For me silence is mind-numbing.

Wait. That may not be the right word for it.

There is something about silence that makes the day feel like it’s going on forever and while it’s not anxiety-driven, I do find that I’m a lot more fidgety and I need to find something to occupy my mind constantly, which is usually checking social media.

This is something that is nothing new. I used to hate working in class when we had to be silent. My mind would be half on what we were meant to be doing and half on the clock waiting for the bell to ring.

The only time when I find silence is helpful is when I’ve got writer's block or I’m reading. Otherwise, I have to have some form of noise around me.

This whole thing is one of the reasons why I loved and still love being a nanny. Didn’t matter what was happening there was always some kind of noise happening.

7 Inside Activities You Can Play During Lockdown

Lockdown his well and truly on us here in Victoria, which means that we’re all stuck inside for large amounts of time.

When I was working full time, we would have days where rain would keep us inside or it was too hot to go out and we’d have to make do with just being inside. Those days it was really easy to go stir crazy. No matter how many books you read, pictures you draw, board games you play, you’re always going to have those moments where the kids are bouncing off the walls and telling your that they’re bored.

Which is why I always tried to have some easy and fun activities to do to help get through the day. Most of these use items that most houses have all the time or are pretty easy to get your hands on or require nothing extra at all. The great thing is that they can all be done inside the house and may need a small amount of set up before you can get down to playing them.

Before we get into them, just be aware that some of these may require supervision, especially with young kids.

Preparing Our Dogs For Our Baby

As many of you know, Arlo and Daphne are our first and second-born children. For nearly two and a half years these two were our main priority other than ourselves to the point that our parents have started to call them their Grandchildren. They are such a part of our lives that we made sure that they were a part of our pregnancy announcement. 

You will also be aware that Arlo has anxiety and it can be tough. We have days where every little outside noise triggers him and we're constantly trying to get him to stop continuously barking at them. Whenever something new comes into the house it can take anywhere from a week to a month for him to get used to it. A good example was when we got a new fridge. He refused to walk past it for two weeks without one of us being with him and him skirting around it, which made toilet training him a bit difficult. 

So when we knew that AJ was on the way, we also knew that we were going to have to put a lot of early work in to ensure that Arlo was as calm and untriggered as possible. We also wanted to do the same with Daphne because even though she doesn't have anxiety, she still needed time to be able to adapt to the changes that were happening in our lives. 

Mama Be Kind To Yourself

Yesterday I finally broke. 

I have been isolating at home basically since AJ was born in January. We limited the amount of time we had outside to protect her until she had her six week shots and then waited another 2 weeks. By the end of that I was ready to start getting out and doing things like going to the library, play group, etc.

But by then the COVID-19 pandemic had hit Australia's shores and the social distancing started. 

At first it was ok. I was a home body anyway. Staying at home was totally fine by me, especially as it protected myself from catching this illness that had the potential to do a lot of harm to my body as I'm an asthmatic. Then we moved and suddenly I was in a new town and knew no one except for AJ's Dad.