Lockdown: At Home - Lucy

What’s your name and what do you do?

My name is Lucy and I live just outside Edinburgh. I am currently a full time mum to 18 month twins.

Who lives in your home?

In our wee house there is myself, Rob my partner and the twins Mabel and Frank.

How would you describe your home?

It’s busy and and constantly changing to adapt to the twins learning how to climb, reach and ‘try’ things around the house. Of course at times it is so hectic, emotions are high as we are all under one roof together and learning about parenthood with twins whilst in lockdown, and then it can be delightful. Laughter, learning new skills and lots of cuddles. 

What have you enjoyed about your home during the lockdown?

We are really thankful that we have a lovely garden with a summer house at the bottom that has electricity, so it means Rob can work in there and have the separation from work and home life. We were actually due to sell the property and move somewhere with a bit more space, but as the property market has paused it has made us realise that we want to stay for a couple more years as we love our house and the Neighbour's so much. So we have enjoyed thinking about what we can do to refresh and make it more practical for us.  

Is there a DIY job you've got round to that you're proud of?

Not so much DIY but have done a great deal of sorting and repurposing items we already have. Eg: our changing table we had for the twins is now a storage shelve in our kitchen with our HAY crates from Maven. I feel like I have my own green grocers. As I’m in the kitchen a lot, it’s great to have things organised so that everything has a purpose and also looks nice!   

If you could change anything about your home, what would it be?

It’s a quirky Property that’s has been converted from a 3 storey house into two properties, so we are in the top two floors. It’s a beautiful road with some stunning houses, lots of greenery and very peaceful. We have a lovely garden but we can’t open the door and walk straight into it. So with having the twins it would be ideal to open the door and let them run free. It is quite the effort to get them out there, but it is worth it. So we have brought some of the garden to us, by putting a safety gate at the front door. Bringing some plants up and flower pots so they can potter for a bit whilst enjoying some fresh air. They also like to hang off the gate and shout first thing in the morning. I’m sure our neighbours love that at 6.30am!  

What’s the most recent thing you’ve bought for your home?

I have been trying to minimalize for a while now and get products that can serve many jobs. My most recent purchase was actually the Hay crates from Maven. I bought a couple a few months ago and as the twins like to grab at everything I got some more so we could organise all the veg, fruit, flour (have started making sourdough) drinks, cleaning products on my old changing table. 

What’s been your go-to meal in the last few weeks?

I love to cook, and now cooking for twins, I want them to try lots of different foods, but some days I have to give in and get the fish fingers out, it’s too much otherwise. But the go to meal for us all has been homemade sausage rolls. I pack them with veg and serve them with sweet potato fries, finally worked out how to get them crispy-cornflour! And some corn on the cob. The twins will devour them every time, and very quick to make when you don’t have much time in between playing with building blocks or wrestling two babies at nappy change.   

Is there anything you’ve started to do during lockdown that you’d like to continue as ‘normality’ resumes?

Well apart from making sourdough! I have enjoyed the appreciation of giving each other time and making the most out it. Before lockdown I would Faff about when it was nap time for the twins or if I had an hour or so.  As we have limited time now for exercise and time on our own away from parenting and all the clean up Jobs, I now think about what I want to do and 9/10 achieve the goal I have set out.  So I would definitely like to carry on being productive with my time and making it a priority.