Livin' that quarantine life.

After the last post aired I had quite a few people get in touch with me to make sure I'm okay.  I want to say thanks.  It's really lovely to know that I have so many people in my life that care.

My first appointment with the new psychiatrist (the old one's boss) was bumped back a week, then had to happen over the phone.  By the time it took place, I had (given my GP's carefree attitude to prescriptions) been stable on my medication for about a month and a half.  I did manage to get the 24hr blood test the old psychiatrist demanded, and because I'd successfully gotten my meds I was able to undergo the test under controlled circumstances to prove that my blood pressure is manageable while medicated.  It is.  I'm fine.

The call was painless.  He had my notes, but had a few questions.  I answered them as calmly as possible, carefully not going into too much detail about my dissatisfaction with the old doctor.  He did delve into that area himself a little, which proves that I'm not totally nuts and my treatment under her wasn't exactly standard.  He said there was absolutely no reason I should be taken off a medication that's helping me, and signed me off.  This means no more monthly trips to Northwick Park, no more paper prescriptions, back to requesting my meds over the app and picking them up from the chemist when they're ready.  Sing hallelujah.

The last week the kids were in school, we did a thing...

Otis is a puppy farm rescue, he's an American Bulldog, and he's a mess.  *lol*  He's actually pretty smart, you don't have to redirect him more than a few times before he changes his behaviour.  It's a bit like living with Jaws, though.  He wanders the house with his mouth open hoping for something to fall into it... doesn't seem to matter to him whether it's food, a toy, your shoe or your hand.  We're working on it.

Plus, he's really freaking cute.

As far as the kids being off school... it has it's ups and downs for sure.  Mostly though, we're ticking along nicely.  Himself is working from home, based in the spare room upstairs.  Madam and I worked in there last weekend, rearranged the furniture and cleaned really well, made space for his work files and bits.  Plus, when we got her new bed and arranged everything, her clothes rail ended up in the spare room and Dude's stuff was still hanging in what's now her room.  This was causing issues.  So, we fixed it.  Moved his stuff to the spare room, so now her room is only hers.  She's very happy.

Also, she's sleeping in there.  My eight year old finally sleeps in her own bed.  *lol*  Now, in the interest of full disclosure, this is how it started...

Yeah, that's my husband sleeping on an air mattress in her floor.  He did that for several days.  Before you say anything, they made that arrangement without my input, and to be fair... it worked.

We're not stressing the homeschool thing.  We're still reading, and the kids log into the various school sites here and there, but mostly I'm not pushing it.  The advice given by most of my teacher friends is that all we can hope for during this extraordinary time is for the kids not to lose any knowledge.  Nobody's expecting them to learn a new language or advance to the next year's maths level.  Retention is the name of the game.  They're not going to remember much about this other than the atmosphere in the house.  So, we bake.  We play (and frequently eat) outside.  We decorate rocks and hide them in friends' gardens for their kids to find later.  We dye our hair, and cut Dude's in a mohican.  We don't mix unnecessarily, and we're pretty okay with it.

#quarantinelife