Can we share ideas to make the best of the next couple of months?

[Whataloadofshit]

I was going to post on the Covid board, but it's overrun with school threads every day.

January and February can be gloomy months as it is. Cold, grey, damp. Often skint, dieting, not much going on.

With all of the Covid restrictions they're likely to be even tougher this year. We are in tier 4 so it is going to be utter shite, none of the dcs hobbies will be running again.

Has anyone got any plans/ideas/projects to get through it?

I'm hoping to have a bit of a health kick, lots of exercise and healthy food. Watch lots of films, start a new book, play more with the dc hopefully lots of games and puzzles and may set eldest a reading challenge.

www.british-sign.co.uk/

It's pay what you can during covid and I think CPD certified

One thing we did last Jan which was actually really good was to buy a few food magazines and go through them with the kids. We all picked a few new recipes we’d like to try and the kids helped me make them for dinners. Sometimes after a day at work it was the last thing I felt like doing (!) but we found some really good, new recipes that we still use now.

I have bought a new baking recipe book and intend to bake at least 1 new thing each month. I'll also continue with learning Russian (started last March).

Money management, knowing exactly where everything is going and starting a christmas account so everything is set aside for next year.

Getting the 4 year old and 7 year old to come running with me.

I started yoga today. Using pocket yoga app. Good luck everyone and keep those chins up. I was visited by the ghost of Christmas anxiety and I realize I need to fight this in advance not at the time as when I am in the thick of it, nothing helps but knowing that it will at some point pass.

Excellent thread idea.

Very important to get outdoors if you can, even for 20 minutes around the block.

Learning - Duolingo, Future Learn.

Gosh, I'd love to have the time to learn languages or do yoga.

I'll be doing what I did in the first lockdown - working part time, studying part time, dealing with three children who need education, and all the usual household chores which need to be done.

The best I can hope for is to escape for half an hour into the fresh air when it's not raining.

Last lockdown, I got into home workouts. I bought myself a mat and some weights and it wasn't as hard as I thought! I started with 20 mins a day, which I found a manageable amount.

I'm thinking of leaving the outside Christmas lights up (putting the reindeer away though) as I think they would be nice for the next few weeks. Do a bit of knitting, reading, puzzles and games etc and not spend so much time on here!

Declutter/tidy?

not spend so much time on here!

That's my NY resolution 😂 I am now putting Stay focused on all my devices and blocking mumsnet for most of the day from tomorrow. Bloody addictive!

Some good ideas here! I’d like to start walking more. Some days I must literally only do a couple of hundred steps from my desk to the kitchen and then to bed which is shocking in comparison to my fitness routine this time last year

Is there a nice skills you could learn with the dcs? Dd is keen to learn to sew, my sewing is pretty basic so I thought we could try making some clothes for her Barbies together.

If you have a garden you could buy a feeder and start feeding the birds and identifying them, my dcs enjoyed that during first lockdown, we had a chart and ticked off what we saw. The RSPB Big Garden birdwatch is in a few weeks.

I have decided already to make a big deal of any festival that comes along. I know there will be Burns night, Valentines Day, Chinese New Year and Shrove Tuesday in the next couple of months and I'm sure there are others. I thought I'd get the dcs to make decorations and we could have appropriate food for the occasion for a bit of a treat/change.

@RaspberryCoulis oh believe me, I wasn't one of those people who took up loads of new hobbies during #lockdownbloody1

I was also working and doing the dreading homeschooling plus the housework and the daily walk.

If schools close again I'm screwed, but determined whatever happens to make these next few weeks/months bearable.

We plan to have something to look forward to each month. January will be holding a family Burn's Night including researching Scottish food and whiskey and February will be holding a pancake race in the garden.

I'm going to try and mark different celebrations so over the next month we will have Epiphany, Burns Night and Chinese New Year. They will not help the diet but they will be fun.

I am going to tidy and reshelve my potting shed, make a potting bench (and maybe a cold frame) from bits we have lying around. And I'm planning a mini wildlife pond so I need to move some plants eventually. It wasn't nice weather today but I still enjoyed pottering in the garden - I want to do more of it.

I'm planning

Planning a family garden party in June
Planning a holiday with ds in August
Planning a city break in October.

Great thread idea..

Improving health in my case, & organising house
Teaching kids new skills while you have time is a great one: are yours old enough to teach them how to make some basic dishes?

I’ve managed to get out for exercise every day over the Christmas holidays, it’s really helped my mental health (and it’s helped limit the Xmas weight gain), so I’m going to try to keep that up in January and February. It won’t be easy with work being so busy, but I’ll do what I can each day. I’ve also bought the new Barack Obama book and will try to read that before end of Feb - it’s a huge book!

I've started a Bullet Journal (just as a creative hobby rather than as an organisational tool)

I will pick out a few things from my new cookbooks.

Walking every day, building up our fitness & we’re doing 10 mile walks now. A reading challenge-aiming to read 40 books each over the year. Also going to try new recipes & a new takeaway each week in January.

We've introduced a family games tournament. Weekly games nights of a Saturday with a monthly scoreboard! Winner gets to pick tea and a film and treats at the end of the month.
We did it for a week of lockdown and the kids loved it!

Watching for inspiration. Last January starter out really well for us - gym, going to a different countryside walk each weekend etc but all went by the wayside from lockdown.

@LouHotel can’t recommend Monzo enough for money management! Come November I had every penny we needed (until we went way over budget as usual) sitting there for Christmas. And for car insurance etc too. It’s totally changed my life - we’d lived month to month before that and put big things on credit cards. Good luck :)