08 Oct School holidays somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea
School Holidays are like being between the devil and the deep blue sea. You long for the school term to end and for the carefree days devoid of structure to begin but two weeks of kids mess, ‘I’m bored’ and ‘what are we doing today?’…..sometimes it’s harder to decide which is the lesser of two evils.
Last school holidays we stayed home and enjoyed living by the beach. We had playdates, movie trips, fires with marshmallows, pyjama days, mum needs to work/study days, island days, boat days, get out of the house I need to put some sort of order into days. It was a really relaxing time. But the knock on for us was no change of scenery for six months or so. Don’t get me wrong we love our house and where we live and I mean we REALLY love it. What’s not to love? 5 minute walk to the beach that we look out onto every day, ur own Two Sisters Café at the bottom of the street, Saturday and Sunday morning outdoor yoga and a 30 minute stroll into town to beautiful seaside locations like the Rocks and Keppel Bay Sailing Club for a drink a coffee or a snack. You don’t realise until you go away that there’s lots of little things that niggle at you when they’re in front of you day in, day out.
The unfinished room, the unpainted fence, the slope that needs to be flat, the mowing the endless washing and kids stuff everywhere, the dog that’s committed to scratching on your new couch and eating your Woolworths garden mini’s, you get the picture. So getting away for a few days is a great break from that. Yes there’s still mess, washing, cooking, cleaning, entertaining kids but it’s in a different location. You’re surrounded by less stuff, less clutter, fewer problems, physical, emotional or otherwise.
Holidays are about more fun, more light, more loving the things most precious to us.
More time walking at 8 am and not 5 am because you can. More easy meals, ice cream, swimming, laughing, kicking a ball, more wine at 5 pm. More reading, knitting, Netflix, unwashed hair, and lying around. Less make up, less worrying about the kids, more ice blocks stolen out of the freezer when mum’s not looking.
There’s more discovering new places to have a coffee like Insane Caffeine, Flock Eatery at Scarborough, Melidrop at Kangaroo Point. More discovery to grow their brains and get lost in space at Queensland Museum. There’s time for first skateboards brought with their own money and maybe just a little surprise gift from Aunty Karla. Getting away to the crisp white cool sheets of Oaks Festival Tower and warming up in their toasty outdoor pool. More watching the ice cream melt over a stack of pancakes shared with your brothers.
Holidays are for sharing a coconut milk iced mocha or a George Jensen bubbles with long time friends and revelling that their kids are as tall as ours. Holidays are the time for a Grand Angus at Maccas as you cruise home with a car that doesn’t even closely resemble the carefully packed vehicle that you left home with. Holidays are for letting you remember that you love your life and that what you do is enough. You are enough and school holidays are just great.