holidays

We have had fun
We have fitted an awful lot of things into the six weeks.
It has rained on us and I have visited A LOT of toilets. Three little girls aged between 5-10 cannot synchronise their bladders and cannot be expected to go for more than 50 minutes without needing the loo. This may be why it took 7 hours to get to Devon at the start of August.
It may be why I have visited every toilet on the south bank between The Tate Modern and The Houses of Parliament ( sometimes doubling back to revisit!)
It is part and parcel of every summer holiday since having toilet trained kids - hunting for baby change facilities is now a distant memory.
So we have packed every bit of excitement we could, making sure that every day there was a plan for something to take place.
The first weekend grandparent had them as Mummy and daddy escaped to watch Monty Python at the O2, then the local church ran 4 days of holiday club, then they were whisked off to Granny's in outer Wales, followed by a trip to Harry Potter, which could have been blindingly expensive if i hadn't assured them before hand that I would not be buying ANYTHING from the gift shop. Also it was extremely hot that evening and the family room booked at nearby hotel was unbearable without air conditioning so a very polite and British criticism saw us with a full refund. This week also included trips to the library and art gallery.
The end of the week involved play dates followed by a weekend of packing as eldest was off on choir tour. Bereft of one child, I hijacked my Niece for a sleep over and day at soft play place. Then more packing for our epic trip to the toilet - I mean to Devon and a lovely caravan just as the weather turned not so hot.
We left a day early, having reunited with the eldest half way through our stay and drove through rainbows all the way home.
This was supposed to be the quiet week, just packing and unpacking, school shoe buying and washing and ironing, but I decided to enrol middle child into intensive swimming at a local baths. I had play date pencilled in mid week but Grandpa had a fall and we had emergency sprint to the hospital A & E two hours away from us.
We ended the final week on the  North Wales coast listening to commentators on the weather assure us that Autumn had come early - I packed fleeces, thermals and wellies to put over bikinis.
We came back on the sunniest day of the weekend. But we did not stop for the toilet - not once.

strike days

So it's a teacher strike day and you have two options: 1. you can view spending the day with your children as an unexpected bonus or 2.  an inconvenience and vent your feelings about the teaching profession on social networks.

 I am a teacher three days a week (officially), but not today. Being part time, the strike has fallen on a day off. My union isn't striking so I would have been in work anyway. I am, however, avoiding social network sites today after writing a Jerry Maguire style status which I am scared will go viral as a couple of friends have already shared it!

Back to the way I am spending my day. Only two of my three children are affected so we waved goodbye to the eldest at 8.40, leaving her on a deserted playground and our day began. There are things I have to do today, so we returned home and tidied up a bit, made the builders tea, my children helped me collect donations from our local church and take them to the Food Bank . All this with the promise of a visit to Fun World, where the toddler mummies have been surprised as a legion of mums, dads and other carers descend upon them with big kids.

I am sitting in this cold shed trying to blog for the first time on my mobile phone with one eye on the kids. They don't need me and they won't want me until they are thirsty (except when I had to help 5 year old  down curl- wurly slide, I would have happily gone up again but she wasn’t having any of it) Later we are going to the supermarket to buy interesting things for tea - they have a friend coming. They will have to sit and watch a film for some part of the day as I have a full day of work tomorrow and I tend to plan Weds afternoon, otherwise they spend Sunday afternoons in front of telly whilst their mummy and daddy prepare, mark, plan, discuss and despair. (Oops gone back  to whinging teacher mode and I am not one of those today.) Its not the way I wanted to spend the day, I had thought about the zoo, but then the strike day would cost me £40 plus what-ever I spend for lunch. I might start complaining about my comrades then.

Anyway, today is busier than I had hoped, a school friend of my husband is coming over tonight, so I cannot say “stuff it” and play with the girls all day like I really, really want to do. We have to go home and do the chores, or at least think very hard about doing them. Besides the builders will need me soon, like my girls, they get thirsty, someone has to make the tea ;-)

 

Post script: Then I get a message from the school I work in: Ofsted are in tomorrow.  Karma? You can keep it!