Ever since I was at school I’ve always been the type of person who sees an advert, a request for help in a school newsletter and feels that this is a direct and personal invitation asking for me to do whatever is being asked. However in recent years I feel I’ve become less good at contributing and volunteering so when I saw the little advert in our local ‘Christchurch Eye’ magazine asking for a ‘Mum’ to write a little column on a monthly basis I felt that I should try this out.
Now this column is only between 250-300 words – which for me is proving tricky! So what follows is the first unedited version – all 689 words of it!
‘Hi I’m Hilary and this is my first Mum’s the Word column. I’m Mum to five boys and I love it; It’s hard work, funny, exhausting and rewarding in equal measure and celebrating family and life’s simple joys are what I love most. I’d be delighted to share bits and pieces of our family’s adventures in and around Christchurch with you.
Excitement brews in our house as we are nearly at the end of the school term: the ceremonious countdown has begun and the unraveling of the ribbon to summer freedom. Homework is being done at speed, we’re scraping in through the school gate just in time, school shoes are scruffy and white shirts are a long way off white but we are nearly there. The summer prequel of school trips, achievement evenings, end of term shows and leavers assemblies are about to mark the end of another school year.
But my mental inspiration mood board is brimming with summer holiday rituals – I can taste it in the air and I can’t wait for summer to unravel with all its colour and splendor so we can drink it up in huge gulps. I can’t wait for the carefree contentment of summer to slowly creep into our routine and I am welcoming it with open arms. My little boys are dreaming of riding bikes, climbing trees, mummy saying yes to stepping into the sprinkler, more ice creams, late nights and pyjama mornings, rolling down banks and den building and I’m dreaming of concentrated happiness – where days are longer and busier doing nothing, children are dirtier, bedtimes later and mornings stress free. I can’t wait – a chance to recharge and regroup.
That’s what summer does – it inspires me to try to create a magical land of happy memories and colourful days for my children, which will stick in their minds long after the sand has been washed off and the buckets and spades packed away. To create a summer tapestry, where all the good things that we enjoy all year round like being outside, spending time with each other and friends and having fun are done but the dial is turned up just a little bit more because we have time.
So in this final lap I’m marrying my kids and my enthusiasm for summer fun, family and adventure and we are writing our own summer bucket list. I’m writing them down early so I don’t have to scramble for ideas later just in case I run out of this Summer steam! It’s an opportunity to pull all our ideas together in one place and to provide a constant invitation to satiate our appetite for adventure. And whether we do all the things on the list doesn’t really matter because just by simply writing a Summer Bucket list it is super exciting – almost like a trailor for a really good film. The conversations start with ‘Let’s do, Let’s go, Let’s find’ and I love it.
So no doubt we will swarm to the splash park when the sun is hot and high, we’ll do the let’s have people over at the last minute, the evening dinners at the beach and the impromptu meet ups which become less and less possible once your kids are in school, camping adventures and random road trips and even mundane errands will take on a new vibe in summer.
But be in no doubt that there’ll be messes to clear up, more arguments, kids will wreck havoc and ….. but watching my children being ridiculously happy and summer satisfied will make me so happy knowing that their childhood memory books are being written.
Oh how I love Summer! So much potential and possibility… so many things you could do and achieve…. and hopefully sunshine beckons. Have a fabulous July and feel free in joining me in thinking of your own summer bucket list – making sure you cross things off in bright colour co-ordinated pens. Together let’s make summer flourish, be it slowly, quietly, purposefully or fast, full on and hanging on for the ride….whatever your summer holidays hold, may it bring you much happiness.’
Our bucket lists….. unfortunately done really quite messily by the older two!
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and then the final version in print…..I’m actually quite embarrassed of my middle class lifestyle I’m writing about! I’m making us sound like a very perfect family ….although anyone who knows us will know that is quite simply not the case!
