I used to love round up posts, but I haven't written one for ages. I wasn't sure about writing one for 2020, because truth be told, we haven't done much because of the pandemic. I've also been put off sharing more personal posts on here because I've had a few trolls lurking in the background. But if anything, 2020 has taught me who my true friends are, that my little family is everything and that if people are horrible then they have sad lives and I only wish them future happiness. So, read on to hear about the shocker of the year that was 2020, as experienced by us!
January
Does everyone remember back in January when life was normal?! Looking back over my photos we had a really busy month. We celebrated Baby Boy's first birthday and headed to the zoo with friends.
Miss J started in a new school. If you haven't followed our journey, she was horribly bullied in her old school, and the school were useless dealing with it so we were forced to pull her out. I was so nervous about it at the time but I wish I had done it months earlier. She has simply thrived in her new school, it made the world of difference to her mental health and wellbeing.
In the process of this unfortunately I suffered a huge backlash from some of the mums at the old school, who I always considered friends. Over the next couple of months I struggled with taking Little Boy to school and being ignored and visibly talked about at the school gates. Social media posts and blog posts were screenshot and sent out amongst this group of awful mums, being nasty behind my back. It was a really horrible time and it has really affected me. It really taught me a lot about the power that bullies have, and made me more determined to stand up to them.
January is my birthday month and hubby and I did manage to get out for a date night (our first and last one of the year!).
February
Now February was the month that it all started to go wrong. I was still suffering badly with the awful mums from school and I became really unwell too and spent a lot of February really very poorly.
We did manage to have a little break away in a lodge with a hot tub in February half term and I am so glad that we did because it was our last little holiday!
Miss J turned 9! We chose not to have a party because of everything that had happened at her old school and she was still settling into her new school. I promised her that next year we would have a lovely big party, that doesn't look likely right now though!
At the end of February my eldest daughter E got really unwell with stomach pains. She was admitted to hospital for two nights for observation and tests as they were concerned that it was appendicitis. Her illness ended up lasting for months, and after a barrage of tests they never found out what was wrong, she just gradually got better.
March
We were in and out of hospital with E for a lot of March and of course lockdown happened. Hubby started working from home and school's closed. It was the beginning of a very strange year, I certainly didn't think that this would all still be going on (and in fact it's worse than ever right now).
We also lost our beautiful cat Amber at the beginning of March. She was nearly 11 years old and I was absolutely devastated. I didn't stop crying for about a week.
E turned 13 in March. Unfortunately she was still really quite unwell so she didn't really do anything to celebrate - again another delayed birthday to celebrate!
April
Well, April was the month that life moved online. We had ballet, football, baby sensory and school online. It was a weird thing to get used to!
We went on lots of walks and we were really lucky that the weather was unseasonably warm which made a huge difference.
We were still backwards and forward to the hospital and doctors but at the end of the month E started to feel better.
May
May was much of the same. We went for lots of local walks and I baked a lot! We got into the rhythm of home schooling too.
Spending so much time in the house gave me a real bug for redecorating so I painted a lot! I painted both girls bedrooms and the hallway, and finally the living room. I was really pleased with the results.
June
June brought much of the same. The weather was glorious so we spent as much time as we could outside, in the garden or the park or at the beach.
We got into the swing of home schooling too and actually began to enjoy it! Little Boy transferred to his sister's school which made it a lot easier as they provided a much better home learning system and I was surprised with just how much he came on being home schooled - he learnt to read during this time!
July
July brought with it the first of our lockdown birthdays - Little Boy turned 6! We had a little socially distanced party in the park with family friends which was so nice. The children went back to school for one day a week, which meant it was Little Boy's first time in his new school - he settled right in, just as if he had always been there said his teacher! I couldn't be more proud of how my middle two have coped with changing schools.
Things began to open up and we managed to have a trip out to a local outdoors adventure centre - it felt so good to be starting to do normal things again!
School then broke up for the summer which was a great feeling! No more home school!
August
Life during the summer was a bit odd. We managed a day trip or two to quiet, outdoor places but we didn't do any of our usual travelling or have any holidays so it felt very weird. Hubby worked through the whole thing too.
We did meet up with some friends outdoors and I did manage to head into Cardiff for a spot of shopping for the first time in months. It was a bit weird but quiet as it was a hot day. Sadly I haven't been back!
I convinced everyone to go for a drive to a sunflower field to get some gorgeous pictures - it was actually really cold but we had a lovely morning!
We spent a lot of time at a local outdoors play centre where the children could run around.
We even managed to have our hair done and go for coffee - life was a little bit more normal for a while!
September
The big three went back to school in September, which was very weird! I got used to it being just me and the little one again.
Lexi turned 3!
At the end of September local lockdowns were announced in Wales meaning that we were to be separated from many of our friends in different counties. Just as things had been getting a little bit more normal, we were back in reverse.
October
Obviously Halloween was cancelled but we managed to squeeze in pumpkin picking before it was closed down and we had a really lovely Halloween. We carved pumpkins, did Halloween crafts, dressed up, had a sweet hunt at home and went for a Halloween walk in the dark to look at the decorated houses. I think it was my favourite Halloween ever!
November
It got colder and colder and we didn't get up to much. We had a couple of calamities - Little Boy split his head open and I got a flat tyre on the school run which wasn't fun.
Little Boy lost his first tooth which was exciting!
I got back into decorating and updated our little toilet. It made such a difference to the room and I'm really pleased with the result.
December
December flew by! I had wanted to be organised but I just didn't manage it! There was none of the usual Christmas festivities or get togethers but we did manage to watch a few online concerts that the children's schools and dancing classes had put together which was lovely. As December drew to a close, Covid-19 cases were on the rise in a bad way and we found ourselves locked down for Christmas. We made the most though, and despite being thoroughly bored we managed to have a lovely time.
We planned lots of Christmas activities to keep the children feeling the magic of Christmas and although we missed seeing our friends we enjoyed our lovely decorated home and the company of each other.
So if you made it to the end of this, well done! It just goes to show that although I didn't think we had done much this year, we have still managed to do a lot! 2021 is starting off in a bad way but there is the hope that things will get better. I'm certainly going to spend as much time with my friends and travelling as I can when we are able to.
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