First off this week, an apology if any of this diary entry doesn’t make sense. My wife and I, much like many parents around the country, have been celebrating since 3.30pm on Friday and may have slightly overindulged! There are definitely mixed emotions going on here as we are looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet, possibly a tidier house and definitely a reduced weekly shopping bill. But when I put E to bed tonight and spotted her school uniform lying out on her bedroom floor (having worn it most of this morning – just to check out my outfit Daddy!) it hit me how much we will miss her every day.
But let’s not get soppy and instead concentrate on some of the happier moments of the week and we delve into the top 5:
1. I must begin with the last week of homeschooling and once again my girls have really stepped up to the mark. Don’t get me wrong, there have been tantrums, slamming of doors and at points a complete refusal to engage at all, but once Steph calmed down they managed to get on with the work. This week’s highlight was definitely World Book Day. So often maligned as being incredibly stressful, we are fortunate to have a bit of a bookworm of a daughter who also has a dressing up box brimming with outfits. Snow White was the book of choice, so it was lucky she received that exact dress for her birthday! Weirdly her school has also set a challenge of welly throwing to see who can chuck their wellington boot the furthest. I headed out with the kids and the tape measure into the street and tried to multitask coaching E on how to throw in a straight line and therefore not hit the neighbours’ cars whilst chasing M up and down the street with his trousers round his ankles (he has a really skinny waist!) I genuinely hope no one was looking out of their windows at that moment! 
2. It has not only been the last week of home schooling, but also a week of important life lessons for E. It started with a walk past the chickens at the start of the week and the conversation turned to chicken nuggets. Slightly worryingly E had convinced herself that the chicken we eat is a different type of chicken but she was quickly corrected. She then came with me to the farm shop to pick up our meat for the week. Whilst standing at the counter the butcher behind was sawing away on the largest side of beef I’ve ever seen. I asked E if she knew what it was. “A chicken?” came the reply which was clearly ridiculous. When I explained it was a cow she was once again perplexed. “You mean we eat meat Daddy?” I suppose it is easy to forget how naive kids can be, or perhaps we need to up our game in teaching these life lessons! 
3. The walking challenge continues and unfortunately is dominating a lot of what we are doing at present. The February challenge at work, as well as my own 10,000 steps a day has come to an end and unfortunately neither of our teams won overall. The important thing however is that my team finished 3rd and Steph’s finished 4th so all is right in the world! The challenge has been really popular so has carried on into March albeit with new teams. I am feeling very confident this time and definitely have an eye on securing one of the limited edition trophies. Of course I just keep telling Steph it’s all just a bit of fun and she can chill out and put her feet up whilst I nip out for a quick 5k walk! The problem is that she’s no mug and is doing exactly the same to me! I think Emma will just be delighted to be back at school where she *only* has to walk a daily mile rather than 3! 
4. I hope regular readers realise that this diary is designed to be a warts and all type of publication rather than the usual rubbish on social media so often designed to make readers feel completely inadequate. Having said that, when things are good then I’ll tell you that too. And M’s nighttime routine is working an absolute treat. He’s stopped building climbing frames to vault over the baby gate. He’s stopped trashing his room every evening before falling asleep in the middle of the floor. He now takes his Mammy by the hand when he is ready to go and lies down in his bed to listen to a story. He then sits up and pretends to whisper in her ear, alternating 4 times (don’t ask my why, but basically he just blows in her ears whilst grinning) and then cuddles his Bing toy and goes to sleep. It’s utter bliss! Of course now I’ve posted this he’ll be a terror tomorrow night – you heard it here first! 
5. I have to finish with our family walk today. At least M managed to stay awake this time, but only just. A bit of Pooh sticks down by the river and clambering over 5 stiles in total. I think E is only obsessed with them because she loves the word style – she has so much apparently! Anyway, as we were walking along, Steph and I were talking about weight loss during lockdown. Steph was just saying to me “you have lost it” when E, who was obviously earwigging, suddenly interrupted and said “no, Mammy has been losing it.” I thought that was lovely she was paying Steph a compliment but I hadn’t realised she was still speaking “you lose it with me, and you lose it with M and you lose it with Daddy. I think we all frustrate you!” Maybe the end of homeschooling can’t come soon enough! 
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