Back to Work After the Half Term

We’ve had a fantastic half term holiday as you can see! It was great to just kick back for a few days, enjoy some walks, do a load of art and craft, play games, enjoy movies snuggled under blankets and have no deadlines to worry about.  There might have been more than one day in the last week which found us still in our PJs at tea-time and I don’t feel even a little bit guilty!

Today however is back to school, back to pre-school and back to work day. Being a clever and organised Mum *cough* I found Kieran’s PE kit hanging under heavy school coats and needing attention after 4pm yesterday. No drama one would think (thankful for the modern conveniences of the washing machine and tumble dryer) until opening the bag. It contained one plimsoll and a school fleece. No shorts, no outdoor sports trainers, no jogging bottoms, spare socks or t-shirt.

We scrambled around and gathered together a motley arrangement of replacements and Kieran has had a flea in his ear about looking after his things and has been sent off to school today to find his original kit in school lost property (much to his disgust!).

That carry-on overcome I cleared my desk, made sure that I had a fresh notepad, sharpened pencils and filled Kieran’s pencil case, made up packed lunches, laid out uniform and clothes for Taylor and made sure everything was ok before going to bed.

This morning…. Everyone was showered and changed in good time. Taylor dropped juice down his clothes and needed a complete change, I realised I’d forgotten dinner money and had to shoot off at the crack of dawn to go to the cashpoint and then…  two minutes before we were due to set off Kieran tells me he only has one school shoe.

One.

In my hallway we have a small bookcase with a basket for gloves and hats, hooks for school bags and bits and pieces and shelves for shoes and boots worn regularly. Kieran’s school shoes have been sat in their allotted space for the whole week yet this morning one is missing (I suspect 3yr old led foul play).  Running out of time we ran around looking for the missing shoe and in the end I’ve sent his nibs out wearing trainers (his good trainers which we’d stuffed into his gym bag to replace the ones that are missing).

I’m ready for another holiday already and have spent time Googling late deals from the UK to a wide range of destinations worldwide and dreaming of a restful Easter break after which we may come home rejuvenated and find everything where we left it and ready for going back to school!

I’m now at my desk, have had two caffeine laden coffees and am ready to get started on sorting out the 403 emails sat waiting for me (madness!) and organise my diary /to-do list into some sort of calm, grown-up and gym-bag free order.

I do love half term with the kids but the transition from holiday to back to work and school doesn’t always run so smoothly! Is it just me?

 

*This post was written in collaboration will the mentioned business however is true to my own thoughts, feelings and experiences

Cruising – Offering Everything You Could Want in a Holiday

Every time I open Facebook or Twitter I get bombarded with fairly horrific pictures of flooding, dark rain clouds, frozen over lakes and more. It seems that the weather systems in some areas have gone cuckoo and to be honest it is fairly depressing!

Roy and I were talking the other night about beggaring off somewhere and once again the idea of a cruise came up. I have always been anti-cruise because I can’t swim very well. Thinking about that now I realise that is actually one of the most pathetic excuses not to try something new even I’ve ever heard. I don’t drive but that doesn’t mean I don’t get into a car.

Quite a few of my Facebook friends have posted fabulous pictures and accounts about cruise holidays and to be honest I hadn’t realised just how family friendly they can be. I always thought of a cruise as something singles or couples of a certain age did however it appears that I’ve been ever so slightly off the mark with that assumption.

What we like is the fact that we would not be going on holiday to Turkey, or Italy or wherever, we would be enjoying time on a constantly travelling holiday base and would still get to see plenty of new and previously unseen (by us) destinations. Having a browse online at cruise holidays 2014 it has become clear that there are a vast number of destinations available.

 I like the idea of relaxing (or enjoying a load of activities!) for a few days in luxurious surroundings and then docking for a day or more in one place only to re-board, enjoy the joys of the ship and then disembark elsewhere. I suppose for someone trying to add extra flags to the map showing where they’d visited in the world, cruising would be a good way to do this.

From what I can gather the bathrooms alone on the ships I’ve browsed are bigger than mine at home and the number of different types of food available is staggering. Having got my head around the fact that the ship IS the holiday and not simply a rather sparkly way to travel to different countries for visits I’ve started to really come around to the idea, especially as it means no driving for Roy. The added bonus is that there are so many options for fun and/or relaxation that we could tailor our holiday according to what we fancy doing on any given day.

My question for you today is this: Have you been on a cruise, with or without children? I’d love to hear what you thought about it and whether you would book again. It does seem to tick all of the boxes as far as being what we are looking for and actually isn’t quite as expensive as I’d previously imagined.

Cruise versus Sun |Photo credit

*This post has been written in collaboration with the mentioned company yet is true to my own thoughts, feelings and experiences