Project 52 2021 week 11 – sunset sheep

So far so go with the second week back at school, cases in our whole area of the county are now minimal, although some surrounding areas have a few more cases. School testing hasn’t come through on the results locally yet, so we’ll see what happens over the next week or so. Hopefully cases won’t go up too much. The Astra Zeneca vaccine I had was halted use in lots of EU countries due to possible risk of blood clots. I’ve had blood clots before with no increased risk as a young person, so I know how many people get them without vaccines. A few days later that it’s been cleared again as safe, and the EU are now even further behind in their vaccination programme. Let’s hope they just get on with it now.

It’s week 2 of my diet and the first time I stepped on the scales in about 9 months. I was pleasantly surprised that I was actually 2 stone less than I had thought I’d started at. While first weeks of diets often go well, they don’t go that well over 2 weeks, so that was a nice surprise. Not as much to lose as I’d thought – although still a lot. But it’s going well so far.

Here’s our week 11 of Project 52.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. I’d bought flowers for the MIL and N made a cake, and also bought my own flowers! I did get a really lovely card from N he’d made in school. He also turned up with a nice shower gel. Of course I had to still cook all the roast and pudding myself as usual.

I got all the fixtures through for the summer tennis league matches, so got our home match time checked and booked with the club, emailed all the other team captains to check times for those matches, and sorted out our team for the first match. The children have all moved up to Green stage, so ned to learn proper tennis scoring but a fast4 version. It’s a bit complicated, and hopefully the 4 hours of matchplay team practice they’ve got booked in will cover that for them.

I also found a dance live had just started on Facebook when I went on, so had a fun 30 minutes learning a Tiktok challenge dance. Good exercise and a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to getting back to dancing once things are back open again and it’s a lot safer to mix with all those people again.

On Monday, back to school and work. I decided that this week I was going to try and up my steps. I’m so lazy on a working day, and compared to the office just don’t get up enough. And not going out for walks around town at lunch time means my steps when working from home are terrible. So I’m getting up most hours unless I’m in meetings and miss my reminder.

Tuesday I got round to filling in the census. Hopefully our lodgers remember to do their part of it too. More steps during the day. N came home happy because they’d been playing hockey again. They’ve also been doing mindfulness at school. Last time he said he was virtually asleep. This week they were told to have a minute of tantrums to get any anger or anxiety out. I wonder if the other classes could hear them and wondered what was going on.

In the evening I joined in the tennis club AGM on zoom. It was all very relaxed, and it looks like I’ll be the parent junior rep between the club, and then the parents and children. I don’t need to go to committee meetings which is good, and I already speak to the relevant club person quite a bit anyway, so it should be a nice thing to help out with.

On Wednesday I worked out why only 1 bird feeder was getting used. The other one was jammed up and the seed wasn’t moving down, so hopefully now they’ll come back to it. After work, we had some great light as the sun set, so I got out in the garden to take some photos of the sheep in the paddock. One was quite happy to pose.

Thursday was a good steps day. I’d managed to hit 8k steps which is my daily target, and all 11 hours set were active.. Couldn’t believe I managed it from not actually walking outside other than a brief walk to the bins.

It was a busy working day with lots of short meetings, and also covering for one of the resource managers while she was on leave. It’s always nice to meet more of the teams. We’re in planning mode for next financial year, getting all our project documents written and submitted for sign off. I sorted out N’s private tennis lessons so they’re all booked in again. It’s going to be a lot of tennis all of a sudden once it’s open again at the end of March.

On Friday, the OH had his covid vaccine. I wrote him directions out, and he obviously found it ok. I did worry he’d gone off without a mask, but he did have one (only the second time he’s had to wear one. Shows how infrequently he goes into a shop or similar!). I’m hoping he doesn’t get the side effects I had otherwise tomorrow could be a nightmare with him if he doesn’t feel well enough to work.

It was Red Nose Day so N went to school wearing red, and with a donation – he even matched my donation with his own money which I thought was really kind of him. N came home from school saying his tonsils hurt so I’m hoping that doesn’t turn into full blown tonsillitis. I managed to do over my target steps before 8pm, so was very pleased with myself.

Saturday I was hoping to have a relaxing day. I’ve got a puzzle that’s been sitting there to finish for 2 weeks now. And I’ve got books to finish. Instead N wanted to bake a cake again, so we needed to get some ingredients, and get some burgers for tea, so we nipped to a nearby small town. Nice to shop independent at butchers, deli and grocers, plus some dairy needed from Co-op. N was given a New Holland tractor mask by a friend who works for them. It’s an adult size but adjustable elastic so he managed to make it fit and wore that, then came home and washed it for wearing next time we’re out.

He baked Granny’s chocolate Guinness cake (her old school non-metric measurements and ‘I’m not sure how long it goes in for, until it’s cooked’ directions). It made the house smell amazing for the rest of the day. We took the dog out for a walk, said hello to the bigger calves and had a nosy in at the younger ones still with their mums. Won’t be long before there’s blossom in the hedgerows and the cows are back out in the fields.

This week’s photo is a sunset sheep, posing for me.

New posts this week:

• Helping with independence at school
• Keto alternatives to pasta