Things I'm Loving: Time and Space

I am linking in with all the other things people are loving over at   Meghan's place. 








When I changed jobs last year probably my biggest concern was giving up the paid school holidays I had enjoyed for a long time, the perfect arrangement for a busy working mother with three children, some people dared to suggested that I might  be crazy for walking away from such a fortuitous set of circumstances, and I did wonder myself...

But here we are in the middle of the Christmas/Summer break and it all seems to  be coming together. Fourteen years of working in the education system does condition you to hit December and cue slothy days,  and I was more concerned about these holidays than any others. However,  with a combination of stat holidays, part time hours and already accruing some annual leave, I have had the past three weeks off work, lucky me.

This week I am due back at work and I am kind of  looking forward to it, I am ready, plus I do  have to tell myself to stop being so melodramatic, I work part time, there are mothers out there working full time and juggling home life and children, get over it. Nana is back from Nelson today and on Tuesday she starts her new duties as the nanny.

I have really enjoyed these weeks off though, not so much from work but from the everyday madness of the school routine, although staring down the barrel of another wet day at home with three children can sometimes feel like making you want to jump off the nearest bridge, my laziness wins out and I will  take that any day over the obligation of the school lunch box, the ironed uniform, the found book bag and three children, up, breakfasted ready and in the car by 8am.

And it has not all been rainy containment in close confinement, there has been about three fine days over this  Christmas break and we made the most of them. This week we headed out to Duder Regional Park and had a walk en famillie. This is a stunning walk and I highly recommend it if you are in the Auckland area, the views across the Waitemata Harbour to Waiheke and beyond are inspiring. The walk itself is about 5 kilometers and was even achieved by our three year old ( John's hips and shoulders may have disagreed with this the next day as Mills did spend a fair amount of time on his shoulders).

Standing on the beach below ten years ago at the end of this month

Of course this was a little bit more of a just another walk to us, we got married on the beach that the hill looks down to, nearly TEN years ago!  Standing atop of the mountain, looking down over the inspiring view and our beach, I said to John "Are you thinking how special it is being up here, with our three children, overlooking the palms where we got hitched".  He was like, " well actually I was thinking if I knew there was this escape route up here, I probably would have run for the hills" He is fab like that, keeping my cup of awesome overflowing, it's okay, he was joking ( I think).

Ten years later

I also have been enjoying the gift of time I gave us for Christmas, I bought John season one of Homeland on DVD. LOVED it, we watched it over  one week, we were so hooked that even when John went back to afternoon shift at work, we watched it at midnight when he got home. Late at night, everyone else asleep, immersed in a spy drama, that is  us and what we love. It's been a good break.