Our January round up

Here we are in the second month of 2021. I hope you all made it through January relatively unscathed?

What a strange time it is,  and what a strange mood I find myself in now it's February.    I'm happy to say I'm ok, which is pretty good I think considering.  I'm neither sad or bouncing off the walls happy, we are plodding along in our own little world and getting through it ok. 

Home school isn't the best thing of course but the last 2 weeks have been a thousand times better than the previous lockdown so I'm feeling very grateful for that. 

We have fallen into a routine of sorts with Leo getting on with his online lessons,  he's not really enjoying them but does it all without fuss and I'm proud of how he's handling it all.    Louka generally has worksheets to complete, and I usually have to sit with him to give him encouragement the whole time but if I give him 100% then we are muddling though them together with a bit of  Google translate and a bit of help from Leo.   I'm pretty sure he could do a lot more by himself  but we are taking the path of least resistance this time round and it results in a lot less stress all round. 

I've been enjoying yoga,  and was very pleased to have completed the 30 day Yoga Journey from YWA in January,  only the 2nd time I've managed to see it all the way through.   Today I've started the next 30 day challenge - Home.  I'm sure this goes a very long way to improving my general mood.     I've also been back on track with Slimming World after realising just how much weight I'd put on over the last year.

The boys and I have been doing the live PE with Joe workouts which helps and gets the boys moving too, even that is going better this time round with them both joining in a lot more.   It's a good laugh too, although I'm not sure the neighbours would agree! 

We've also been drawing, following the Draw with Rob videos, and I've even done a couple now with no tutorial - I'm amazed how well they turned out, but will save that for another post. 

Of course there has been a massive amount of tech time for the boys (and us, but we can do what we like!)   but there's only so much you can do to limit it, I think we do ok in the scheme of things. I'm sure there are worse things that could happen. 

Louka has discovered Virtual DJ however, which is at least a change from watching other people play video games on youtube.    He's loving playing about with it and DJ's for us most evening while we cook dinner! 

Cyprus has been in lockdown since the 10th January, and there wasn't much we were allowed to do before that.  Visits to other houses have been banned since New Year but we have been able to meet up with another person for a walk (kids are not included in the number).     The boys had a great time playing on the sand hills at Fig Tree Bay - I think they enjoy it more than the beach in summer! 

We've had some really cold days and storms, luckily no damage or leaks for us this time,  but also some beautiful sunny days.   I've been more grateful than usual to be lucky enough to have this weather - although I'm sure the boys would love to play in the snow!

Another good thing this month has been Saturday night zoom calls, as well as a quiz for our Cyprus friends it's been amazing to see a couple of my old besties from England, there was a little bit too much drinking on the first evening but we seem to have found a better balance in the last couple!   It's crazy to think we've seen each other more this year than in the last 10 - there's always a bright side to every situation! 

In other news, we've made the decision to postpone the  FPN Party in the Park - our big event we had planned for April,  we'd really hoped all would be well by then but it's not looking like all the restrictions will be lifted by then and it doesn't give us much time to plan if we wait any longer to see what happens.

But we are still looking on the bright side -  what else can you do!   

Today (1st Feb) Cyprus has started to ease the lockdown restrictions, hairdressers, barbers, and beauticians and tattoo shops can reopen, and you can have 2 visitors to your house.    From Feb 8th small shops can also open,  you can have 4 visitors and most importantly primary schools reopen! 

Who knows what the next few months will bring,  all eyes are on the UK really as that is where most of our tourists come from, and with most of the people I know, where they want to get too or have visitors from.  It will be what it will be though, we can only hope for the best.