It’s not often that things are quiet in my house. I don’t mean lack of noise; there’s usually plenty of that, with three teenagers fighting their hormones and each other (youngest is still a little way off but catching up fast). But if there isn’t some drama unfolding it’s usually not far away. I now realise this is why I’ve been feeling unsettled over the last few days. It’s like the niggling feeling that you’ve forgotten something, or the word on the tip of your tongue that slips further out of reach the more you try to remember it. As is the way with these things, it won’t be long before the status quo is established and the dog eats a hearing aid (again), a child falls and breaks an expensive electronic gadget or body part (again) or the car develops a strange lights-flashing, alarm-beeping disorder (again). So, in this brief respite, an opportunity to count my blessings…

We’re all OK.

• My siblings, their partners and their children are all well. We even have the excitement of a new baby (the first great niece or nephew) to look forward to at the end of the year.

• My parents are coping with their lockdown, although after 7 weeks confined to their house the boredom is starting to show - this morning I received an email from my mum letting me know that she’d read one of my social media posts and I’d made a spelling mistake!

• My husband, stuck in Qatar, may be missing the chaos of our home as much as we’re missing him but, thanks to eldest daughter’s persistent refusal to take no for an answer when she brought yet another stray home, isn’t lonely. The cat-hater and the cat we left with him have developed a Stockholm syndrome-like attachment to each other; he unashamedly adds ‘treats’ to his shopping basket for her and accepts her sleeping on him when he watches TV, despite her purposeful destruction of plates, cups, phones and glasses (anything left on a counter or table is knocked onto the unforgiving tiled floor with a swipe of the paw).

• My children are, against all odds, steaming through their schoolwork with the minimum of fuss or parental involvement. In fact, apart from the youngest, I’ve never been so uninvolved in their education and homework. The lack of sport is tough but we’re extending and alternating our daily dog walks with running which is keeping us and the dog reasonably fit.

• I’m well and enjoying the relaxed mornings without a school-run. I’m also delighted that, having agreed to my youngest daughter’s choice of off-the-shelf hair colour to return to my ‘natural’ brown, I have the perfect excuse to stay home until I look less like Morticia Addams or until the hairdresser can make a home visit.

And then, this morning, I drove to the local garden centre to buy a new dog harness (the dog lost hers during a walk) and on the way I realised there’s a problem with my car - it judders every time I press the brake. When I got home I phoned the mechanic and booked an appointment, then made lunch. Halfway through eating, middle daughter took a bite of her apple then stopped and looked at me in panic…

“I think I’ve just snapped my braces”

What was I saying about it being quiet?!