We have a plan!  I’m a serial planner so of course we do. To do lists, notebooks, calendars, phone reminders, diary for a brain, it’s all logged, everything!   I thrive on being organised and feel a pang of anxiety if I were ever to forget anything, but having this built-in need to be this orchestrated as a way of life can be tough, and I guess self inflicted!

I know I could probably do without being so regimented, and am probably adding more pressure to myself for being this way, but how else do you be a mum, work full time, do freelance, run the house, pay the bills, exercise, eat, and sleep if you don’t have it all written down!

So at the moment, at home, we’re going through the disagreement stage with the kids. Nothing can be agreed upon.  What ever our Son wants to do, our Daughter doesn’t and visa versa.  Where one wants to go for a day trip, the other doesn’t, what one wants to watch on the biggest TV (all of 2inches bigger mind you!), the other doesn’t… and so the peace keeping continues.

Having ‘one of each’ child is apparently the perfect 2.4 children set up, and I’m not disagreeing, it’s lovely to have both a son and a daughter, but times like this, when one’s into making dens with his friends in the street and getting dirty, and the other wants to go to the local arts and crafts center to make unicorns and rainbows, unless you know the cloning yourself trick (please do share!), two of the same must come in handy.   Family days out are lovely, if not rare, and Hubby & I look forward to them after the hectic week that’s always been, but is it just me or is actually leaving the house a military operation in itself?  Wash, teeth, clothes, hair, shoes is just for starters, then there’s sandwiches, drinks, multiple teddies and blankets for the car, portable charger for the DS, change of clothes if we’re heading to the coast, cash for the ice-cream van, and of course, they want the toilet 10 miles after leaving the house, even though they didn’t before we left, meaning a quick stop at the nearest supermarket.  Argh, headache!

And with the summer holidays now here, I always get that lump in my throat.  One, because my children are getting older, not babies anymore, and I can see the visual difference in them from last years compulsory last day of school photograph, and two, because it dawns on me that I’m becoming the mother of older children meaning I too am ageing.  It’s not like a need reminding, the mirror tells me daily, but with ageing comes making memories, another of my pastimes if not my favourite, which is what we’re looking forward to doing together over the next 6 weeks!

So to keep the costs down this summer, having already spent over £100 on Saturday, the first day of the holidays, we’ve made a list of things we can do which are free! (petrol and parking excluded).

Skate park
Park tour (every park in a 5 mile radius)
Beach BBQ
Walk to the Dam
Waterfalls
Pokemon hunting
Free swimming
Pontypridd park & outdoor Lido
Mountain Walks (lots where we live)
River jumping (in our old clothes!)
Baking cakes
Film day / night
Garden Party, tea cups an’ all
Craft
Painting
Library
Library Craft & Storytellings days
Scrapbooking
Collect different shape leaves to paint
St Fagins
Ronald Dahl Plass – Cardiff Bay
Forest Fawr caves
Cardiff Museum
Roath Park
Big Pit
Gower / Rhosilli Bay
Clydach / Glyncornal lakes
Bristol’s Millennium Square (don’t forget bathers!)
Meteor Park Ton Pentre
Aberavon Splash Park

There’s no denying the holidays are going to be tough, working in school holidays with no support has always been hard and I’m not looking forward to the everyday work pressure, now with the addition of having the kids running around, eager for my attention, but it is what it is, and make the most of it we will, with a little flexible working thrown in, and the optimism that the stereotypical Welsh summer doesn’t live up to its reputation!

After this weekends unplanned spend, and another week to go until pay day, we will start our perfectly planned, free summer fun bucket list from tomorrow, and hopefully we can share out the activities to limit the children’s disagreements!  I can but hope!

Rhian x
#workkidssleep