Meatless Monday {2020 – week 44}

So here we are: week 44 of Meatless Monday 2020… The boys had their teacher training day so went to Grandma Jack’s for the day on Monday, on Thursday this week the country went back into national lockdown, so we have just been trying to make time with loved ones count before that happened and keeping our spirits up best we can 🙂

Here’s what we wore:

Me: Slacks = FatFace {thrifted from Hula Charity Shop}, Long Sleeve Top = New Look, Jumper = Silence & Noise {thrifted from Mercy in Action Charity Shop}, Wellies = Joules, Scarf = Made by my very talented Sister-in-law, Leather Jacket = Hide Park

Boys: Trousers, Long Sleeve Tops & Jumpers = Various sources/gifted/thrifted or supermarkets, Shoes = Clarks

Here’s my week in 4:

1. Bonfire night 2020: This was the night which the new lockdown began in the UK, so we decided to make it a nice event for our nuclear family, and cooked up a pack of sausages on the BBQ and had a bonfire in the back garden, it was really nice, all huddled round the fire keeping warm, I think a lot of getting through this crazy situation we continue to be living in is controlling the controlables and celebrating the nice things and making family new traditions to mark events how you can. It was nice to see others doing very similar on instagram, as ever this gave a sort of remote community spirit across the internet.
2. Every Child is an artist: I decided this week that it was high time to get organised with the boys art stuff and to try and do a bit more with them too. I should have taken a before photo of the side of our fridge too, but trust me when I say it was a bit of an overcrowed mess, so I have now used an old leaver arch file to put all but a couple of pieces of the boys art work in in cronilogical order, and a section for each kid, which is really great to look back on and see how their skills have developed over time :). I then set up this area with a Picasso quote I love, spelt out in magnets along with the calendars they made at nursery (now with the correct month displaying) and two clips each to display their current artwork. I had run out of plain paper, so I made whole stack out of old envelopes and we did some paint sticks art work at one point in the day and then tried our hands at collaging at another point in the day. Gosh though if anyone has any tips on how to keep your patients with instructing toddlers I’d love to hear it as it was hard! Most days I feel like I’m completely riding the threenager rollercoaster right along with them and go from extremes of yelling, to crying, to loving and doting, to playing and to yelling – it is both emotionally and physically exhausting. And the “hardest/best job” addage defintely regulary comes in. But we keep going 🙂
3. Astonishing skies: We’ve been better at going or regular walks this week, and plan to continue this into the new lockdown, as a change of scene really is essential for keeping saine, a couple of times we have been out as the sun is setting and the sky is just beautiful! It grounds you and makes you understand that even with all the crazy which is going on in the world nature is still continuing and being beautiful, I have found that to be such a comfort this year especially and it is something which I plan to take with me, even when, one day we get this virus under control once and forall.
4. New picket fence: If you have been following me for a while, then you will know how much of a planner I am, and I have had in my head for a while that I want to get the new picket fence up this year, this week we too delivery of all the parts we needed from a lovely local merchants called Lawsons, I was impressed with the service and the quality of the parts, so would definitely use them again. Our gardeners started putting the posts in this week and hopefully next week will get the job finished off, I can’t wait to see it done – it will be so nice to have a proper boundary there, at the moment we have a hedge with lots of gaps, picket fence is perfect as it gives you a line to grow the bush up to and also allows you to still easily talk to your neighbours over, but gives a clear boundary to plan the rest of the garden from, which I am very excited to do 🙂

Video(s) of the week:

I love this channel on YouTube, the videos are so interesting, insightful and relevant and such a positive way of educating the masses about the black lives matter movement, this video features a famous American Pastor who points out how religiously based American culture is (around 40% attending church weekly vs around 5% in the UK according to Google) and therefore how important it is to get the message of #blacklivesmatter into churches there if they want to truly tackle systemic racism (Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded as normal practice within society or an organisation – wikipedia), this is such a positive conversation about how this guy is going just that and how the idea is then spreading, also how it took George Floyd for him to question everything… It’s a very interesting watch…

I couldn’t go through this post without mentioning this monumental victory from Joe Biden in America this week! Thank the lord, it is so nice to have some hope and good news this week!

I started watching something more light hearted this week and I am so enjoying it – Grace & Frankie, if you need something to cheer you up I would recommend it…

What we ate this week…

Breakfast:

We all had cereal (me: granola, boys: multigrain shapes), and milk and tea, and did yoga too.

Lunch:

For lunch the boys had cheese and marmite toast and mango for afters. I had a packet of bacon crisps (surprisingly vegetarian) and a toast and mushroom omelette, followed by an apple, a pick-up bar and a cup of decaf tea.

Dinner:

Some of my closest friends invited me to a last minute last pub meal before lockdown on Monday night, and had arranged that we went to a nice local pub and I didn’t like the vegetarian options on the main menu so I decided to go for the Leek & Potato Soup which was on their starter menu, which was so delicious and light and came with some fresh bread too 🙂 and then I had apple crumble and ice-cream for desert. Back home the boys had their usual beans and toast and fruit for afters. When I got home I had rooibos tea and some matchmakers before bed.

Please check out my Pinterest meatless inspiration board: #MeatlessMonday to gather some pinspiration:

Along with the official Meatless Monday board which I am also now sharing on:

Find out how I got onto Meatless Mondays in the first place by watching this video:

And check out #meatlessmondays on this blog to see all my Meatless Monday posts and recipes. Hope you have a lovely week. 🙂

Go on Pin it!