Goodbye, September Holidays!

I am one of those crazy mums who love school holidays with the kids. I am never in a rush to send kids back to school, so I will admit that I am not that thrilled the school holidays are now officially over. Now the kids are all older, it’s not as easy as it used to be to organise activities with the kids over the holidays – jobs, assessments due after the holidays, external exams looming, and friends to catch up with, means that mum needs to book appointment times now with the kids over the holidays.

For the majority of the September break, we had beautiful blue skies and sunny days. We were able to enjoy many days throughout the holiday break. Nell literally has three weeks of school left before the big external year 12 exams start, so between a few moments of fun with friends, and hanging out at the beach, Nell has been sewing up a storm to make sure her Fashion assessment is as done as she could possibly make it before exam week starts. Somewhere between now and the end of term, her class have to present their micro collections in the form of a fashion parade to staff, students and parents. It would be great if Nell could finish up her Fashion assessments quickly so that she can get back to studying for her other assessments. I fear MacBeth, art, and math have all been ignored over the last few weeks while she has been busy with her fashion pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I too would prefer sewing up a storm, over hanging out with MacBeth and math.

At least we are in my favourite time of the year – Spring! I can’t emphasise enough my love of this time of the year. I have that end of year adrenaline starting to well up inside of me, and while I don’t believe in putting up the Christmas tree before the 1st December, I will admit that for some reason, I am getting very excited to put the tree up early. We won’t, but I am thinking it would be fun! Maybe we will watch a sneaky Christmas movie instead.

We have a smorgasbord of exciting events coming our way over the next couple months, so I will admit that I have a little ‘To-do list overwhelm’. In general, I feel reasonably well. There is something about Spring that makes me feel good in myself, and positive about where we at life in general.

The thing about school holidays I have learned, especially since we live on the Sunshine Coast, is that one must be very deliberate in terms of taking advantage of the beauty that surrounds us. It is incredibly easy to get so wrapped up in our daily ‘To do lists‘ that we forget to take advantage of where we live and what we have on the coast. I know I am guilty of letting stuff at home stop me from getting out to the beach. To take advantage of what we have here on the coast we really do have to plan to get out to the beach, the jobs at home will be here for us when we get home. When the kids were all babies, the advice was to sleep when the baby slept. If we are to follow the same advice, we should then say, when the school holidays are here, we play hard, and pull the house together once the kids go back to school. I don’t think I would be able to leave all the daily jobs till the end of the holidays, because I need structure to cope, but I definitely like the idea of playing hard and making it work for short periods of time.

What I know to be true is that I don’t want my kids growing up and remembering that mums number one goal on the school holidays was a perfect house, which meant no fun for the kids. I really want the kids to remember me as a mum who came up with fun ideas for the holidays.

These holidays we spent our time between Caloundra and Mooloolaba. We did go to the plaza a couple of times in Maroochydore, but I don’t consider a visit to the plaza a day of fun unless you have an unlimited supply of money. Harry Hartog bookshop always grabs my attention though. The other thing I love to do at the plaza is an Ion foot cleanse. For half an hour, I get to sit in a massage chair, with my feet soaking in a warm salt bath. It’s a real treat! Very occasionally, I might lash out and add in some reflexology. I rarely do it when I go to the plaza, but now the kids are older and want to search the sales at the plaza with each other or friends, I know exactly where I want to go while I wait for them.

There are so many places on the Coast where young people want to go spend their time. The beach is popular for most young people, but for those who have jobs or parents who have money to throw at their kids during the school holidays, there is an array of ideas – Aussie World, The Big Cart Track, Australia Zoo, The Golfing range, Time Zone (Sunshine Plaza), The High Ropes (Sunshine Plaza or The Big Pineapple), Holey Moley, Bowling, Skating, Cable skiing, Twilight/daytime markets, Sea Life (Mooloolaba), The Aqua Duck (Mooloolaba), and the Aqua Park out at Bli Bli. Noosa in an amazing area to visit, with many opportunities to explore. I will be doing a post about Noosa very soon, I just found out they have Duffy boats up there, that we would love to try out.

The Sunshine Coast isn’t known for theme parks, and I for the most part, agree with the majority of residents here on the coast who would hate for the Sunshine Coast to become the Gold Coast. It’s good to be different, but it would be great to have some type of Wet’n Wild up here in the Summer time. There was talk of some type of water park up here for awhile, but I hear the council put a stop to that idea a few years ago. It would have created a more jobs for the area, as well as being a fantastic place to hang out and enjoy.

I am about to head to the school to pick up the kids. The routine is back! The holidays are officially over.

Till next time,

XO