TeamChallis: Week 43 - Goodbye Karen :-( and a Wassail

A couple of things from last Sunday night before we get properly into this week...

Woo has been getting into chess a bit. Her and Mark have been playing. He helps her think about the process, so they're not strictly competitive games, but she's getting better. I took this picture and wanted to add it. They played a while, and I read my book a bit.

I said last week that I was hoping to submit a photo onto the view from my window site. I happened to be online on Sunday evening when the site opened back up and so I posted my photo and comment. It was one of the first that was loaded that was of a photo taken in January (most of the posts were from back in March/April) and because I was thanking the group for inspiring me, it got a lot of comments. In a group with 2.2m members, when a post starts getting commented on a lot it does snowball. It was funny to watch the likes and comments climb. It was really nice how everyone was saying lovely things, and just generally waving hello! As I write this blog, the post has 27k likes and 4.2k comments, which I find extraordinary.

Monday we were back into homeschooling and another crazy week. Mark sorted Bunnykins out with downloading and organising all her work. I did the necessary printing. She has been getting on really well with her work, I am very proud of them both. She brought in her topic craft (Pandora's box) for me to photograph and upload to the Google classroom site.

I was still checking out the FB post and marvelling...

At lunchtime, Bunnykins and I went out to play netball, or at least "shoot some hoops".

so close...

Woo had some Lego that she had been given ages ago and never completed. She finally decided to sub the building out to Bunnykins, who completed the work with alacrity. It was really nice to see them cooperating and getting on with each other.

In the evening it was just the 3 of us for UkuleleLand practice, but it was nice, we went through a lot of country songs. I know Ben wants us to have a whole country set! 🤠

Tuesday, I spotted this box of chocolates belonging to Woo...incase there was any doubt..."Faith's...mine...my precious..." she does make me giggle. 😄

Work days are still ridiculously busy, but it is just becoming normal. I hardly move from my desk chair because I spin from one meeting to the next. It isn't healthy and it will shorten my life span, so it needs to change. I am beginning to understand better what I can and should say "no" to, and I will do that more, because I have to have breaks in my day. I also need to be able to stop working at the end of the day, as there is always some Columbo like "just one more thing". So on Tuesday I was quite late down for tea.

In the evening, Mark asked me to help him learn to darn. He had a hole in his cardigan. He wears it alot and can layer it over other things, so while he's working it is a fairly constant companion. He leans on one elbow often when he is working so it had worn through. We chose a yarn, for a visible mend and I showed him the process.

He isn't being forced btw! It was really him that wanted to do it...

The finished thing.

Wednesday was a similarly bonkers day and I was late coming down to eat again. Mark and the girls had gone off at lunch for a walk and to get us some cakes for our cards evening. I had to stay back to go into a call over lunchtime 😕😖😒. But just as the call started (and Mark was out), a moving van pulled up for next door and Karen rang to ask if we would move our car, partly for access, but also to avoid damage to the car. I saw her ring the bell and jumped off the call in slightly dramatic fashion (leaving the other attendees thinking there had been some disaster outside the window). When she asked though, I went into a panicked flap. My brain had just reached saturation point and I couldn't compute, then I felt bad because she didn't need to see my crazy at all and I always want to be able to help Karen out as she is wonderful. So after a moment of staring slack jawed like a loon, I figured out that I needed to grab the keys and move the car...not really very complex but somehow it seemed like a disaster. I ran back up to my call, and while they were all quite concerned, I thought it best to brush over and not explain that I was just having a mini-breakdown. I muttered something like "so sorry, it's all fine now, no time though to explain my mini personal drama!", smiled and we all carried on.

I messaged Karen to apologise for my ridiculousness, but I was worried about it. Anyway, we got started in the evening with games night and there was a ring at the door. It was Karen and Matt come to say goodbye and bring us some presents including a "be fabulous" mug for me that Karen thought looked like me. Which by extension Bunnykins felt it meant it looked like her.

There was a lovely card and box of delightful smelling teas. The girls love a fruit tea, and even though I now really only have hot water or a mocka, I will occasionally be tempted by a herbal tea.

We carried on with games night, which was really nice after the day I had had. More sevens, nothing challenging.

Before bedtime, Woo and Mark broke off to play a bit more chess and Bunnykins did a bit of work in the craft room on her school topic project of a volcano model.

In the evening, Mark branched out to darning his socks. He goes through a lot and I had a pile of darning that I just wasn't getting around to, so it was really nice that he decided to do it himself.

That is him indicating he darned 3 holes himself. He was rightly proud.

Thursday was emotional. Mark moved our car off the drive early. The vans arrived about 8:30 am. I watched the comings and goings occasionally out the window, but if I thought about it too much I welled up.

I think it was about 11:15am, I saw the van go and thought that was it, they were gone. But then their car pulled up and they were taking a few last things out of the house. I noticed Karen taking a picture of the girls on the step and I ran down to offer to take a picture.

It makes me well up just writing the above and seeing the picture.

I took it and we stayed this distant. I said that I "love you guys". But I could see Karen's face welling and I was going and we just looked at each other and I rushed inside. She was the same, she didn't want to be bursting into tears, but she felt it. Not just missing me of course! But leaving her house. This is a special place, her girls have grown up here. Yasmin was either a baby or just born when they arrived. I felt their sadness in leaving and I felt how much I would miss having them next door.

The new neighbours were arriving and Karen was saying hello to them, I rushed inside and on to a call. Wiping away the tears as I dialed in.

Some lunch time progress on the volcano...

I had a nice session with Ben in the evening. I wasn't as tired out as the week before, but I wasn't up for anything challenging. Just wanted to chat and play a few favourite tunes.

After we had finished I needed to do some reading in preparation for an important client call in the morning. In addition, my foot had been playing up. It is now the right foot. It feels similar to before in the summer (though that was the left foot I am sure), the bones in the ball of my foot feel like they are crunching against each other painfully. So I tried some elevation while I got on with swotting up.

By Friday it was really feeling like it was a relief to get to the end of the week. I had a lot to do, so I got up at 7 and was at my desk by just after 7:30am. First off sorting out uploading and scanning for Bunnykins and then on with my work in an effort not to end up working late.

Bunnykins had a call at 11am with Granny and Grandpa. I had sent them all her maths worksheets and teachers comments. She is working on fractions. They were prepared to talk through the ones she had got wrong and talk generally about those areas she found more tricky. It worked really well. I think it was nice for all of them to chat. But I was impressed with Bunnykins at how patient and calm she was, how grown up about it. She listened and answered well. I could tell Granny and Grandpa were impressed from what I could overhear. We'll try it again next week for sure.

Bunnykins and I played a bit more netball at lunch. I really needed getting out into the fresh air and it gave me a boost for the afternoon.

I did end up working a bit late. I didn't mind so much, as it was to help a colleague who had volunteered to write a bid that I didn't have time to do. It was his first bid writing experience and he needed a bit of help getting it finished and sent off. But shortly after 6pm I was done and glad to get down to the kitchen table with my team Challis.

Saturday morning had a slow start, which is always fine by me. After lunch we were going to go for a walk all together, but when I put on my shoes I couldn't walk well at all. I felt like my bones were grating together in my right foot. Mark and the girls went on instead and I went and sat outside to read with my foot elevated.

When they got back, Mark wanted his haircut and Woo volunteered to give it a go. She did a good job and was very thorough and careful.

Sunday morning, Mark went off for a run with Jason, it was a lot around town, but they still found opportunity to get muddy...

I got up fairly late, did some tidying around and cleaned the kitchen. Mark was back by then. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to run outside without any shoes, I thought I would have a go at a walking workout that Ben shared with me, it was with a guy called Rick Bhullar. This one was for 10,000 steps and was an hour 15 minutes.

Bunnykins joined me for most of it and was chit chatting away as we walked and danced.

There isn't much to do or mark at the moment, but today is the 17th January which is the old 12th night, a traditional night for wassailing. Marian had sent us some song sheets and we had planned a little wassail for our apple tree, who certainly has been a wonderful asset to us this year.

We had our tea listening to a wassailing Spotify playlist and giggling about what the neighbours might think. We decided that we would go out with candles, toast, and cider. At the tree I would recite the toast and we would all say the response.