Summer break plans

Today was my last day of work for the year - I am now on 3 weeks of leave! E is one week into her 6 week break, and O has two weeks off from daycare (with options to extend this depending on our schedule/needs). Al will have to work pretty much through, but will get the public holidays off and an odd day off (its a busy time of year in the shop for him). O actually was supposed to go to daycare today but the last three days he has not been keen to do, and today when I went to drop him off he was just beside himself. He usually goes off happily, but today he was DONE. I get it buddy. So I gave him a day with mummy. He helped me run some errands, meet a colleague for lunch, and was pretty good at home while I worked and attended some online meetings. E was living her best life at vacation care with a friend.

Mummy’s helper

Enjoying the Christmas window displays

We are not travelling anywhere in this break, which after a busy year I'm fine with. We have family visiting locally (not staying with us though) for the next week, then in the second week we have friends visiting AND staying with us, and week 3 has no visitors planned (week 3 also has O back in daycare and E in 2 days of Vacation Care). I've been thinking a bit about some ideas of what we might want to do during this time, both for fun, and also around the house. This is not a list to check off, but rather ideas. I spoke to the kids about what they might like to do, and they gave me some ideas too.

Things we already will be doing will be a) spending a lot of time by the pool at my parents house, b) watching Christmas movies/specials at home, and c) visiting the beach. Here are some other ideas, divided by whether they will be family, friends, or on my own...

With family:

1. Looking at Christmas light displays at local houses - we've already been to one spectacular house last week, but my brother and sister in law have just arrived in town and it will be nice to walk some of the local streets and look at other displays. (Our weather is warm so its a lovely activity for after dinner).

2. Watch Moana 2 at the cinemas - this is E’s request. This will be with E and maybe my mum

3. Take the train somewhere - this is O's request, and we have a local train. Just need to work out which local town would make a good "destination"

4. Watch Wicked at the cinemas - this is my one. Hoping a few of the adults might be interested in going this week (probably my mum, maybe others) - I don't think its suitable for E, perhaps a bit scary.

5. Explore somewhere new locally - my sister in law sent us a "hidden gems" local guide a few weeks ago, so it would be nice to try one of those destinations

6. Take the kids to a local hedge maze world. We have never gone because I was too worried about losing toddlers in the maze (this did NOT sound fun to me), but now they are older (and O will stick with me, E can fend for herself hehe), I think it would be a fun outing.

With our friends visiting (This will depend on what they feel like doing of course):

1. Find some kid-friendly fireworks for New Year's eve (they have 3 younger kids so we will have 5 kids to entertain, and E was saying how much she wanted to see fireworks - so this could be fun)

2. Swim in our local waterfall (this is vaguely stressful with little kids who don't swim strongly (2/5 kids), so we'll see how keen they are - but it is a beautiful spot and quite unique to our local climate

3. Go to a water park with an inflatable obstacle course- this is one we've never done but all kids are old enough now to go, and it looks really fun! Its on a river/estuary, and there are lots of different areas for different ability levels.

On my own:

1. Do my 2025 planning - last year I did SHU's Best Laid Plans - Planning 2024 At Home course, and it was great! This year I'm planning to use my booklet from last year, and steal a few hours across a couple of days next week (probably while kids are on screens) either in our backyard or perhaps at a local park, to reflect on 2024 and plan out my goals and intentions for 2025. I found the planning process was really good last year, I actually used my word of the year 'Care" to guide me multiple times, and I achieved many (not all! but many) of my goals.j I'll share a bit of my reflections on 2024, as well as my 2025 plans, on the blog over the next week once I work through the process.

I’ll be planning in this beauty! Can’t wait

2. Read two fiction books! I was given one book from an author I enjoy as a Christmas present by my PhD student (so thoughtful!), so I'll read that one, plus another book that came HIGHLY recommended by my niece (she's in her 20s and we share the same love of reading). For anyone who likes either fantasy and/or romance genres, these are the titles:

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Mass

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (the protagonist is a neuroscientist, how could I not read it haha)

3. Launch my website for my side hustle (and do a couple of hours of paid work on this also) - I have started to create my website, but not finished yet. Looking forward to having this operational in 2025. Expanding my side hustle/business will be a big goal for 2025.

4. Declutter the kids toys, and some of our junk , so that 2025 starts with a more orderly house. Not planning any large house projects over the break (I'm being realistic here!), but a couple of days of decluttering will make a big difference to me. There's boxes sitting in corners of half-decluttered items, there cupboards with piles of papers, there's a mess of cords in the office. These are all do-able tasks, and I will tick some off, while listening to music or a podcast.

For those taking a break at the end of the year, do you make any plans? Anything exciting or constructive on the agenda. I find it hard to get the balance of fun and chores right, but hoping to strike the right balance this year.

*Header photo by Wix