And the winner is....baked beans

We had a late night having dinner with friends last night so my 3 littlies are all hungover this morning. I have just put them to bed for a snooze which leaves me with a good hour or so to myself. I can barely get my thoughts in any kind of order as I try and decide how to spend this golden little bubble of silence and solitude. What I should really be doing is hanging the washing out and tidying up. The winner was baked beans on toast and writing my blog.

The husband and littlies have 2 weeks off from work and kindy. It has been bliss. Spending time together just the five of us has been great for our family spirit and happiness. There are few greater pleasures than being in the company of people you love. By the end of the holiday they'll probably have driven me nuts and I will look forward to packing them all off back to daily routines but for the moment it's all peace and love in our house.

Come January, my chums and family at home are always keen to ditch their winter threads and poke their white limbs towards the sun on the beach. We have a glittering array of guests lined up over the next couple of months with the fairy atop the tree being my parents. They arrive on the 20th Jan and I can't stop thinking about it.

Into the Wild

This evening the husband and I will be preparing for the week ahead. The excitement is palpable in our house as we are going on holiday for a whole, glorious week on our own. Our week will be spent walking, kayaking and camping along the Abel Tasman track, spending the night in Nelson then driving down the west coast, seeing where the will takes us, staying with some friends and flying back home. So the first job is to set out all our kit to see what we need to go and buy. The husband showed me the tiny stove he has zipped up in a neat little pouch and the spanking clean cooking pots designed purposefully for camping. I can barely contain myself at the thought of chatting, making tea and beans in the morning, walking through paradise, swimming and sleeping out in the open.

I have even bought the kind of shoes I have always laughed at people for wearing. Check them out. In the true style of being a mum, even though I know there is nothing wrong with leaving my children in the infinitely more capable hands than my own of my parents, I feel guilty about not taking them, guilty that I can't wait to relinquish all responsibility for a week and sad that I'm not going to see them for 7 whole days.