Holidays are coming...

As of today, there's eight school days (10 actual days) remaining until the kids break for spring holidays, and 20 days until I finish my current big freelance project. It must be said, this is a good thing all round.

 

It's been / is still being a very full-on, tiring term. I've been working fulltime hours as a freelancer for all but the first two weeks of it, and the kids' schedules have been jam-packed - with good stuff, but stuff nonetheless.

Netball, swimming and music have all stepped up in intensity for the kids, which is great, but demands more of all of us in terms of time and energy. Both the older two have also been getting much more homework and doing independent / extracurricular projects, which also takes a toll.

The weekend coming up is crowded too - brunch, netball finals, guitar concert, friends sleepover - then the final week of term is filled up to the final minute. 

 

For me, things won't slacken much even with school holidays until week 2, when my big work project finishes (on 29 Sept). I do find it somewhat ironic that part of my objective in going back to freelancing was to be able to take school holidays off, yet because of the exigencies of this project, I actually will only get the final three days (Weds - Fri of the last week) really free of work. (Although I have advised the client that that I won't be doing any hours, or available to them, on both the Mondays, so the kids and I can plan friend catch-ups for at least those two days).

 

I think we are all looking forward immensely to the relative calm (at this stage) of October, which currently holds, for me: a small freelance booking (about 5 days over the whole month), two medical specialist appointments, one speaking engagement, one turn apiece at school cooking and teaching Sunday School, the school's night market, and a Halloween party. For the kids, it'll be a typical school / netball / swimming / music month, with nothing out of the ordinary other than the night market and the party. (That might sound like a lot, but weighed against the heftiness that is September, it's very modest indeed).

That said, at some point in October - looking like mid-late at this stage - our new kitchen will be installed, which is exciting +++ but will also make demands on us all in terms of energy and adaptation. (Aside from anything else, cleaning out all the junk is going to be a big effort). So  October will have its share of energy suckage too!

November holds the first of the many end-of-year and end-of-era events (my eldest finishes primary school this year), plus school camp for the big two, plus, I hope, NaNoWriMo for me. Ideally, I'm hoping for another modest month in terms of work bookings (5-8 days would be ideal), otherwise I don't know how we'll squeeze it all in. And December is always, always hyper, exacerbated this year by it being our turn to host the extended family Christmas Day lunch.

So, OK, perhaps a REAL rest is going to have to wait til ... Boxing Day?