Some weeks feel so hard, but thank goodness for reflection & perspective at the end

First week of the school holidays has been full on, hard work and an adjustment for all. There’s been…

• Three children, aged 2, 6 and 9 in each others pockets.

• Furniture moved around.
• Rounds of laundry washed, dried and put away.
• A play house in the garden given a post-winter make-over ready for summer play.
• Nits discovered in one child and dealt with (along with a lot of extra washing).
• A spa delivered and finally enjoyed, without the children, by hubbie and I (the first day hubbie and I spent instilling rules about what to do – and not to do – with soggy togs and towels… what not to put in the spa to Miss 2…
• Preparing a room for the visit of a wonderful friend of the family on Thursday evening.
• Picking up hundreds of bean bag polystyrene balls that someone thought would be ‘fun’ to empty and play with… (the hoover doesn’t like them & a broom makes them super static… hands, knees, and time…).
• Rushing to get presents and cards for family overseas (terribly late this year and totally missed the deadline for posting to the UK… sorry!).
• Children making the most of the long daylight and staying up till 10pm – leaving little couple time – (but we make do!).

• Miss 6 and 9 at logger heads with constant bickering and arguing (with occasional respites of refreshing sisterly friendliness).

And some lighter moments too…

• Great neighbours.
• Good friends (online and in person).
• The joy of adult conversation with a family friend over a few wines late into the evening and reminiscing on the old days of walking New Zealand’s great walks and dreaming of future adventures.
• Making the most of Wellington’s amazing cafes to enjoy good company, food and coffee!

• A starlit night in the spa with hubbie, after the children had all finally gone to sleep.
• A wonderful gardener who has tended the hedge, around the patio where we’ve positioned the spa, with such diligence over the past five years that our absolute privacy is guaranteed in our privately, set back home by the sea.

• A surprise thank you from a friend, for lending her some books – with a lovely thank you gift of incredible home-made lip balm and bath bombs enclosed!
• A fabulous school report for our Miss 9 (despite her being away for over 40 days this year, she scored a top of ‘5’ in many areas) – performing well above expected for her year group and showing a flair for art, languages, music, writing and maths.
• The delight of Miss 9’s end of year dance show over the weekend. Three shows, all went swell and we loved seeing the joy on her face as she danced brilliantly.
• The city alive with the bloom of Pohutuakawa trees to welcome us into the Christmas celebrations.
• A call on the ‘direct line’ to Santa thanks to the Telecom Christmas Tree.
• My daughters offering to spend their own money on a gift to donate to children less fortunate under the Telecom Christmas Tree.

• Being served dinner in the newly cleaned play-house in the garden, whilst enjoying the scent of flowers and herbs freshly picked from the garden and serenaded by Alice, singing, ‘I’m a pirate Princess, sailing the seven seas…’.

• Wine – too much – but fun at the time 🙂
• And a week ending with a fantastic weekend of fun to enjoy – a wedding at Boomrock on Saturday, and Sophie’s 7th Birthday Party on Sunday!