The Rona Effect!

Covid19, or as I like to call it The Rona, has changed the world as we know it. I’m not the first person to wish that ISO wasn’t over and won’t be the last. I have loved it. My work hours decreased dramatically within 2 weeks and I was sad. So very sad. I, along with million of other Australians were losing income and jobs. I’m self employed, should have WAY more superannuation then I currently do and I the thought of not working scared the life out of me. No work. No pay. I was shitting bricks. Then got mad at ScoMo (the Australian Prime Minister) for not putting the country in lockdown. Then the reality set in. The Rona is pretty fucking serious. Long story short – my business is on hold and I am currently, like million of other parents I am home-schooling my primary school son. The first few weeks of home schooling were great, me and Billy hate it now. The school work gets done – but holy moly there’s always an epic shit fight. My other 2 kids are in high school so they were pretty easy because they knew what work they were to do (not that they actually did all their work) God Bless the lives of teenagers.

It was more than 24 days and we made Mum Friends. We made it. Or did we?

So between home-schooling the children, dealing with Centrelink, on top of the usual Mother/Wife juggle. We decided to move house. I know right, what an idiot, we actually broke our lease and that has turned into a massive cluster of fucks which seems to be very ongoing. But on the positive side, we have massive back yard (we haven’t had a backyard for about 4 or 5 years), the kids aren’t in each other faces all the time and I have more places to hide #mumlife. It’s actually perfect. We are still slowly unpacking and sorting, but life is good and I like that the it’s the simple things in life that can make you realise that your life and situation isn’t all that bad – until you deal with getting your bond back, because some real estate want to cause you to have a midlife breakdown.

I have also learnt is that I am 100% addicted to Grey’s Anatomy, I’ve been watching it for months, even before ISO. I never got into it when it first started, I think I was to busy running around after my demanding toddlers at the time. I am hooked and have come to the conclusion that everyone you love either ends up dying or leaving. Except Meredith, I think she lives on forever. She certainly does age well. God bless you Hollywood!

When we were packing to move, I became a “tosser”. As you know I am a huge fan of reduce, reuse, recycle. I got rid of so much in my house. Although, hardly anything went in the rubbish bin and most of the goods were either donated or sold on Gumtree or Facebook. I was brutal. As a family, we don’t have a lot of “stuff”, although my husband does have more clothes than me for some reason. What he doesn’t know is that when I buy him new clothes I always donate 2 of his old clothes. Hopefully he doesn’t read this and wonder where all his “favourite” shitty shirts are. The only thing I found the hardest to donate or sell were Billy’s kids books, that’s weird right? But he has a lot of books and I’ll be keeping them for him and his brothers for when or if they have their own kids. It feels good to ‘detox’ your belongings and give them new homes. I’m still find crap I should of donated while I am unpacking. It’s definitely a good habit to have.

Let discuss home fitness workouts! How good are they? I have fallen in LOVE with them. I do like going to my gym, but there’s something about being a ‘sweaty, red faced, tomato looking hot mess and not feeling like you are being judged while walking to your car vibe’ inside your own house. Feel me? Thank god for YouTube yeah? I found this awesome chick Heather Robertson on there. She has a gazillion videos and she doesn’t talk through them which is excellent. I also have pretty much everything for a home gym. We can thank my teenage boys for that. The only thing that is needed to motivation. I’m pretty motivated in the mornings – but if I skip a morning (like today) – I try and do double time the next day. The gyms are opening in a month and this may sound crazy, but I’m not sure I want to go back? Although I think I’m the only one that doesn’t want to go back to the gym. Might as well make the most of my home gym and find a local bootcamp and go there 3 times a week as I would the gym. However, I go to one of the biggest gyms in my area and only pay about $11. Decision decisions! Is anyone else nervous about going back to the gym because of The Rona or is that just me? I know they will have Health Laws to follow, but I worry that those won’t be followed – well, they will at first but give it a few months, will they still be getting followed? Hmmm tricky. Also, if you have any tips about not being a member of the gym and still keep fit, let me know I might need them.

Clearly my dog HATES my workouts. Look at his little face

This is my kind of living. Never mind the child on the trampoline

This is what else I have learnt whilst in ISO and not running around like a headless chicken:

My kids are annoying. Like, I love them a lot but holy cow – they can press my buttons. Well, they can press each other’s buttons – it was only about 2 weeks ago I gave up. I stopped yelling and ‘nagging’ them. Instead, I gave up and let them go nuts at each other. Then for some out of this world reason they work their shit out. I learnt that from my husband, not sure where my husband is getting his parent tips from but it worked. Ok, it worked for about 1 week, ok maybe 3 day. Then they all hated each other again. Was like clock work.

These guys can be total dipshits sometimes. But I had a pretty good Mothers Day, so I’ll keep them. For now

Moving house is stressful and somewhat a nightmare, but the feeling of living in a new environment, finally having space of your own. I have a room for Get Lick’d Iceblocks now, it’s like going on a holiday. Which is great because no one is actually going on holidays. A massive back yard that fits a trampoline, a lounge room that’s isn’t the size of your rug (which you originally thought was massive when you bought it) and storage space. It really is as good as a holiday. Although the bullshit to get your bond back is another issue. If only I could say something about that. Sigh.

Moving. A prick of a job. But worth it in the end

Baking – I was baking. I baked for 1 whole day – although my main motivation to do the baking was because I had to use all the butter, milk and eggs before we moved. I found TEN cans of condensed milk in my pantry. TEN. Why the heck did I have so much of that stuff? I think I was going to bake condensed milk biscuits, which is super easy, but I am positive I wouldn’t have wanted to make 1 million cookies. Who knows. Anyway, I made about 200 cookies in one day. It was epic and they lasted about 1 week #boyseattomuch

We became friends with our neighbours, we have always said g’day or waved and had brief conversations with our neighbours but ISO made us friends. We lived in a quiet little street for about 3 years . Because of no after school activities or sports I would enjoy the afternoon sun with a sneaky glass of vodka and orange sitting on the driveway and Billy would ride his bike. Then the other kids of the street would come out and ride their bikes aswell. Me and the neighbour would have ‘Bike Chats’ while the kids rode their bikes and we yell ‘caaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr’ when a car comes. Good times. Highly recommend getting to know your neighbours and drinking vodka and orange on your driveway.

I hate shopping. I mean, I never liked food shopping anyway, but The Rona and all the stupid Food Hoarders made me want to curl in a ball for weeks. Seriously, my usual fortnightly shop looks like a hoarder’s food shop anyway. I would get at least one-person comment about my trolley every shop I did. I used to laugh and joke with them, but it kept happening for some reason – like I had a sign on my head. The next person that said something, I asked them if they would like to pay? Then THEY laugh! Dude, it wasn’t a joke. Now, it’s back to normal ‘looking like a hoarder food shop’.

My dog loves me more because I’m home and I am 100% happy with that.

How did you cope during ISO or are you still in ISO? I know there are a few readers that read my blog from countries outside of Australia, hope you are all doing well. I wish you, your family and your health well. Australia seems to have come out relatively ok (so far) with the effects of Covid19. However, I personally believe that it must get worse before it gets better. Unless the worst has already happened. I really have no idea. But I do know that myself and my family have picked up great cleaning habits, me and the kids may have all lost our minds at each other. My husband is a champion for not realising that I have donated a lot of his belongings and I will love life more when my youngest goes back to school next week and I actually have time to think. I’ll be thinking about (and planning) what is next for Get Lick’d Iceblocks, I thought last year was a great year. 2020 may have turned into an epic shit show but whatever is left of the year 2020 I am going to make it awesome. Hope you can be along for the ride.