Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

beanielou

Happy walking 🚶‍♂️ 

DawnW

Absolutely with Foxgloves on the 'bad mother' thing. You are not! Think about it. You are a teacher, and I am sure you come across children from really chaotic backgrounds who genuinely suffer, even at the best of times, let alone now. Your children are so lucky to have you. It is difficult for everyone at the moment, none of us can get everything we want, and have to adapt to what is available. I feel for young people not being able to see their friends, uncertain of the future, that will be the hardest thing I think,  but they are at least old enough to have some understanding, unlike the littlest schoolchildren who aren't yet able to grasp what is going on, goodness knows what is going on in their minds.  ((Hugs)) CCL, everything is so frustrating at the moment, and we all have to do our best to get through this.

apple_muncher

I think you should put the situation re shopping to your head and ask to be let out to shop during the day.

beanielou

Good idea from Apple muncher 😊

crazy_cat_lady

Hello  
Went out with dd at just after 9 this morning. She took me on a walk through a part of our town that I didn't know even existed. Unfortunately I am very stiff from yesterday's 7 miles so we only managed 3k today. But it was a good hour or so out of the house, and it's a beautiful day out there. We were at the top of our little town centre a couple of minutes to ten - and soon discovered why we hadn't seen another person on our walk because they were all queuing up outside the shops in town. There were at least 60 people with trolleys outside L1dl waiting to mob the place, with a dozen or more outside Bee Emm and Her0n. As it was just a couple of minutes to ten we decided to join the queue at Bee Emm. I was beyond happy to get milk and washing up liquid, as well as coffee which I'd completely run out of and was just managing without, and we got some crisps and chocolate to stock up for the kids. I spent just under £15 - made sure that I thanked the lady at the till. She told me that a customer had called her an effing c*&t yesterday when she asked him to stand 1m back. I feel so bad for these people - they won't want to be at work any more than I do at the moment. The shelves are almost empty even after they've been restocked and people are like locusts running about there chucking everything possible into their baskets and trolleys without any thought for anyone else.
Popped into Her0n as it's next door and managed to get a couple of bags of chicken goujons, plus some bread rolls at Gr£ggs as well, then we came straight home. DS is starting to get fractious as he's had 2 days in the house now so was ready for an argument and I know you can all guess what it was about. Yes indeed - I had bought the wrong chicken goujons. I switched the internet off while he was screaming at me and ignored him while he calmed down. I got an apology in the end, and a cup of tea with a sausage and bacon sandwich for Mother's Day. I have decided that the rota/plan is now urgent and must start tomorrow - no relaxing for a few days first. I need him off the Xbox a bit more than he is at the moment. 
DD and I prepared some veggies to make chicken broth for dinner, while ds was huffing/making tea etc. It was quite pleasant doing stuff together actually, and kept us busy for half an hour, and now we have a nice pot of chicken soup ready for plenty of meals. Plus they both have snacks and chocolate to survive a bit longer. So we're all fed and watered now and relaxing after lunch. I've had some exercise, but may force ds out later if his attitude doesn't improve. Meantime I'm going to do either some crochet or reading and try and ignore the fact that my living room floor is looking desperate as far as hoovering and mopping goes. I will need to have a shower later and an early night ready for work. Must also make sure that I don't spend the rest of the day doing nothing even remotely useful. I need to google how to make bread and butter pudding... 

crazy_cat_lady

I didn't say it - I meant to - but thank you all for your kind words. I do feel reassured knowing I'm not the only one feeling so very confused/apprehensive at the moment. It's such a big deal and more than a bit scary not knowing what will happen from one day to the next. I'm pleased I have people online to talk to. Please all of you stay safe and stay away from those fools that are refusing to comply with social distancing.

f0xh0les

I really wish the supermarkets would just chain up their trolleys. Baskets only.  It would be annoying for me, with a bigger family, but it would stop 'the flingers' buying up everything.    I think it might get nastier now the pubs have closed too, and the 3 of anything rule is imposed.  Daily buying of alcohol is going to make secret drinking less easy to hide.  

Maybe ds could try making his own goujons? chicken bits, flour, egg, breadcrumbs, spices, bake.  Is dd  'babysitting' while you are at work?  These are crazy times. The normal rule book has been thrown out the window. 

I am still horrified by my 'friends' who are still posting 'not to panic', 'it is just the flu', 'carry on as usual',  and worse, the ones saying stop posting empty shelf videos, ' there is no food shortage just buy something else instead'.  I mean really??

So glad you are getting out and about, and glad you got your meds sorted before all this went totally b00bs up.

I think you need to take ds out to the shops and ask him which brand of empty shelf product he would like today. 

Maybe he just has not got the memo there is a pandemic going on.  Or he hears but just does not get how it has anything to do with him.  

trix-a-belle

I echo everyone else, you my dear are blooming amazing, definitely no failing & you are not a magician.
On another thread someone has advised their child it will be PE at 9am monday morning & I think that would definitely help DS, tell him to get the body coach Utube channel up and do a session for PE every day in the garden especially while this nice weather is here, another important skill he can learn and practise could be weed identification and removal & definitely agree (Home Economics) he can make his own goujons [well said on the 'which empty shelf would you like' comment f0xh0les]

f0xh0les

It is hard for the kids, who have probably never in their entire lives actually been  properly hungry - i know mine haven't. 

We are magicians who can solve every problem, and suddenly they are in a whole new world.  I am 45 and remember my mum hoking out candles from the drawer under the draining board when the electric went off.  Not sure if it was winter of discontent or power cuts or if they just didn't have money for the meter - one you put coins in!   If the wi-fi goes down here for half an hour they think it is a  national emergency.

So I'm not having a go at DS, it is just a new experience for him.   The visual of the empty shelf might make him understand.  We are out of breakfast cereal as of this morning I am informed - I told them while we have oats, we have breakfast - I got fish impressions, followed by raised eyebrows, and a ' erm....fair enough' once they had inhaled enough oxygen to process the fact I am not going to go out and buy them some more.   DH is venturing out to rescue his plants from his office (he means books) this morning and he is feeling anxious about going out his 7 day isolation is over today.   He has been ordered to pop to the local middle eastern minimarket for a shufti while he is out - and he is going to be wearing gloves. 

By the end of this we are all going to be full on Grace Kelly with long gloves and floaty headscarves.

You are marvellous.

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all
I am at work but there's not much going on at the moment. I brought both kids with me - dd decided that she didn't want to stay at home on her own so we're all in. Thankfully my classroom is massive, and there's no other kids in here so they can sit in all socially distanced without affecting anyone else. I don't blame her really - these are strange times, but I was surprised that dd didn't want to stay in on her own and have a lie in this morning.
Far fewer kids have turned in than we thought, and that means another change in plans. To be honest I think that there are more kids of staff members here than there are kids of others. I've seen a few wandering about. There's a meeting in an hour and hopefully all will be made clear by then. DD has sat straight down and spent the past hour writing an essay from MacBeth (where did I get this English loving child from?) and ds did PE with Joe Wicks and is now recovering by doing some maths. We'll see how it goes. I am almost certain that we will be locked down before too long so might make the most of taking the kids for a walk somewhere where nobody else goes.
I think that my kids (and me) are very lucky in that we've never really wanted for anything. I've had hard financial times where we haven't been able to afford holidays and stuff but ds has always just gotten what he wanted. He can't seem to understand that stuff is difficult to get hold of - even though he saw for himself last week at Farmf00ds. He's learning the hard way - but having seen the way one of the other staff members is getting on with her son already I think that we're doing pretty well