Sublime sunshine

This week we were away on holiday. Our first family holiday for over a year and certainly the first time (since having children) that I have felt fully re-charged and ready to face the grind again. We treated ourselves to a week at the Abama resort and it was the perfect spot for a real break.

My husband and I have indulged in luxury hotel stays in the past, when there was just the two of us, when every day was spent by the pool, reading books and sleeping on the sun loungers. That was before I fully embraced the mayhem and chaos involved in running a household. What was I really taking a break from, I wonder, in that lifetime BC (before children)?

 I worked hard, yes, but we ate out regularly and slept in at the weekends. On holiday I always took for granted that someone else was doing the cooking, tidying and cleaning as I rarely engaged in those pastimes at home during the rest of the year. Oh, how things have changed....

As a mum of two little people, I genuinely relished every moment of not having to 'plan, organise, do and clear up' that is the daily mantra by which I now live. The biggest decisions I had to make was whether to make another trip back to the breakfast buffet and whether to hit the pool or the beach to soak up the sunshine. It was bliss.

In that other lifetime, BC, I would have wandered past the pool of koi and thought, 'how quaint', indeed, 'what a lovely touch.' But with a toddler in tow, I checked out the schedule of resort activities to make sure that we didn't miss feeding time and at the designated hour we were back at the pool watching for the feeding frenzy...

Perhaps the biggest treat from not having to organise and manage the chores for the week was being able to spend 'quality' time with my family: chatting to my husband about things other than the management of our daily timetables, digging a fort and making sandcastles on the beach, playing 'mummy and baby shark' (complete with Jaws the movie inspired sound effects) in the pool or relaxing over breakfast knowing that the buffet would be open for the next couple of hours and we didn't need to shovel the food down our necks to get out the door in time for nursery.

These were truly sublime days.