It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I reckon Andy Williams got it wrong.  Christmas isn’t TMWTOTY at all.   Mid-term break is.  Kind of.  It’s a mini taster of what’s to come when there is an 8 week break from school at the end of June.  Mid-term is only long enough for everyone to adjust to a new routine.  As soon as everyone gets down with the lazy, casual mornings, it’s time to switch back to the loud and crazy ones when we have to get up, ready and out for school.   This week was no exception.

There were lots of rows.   Tonnes of “what are we doing next?” questions.    Squillions of fights.   Doors were slammed.  Bad language was used.   By everyone.  Sometimes not even quietly.    One of the boys has the start of what will be a glorious bruise on the side of his face, just in time for Monday morning.      

C’est la vie.  

It’s still the most wonderful time of the year. I love a mid-term break; it always seems to arrive in the knick of time.   The kids are mentally tired of the daily routine so it’s a very welcome reprieve.  

We had a miserable April and at the time of writing, the sun was streaming in through the open back door, the floor warm under my feet and the smell of ginger snaps cooling in the kitchen.

I also rolled my eyes so hard and fast a moment ago, one eyeball might still be up under my eyebrow.    If I hear, “Mammy, he……………….” one more time I don’t know what I’ll do.   I have already tried to explain to them that I feel a little like a bottle of well shaken pop at the moment.   And asked for a little time to myself so I can clear my head of noise and thoughts and recharge my batteries.

It’s still the most wonderful time of the year.     My bathroom may have gone to hell this week.   I operate on a “clean as I go” basis.    I don’t allocate any one day for a job but I do like to keep an eye on one of the mankiest rooms in the house; the latrine.   With four boy humans using it hourly, it gets pretty disgusting pretty fast if I don’t keep up.   Mondays are my exception where I do get in there and clean it.    This Monday that didn’t happen.   It was a bank holiday which was excuse number one.    The second reason was we were out pretty much all day.   Third, mid-term.   This morning the results of my neglect could not be ignored any longer.    I live with disgusting boys!

It’s still the most wonderful time of the year.   We went swimming.  We had a picnic at “the small forest.”   There was loads of baking.  We went to the playground and Smallest Boy was delighted to see one of his buddies there.  Usually it’s the other way around and he was thrilled when his older brothers wanted to know who his friend was.   They pitched a tent in the back garden.   Cheaper by the Dozen held them rapt one evening and I joined them with a glass of wine. Hay fever has hit.   Not so good.   Arm pits are raw – if anyone knows why this happens, they might let me know.   His eyes are itchy and there are lots of sneezes first thing in the morning.   It always gets much worse before it improves before disappearing altogether.  The fact that we are surrounded by rapeseed oil fields only compounds the issue. 

It’s still the most wonderful time of the year.   It always is when you’re young and your whole life is ahead of you.   We don’t have major plans for the summer – there will be no aeroplane holidays or long weekends away.  We won’t be taking any full day trips anywhere.     Instead it will be two months of what we did this week.  It has been my experience that these are the memories that stay with them for ever over the bigger more expensive ones. I plan to stick to that as long as I can!