(Why You Should be Excited about School Holidays Too)
Hello everyone! Sorry that I was MIA last week. I was feeling out of sorts for a couple of days, with all sorts of weird aches and pains (ever had aches in your knuckles?!?) but kept on carrying on (as you do). And then I realised I had a fever. Urgh. But, here I am again, ready to regale you with more fun and wit!
How was your week? Did you try sewing those cute little baskets? Or maybe tried tidying your house some more? But way more exciting than any of those: Did you meet up with your friends any time this past week? Just the other week I posted about the health benefits of having regular contact with friends, remember? You see, it is practically a doctor’s prescription to go out and have fun, LOL.
Lucky for me, I followed my own advice and did indeed meet up with some girlfriends. As always it was lovely to see them. In the evening even (like real adults do 😉), sans-children! There is something heavenly about being able to relax, and speak openly and without interruption for a couple of hours with friends while chilling on the sofa. No, there was no alcohol (Remember, Lent!). But yes, there was chocolate 😉.
Not only that, but I also had the joy of meeting up with 2 other friends since then for dinner. It never rains but it pours, as they say! It can be months between going out with any of these ladies and then bam! Two dinners with girlfriends in two weeks. Love it!
Mmmm, let’s get back to chocolate…
So while I was getting excited about meeting with all these friends, the real buzz in the household at the moment is the school holidays. Starting this past Monday my girls have 2 weeks break from school for the Easter holidays. They had been counting the days for the last few weeks. And Master 5, who isn’t even in school asked practically every single day “Is today holidays?”. “Nope, not yet…” But now, “Yes indeedy!”.
I know some parents have mixed feelings about having their kids home from school. You can love your kids until your heart bursts. But you also know that they can turn into little beasts without much warning. And for a lot of parents knowing that those angels/devils are home for 2 weeks straight with no time off can be intimidating.
Not to mention any extra financial considerations. Travelling during the holidays? Costs money. Kids demanding to go to the movies or the fun park? Costs money. Kids “help” you with the groceries and add a few delicacies of their own choosing to the trolley? Costs more money too. And for many families this can be a real struggle, both with the wallet and with dream-filled children.
But the holidays can definitely be enjoyable for everyone and not blow the budget.
Enjoy the Holidays (On a Budget) Just Like the Kids
To be honest, I am excited about the Easter Holidays too. For several reasons actually. And no, we are not going away anywhere.
1. I am also on holidays! Because I teach (did you know I actually teach German?!? Insane!), my classes also take a break for the 2 weeks. Hooray! No work prep. No bag-packing. Did your kids let out a cheer on the last day of school and jump around? I pretty much did the same thing. Being able to have time off work is great. We have listened to Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” many times already- despite it not being summer yet! Cost: Free (dance party included).
2. No work for me + no school for the kids = we don’t all have to get up so early and have the morning rush routine to get out the door. On school days my girls are out the front door at 7.10am. SO early. Now we are on holidays, they first slink out of their bedrooms in the morning later than that. It means that I can either sleep longer too or still get up early and have more uninterrupted time to myself (like now 😉). More sleep or more relaxation time for everyone. Win-win! Cost: Free.
3. The kids get to go out and do fun holiday stuff. This week both Miss 10 and Miss 7 spent 3 mornings at cooking classes. Then Miss 8 spent 3 afternoons at a church youth group Easter program. And both girls had planned to enjoy sleepovers with their friends. You can sign your kids up to as many or as few holidays activities as your heart desires and your budget allows. Thankfully most of the classes our girls do are pretty cheap. The cooking classes cost around 40€ for 3 half-days including them cooking and eating a 3 course meal each day. The church youth group cost a grand total of 4€. Cost: Ranges from Free (like a sleepover or slumber party) to choose your own limit!
4. We get to catch up on mundane must-dos around the house. Like tidying or rearranging bedrooms. We even continued our (tortoise-paced) KonMari tidying efforts by sorting though allllll the childrens’ books in our house. Remember, we are a bilingual family, so we collect books in English and German. 3 kids, 2 languages, 10 years worth of books… That’s a lot of books in storage in our roof. (Our 3 children are total bookworms, can you tell?!?) We sorted out- I kid you not- over TWO HUNDRED books that we no longer needed or wanted to keep! The kids have been getting really enthusiastic about the KonMari Method and got even more excited when we managed to sell quite a few of the books cheaply to a few friends and contacts. Pretty good motivation for the kids to tidy up, eh? Cost: Ranges from Free to Make a Profit!
5. We get to catch up on fun stuff that we wouldn’t normally find a lot of time to do during school term. Things like playing more outdoors. Going for a bike ride. Or the kids helping prepare our hot meals. Sneaking in fun food like juice mocktails that give the kids a thrill. Or maybe having a movie and popcorn night on the sofa. Cost: Free (perhaps a couple of bucks for the movie hire 😉)
There you have it! A handful of good clean fun reasons for you to get into the school holidays spirit just like your kids, without spending a fortune! Which ones do you do with your family?
Oh, and I was going to talk about chocolate, wasn’t I?!? Well, Easter is this coming weekend. As much as I love you all, I will confess that I am not sitting typing this post on Easter Sunday, rather a couple of days earlier 😉 So, the Easter Bunny will be visiting our house this Sunday. And hopefully bringing this Mama here something labelled “dark chocolate”. Time will tell!
Not only will Easter Sunday be combined with chocolate eggs, but most likely a lovely glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Easter means Lent is over. And my lips have not touched a single drop of alcohol since Karneval ended and Lent started *proud yet humble pat on the back for me*.
Happy Easter everyone!!
So how do you like to spend the school holidays? Do you have any great ideas to share? What are you doing to celebrate on the Easter weekend? Did you give up something for Lent? Share with us in the comments section below!