The one thing that has been much talked about during the lockdown has been the community spirit that has bee thriving around the UK. I don’t know what it’s been like near you, but our village has pulled together in so many ways, which has been lovely to see. Some arrangements have been purely practical, such as shopping or picking up prescriptions for the vulnerable, whilst others have been shared activities to do at home that have been aiming to raise a smile and give locals something to see and do.
Our village, like so many other communities in the UK, has seen a COVID-19 related support group springing up on Facebook, which has shared local information such as shop opening times as well as offering support to those most in need. Our local foodbank has seen a huge increase in demand and so many in our small community have rallied around to provide the tinned and packaged goods that will make a huge 
difference to those struggling to feed their families. Similarly, our parish council has co-ordinated efforts to make sure that groceries and prescriptions are collected and delivered to our elderly and vulnerable residents.
Local schools in the area have donated their unused PPE to healthcare organisations and many of the secondary schools have worked to produce face visors for any who have needed them. The charity I work for has benefitted from this in particular as we run 18 residential and supported-living homes across the region supporting adults with learning disabilities and, thanks to the generosity of a number of these local schools, we were given 120 face visors for our care staff to use to keep them safe as they do their everyday job.
Every Thursday, our community has come out to join the national #clapforcarers and we’ve seen more of our neighbours in the last 10 weeks than we normally do in an average year! We live right at the end of our village, so are fairly remote, but each week has seen more and more families joining in our thanks and recognition of those who have worked throughout lockdown to keep us safe. Mike and I have also been out on some of our daily walks when the #clapforcarers has happened, and have loved seeing how other streets in our village have been banding together – at an appropriate social distance of course – at this time too.
There has also been a plethora of community art projects happening, both in our village and on a national, or even worldwide, level. It started with the rainbows 11 weeks ago, many of which are still gracing the houses we pass each day on our walks and, for us, has now moved on to a scarecrow trail. Mike, G and M made our original scarecrow for VE day, but with the suggestion of a village-wide trail, “Gerald” has been updated and adapted to remind all who pass our house to follow the guidance on social distancing and protecting the NHS. We’ve spotted several other masterpieces as we’ve ventured around the streets, my personal favourite being the one collapsed on top of a hedge with an empty can of beer in his hand and a simple sign stating “After Party”.
National Eosinophil Awareness Week: We have been very active in raising awareness about eosinophilic diseases for a number of years, but decided to start taking a step back from that last year. Eosinophilic Colitis (EC) was the initial diagnosis that we received for M all those years ago from his consultant at GOSH, but in recent times, the diagnosis criteria for this condition have faltered and existing diagnoses have been actively 
Mental Health Awareness Week: Mental health well-being has been a buzz word in our household for a number of years and never has that been more important than now as we see the impact of 9 weeks in lockdown on us all. I’m a happy introvert, who enjoys spending time in my own company and so, in many ways, lockdown life is suiting me quite well. Regular contact with my work colleagues through Zoom and conference calls, webinars and online catch-ups with other friends is keeping me in touch with the outside world, which is especially important at a time when my T1D is keeping me at home.
The buzzword for MHAW has been Kindness and considering what random acts of kindness you can do for others has been much encouraged. However, I think it’s key to remember that, whilst showing kindness to others in all situations is important, so is showing kindness to ourselves. We truly are living through extraordinary times and we shouldn’t feel guilty if we are not coping as well as we perhaps believe we should. Be that by taking some time to do something we love to do as an individual – bubble bath anyone? – or spending time relaxing with our family or even reaching out to a friend because we just need to talk, being kind to ourselves will improve our own well-being, which is something we all need right now.
I’ve judged, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to discover some of the other great products that might prove to be safe for M and something new we can introduce to his food repertoire.
In almost no time at all, the boxes arrived at our house and with VE day celebrations looming, it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get M started on his first loaf of bread, especially during lockdown. I left him to it, with some minimal supervision from Mike, and the end result was absolutely brilliant. It really was as easy as it…well…as it says on the box. He measured and added the water, gave it a good shake and popped it into the oven. The final loaf needed a few minutes more than was recommended, but it was worth the wait. Both M and G were delighted with the loaf and it’s nice to be able to add another safe bread to M’s diet. The flavour, texture and ease of baking all scored highly in M’s books and he was especially delighted by the crust. He also much preferred it fresh from the oven, but was happy to finish it off in sandwiches the following day.
In the initial rush to panic buy the bare essentials – loo roll, pasta and flour to name but a few – those individuals who needed to buy freefrom foods found their usually more plentiful supplies being depleted by others who chose to buy allergy-friendly when their “normal” stocks ran out.
caused huge problems for many people at the start of the coronavirus crisis, but as we all settled into our new sense of normal, supermarkets and other food suppliers rose to the challenge of how to help more people in any way that they could and found a solution by introducing a variety of food boxes.
It feels a little odd to be reviewing products at the moment, but lockdown hasn’t stopped us finding and trying new things and I wanted to share this review from a few weeks ago. It’s been 4 years since I tentatively ventured into the world of M-friendly pastry, concentrating my efforts on using the small handful of safe ingredients that were open to him at that time to create 
happening this June, but cancelled due to COVID-19. It
Mike took on the first challenge of cooking with the puff pastry and made some bacon and cheese pastry parcels for tea. Sadly, and somewhat typically, being my husband and children, there was no thought to provide any photographic evidence of how they turned out, but given the fact that they all disappeared before I returned home from choir, they appear to have been a roaring success. With that in mind, next it was my turn and I decided to see how well the pastry would lend itself to a sweet, rather than savoury offering. Thanks to a plethora of apples and pears in the fridge, plus the fact that I know even G will happily eat a sweet fruity treat containing both of those ingredients, apple – and pear – turnovers seemed the obvious choice.
away from them long enough to sit down and eat their main courses before diving into dessert. There’s no question that the Jus-rol gluten-free puff pastry has been a big success in the 7Y2D household for both sweet and savoury dishes. Even better, the ease of use means that both children would be able to prepare pastry dishes of their choice with only very minimal supervision needed from me.
One of the advantages of living in a village surrounded by expansive fields and glorious countryside is that our walks for the government-mandated daily exercise are many and varied. During the week Mike and I tend to venture out in the evenings once my work day has come to an end, although we tend to stick to the same few routes which are long enough to reach at least 10,000 steps and safe enough for even my poor eyesight to manage as dusk falls. G and M spend their time out in our garden: running around, climbing trees, building obstacle courses and bouncing on the trampoline as well as performing regular dance routines inside and out, from G in particular. However, at weekends, we insist on taking both children out with us and go for a much longer explore, along numerous trails which have taken us past our village’s Jubilee stone, through the woods in just about every direction you can imagine, across the fields to the next village over and past our farm neighbours to the fishing “lakes”, railway line and beyond.
Mike and M have taken their cameras with them on several occasions, seizing the opportunity to snap the wildlife, flowers, trees and anything and everything else we’ve come across along the way. M got some wonderful photos of the local bluebells covering the forest floors recently and has even tried his hand at taking pictures at night, including of the impressive pink moon that graced our skies a few weeks ago. Even when the camera hasn’t been packed for the trip, M can often be found using his, or my, mobile phone to capture what he spies as we walk and has achieved some amazing shots this way too.
These walks have been a great chance to spend some time together as a family and we always make sure that we have supplies with us to allow a stop for a drink and a snack on our journey. The beauty of our small village is that we rarely come across anybody else and, even when we do, there’s more than enough space to pass whilst following social distancing guidance. We’ve discovered more of our local area than in the 10+ years we’ve lived here so far and have been able to experience nature unlike ever before. Being able to watch 2 beautiful deer running and leaping through the fields alongside us last weekend was simply fantastic and whilst nobody managed to capture the it on film, I’m glad we were able to see and enjoy it without a lens or screen in the way.
First, was last weekend’s 2.6 challenge – a charity initiative to replace the annual London Marathon. Now, I’m not going to pretend we have, or ever have had, any aspirations to take part in the marathon itself, but we are avid fundraisers and this challenge was a great opportunity to get both children flexing their brain cells to think up something new to do. Our charity of choice was, of course, the fantastic 
after all) and eventually M chose to attempt 262 seconds in plank. Neither managed their challenge in one sitting, but they did it and should feel rightly proud that, even during a pandemic, they have found an alternative way to support a charity that has supported, and continues to support, them.
Our second virtual event of the week was yet another annual one, this time the awards ceremony for the Free From Food Awards 
G and M put to good use some of those cooking skills they’ve been 
One of the unexpected advantages of living in lockdown has been seeing G and M start to take on a little more responsibility at home and honing some important lifeskills to see them surviving when they hit adulthood. I started with expecting them to fend for themselves at lunchtime, avoiding too many snack-based choices and including some healthier options to ensure a relatively balanced meal and, after a first week of moans and groans about what they were eating for dinner, sat them down to meal plan their dinners for the following week. They had to work together on agreeing meals that they would both enjoy and, where a compromise couldn’t be reached, settling on something that would be similar, but different. An example of this was the great lasagne vs. macaroni cheese debate, as G dislikes the texture of lasagne, whilst M would choose to eat anything but macaroni cheese. They agreed to disagree and so have one night in the week where they eat their own preferred pasta option.
Whilst planning their menu for the week ahead, G and M also had to take into consideration what staples we had in the house and what would need to be added to our weekly food delivery. We have been using a local food co-operative for well over a decade for our fresh fruit, veg and meats and they have been great at continuing to provide their food delivery service during the coronavirus crisis. The natural next step from meal planning was to get them more involved with cooking dinner as well, building off the 
G and M have an undeniable sweet tooth and the last few weeks have been a great opportunity for them to flex their baking muscles too. The interesting thing has been that they have worked both together and independently when it has come to choosing and making their sweet treats. The starting point has almost always been to see what recipes they can find on my blog and then checking if we have the ingredients in the kitchen cupboards. So far, we’ve enjoyed 
were infinitely more successful at the Disney quiz in the second week and are now reading up in preparation for tomorrow’s “
It’s been a shorter week from a work and school perspective, although the lockdown continues and we’re following the government requests to #StayhomeSavelives. This week has been one of those weeks when I’m grateful for my inclination to prepare well in advance as there was no need to even contemplate venturing out of the house as dairy-free Easter treats had already been bought and squirrelled away far from the prying eyes and inquisitiveness of M in particular. Mum had also already bought some safe eggs for the children and they were left on our doorstep just as the lockdown was starting to similarly keep safe until Easter Sunday itself.
strong, but soon turned his focus to the most recent #familyfunfriday challenge from Over The Wall. He loved building a den like no other in our sitting room using a variety of household items including camera tripods, pegs and even the ironing board to create a den extraordinaire. In fairly typical M style, he then declared that he and G were to be quarantined within the confines of the den for 24 hours, allowed out only for bathroom breaks and the mandated outdoors exercise and even set the timer on his mobile phone to make sure they achieved it.
7 years to diagnosis 