Delusion and reality – a school holiday tale

BEFORE the school holidays started I was all excited and dreamy about the awesome eight weeks that the kidlets and I would spend together exploring the city, sniffing out new parks, frolicking in the sand on a beach escape, cooking up a Christmas storm and the craft, oh the craft we were going to do!

I think I may have come down with a touch of holiday delusion.

I was relishing the fact that I wouldn’t have to do four 25 minute drives a day, that the mum taxi would be “out of order”, that I didn’t have to panic each morning when I had no bread for school lunches and there would be no homework arguments for eight whole weeks.

What I completely forgot to remember is that I’d have two children under the age of eight, home with me 24/7 for EIGHT WHOLE WEEKS.

I LOVE my kids. I do. I do. I do. But that amount of time spent together is pushing the boundaries my friends.

Our holidays came with a dose of reality that went a little more like this:

• Exploring the city was a quick trip to the museum, followed by a quicker trip to see Santa at the Myer centre and then getting the hell outta there;
• We stumbled across a new park while on a short break at the Sunshine Coast.
• We “frolicked” in the sand as we were blown by gale force winds, battling to hold our sunshelter down, burning to a crisp and dodging blue bottles;
• The Christmas cooking was days of frantically throwing together food and yelling at the kids to get out of the kitchen because mummy is in a hurry;
• and I’m pretty sure I broke out the paints for Miss Princess to play with only once. You all know I don’t do craft, I clearly got caught up in the pre-Christmas crafty spirit.

Don’t get me wrong, we have had some really fun times these holidays catching up with friends, seeing a few movies, lots of playing in the pool, plenty of cuddle time and some family beach escapes, but please someone direct me back to this post when I start getting all starry eyed in the lead up to the next school holidays.

The thing I’m looking forward to most about school going back next week? For five whole days a fortnight there will be no-one at home to barge in on me when I’m in the toilet (Miss Princess is off to kindy).

Did you survive the holidays? What’s your favourite thing about school going back?

Oopsiemumma xo

The chaos that reigns at our house right now

A calm photo to keep me calm when I’m feeling a little out of control.

My name is Oopsiemumma and it has been 13 days since I last blogged….WHAT??!!

I think I just lost two weeks of my life and didn’t even realise it. Clearly the chaos that is Term 4 here in Australia has well and truly hit our household.

Master Sporty has less than three weeks left of school. Part of me is thrilled beyond belief that my twice daily commute across the city is coming to a close but the other part is having a breakdown of mammoth proportions that I’M NOT READY FOR SCHOOL HOLIDAYS YET!!

I have an advent calendar to make….I don’t know what I was thinking either.

I have Christmas Day and Boxing Day lunch to sort out…because naturally I’m such an awesome cook that I’m hosting both…LOL *insert shiver of horror*.

I have a massive box of school books and stationary about to land at my house any day now, and I have Miss Princess’s kindy stuff for next year to get on top of.

Of course, I recently gave away all of her cot sheets and what’s on the kindy list for next year? Yes, cot sheets. Grrr.

I have boxes and boxes of water bottles about to land at my front door too, that I then need to sort and pack for a school fundraiser.

I’m back at soccer trials with Master Sporty after he missed out on a place in his own Academy team. So just when I thought my soccer field days were slowing down, back we go to more nights spent swatting mozzies and hoping for the best.

I have an AGM report to write by tomorrow for the school’s Auxiliary team.

I have a list full of friends to catch up with before Christmas, why oh why do we always leave our friend catch-ups until the last-minute!!

I have a spare room full of  “stuff” that I’ve decided to start selling on Gumtree and Ebay, because I’m not busy enough.

And now I’m dealing with ridiculous people who want to buy my stuff but don’t want to pay the price…”and can you please deliver it to my house…on the other side of the city.” NO I CAN’T!!

And the icing on the cake?

Tomorrow I get to spend the entire day with 23 Year 3 students wandering around the city looking at Heritage buildings, catching trains, buses and ferries and trying my hardest not to lose any of them.

The teacher wants us to meet first thing in the morning to go over a risk assessment for the day.

So here’s my risk assessment:

• The likelihood of me losing a child – HIGH
• The likelihood of me losing my patience – HIGH
• The likelihood of me getting lost myself – HIGH.

If you don’t hear from me again for another 13 days please send a rescue party to dig me out of this Term 4 chaos.

Oopsiemumma xo

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope you all have a safe and fun Christmas.

I’ll be taking a blogging break until January 15, though I might sneak one in here and there and I’m sure to be around on Facebook and Twitter.

I’ll leave you with some of my favourite Christmas images from Pinterest:

New York! New York!

Amsterdam

So doing this next year!

And this!

And most definitely THIS!

But for now I’ll leave you with this:

Oopsiemumma xo