the sunset series..and breaking from routine

The new school year has begun.  Back into routine, commitments and after school activities.  Back to getting organised, school lunches and uniforms. Back to being busy.

It all just seems to have come around so quickly already, and perhaps a little part of me is in denial. Our holidays were slow and easy.  We didn't travel anywhere or do anything too grand or elaborate. Sometimes I feel a little bit guilty and worry the kids will go back to school listening to everyone else's amazing holiday adventures, wishing they could have done the same.  

Running a business of your own makes time away very limited, and quite frankly, an impossibility for us just yet.  While the kids had 6 weeks off school, we managed to close down for almost three weeks.  Though its never without interruption, at least we were able to be at home and enjoy some down time all together.

Then I look at where we live.  

During our break we took a sneaky bottle of bubbles down to the beach on New Years Eve. The kids played and swam, we looked at one another and knew we were both feeling the same thing.  We could have paid a fortune to travel somewhere as magnificent, and to do just this.  But we didn't have to, this is where we live, just a stroll down the end of the street.

I've decided that I need to keep this in mind during the everyday busyness of school term. To be a little bit spontaneous and to break away from the routine.  If only just a bit.

Last Monday was the beginning of the first full week of term. Harvey was at Cadets and Nick at a twilight shoot.  I went outside to put away shoes and tidy as I sent the other three upstairs to brush teeth ready for bed. It was such a gorgeous evening.  

I couldn't help it, I yelled out to everyone to grab a jacket and come downstairs.  Then instead of bed, off to the beach we went!

Oh the excitement! It was like the craziest thing I'd ever done! Like we were on some wild adventure somewhere we'd never been before.  Secretly, I was hoping to goodness I wasn't going to live to regret it.  Monday night and all, a whole week still ahead of us.

We weren't gone for ages, just long enough to wander and chat.  To soak in the beauty and explore the rockpools.  To be silly and to feel free.

It was worth it, and I didn't regret it.  Bedtime may have been a little later than it needed to be that first night of term, but everyone slept soundly with the smell of sea mist on their skin and rolling waves echoing in their dreams.