We’ve got our morning routine pretty sussed now. I get up, put the telly on for small people, make my tea and hide in my kitchen corner to read and wake up. Once I’ve come round, we get breakfast and then it’s half an hour of torture with Joe Wicks. PE, I mean, obviously. During which the kids shout their names incessantly, waiting for their shout out, which will never happen because I have no intention of saying our names and city to 800,000 people on YouTube. Also (and the real reason) because I have absolutely no idea what my password for YouTube is, and therefore will never be able to comment. They’ll probably hold it against me until adulthood, but I’ll just have to live with that.

Then it’s school time, except to make space for school we have to do a major clear of the breakfast dishes, sweep a mountain of coco pops off the table, along with half a ton of kinetic sand which the younger kids played with because they are too wise to give in to the Joe Wicks peer pressure. Today as they were getting their school bits ready Micah settled himself next to Toby, who supplied him with headphones and perhaps did more DJ action than maths. Hopefully Toby’s knowledge of pre-school entertainers such as The Wiggles and Bob the Builder will help him go far in life.

Anyway, much to his dismay, I informed Toby that today was the day. The hair needed some attention. Armed with clippers and Alexa for entertainment I opened my hair salon in the kitchen. If Lindsey our lovely hairdresser is reading this, I’m really sorry. I know the 9 minute YouTube video tutorial is absolutely not the same as your qualifications and experience and I’m sorry for what you’ll have to repair once isolation is over.

I’m an all or nothing kind of girl, so once I started, it was hard to stop…

…and I just kept pouncing on them and snipping away…

…and in the end I did all six of them. We could have made a wig with the carnage left in the kitchen.

Hopefully it’ll have grown before we see people in real life. At least I didn’t use a bowl.

Mr Lurker has been busy in the garage again. I don’t think there’s a tv in there, as I’m actually hearing worky types of noises, and even seeing some structures being produced. The welly rack I requested several houses ago may be a dream becoming reality! And Toby’s WW2 Morrison shelter is nearly ready for him to sleep in I’m told. As long as he’s washed his hands he should be safe from anything in there.

Toby AKA Tony, the baby, or Toblerone, or Tobias Decimus Maximus, has been a bit sad of late. He genuinely loves school. He loves learning, and he’s a real socialiser. At home he’s the one in the middle – two older teen sisters, three younger siblings, and he’s missing his crowd of 10 year old boys who get his quirky humour and actually understand Pokemon language. So he was very happy to have a Zoom with one of his buddies. To me, I couldn’t hear any word of actual conversation, but there was a lot of laughter, and that was good to hear.

Micah’s coming out with a lot of interesting dialogue these days. It can be something as sweet as the very lovely ‘cleaning is perfect’ song he made up this morning. How proud I was. What a little angel! But that same cute little blonde boy at dinner time challenged Toby to a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and immediately said, ‘I’m Rock-I’m going to smash your head and win.’ I despair. I can’t even blame nursery because he hasn’t started yet.

It was an all girl after dinner walk tonight. In which Megan told jokes, Maisie insulted Megan (‘without me you wouldn’t even have friends!’), and Maddie made the point of doing the opposite of everything I said, but if her hero Megan asked her to jump, she’d flutter her eyelids and ask ‘how high Meggy?’ I love these kids. Which is good really, given that we’re in such close proximity these days.

I didn’t have any great revelations today, but lots of questions running through my head. About what things will look like in a few weeks, months. About the safety of my family on the frontline. About the whys and the how longs and all the other stuff. Some of it not even remotely related to the C Virus.

I don’t have any answers, but I do have hope. So I turned to the lyrics of a hymn that I’ve sung through tears, through clenched teeth, in trouble and in happiness. And if I don’t have much faith at the start of it, the promises in it lift my spirit and my eyes upwards, to where I find hope.

‘In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sins curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.’