It’s been almost exactly one year since I wrote this blog post: ‘A week in my life’ in which I documented my daily tasks for a whole week. It was something I did mostly for myself, so it would remind me of what our life was like in 2019, a family of 3, living in London. I enjoyed re-reading this post so much that I decided to write one again this year, and I also hope to continue in the years to come.
It’s now 2020 and my husband Maarten, our daughter Mint and I moved from London to Oslo at the beginning of January. We celebrated Mint’s 2nd birthday 9 days after we arrived and we moved into our new place at the beginning of February. We were busy with settling in and then the Corona Virus arrived in Norway. We’ve now been in lockdown for 3 and a half weeks and Maarten has been working from our kitchen table which we have moved to our bedroom. Since the past 2 weeks we have found a routine that seems to work for us, but I’m not sure how interesting it will be for this blog post as most days feel the same. Nevertheless, I am going to write it down and it will be a way to remember this crazy situation we find ourselves in.
MONDAY – 6th of April
My daughter and I woke up at 8am. At that time my (early bird) husband already went for his workout outside, had breakfast, and started work. Luckily, Mint is more like me and likes to start her day slowly. We first had breakfast, showered, and read about 90% of her rather large book collection. Then we went outside for a little walk before we had lunch around noon. I actually enjoy having lunch with the three of us at the same time now, this obviously would never happen on a ‘normal’ weekday. After lunch and a bit of playing Mint went down for her nap. It was time for me to make some images for a new project I’ve been working on. In short: I am offering other sewists to be their virtual Sewing Buddy, and give free sewing advice via face-to-face calls and chats.
I had to wake up Mint from her nap and before I knew it Maarten finished his work around 4pm. This is the moment when we ‘swap’. He takes Mint to play outside and I can get more work done. I really wanted to launch this #YourSewingBuddy idea today, so I worked as quickly as I could and I was able to post the whole thing on Instagram just before we had dinner. Maarten made a delicious pasta and by the time we were finished the announcement received a ton of positive comments and loads of likes! A few lovely ladies contacted me via WhatsApp and I’ve already been giving sewing advice to those who needed some. It was definitely a fun evening because of this and I’m relieved that my idea was well received in the sewing community.
Tuesday – 7th of April
This morning Mint thought it was funny to wake me up by pushing me out of my warm and cozy bed with her cold little feet. It’s definitely not my favourite way to wake up, but seeing her yay-it’s-a-new-day face did make it a lot easier to endure. The rest of our morning was pretty much exactly the same as yesterday. Maarten worked in our bedroom, we got ready, read books, played with her toys, then went outside till lunchtime. Even though we have found a routine that works really well for us during this time of lockdown, the hardest part for me is that there is not much variety in our week. We’ve been playing in the same playground, walking the same route around the block, saying hi to the same neighbours for the past 3 and a half weeks. Of course I am happy we are healthy and that we are still able – and allowed – to leave our house, but some days are harder than others.
Luckily we were in need of groceries so I got to break our daily pattern and go to our local grocery shop during nap time. It wasn’t busy at all and I was happy to have found everything we need. Mint woke up shortly after I got back, and it wasn’t long till Maarten finished work and took her out so I could do some work myself. I am a freelance writer and content creator in the sewing industry. My daily jobs include writing newsletters, schedule and create content for different social media platforms, and writing blog posts. Nowadays I tend to work for about an hour after I ‘swap’ with my husband, and then I continue work later in the evening after Mint is asleep and I tidied the kitchen etc. The most exciting part of the day actually happened this evening…. My brand new fancy schmancy bike was delivered! We ordered one last week and didn’t know when it would arrive, but I’m so glad it came before the Easter weekend. It’s already late now so I only got to take it for a quick spin around the block, but I’m looking forward to go on longer day trips and mix up our routine a bit!
Wednesday – 8th of April
My morning was mostly spent comforting a very sad Mint. She’s been heavily relying on her dummy for the past few months and we decided it is time for her to only have one (not 4) when she’s in her bed, asleep, with no exceptions. Well, it turns out she doesn’t really like that decision! We did persist though, (yay us!) and by the time we were sitting down for lunch she was totally fine again. Maarten worked for only half a day so we all went for our very first bike ride together after lunch and it was GLORIOUS! The wind in my hair, the beautiful scenery, the fresh air, the work out, the happy chatty toddler in the back, I enjoyed every second of it. We were only gone for an hour or so, but I already feel this is the best thing we could have spend our money on right now.
Mint was happily reunited with her dummy and bed after our little adventure, and I sat down to do some work. After nap time we build an epic castle with Duplo, we danced and played chase before Maarten took her outside. A pretty boring evening followed with our standard evening routine: Maarten cooks, we all eat together, I clean the kitchen and tidy, and Maarten puts Mint to bed. I then wait till I can hear a pin drop before opening my laptop again and work all evening. I’ve always been most productive in the evening, so even though it’s not ideal to have to work till late every day, I do get a lot done in a short time.
Thursday – 9th of April
Maarten is off work for the next 5 days so I’m really looking forward to having him around for a bit of family fun and having an extra pair of hands with caring for Mint. I started the day by locking myself in our ‘office’ to get an hour of work done. Maarten and Mint got ready in the meantime so we headed out to go on another cycle adventure as soon as I finished. We managed to go a lot further than yesterday and we were away for quite a few hours. The weather was absolutely amazing and we spotted some stunning Norwegian coastal views. It was so good to be able to leave our neighbourhood and explore the outskirts of Oslo a bit more. And even though things are crazy right now, I seem to forget all about it when I’m racing down the high Norwegian hills. The excited WHEEEE I hear from the back also helps.
I was completely knackered from my ‘workout’ but I still managed to finish my work for today during nap time. Which I am totally thanking myself for now, as we just had dinner and all I had to do was clean the kitchen and that’s it… I actually have an evening off! And of course – as one does on a free evening – we are planning on Netflixing till we are too tired to keep our eyes open.
Friday – 10th of April
We woke up to another warm and sunny day. Maarten took Mint out for a walk right after we had breakfast, so that gave me the time to do a bit of work, do some washing and dye my hair. It was great to start the day with some me-time! They got back for lunchtime and we enjoyed some delicious sandwiches on our sunny balcony, whilst listening to the Peppa Pig album for the 10 millionth time. I had to drag myself away from the sunshine during nap time and I did some cleaning and stuff around the house.
I decided that I was going to give cycling a miss today as my derrière isn’t used to the saddle yet, and I’m currently waddling around like a pregnant woman. So we just went for a nice walk instead and looked at amazing houses we could never afford. After we got back we planted Mint in front of the television so that Maarten and I could cook dinner together. As per usual we had our meal, Maarten entertained the little one and then took her to bed, and I tidied everything up. I worked for the rest of the evening and the good news is that it’s finished for the week!
Saturday – 11th of April
It turns out it didn’t take long for me to turn into Sporty Spice. By 10am we were all on our bikes and raring to go! With Maarten’s biker shorts – including extra soft padding – under my boyfriend jeans, and Mint shouting GO GO GO from behind me, I zoomed through central Oslo. We stayed out for a few hours and fuelled ourselves with some scrumptious Norwegian pastries along the way. We also played in a really cool playground and after a tantrum because of leaving said playground, we headed back home. Mint fell asleep as soon as she got in her cot and for those of you are wondering about her dummy addiction… It’s going REALLY well! We’re now at the point where she tells us her dummy belongs in her bed and she puts it away herself.
Todays nap-time-hustle consisted of making improvements to my website and working on this blog post. Unfortunately the moment of peace was over in the blink of an eye and we got ready for more Duplo, more jumping on the sofa, more running around and more dancing. At 5pm it was time for our weekly virtual dinner date with Maarten’s side of the family via Zoom. We’ve done this for a couple of weeks now and I wonder why we never did it before, it’s lovely to be able to catch up this way. Now it’s time to watch a movie and chillll.
Sunday – 12th of April
It’s Easter Sunday! We had a lovely breakfast with homemade juice and other extra delicious things. The realisation that we otherwise would have spend this morning with our families in the Netherlands hits me hard for a moment. There’s nothing anybody can do about it though, so I try to enjoy the moment and what we do have. Mint is as happy as ever to spend the whole day with her two favourite people, and to get ALL the attention. No Easter without an egg hunt so I hid some chocolate eggs for Mint to find and then she ate them so quickly, I wonder if she even chewed? The next activity on today’s calendar was baking chocolate chip cookies using this recipe. It only took about 32 years for me to start baking (from scratch) and they turned out not too bad!
After nap time it was time for a FaceTime marathon with family from Santa Fe in the US to Den Haag in the Netherlands. Maarten cooked dinner in between calls and he had some delicious burritos ready after we finished our 4th (!) call. Pfff, we forgot how tiring socialising can be! Mint is now asleep and we changed into our comfy clothes to get ready for some Netflixin’. I’m pretty sure we won’t make it till the end of a movie though. Snore snore…
That was it. A week in my life. In Oslo. During a pandemic. It was actually a really good week as Maarten was around a lot and getting my bike was obviously a highlight! But how different was this week compared to last year! There’s definitely a huge difference to how much work I currently have, but that’s okay for now. I try to enjoy my time with Mint as much as possible, before she goes off to nursery and then school. The Covid-19 situation is quite different in Norway compared to other countries in the world, and schools are due to open again from next week. I’m very curious to see how it all goes… But I guess we’ll find that out on this blog about a year from now 😉