Each and every moment

Most holidays I am much more organised. I ring my buddies and organise play dates, go to free shows at shopping centres, book them into activities such as the craft at the local library. Last holidays, I researched the net and got the whole family into the aquatic centre for free.

I was totally unprepared for these school holidays. Big mistake !!. I just forgot how much entertainment the older 2 kids needed. When they were little they were much easier to amuse.

So what did we do? For the most part we stayed home. Just seemed easier with 4 kids than to go out these days.

For a whole term I was used to only having the younger 2 at home and so the house would stay relatively clean. Paper, pens, clothes, blankets, pillows, toys, cups, plates were just everywhere everyday. Green crayon became embedded on the carpet, some of the walls became artworks.

My laundry is piled high sitting on the back porch and the question of "there's no undies in my drawer" appeared everyday from everyone.

My head was just a mess, the house was a mess and I just could not function in all the mess. I’d clean one part of the house then another was a mess. It was just never ending!. The kids would fight and get on each other’s nerves. I screamed a bit more than I should have. I just wanted quietness, cleanliness and order and it definately was far from that!.

Sometime through the holidays (more towards the end of the 2 weeks) it just hit me. It will be a mess because the kids were just being normal kids. They just wanted to do craft, play make believe, lie on the couch with all their pillows and blankets from their rooms, bring their teddies and dollies everywhere with them so they could join in the fun as well.

So for the next holidays I have a plan. To put them in holiday care ! (only kidding). I will just need to organise more outings, cause if they are not home there won’t be mess to be made. I need to organise more craft, cooking and make believe they can do. I need to do a structured timetable so all of us are on the same page. Included in this timetable will need to be cleaning time, mummy time and sleep time (for my sanity sake!)

I have thought about how I may get the kids to clean up their mess. I just need to be imaginative ...what might work is if I tell the kids we can all be big robots who love to eat rubbish and then we vomit it all up because we are all too full in the bin. Or aliens who feed on crayons. Or fairies who collect blankets to go to sleep with. I might even get the kids to help me with some of that laundry.

So I better get cracking on getting all this ready for mid year holidays which will be around before I know it!.