Staying Home: Day 46

I am learning a lot about myself from this lockdown. One is that routine is good for me. Sticking to a routine doesn't come naturally, and in normal circumstances the pattern of my days varies anyway due to my schedule being a bit unpredictable. Now that we have a daily routine I am appreciating how comfortable it feels, how much easier it is to get things done, and how much less frustrated I am with myself for being disorganised. I know not having things going on out of the house makes it much easier, but when this is all over I need to find a way to keep some sort of routine going. 

I did my archive work this morning, then after lunch took a break to make challah (a traditional enriched Jewish bread). When the older girls were young I used to make it regularly, but got out of the habit and it must be years since I last made some. I no longer have the recipe I used to use - I replaced the cookery book it was in with an updated version by the same author, but the challah recipe in the new book is different and I can't get it right (which may be partly why I haven't made it for so long!). Today I used a recipe I found on the internet and the dough came out too sticky, despite thinking I had added less water than it suggested. I managed to get the dough right in the end by adding a bit more flour, but slightly overcooked it the bread and it came out rather burnt looking. Fortunately it tasted fine. 

After doing battle with the sticky dough and lots of kneading my brain had switched off. I managed to plough through checking the first section of M's latest batch of questions, but it was a struggle. At 3.30 I gave up and we managed to dodge the showers and get in a half hour walk without getting rained on. Movie of the day was The Little Mermaid. Then the girls had chicken katsu curry for dinner, and M and I had a bean casserole with some of the challah. TG had a late dance class, and H and I did a bit of work on our second jigsaw. 

H was feeling less tired today. She was also feeling cheerful as she used a mark calculator tool on the university website and was very pleased with the result. Due to coronavirus most universities, including hers, have introduced a grade safety net for final year students; final grades won't fall below where they were at the end of the first semester, so that nobody will be disadvantaged by the unexpected switch to online learning. H worked out that thanks to this she has already banked high enough average marks to get a first class degree - she has worked very hard for this but was afraid she might narrowly miss out. Although she would still like to get good marks in her remaining modules for her own satisfaction, knowing she already has good enough grades for a first takes the pressure off. I'm so pleased for her as she has put in so much effort over the last four years.