Switching off, summer sun and family time

I think most of Britain sighed with pleasure at the mini heatwave over the weekend. Living is so much easier and more pleasurable when the sun is shining! When the windows are open and the house is full of fresh air, the french doors are flung wide open, and life spills out into the garden. Bare feet and bare arms, the radio playing some tunes, the sounds of the kiddos giggling and playing outside… these things do my Mama heart so much good.

Beastie wasn’t sleeping so good last week {again} so I was pretty exhausted, plus it was a full on week of groups, kiddo work and I had a big load of work that I managed to get through {somehow}. Friday came and I was feeling more tired than usual and a little bit stressed out. I knew what I needed was some ‘off time’. Thankfully, we had a really rare weekend with hardly any plans. G was working both evenings, and Lola had a party on the Saturday night but there were no groups, no places we had to go, no reason to rush around. That it coincided with such a beautiful weekend weather-wise was sheer luck. I worked a little harder on Friday, managed to tick off the last few things on my to-do list, snuck in a little housework and tied up a few loose ends so we could have a whole weekend switched off.

I was sick Friday night – not sure if it was something I ate, as I didn’t eat anything unusual or different to anyone else, but suddenly felt ill twenty minutes after dinner – sick, cold, clammy… thankfully I slept it off and woke up on Saturday feeling pretty much ok. It’s funny – some days when we have loads to do, we all struggle to get up and on, yet this weekend we were up at an early {for us} 8am and ready to enjoy the day. Sure the sun helped!

Beastie has been desperate to go on a bus for the last week or so – every time one goes past us, he wants to get on and then waves ‘buh-bye’ to it! So we packed up a little picnic snack and hopped on a bus. We just went a little way up the road to a lovely park in a nearby village. It’s one of my favourite parks as it has this horse ride like the one that was in the park by my house when I was a kiddo. We spent a couple of hours playing, picnicking and enjoying the sun before hopping back on the bus home.

I did something that I can’t remember when I did last – spent the afternoon sitting in the garden, flicking through a magazine and not doing much of anything. It was BLISS. Downfall of having lots of kids, homeschooling and being self-employed means I usually have a list as long as my arm of what I should be doing, and I’m really not good at not doing anything. I generally have to be really ill to sit still and do nothing! The kids played in the sandpit, on the trampoline and emptied the shed of all the outdoor toys. Soaking up some Vitamin D did me the world of good. We even had a garden picnic for dinner. Then we waved Miss Lola off for a party {she didn’t get home unitl 11.30pm – I think the teenage years have begun!}

Sunday was much the same, we did a big gardening session, potted up some seedlings, weeded the front yard as well as the back, had more garden picnics and sunshine time. By Sunday night I was feeling fantastic. Kinda wish every weekend could be like this one! It reminded me of just how important it is to have these slow, switched off days. Because I wasn’t rushing around the days felt twice as long as usual, I had time to just sit and enjoy watching the kids play,  everyone was so much more relaxed. We actually achieved a lot in the weekend, just without any of the stress we usually feel. I barely went online all weekend either – I posted a couple of IG photos, but avoided social media otherwise. As I spend so much time online for work, it’s actually vital to have some switched off time where I’m fully present in real life. Though I do think we need to emigrate – I feel so much better when tit’s warm and the sun is shining, I’m definitely a fair-weather gal – these cold, wet Welsh winters really don’t agree with me!

I made a little weekend vlog if you want to take a peek into our weekend…