Here we are again – Week 1 of Living Arrows for the eighth time now! Before I start I just wanted to say thanks to Donna at What the Redhead Said for continuing to host this linky and to all the people who come and read these posts each week. I’m really hoping that as this year goes on we’ll have some more exciting adventures to share but for now things are carrying on in much the same way as most of 2020…

We’ve only actually left the house once since Christmas, and that was only for a fairly short walk around a local holiday park. It was nice to get some fresh air though before it turned freezing cold later in the week, and the boys enjoyed feeding the ducks. I can’t actually take any credit for this picture of Toby – he took it himself with the selfie stick!

And Mum, if you’re reading, yes I did cut his hair before he went back to school!

As I said, it’s been really cold here since late last week but we’re too low down, and too near the coast to ever really get any snow. The boys are very disappointed about this of course, and ordinarily we might have driven somewhere to find some, but under our current Tier 4 restrictions we’ve been doing the responsible thing and staying at home. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to take them on a skiing holiday then they’ll really be able to see what snow is!

Anyway, we might not have any snow but Toby and Gabe had fun playing with some ice in the garden the other day. We’ve got a little bird bath on our balcony that had frozen over so I’d lifted the ice from the top and thrown it into the garden and it was still there the next day when we went out to get a bit of fresh air.

Gabe especially was fascinated by it…

I think that’s probably all for this week. Although we are in Tier 4 now, the boys’ school is still open for the moment so they’ve gone back this morning. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up closed at some point this month but for now I’m planning on getting the house clean and tidy again after Christmas and enjoying a bit of peace and quiet.

Just before I go though, I have a little tradition at the start of each new year of Living Arrows of sharing the pictures from my very first post of each of the boys. So here’s Toby in January 2014 when he was almost six months old.

And here’s the one from the first Living Arrows post that Gabe appeared in, the week after he was born in 2015 – although you can’t really see him with his back to the camera!

I hope you all had a lovely break and survive whatever this next week has to throw at you! I’ll be back next week with another Living Arrows post.

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.