A Holiday at Home
When you move away from your family and friends you always have somewhere to go in the holidays. In fact, we have too many places to go and people to visit. While I really, really don't like car trips with children, I love staying in Sydney and Broke and catching up with everyone in an offline fashion! The down side to this, of course, is that we are never at home when we are on holidays and when we return, just before we go back to work, there is a mountain of washing and a thick layer of dust, nothing in the fridge and a stale smell in the house. There are jobs that need doing around the house that I simply don't get to. Working four days a week, and given that my cleaning lady lasted all of one week, it is really all I can do to manage the regular cleaning. So, this holidays I took one week off and decided to stay home and clear out the kids' rooms. I have swapped over their summer clothes for winter and have filled garbage bag after garbage bag with rubbish. It has been very cathartic but an awful lot of hard work. One of the children, who shall remain nameless, is very good at amusing herself but in the process fills every bag she owns (why does she have so many bags?) with pens, paper, notes, socks, books.......... I wonder how long the de-cluttered environment will last. Let it go Amy, let it go.
The other reason to have a week off work was to have some fun with Joss and Toby. We had a lovely Easter weekend with only a small amount of over-indulgence. From this photo you would never guess that these children would eat too much chocolate.
We had friends over for dinner on Monday night and while the roast lamb and sticky garlic potatoes were a success (thank-you Nigella), the lemon meringue pie was a major let down. It looked fine but was lemony in the extreme which doesn't sound bad when you love lemon, but tasted terrible.
On Tuesday we dropped Bethany off at daycare and Jossie off at Eden's for a slumber party. It was a Mum and Toby day so as well as cleaning out Bethany's room I took Toby to the Basement Theatre to see a children's production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As you can see the actors were all children but Willie Wonka who was a teenager.
In the afternoon we went to Gelatissimo for ice-cream. Toby had choc-mint and I had a hazelnut affogato.
On Thursday morning Andrew got up at 5am to catch the early flight to Sydney with Joss and Tobes. Yesterday they went to the Royal Easter Show and had, by all accounts, a brilliant day. They rang a few times including once, accidentally, when I could just hear them chatting away and no matter how loud I shouted they didn't hear me.
Thursday was my special day with Bethany and we decided to go to the Art Gallery. The exhibition was on spiritualism in art and it wasn't the most exciting so we only spent a short while exploring the gallery. One of the great things about living in Wagga is that we don't travel far and don't have to pay to get into the cultural facilities so we are under no pressure to stay longer than the children can enjoy. We went to the library to get some more books then it was Bethany's turn for ice-cream. She chose the one with the prettiest colour, against my better judgement. Here she is trying her raspberry gelato.
She didn't like it! I had an affogato, again, so I didn't want it. Normally I wouldn't buy her another but this was our special day so I bought her a scoop of vanilla and she enjoyed it for ages, especially as I let her have the crushed nuts that came with my coffee.
Last night Mim came over and we had pumpkin risotto, strawberries and chocolate. We also watched Juno and An Affair to Remember, not an early night. Tomorrow Andrew, Joss and Tobes arrive home and Mum is coming on the train, can't wait. Of course, the one time I decide to have a holiday at home, Tim and Shona produce a beautiful niece and I wish I had gone to Sydney so that I could hold her. Tim has some beautiful pictures here. Welcome Annika, I look forward to holding you as soon as I can.
The other reason to have a week off work was to have some fun with Joss and Toby. We had a lovely Easter weekend with only a small amount of over-indulgence. From this photo you would never guess that these children would eat too much chocolate.
We had friends over for dinner on Monday night and while the roast lamb and sticky garlic potatoes were a success (thank-you Nigella), the lemon meringue pie was a major let down. It looked fine but was lemony in the extreme which doesn't sound bad when you love lemon, but tasted terrible.
On Tuesday we dropped Bethany off at daycare and Jossie off at Eden's for a slumber party. It was a Mum and Toby day so as well as cleaning out Bethany's room I took Toby to the Basement Theatre to see a children's production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As you can see the actors were all children but Willie Wonka who was a teenager.
In the afternoon we went to Gelatissimo for ice-cream. Toby had choc-mint and I had a hazelnut affogato.
On Thursday morning Andrew got up at 5am to catch the early flight to Sydney with Joss and Tobes. Yesterday they went to the Royal Easter Show and had, by all accounts, a brilliant day. They rang a few times including once, accidentally, when I could just hear them chatting away and no matter how loud I shouted they didn't hear me.
Thursday was my special day with Bethany and we decided to go to the Art Gallery. The exhibition was on spiritualism in art and it wasn't the most exciting so we only spent a short while exploring the gallery. One of the great things about living in Wagga is that we don't travel far and don't have to pay to get into the cultural facilities so we are under no pressure to stay longer than the children can enjoy. We went to the library to get some more books then it was Bethany's turn for ice-cream. She chose the one with the prettiest colour, against my better judgement. Here she is trying her raspberry gelato.
She didn't like it! I had an affogato, again, so I didn't want it. Normally I wouldn't buy her another but this was our special day so I bought her a scoop of vanilla and she enjoyed it for ages, especially as I let her have the crushed nuts that came with my coffee.
Last night Mim came over and we had pumpkin risotto, strawberries and chocolate. We also watched Juno and An Affair to Remember, not an early night. Tomorrow Andrew, Joss and Tobes arrive home and Mum is coming on the train, can't wait. Of course, the one time I decide to have a holiday at home, Tim and Shona produce a beautiful niece and I wish I had gone to Sydney so that I could hold her. Tim has some beautiful pictures here. Welcome Annika, I look forward to holding you as soon as I can.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home