Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

Tescodealqueen

Really feel.for you. My dad has interpreted news as everyone his age is going to die

foxgloves

The way the media has been going on recently I'm not surprised kids are wound up & worried.
F

Honeysucklelou2

We had lower attendance today and did do a question and answer session as best we could and age appropriate.  

crazy_cat_lady

Attendance at our place has dropped to 75% now, which isn't ideal for getting anything useful done in terms of teaching and learning. On top of that the SLT are just so busy dealing with the situation that they can't deal with anything else usefully. There seems to be little point in actually trying to teach anything because the focus isn't there and most classes have at least four kids missing.
Think it will be staffing levels that tip us over the edge though - with the new, updated guidelines the Head has sent a lot of people home because they're in the 'at risk' groups today. Couple that with the fact of 'if one shows symptoms the whole family needs to self isolate' then I don't fancy our chances of making it to the end of the week. A couple of other schools locally have already closed because they don't have enough staff.
In preparation I have set up a science instagram page, which I will use to entertain my triple chemists whilst also providing useful revision. There's no actual information about schools and exams, other than Boris wanting us to be responsible for childcare primarily. But I shall wait with baited breath to hear what he has to say in this evening's update.
Definitely not business as usual, but managing the best we can. My hay fever has started just in time to make other people worry when I'm coughing and sneezing round them, but it is just pollen.... for sure.
Anyway - there's nothing else to report - everything is all consuming with this isn't it? It's all anyone is thinking about. Just hope that people manage to survive financially on top of what is already a really difficult time.

dawnybabes

Hope you’re doing ok CCL x

Chrystal

You're probably just really busy  CCL, but I'd like to hear that you and yours are OK when you have a minute. X

f0xh0les

Hopefully she is just going around the shops buying 3 tins of cat food in each one until she has a week's worth.   At least that is what is happening inside my head.   Give us a wave ccl.

Suffolksue

Hoping you’re all ok 
keep going 

apple_muncher

Thinking of you ccl x

crazy_cat_lady

Hi everyone
Sorry I haven't been online recently. The honest truth is that I haven't had the heart to. Everything just feels pretty awful at the moment. My Year 11's have left school 3 months early and don't get a chance to prove their worth to the rest of the country, and ds has probably had his last day at primary school as well. The shops are completely decimated - the only things I could get when I tried on Thursday after school was Coke and cat food. I felt like that nurse who went viral, but my job isn't important enough to moan so much about it. My kids are suffering the whole first world problems thing, like not being able to get chocolate - or guess what else - chicken goujons. Chicken is now quite hard to get hold of unbelievably... I am too numb to cry about it any more though. I've lived most of the past week in complete uncertainty and so much has changed. I don't even really know what my job is any more but I am effectively a babysitter and not an educator - I have to attend work on Monday as usual but think we are looking to go to a rota system after that. I will probably do one day a week at work and the other four from home.
My mental health is in a low place (as those of you who know me on FB will know) and I'm struggling to deal with such a lot of change in a short space of time. I've lost my identity a bit, and I'm sad that I can't see my extended family. On top of that, I now have no exam marking to work on this summer, which is going to give me a massive financial hit. I realise that I'm in a much more privileged position than some but it's hard - another kick in the teeth when I'm trying to sort myself out. No exam marking means I can't afford the holiday I booked last year - even if it doesn't get cancelled. There's so much beyond my control and I just want to scream how unfair it is but that won't really get me anywhere. 
I went out today for a walk with the deputy head. She has a really sweet little dog and I thought that as long as we weren't right close to each other we'd be ok, and I know it's ok to be out exercising from a safe distance. It ended up being seven miles, which was a bit more than I had planned. It did clear my head though and make me grateful for the things I do have. An ex student visited me at work at the end of the day yesterday and gave me a fruit and veg box. He runs a restaurant and I think is trying to maintain some income during this time. It had loads of lovely veggies (that my kids are not keen on entertaining), some fruit (which they are selective about), eggs, milk and bread. I had a little cry because I was desperate for milk and couldn't get it. When I tried to give him the £15 he was charging on FB he refused to take it and said it was a gift. He then gave me a second box so I could share out stuff between my mam and my sister. I know there are so many kind people in the world and I'm very grateful to have lots of them in my life. It makes the rest of it more bearable...
Kids are already fed up of restricted movement - especially dd. I will take them both out for a walk tomorrow if my legs will allow. Maybe to see if we can find chocolate and/or chicken somewhere and so dd can see for herself what the shops are like (ds saw on Thursday after school). I've put together a little timetable and jobs list. It's not particularly restrictive but means that we're not all going to be online all day and that we're out in the garden if we're not allowed to go walking. It's basically a bit of exercise of some sort, a bit of something round the house (housework or decluttering jobs), a bit of learning related stuff or work for me and a bit of family time before we then all disappear off to do our own thing. I've also told them both that they need to help with meal planning and prep.
Anyway, I hope that you're all well and staying safe. I will try my very best to make sure that I check in every day - not only to stop you wondering where I am but also because I need the company. It's my birthday soon and I think it's going to be even more lonely than the time we went to Scotland for my birthday, ex didn't even acknowledge the day and I ended up with food poisoning. And that was some rubbish birthday... Hope you're all ok - hang in there, we can get through this.