It is almost the start of the Summer Holidays! My second favourite time of year, my first being Christmas, I have always loved Christmas, all my children home snuggled up together, good food, good company and presents too, what's not to love?
Chloe and Elisha both celebrate their birthdays in August so summer is a happy time for us. James loves being at home whatever the reason and for Kerrie this will be her last summer at home before she starts school in September. As for Lucy well she is a sociable little creature who loves to watch her brother and sisters so I am sure she will be happy to have so much entertainment on hand.
Chloe has four days left in school owing to her having had a long weekend with no school on the Friday and the Monday due to two teacher training days. I have no idea why they could not simply tag them onto the holiday as the Primary School has done. James and Elisha both have just two days of term left.
I am lucky enough to be at home with the children so I don't have to juggle childcare. It can't be at all easy for those parents who will end up needing childcare for some of their family because the schools break up on different days, not to mention the teachers whose children finish before they do.
Why can't they keep these things simple for all of us with standard term dates but then again things which seem simple enough to us mere mortals rarely seem simple to the decision makers. Why does giving humans a bit of power always seem to bring out the worst in their human nature? The mind boggles at some of the nonsense they come up, I'm not going to start ranting though or I will be here all day, suffice to say I may have to stop watching the news for the sake of my blood pressure!
So back to the fast approaching holidays......
I love this time of year, all of our children at home together, much less rushing around having to get to this place and that place and time, time to just be! I suppose they would call it 'downtime' now. It doesn't have to be relaxing in fact we might well end up being much more active than we are during term time but time to be together, play games, have fun and just enjoy each others company. I have a list of activities and days out planned to keep us all entertained. It is hard to find time to be together when everyone has to be somewhere different, it just feels like one long merry go round that wont stop and just keeps on spinning faster and faster. In real terms this is the point when I start to oversleep as I did twice this week. I forget to write things on the calendar. I drop the bat and the fabric of our lives starts to unravel. 'You can tell it nearly the holidays' I can be heard to exclaim several times a day. Summer is a chance to pick up that golden thread which interweaves our lives with it's rich colour and repair those damaged stitches. We put ourselves back together both physically and mentally and take a break to prepare ourselves for the new term ahead.
The rain has been so abundant this year that I am already planning lots of indoor activities just in case the garden has to stay off limits for much of the holidays. If we can't play outdoors we will play indoors. Out will come the scissors and glue, paint and paper, the scrapbooks and craft. We have plenty of books, games and toys to rediscover. I have bookmarked interesting child friendly websites we might like to explore further. We can bake treats and make play dough. Dens can be built indoors, picnics can be eaten on a blanket in the living room and I have a feeling the wii and wii fit will be well used this summer so I have plenty of batteries in stock already. Luckily we all have wellies and raincoats so walks involving splashing in puddles can be arranged for when we all get fed up of the four walls. As you can see even the holidays take some forward planning when you have a houseful of children to consider.
Last year Chloe had lots of friends here much of the time, our home became a sort of half way house for the holidays, I didn't mind at all. I love having a busy bustling house full of noise and laughter, a good job really I mean no one has five children if they relish peace and quiet do they!
Her friends were very good at involving the little ones too when they were here, during one sleepover I popped upstairs to check on Elisha to discover her sat on a stool surrounded by Chloe and her friends who were each painting the nails on either her hands or feet. She looked like the queen and was very much enjoying the attention!
During last summer I was pregnant and still feeling rather sick quite often, between the sickness and the sciatica doing anything was rather an effort and a strain. This year I am most definitely not pregnant and so I am looking forward to being able to enjoy the holidays and some summer food whether the sun decides to join us or not! I am hoping to record our summer adventures here so stay with us and see how we fill those lazy summer days.
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