Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you’ve managed to tell those you love how special they are at some point today. It’s not a particularly big day in the Low household as we usually celebrate last week instead but we still raised a glass tonight.
It was actually a super romantic day as we finally took on the challenge of sorting through every single toy in this house with the aim of reclaiming our living space. Even the kids helped by putting together all the jigsaws to check there were no missing pieces. Anything to keep them quiet! But after we put all the Frosties back in the box they needed a tad more supervision. I’m not convinced the tidiness will last but at least we’re trying!
Rugby definitely does not feature this week (just don’t!), but what did make the top 5?
1. The mental health of children is a key concern during these periods of lockdown and no one is immune to it. E however seems to be good at expressing her feelings so that makes things a little easier for us. She did worry us a little during our family walk out on Monday when she made 2 snowballs and insisted she carry them around the entire way as they were her “friends”. One was called Icy (Snowy for short) and the other was called Matthew. Weirdly she said her hands were getting cold as a result so she asked if I would carry them for her. I politely offered to put them in my pockets instead but she declined for some reason. As a Frozen aficionado I assumed she would cotton on to the short term nature of anything snow based but actually it didn’t matter as she just threw them at me (quite hard) when we got home. I can’t help but feel I get played by that girl sometimes! 
2. Another classic E/Mammy conversation to share as she was making cards for her teachers (the real ones, not the wannabes!):
E: Mammy what do boys like?
M: Ermmm what do you mean?
E: Well, Miss Houghton has hearts, Mrs Yates has bonfire night, Mrs Keenan has a flower. What about Mr Baxter? What do you think he’s like?
M: Well it could be anything you want to draw
E: How about Santa?
M: Well it’s the wrong time of year for Santa
E: Ok, maybe a frog? But a frog is hard to draw. Maybe a moose?
M: Ok you can draw a moose
E: Maybe not, what about a fish?
M: Yeah he might like a fish
E: Yeah I’m doing a fish
I’m sure Mr Baxter will be delighted with his fish! 
3. As parents, we are relied upon by our offspring to make mature and sensible decisions. Unfortunately I failed in this on Wednesday when I decided that a long walk in the snow was the order of the day. Rather than try to get the car out to pick M up from nursery I thought it would be a doddle to walk the 3 miles there and then walk him home again. By the time we were half way back, I was tired and he was exhausted after a busy day at nursery. It was also freezing. Oh and dark. I had thoughtfully taken the sledge so I could pull him back, but at one point I was just trudging through the snow hauling him behind me whilst he was clinging by his fingertips to the back (he’d fallen off and I hadn’t realised) and was being dragged along. It was definitely not the lovely walk home I was hoping for, and to be frank I should have known better! It took Steph quite a long time to deal with the tears once we got home, but I’m fine now. Never again! 
4. My steps challenge is still going strong and I’m half way through now, so 14 consecutive days with 10,000 steps chalked up each day. And most importantly my work team is one place ahead of Steph’s team so bragging rights are still with me (for now!) I tried to do a couple of runs in the snow this week with mixed success. There’s something quite enjoyable about crunching through the snow with the cold air rushing by. But my last run was interrupted by a small dog who decided to take a disliking to me and started on me, snapping at my right calf. Kicking out didn’t feel like the correct response nor did stopping for him to get a better line of attack. So I tried to speed up instead, slipping all over the place whilst being chased by a dog. A strange sight I would imagine. I mean, I’m not doing this for the danger, so perhaps an uneventful week next week please? 
5. I was off work on Friday to try and give some more home schooling support on the last day before half term. It is definitely easier when you aren’t trying to juggle multiple jobs! We smashed through the maths, English, spelling and art tasks. For some reason we had a science task left to do, even though it’s normally set for a Thursday. The reason soon sunk in as I discovered the task was to design an exercise routine and then get a parent to take part, so my darling wife had left that for me to do. I was halfway through the 65 jumping jacks, having already completed the press ups and lunges and wondering to myself whether using my annual leave for this is actually worth it? The answer is yes, of course, as I know I’m going to be lost when she is back at school! Just don’t tell her that as she can’t wait to be back with her friends. 
LawyerLow Diaries 