18: Bag of office supplies and work books returning to the office

Well the big day is finally here: I'm back in the office for the first time since the Covid lockdowns started.

Strictly speaking, I'm actually in a different office as they've been moving people around. 

The old office was in a lovely modern building with lots of white walls, views over a golf course and surprisingly loud sounds of wind through the ceiling whenever there was the slightest bit of weather.

The new office is in a much older building with light beige walls and display cases of rocks and fossils out in the corridor.

There's a window with some very nice trees behind me 

I haven't found the kitchen yet and the women's toilets are being refurbished, which is a bit tricky.

Other than that, I'm just putting these things in my new desk drawers, setting up the computer equipment etc.

I brought in some Halloween treats for my IT team mate who rescued my computer equipment from the old office, where the locks have changed.

I had a look around outside, saw which shops were still open, went for lunch in what had been my favourite cafe at work. Nice to be back there again, although I'd forgotten how much the food wasn't as good as the amazing hipster decor!

There are a few small teething issues still - I had to get a different door key, and I'll need a web cam and a key for my desk drawers.

Mostly though, after a year and a half of working in our busy and crowded family home, it's the quiet that will take the most getting used to: the silence in the office is deafening!

17: Colouring and activity books

My kids have had some really great colouring and activity books, some of which they've used more than others, and some of which I wish they'd use more instead of staring into their iPads.

Meanwhile, they keep growing up, and growing out of the Cat in the Hat and times tables for ages 5-7.

But I did manage to get them all round the table to go through the colouring books together, which was actually quite a nice companionable time for us all, talking and bringing back memories.

My oldest son picked out a few old treasures he wanted to keep: mostly origami, but also Steampunk devices and a cute Japanese colouring book from the years from age 6 when we first moved to America and he decided he loved everything Japanese. A couple of summer camps in a Japanese garden were wonderful for this.

Middle son also went through his, which were mostly activities about maps, and the older boys' favourites went up to their room.

Youngest son weeded out the books that were too young for him, and they all found a few that they just didn't like: the book from a Christmas activity pack whose pages were too shiny, the intricate repeating patterns that were actually hard to look at, the books based on shows and characters they weren't that keen on, and so on.

Those that were unused went into the bag for the charity shop. 

A few suitable favourites went into a bag for car trips. 

A bigger pile were put aside while I ask around for somewhere to re-home them, and if that's not possible they'll be recycled.

A few seasonal activity books were put out on a table as Halloween and Christmas activities.

That left a much reduced pile of mostly my youngest son's favourites to go back on the shelf. Hopefully now he's been reminded of what's there he might do more of them.