Image via Wikipedia

As far as school holidays go, the last 10 days have been pretty reasonable.  We didn’t get to go away in the caravan, but we’ve had sleep in’s aplenty (if you count 7am as a sleep in), a few nights in the country, fun outings and even a party.

Here I was thinking to myself this morning, as I lazily made a coffee, that I could handle permanent school holidays.  No pressure in the mornings.  No running around after school.  And for the most part, the kids aren’t too sick of each other.  The girls had made up a new game “Healthy Kids” where they spent all day on the trampoline and only ate healthy food.  I was patting myself on the back for a job well done.  This is how it should be.

Then someone flicked the switch.  The five year old turned nasty.  Whingy, whiney and obnoxious to boot.  Were did all the good times go?  After so many good days, I was surprised how quickly it got to me.  But there I was bargaining with my husband to swap places this afternoon.  I would gladly lock myself away in the office and do whatever it is he does, rather than deal with the snooty kid.

Am I wrong to give up so quickly?

My husband teases me that I’ll never be able to re-enter the workforce because my vocabulary has deteriorated to such a level that it would just be plain embarrassing.  It’s been on the slide for a while.

Well, I’ve got news for him.  I’ve found somewhere I’d fit right in. While surfing Iinet’s website over the weekend, searching for a solution to our ongoing internet woes I came across this …

Heh.

Did you all have a lovely mother’s day? I hope so.

I got my wish of a day with no housework which was just wonderful. It took some convincing The Thinker though. He reckons he would’ve preferred to buy something than spend time in the kitchen and laundry.

After some quality time with the family early in the day, I advised everyone I was going to Bank World, a la Barbara.  I love Barbara, although I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t love dealing with her.

The kids were a little confused at first, but soon go the “Not my problem” message. Perhaps a little too well … Cinderella wrote about it the next day at school. A little awkward, as I was helping in class at the time. After spending six hours a day with 23 grade ones and twos, I’m sure her teacher understands.

I’ve been spending most of my internet time over at Redbubble, specifically the Australian Travel Photography & Writing group.  A few weeks ago the hosting team was expanded, with one of the new members being yours truly.  The team has been having a great time coming up with new ways to promote group members, help the group to grow and have some fun too.  One of the most exciting projects is a group eMag – “Discover Australia” – that we’ll be launching in March.  We’ve been super busy and I, for one, am loving it!

If you’re a long time visitor here, you’ve probably read (a few times) that I’m searching for my passion – something that I can grab by the horns, enjoy and earn a dollar from, too.  The time is rapidly approaching when I need to make a decision.  Little Mermaid starts 4yo kinder in the New Year and will be at school before I know it!  So I’ve enrolled in a travel writing course and am clicking away like mad improving my photos.  I’ve had the vague idea of a travel blog floating around in the back of my mind for a while too.  It’s beginning to look like I’ll be up to pussy’s bow in 2010.

I love this blog, but find I’ve been uninspired to write here over the last little bit.  That, coupled with the busyness of next year looming, makes me think it’s time for a change of tack.  Instead of the how to’s and what I’ve learnt’s from times past, Journeyer’s Chronicles is going to become a much more personal blog.  Brain dumps, cute/funny/awful things the kids do, the odd learning experience and, more than likely, travel and photography stuff – basically my life.  It’s where I began before getting distracted.  Actually, I’ve been heading in that direction the last few times I’ve posted.  If the thought of this makes your eyes water, I truly won’t be offended if you unsubscribe now

Just in case I’m not back beforehand, I’d like to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas and a fantastic 2010.  If you’re travelling, as we will be, stay safe.

This week I found lots of interesting things in my RSS and Twitter streams.  Here are just a few:

Family Life

• How to Regain Your Power as a Parent at The Calm Space: It’s all about deciding on consequences and then following through
• 6 Peaceful Solutions for Hitting and Anger at Simple Kids: Younger kids often aren’t trying to hurt the object of their “attacks”; they just don’t know how else to deal with their feelings
• TeacherXpress: There are more educational resources here than you can poke a stick at – from a dictionary to geography resources to art and design. UK focussed but still very useful

Travel

• Money Saving Ideas for Family Vacations at We Just Got Back: Reader submitted suggestions for keeping the costs down on many aspects of vacations
• 100 Things you can Only Do in Australia at Australian Traveller: Never run out of Aussie holiday ideas again

Other good stuff

• Creative Commons Search: I often search Flickr’s creative commons for blog images, but here you can search Flickr, Yahoo, Google, Blip TV, Jamendo and Spin Xpress all at once and for a variety of media
• Dutch by Design: The. Most. Gorgeous. Chandeliers.

Enjoy your weekend