started, the welly boots were too full of water and we needed to get home, but at the moment getting them out at all feels like an achievement.  Hopefully the return to school and the chance to see friends will  lift their moods and give them more enthusiasm to get out!  If nothing else it will give them more exercise and fresh air with the school runs and playgrounds at lunchtime.

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The Ordinary Moments // A Snow Day

It isn't really all that ordinary for us to get snow.  We live on the Kent coast and I don't know if it is something about the salt in the air, our location or the fact our area seems to have its own little microclimate, but we see snow only every few years down here.  When I saw it was forecast for today I was reluctant to believe it, thinking we would get the usual rain whilst the rest of the country was covered in snow, but I was woken up to the sound of children squealing in delight as they opened the curtain with the same excitement of Christmas morning. 

We layered up in our winter warmest, put on snow boots, mittens and hats and headed to the park with a sledge we borrowed.  The snow was still falling and it was the coldest weather we have had all winter but it was glorious to have something different.  In a winter that has felt so monotonous, having something new and novel is exactly what we all needed.  Groundhog day paused for a while whilst we ventured out into the white world and threw snowballs at each other, built tiny snowmen that barely reached Cora's knees and left footprints that stayed behind us.  

We are exhausted after the excitement of something different, the children have rosy cheeks and don't seem able to fill their bellies up and I am desperately hoping it all transfers into a good night's sleep!

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The Ordinary Moments // Hot Chocolate at the Beach

It is hard to find things to look forward to when we just can't plan ahead but I have found with the introduction of isolation schooling, I look forward to the weekends like never before.  Two whole days without battles around expanded noun phrases and subordinate clauses are treasured.  We don't get out much during the week with everything else that needs to be done, but every weekend involves a good walk down to the seafront, a run around on the sand, a game of balance on the wall and a hot chocolate to warm up chilly hands.

We bought the giant insulated bottle with some Christmas money and when I remember I bring a can of squirty cream and marshmallows as well, recreating the sweet treat we would usually grab in a cafe on a winter day out.  It is the kind of walk that wouldn't be so special if it weren't for a global pandemic turning it into the only thing we can do, and this ordinary moment becomes one of the things that gets me through the hard days.  This time together with no pressure, no time restraints, nothing else we should be doing is one of the only good things to come out of lockdown.  

I love the idea of sharing an 'ordinary moment' each week, but it seems to be something I flit in and out of, probably writing these posts when I need to see the positivity and the beauty in the every day the most.

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The Ordinary Moment - Climbing Rocks

Ordinary has taken on a new meaning over the last few weeks, the days at the beach, the trips to the playground, the time with friends that were once ordinary have become something of the past and something to look forward to doing again sometime.  Our ordinary moments now are mostly in the house and garden and occasionally somewhere quiet outside and they are exclusively with just the people I always live with.  About once a week I take the four children out somewhere and we have tried to find new places to go that aren't as obvious as the beach and not as busy as the park near our house.  I had run past these beautiful rocks earlier in the week and admired the vibrant flowers and so when we got the point in the week where we needed a change of scene, we headed over to them.

I remember hanging out here as a teenager, walking down from my best friend's house just up the road, but it has been years since I have been back and it took all our usual hang outs shutting down for me to remember it.  The kids were excited to be out and somewhere different and they wanted to touch and look at every flower.  Despite me telling her more than a hundredd times not to, Cora still picked three flowers which she then carried around for the entire day and brought home with her.  We talked about how important it is to not pick flowers so that everyone else can enjoy them and it eventually went in!

It was one of those days that I am just so grateful to have.  I think it was a mix of the sunshine and exploring somewhere different but the children acted more like best friends than siblings, they walked and chatted together, they made their own games on the rocks, the bigger ones helping the smallest and then finding 'den' houses in the bushes.  I stood on the sidelines as they climbed and played without me, exploring their surroundings.  

Finn and Cora had been sent an outfit each from Little Green Radicals in the softest organic fairtrade cotton and they were perfect for the outing.  The bigger two weren't as interested in being photographed on the day so I just took pictures of the little two and I loved capturing this ordinary day out with my favourite four people.

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The Ordinary Moments - Another Day, Another Beach

I am really enjoying documenting the ordinary moments, our simple saturdays and everything else but I feel like a theme might become obvious.  We live to close to the beach, it has too many possibilities for us to ignore it and whenever we are struggling with something to do or the children need some fresh air and to run off some energy, it is where we end up.

I love the beach in summer when we can cool off in the sea, eat ice cream at any opportunity and soak in the sun but there is something so special about it in winter too, especially on a milder day.  There are hardly any people which means the children can have so much more freedom with where they can run to without having to worry about losing sight of them.  They love to draw on the walls with the chalk that is everywhere and we take buckets, spades and balls still.  The beach is where I see their imaginations emerging more as there is nothing but space.

On this visit, we did decide to try paddling in the sea although it was still super chilly! I asked the little ones to just dip in a toe and feel it but they of course understood this to mean walk in up to your ankles and jump around a bit.  We stayed down there until our feet got too cold and then went and found a warm cafe for a hot chocolate.

The children never get excited when I mention a visit to the beach, I think we go so much that the novelty has worn off but as soon as we get down there they just love it, they feel free and they play so well without any walls to bounce off.  It was another ordinary day for us, a different beach to the local one we walk to, but the same sea.

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