Prepping amidst Pandemic - Thread 17

[Sprayitall]

Hi all, starting this thread to continue from preppers thread 16. Because we are amidst a pandemic now, I have changed the title to prepping amidst pandemic than “for pandemic”. I hope all of you keep well amidst this and get all the help, support and hope needed to cope during this challenging times. Feel free to add your thoughts, preps and ideas here.

Hi preppers, I'd like to join if that's OK - I enjoy planning ahead, and just want to make sure that I've considered the right things.

Both my school age kids are primary aged. The yr 5 child gets very little input or direction from their teacher whereas the Yr 3 teacher is more involved. We try to do their maths worksheet, some reading, their spelling game on the computer at the very minimum. I'd like them to do some times table rockstars too, and a little a n other.

@wheredowego @IndecentFeminist finding it very difficult to make dd listen and do things. She is bright but won’t listen to me like she would listen to her teacher. Also couple of things are upsetting her like the change of situation, homeschooling and on top her favourite class teacher left the school. Hopefully she will start to listen more.
@Weedsnseeds1 thank you for the mask tip. I have to search and make some for the local helpers group. thinking twice now because I could see some people there are not so nice. Why don’t some people understand there is no need to be nasty to each other I don’t know. ffs this is a pandemic and we are all in this together. Life is so fragile. Every single person is important and beautiful.

wheredowego sounds familiar, DD spends a great deal of the day shouting 'you are not qualified to teach' at me. It is a struggle but I am still glad the schools are shut.

@WhereDoWeGo thanks to picking up tips from the early versions of this thread I could have stayed at home for several weeks. However, despite not being an anxious type at all normally, I really started to overthink going out, so after a couple of weeks where I barely went out even for exercise I made myself go to the supermarket. Now I try to get out regularly (within the guidelines of course), because when things start to ease I don’t want to be too frightened to resume some semblance of my previous life.

I think when you’re in a supermarket you just have to be proactive - I take ostentatious evasive action if people start to come too close.

Honestly, I'm not stressing about the work. If it is done under duress they get little from it and it just damages our relationship. I'd rather do little bursts of work every few days if at all, and do lots of stuff in the garden/go for a walk/bake/hang out together.

I hit a wall with homeschooling this week. I’ve been very distracted and worried about an ill parent, and both the dc’s teachers ramped up the workload. Dd who is normally enthusiastic and very diligent refused to do anything but creative writing and coding and got upset and cried when I tried to get her to do the work set by her teacher. And ds has a massive meltdown and refused to come out of bed one day and then eventually did an excellent PowerPoint presentation about the stupidity of teachers, parents and the educational system. 😂
One of the teachers sends a letter at the beginning of the week with a list of work and then provides enthusiastic feedback for anything they submit, but makes it clear that lots of reading and a bit of written work is also fine.
The other sends daily letters, links, powerpoints, comments, print outs etc and while I admire her dedication and enthusiasm it’s too hard to keep track of everything and ds can’t handle it at all.
Next week will be better eternal optimist as I’ll be able to give them more time and headspace.

I always wanted to homeschool so I really feel a right failure!

I’ve been trying to go out more as I’m definitely in danger of getting stuck inside, the longer this goes on. I took dd for a walk yesterday but we kept having to cross the road to avoid people who had stopped for chats and were blocking the paths. And we had two panting joggers come running up behind us. It would probably be better to take the dc out early when it’s quiet so that I don’t pass my anxiety onto them.

Can anyone kindly recommend a very beginner friendly book/website/youtube channel about starting a veg garden. I'm absolutely clueless but have always fancied having my own tomatoes and greens

I'm thinking of buying a breadmaker. Has anybody got this breadmaker and what's it like?

@lannister come over to the gardening page - we have a thread for new gardeners during lockdown. Lots of people in the same situation. We're friendly and helpful!

Otherwise, the RHS website is a good resource.

Sorry @Ineedabreak19 I don't but I do have a Panasonic one which I would whole heartedly recommend. I have been using it every other day for about 4 years now and it produces a perfect loaf every time. I also use it for pizza dough and going to try french stick tomorrow. I've also made sweet dough eg cinnamon buns etc. Delicious! www.argos.co.uk/product/4239781

@livingthegoodlife thank you so much. Can't believe I never knew there was a whole gardening section on MN smh

Thanks for the warm welcome back.
DH is doing a lot better today. He is afebrile now and able to eat, which is progress!

Today as another distraction technique we are dehydrating mango and I’ve been sorting through my jars for bottling and storing later into the growing season.

Hello everyone,
Hope you all had a good weekend. I have been off because of my usual migraine. Dd(5) has always been very challenging but it’s good in a way. I’m happy she has learnt to talk in our mother tongue slightly more fluently because she is at home. We have even started to learn to write in the same. don’t know how to explain the emotions and feelings I get when she talks in Tamil but it feels really good. For schoolwork I did this, sent a copy of some of the work to my sister and my dad so they can spend that time doing it with her in video calls. That really works. Also the change of teacher has affected her a lot. The current person is temporary so is not engaging very much as such. I have also found a lovely/less expensive way to reward dd .. she loves pretty hair clips and bows so found a Pretty little bow shop. With economy being tight and us having no jobs currently, I found this to be really nice way to have new things but for less money. She gets two pairs every week. the fun part - it’s addictive even for me. loving their prints lol

Hello, just checking back in as I'm starting to think about longer term prepping including prepping for the winter and what things might be hard to find. Lovely to see you BanKittenHeels
And Neome I'm so sorry about your Dad. I saw on another thread and was incredibly sad for you.

Who had found the lockdown useful in terms of refining what things they would want to use or have run out of, and what things were fairly pointless?

Hand sanitiser seems plentiful again but I am mindful of the fact that it may become hard to find once more and there are probably more things like that I haven't thought of...
I wish I had a big enough house to organise my stash properly, loads of it is under my bed and so I can't see what is what.

I’m really struggling today. I haven’t left the house in about 50 days, for even one minute and it is starting to wear me down. The DC are bouncing off the walls.
But to cope I am ploughing all of my anxiety into prepping.
I know some will say step away from it but there are things that can be done without thinking too hard about the current situation.

Normal seasonal preps are happening here. Thicker winter curtains have been taken down and some laundered, the others will be hand washed tomorrow.
Once they are dry I will sew on the new thicker lining I bought last autumn but didn’t get around to sorting out, then they will be stored.

Aircon units and fans have been cleaned and moved to appropriate rooms in the house. I’m going to find the insect screen for the back door which is somewhere in the garage roof.

I’ve brought up the ice lolly moulds and replumbed the ice maker.

I’ve put away some of the winter woollens whilst leaving some out (who actually puts all of them away in the UK?).

I’m now starting on my mending pile.

Does anyone else feel soothed by prepping and find it important to remember that prepping isn’t all about spending money and food?

I definitely find prepping soothing (although mine is mostly about food...!). I need to plan for keeping kids entertained which doesn't include TV. More craft paper. Winter shoes and wellies for walks. Any other winter thoughts?

Sorry to hear you had a bad day bankittenheels, I definitely think prep can be a soothing distraction

I don't want to spend yet but things for winter I have written on the calendar for later in the year but still in plenty of time like ordering in logs, getting chimney swept, boiler serviced, buy new hot water bottles - can you tell I get cold? I too keep some sweaters out all year round!

The problem is even though I don’t want to spend much, I have always been a prepper and when the prepped stash gets used up I get anxious if I don’t top them up. how do you all manage that without spending? Of course I find prepping soothing especially gardening. I didn’t know there was a preppers gardening thread. Thank you.. also I underestimated art and paper supplies for dd. With all the school work and the amount of time she spends indoors because of the weather I think I should have prepped even more.