For many of us over the past few months, we've laughed to keep ourselves from crying, because what else can you do sometimes? Luckily for Amy Huberman, her sunny sense of humour has come in handy when keeping so many plates spinning: work, parenting, homeschooling and the rest.
Speaking at RTÉ's Autumn Launch, the actress and writer opened up about the past few months in lockdown, and how she's cherished spending time at home with her family, husband Brian O'Driscoll and children Sadie and Billy – the challenges of homeschooling notwithstanding.
"It's been a mix of things", she says. "Lockdown has been an interesting time for everyone, I feel really grateful that we were safe and well and my family were and my friends were. But it's really challenged people. I've enjoyed the time at home with the kids, I don't think I was the best homeschooler, so I am looking forward to [school coming back]."
Huberman's show Finding Joy will be back on the screens this autumn and that has kept the star busy. With the kids heading back to school this week, a sliver of normalcy will come back, but even Huberman is reflecting on the strange summer that came before it.
"It's weird because the stretch of the summer, when it wasn't the situation that it was, feels really long. Time has just lost its sense of shape and expanse for me", she says. "I can't believe the summer is over.
"You think, how will we fill it? We won't be doing the same kind of things. Life has definitely slowed down, because it's needed to and they're looking forward to seeing their pals. I wasn't getting the apple at the end of term for being top teacher!" she laughs.
You might think of Huberman as a woman with many feathers to her cap, but homeschooling was not her forte. "My respect for teachers has just expanded so much because of the patience that they have, I didn't have quite as much patience as I thought I would going through it", she says.
Still, she says she's taking it one day at a time, adjusting and readjusting to the new normal. "I know we're not out of it yet, but you adapt in a certain way, you shift your expectations on your time and your productivity. It's just day to day, if I think too much into the future or the weight of what's gone behind it feels quite heavy."
Her sense of humour has got to help, though. Anyone who has as funny an Instagram feed – featuring her "six pack" (of Tayto) on the beach, puns and shots of her buried up to her neck in sand – must be a hoot to be around.
Her Instagram posts from those weeks are full of soap-and-grass cakes, memes and marshmallow and chocolate toasties.
When it comes to keeping her kids entertained, "It was just stripping things back to the very simple things", she says. "I remember in week one looking at the clock and it being two o'clock and going, 'we've only done half of a day! What are we gonna do?'"
"My kids were happy to play with each other. There were days when they were fighting and bored and frustrated and missed their friends but for the most part when the weather was good it was great, we just got out for walks, on bikes. Then it was just the really simple things, baking, making a mess, getting out for walks, playing with the dog."
"I asked my daughter yesterday, 'Did you have a good summer?' and she said 'Yeah, it was great.' They've done a few camps over the summer and they're just looking forward to school. I remember that feeling when you're younger, those nerves.
"Yes it will be different", she adds. "It'll need to be different."
Huberman chats from the sun-soaked window of her hotel room in Co. Mayo, where she's "squeezing the last inch" out of the summer.
She, for one, is not missing the overseas holidays and has been making the most of the sights around the country. "I know it's been a crazy time and not going away, but we're lucky that we live in a country that has so much to offer."
"We went to Wexford a couple of times, we went to Leitrim. We went back to Lough Rynn where we got married so that was really, really nice."
The couple returned to the stately castle hotel for their 10th wedding anniversary, but if you're expecting grand overtures about their romance, you're not going to find it with Huberman who keeps it real on that front.
"I was joking, I was like, 'god, that's dragged!'" she laughs. "A lot has happened and you know that weird sense of time, where it feels quick and it feels slow. In many ways, it does feel like a long time ago.
"I'm looking through pictures and we look like babies. But having had babies since, feeling like we're definitely in a different stage in our lives and having to pretend to be responsible parents and adults, it does feel like a long time.
"Ten years! That's scary, that the next 10 years will probably go even faster. It's great ageing, isn't it!"
