Amid all the chaos and stress, I’m grateful to have more time together as a family

The last few days I've been trying to focus on the positives.

Since the schools closed last month and both my husband and I started working from home, things have been a bit chaotic. We're suddenly juggling home-schooling, work and parenting with no separation from the three and it can be quite stressful at times. Still, being at home more than we used to be has changed the way we live our lives, not just because we're on lock down but also because we're actively taking the time to be more apart of each other's lives and I'm actually really grateful for it. When I worked out of the office, a lot of the time when I would return home I would be too exhausted to do much of anything. Usually I would just cook a quick meal and then watch something on TV before bed. Since the quarantine period began this has changed. Being more careful about how many trips to the shop we take has made us plan out our meals, leading to more time cooking healthy dinners as a family. Because I'm working from home and the children are learning from home, it also means we can have little chats during the day and I can spend my lunch time eating and playing in the back garden with them. Yesterday in particular was a fantastic day for us as a family. The weather was gorgeous so we pulled out the inflatable pool, threw on our bathing suits and lazed around in the sun for a while, before throwing some towels around us and eating ice cream in the kitchen. I remember standing in the kitchen that was covered in puddles of water, watching the kids laughing and eating their ice creams thinking this is bliss. Coming up to Easter a lot of us will be thinking about the family vacations we had to cancel but just because we can't go away doesn't mean we can't make memories together. Step away from the stress of this current lock down and think what you can do at home that's just as good as going away on a trip. Cook food that you had on your last holiday, dress up in your Sunday best, take lots of photos and just enjoy having this time as a family together. It's not always easy to look on the bright side when you're trying to juggle so much at the moment, but it's more important than ever to put some time aside, away from work and school, to just be a family.