Currently

Just had such a surreal moment.

We’d just come back from The Playshed and were sitting watching Matilda when I started trying to work.  This isn’t usually a problem, but it’s the holidays so I was surrounded by my children and so I was worried about actually being able to get anything done.  Then it just hit me.  I was surrounded by my children.  MY children.

How did I even get here?  It feels like just the other day when I was the one sitting and watching Matilda, wondering what I would be like as a parent.  And now it’s here.  In fact, we’ve been doing this whole parenting thing for almost 8 whole years and yet it still feels weirdly new every now and then.  Do you ever get that feeling?

Anyhooo, I haven’t done a chilled out catch up post in a while, so here’s what we’ve been up to these holidays so far.

Currently:

Doing:  We’ve just done a record breaking amount of entertaining.  For some people that would be a normal week, but even though I adore having people over, it’s the most we’ve done in a row.  And?  I’ve LOVED it!

We had our dear friends kids over for the weekend while they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.  And yes, adding three kids into the mix did seem like a crazy thing to do, but actually, it was totally easy and so much fun.  The girls entertained themselves and stayed up chatting and giggling till 11 on the first night and then we managed to get them down at a nice early 10pm the second night.  They spent the whole weekend in the pool and I have never been more thankful that we have a pool available to keep them busy with 😉

Watching: Did anyone else have issues with Netflix where it seemed like it stopped working?  Anyway, all the series that we were in the middle of watching disappeared so although we were watching Orphan Black and loving it, we had to stop.  But then somehow, something Seth did recently brought it back, so we’ve been having loads of late nights catching up.  That main character is a brilliant actress.

Reading:  Just started on the last book of my Book Club – Baking Cakes In Kigali (Gaile Parkin).  It’s been so fun reading a whole bunch of different genres and things that I would not normally read.

Adapting to:  Being on holiday.  It’s been super but we have this tendency to want to be out all the time, spending all the money and not really having good quality time together.  So we’re trying to have more of a staycation this year, trying to be home a lot more than we’re out.  It’s much easier said than done, because as you may also find, getting out the house is sometimes just absolutely necessary if you want to keep your sanity in check, but still.

The plan is to do a lot of swimming, jumping and playing with the kids while also trying to squeeze in some DIY.  Actually, Seth is mid way through building a jungle gym for the kids.  And by mid way, I mean that we have all the wood stored in our garage and he’s about to start digging holes and pouring concrete.  It’s his biggest project yet and I’m nervous but excited to see the result.

Realising:  Christmas is in less than a week and we still have presents to get.  But this is not unusual.  It’s actually our normal.  Every year I say that I’m going to do loads of online shopping and get myself sorted way in advance and every year end up trawling Canal Walk on Christmas Eve.  And this year?  This year is no different.  We still have half the presents to buy – eeeeek!!

Excited About:  We actually don’t have much planned for the next few weeks (except getting through the playhouse build).  But I’m excited about having nothing to do!  It’s not often that this happens and I don’t think that we’ll have a chance to do it again until the next holidays so I really want to make the most of it.

Managing:  So I wanted to post about this in a separate post but I haven’t gotten there yet and I don’t want to wait to chat about it.  Basically I have realised that I was fooling myself by thinking that it was only dairy, grain and sugar that was messing up my face.  It’s those things for sure, but it’s more than that.  It’s alcohol too.

Now, you need to know that I am not an alcoholic, but I do enjoy a drink or two every so often.  The thing is that my face has actually started to swell when I indulge now.  Which sucks because, well, did I mention that we’re on holiday in sunny Cape Town?  Exactly.  It’s been hard, but having cut it out totally for over a week I have already seen a difference.  Which sucks that it’s proving me right.  But what can you do?  It is what it is and my body decided to be a chop without my permission.

And now that I’m going alcohol free, Seth drops the bomb shell on me that he wants a fourth baby.

BOOM!

(It’s obvs not happening.  But still.  I did pause and think about it longer than I usually do).