24/7 Together

One of the key reasons for Tim and I to take time out of work, was so that we could spend more time with the boys, that cliched term - ‘quality time’. Back in Sydney we were a busy family - all of us; flying between work, school, kids activities, birthdays, parties, bbqs, more parties, it was always going to be interesting to see how we would all adjust to days when it would be just the four of us and no plans.

Living in the mountains means we have a huge playground to ski and snowboard around daily however it is taking us a little while to work out a routine that balances skiing and boarding as well as school work and time for Tim and I. Our apartment is perfect for us, it is a little compact with one living, eating cooking room, alcove for the boys to sleep and a room for Tim and I. There’s no quiet corner away from it all - unless you count the laundry room one floor down...

We have had tough mornings as we try and juggle breakfast, sorting out stuff for skiing, FaceTiming family and friends, and at least an hour of ‘school work’. I’m going to write a separate blog about how we are going with home schooling - to put it nicely we are all learning. We have also had mornings were everything seems to work and we are high fiving ourselves that we made it out with no arguing, shouting or crying (any of these emotions could come from any of us to be honest).

Evenings have also been a tail of two cities, sometimes we are like a perfect family, eating dinner together (with everyone liking what they are eating) playing poohead (aka shithead) or uno, and perfect bedtimes of ‘night mum and dad, I love you’ and off they go on their own. On the other spectrum we have had evenings where no one wants to eat because they ‘hate’ the dinner, too tired to eat, only want a screen and want back stroking until they fall asleep. We only had a handful of mealtimes together back in Sydney and eating breakfast, lunch and dinner together is amazing, some hilarious chats and great time for us to talk about what were the best parts of the day and what we all want to do tomorrow.

We are very lucky to have a lovely lady living next door who babysits for us so Tim and I can have dinner together out in a restaurant, something we used to do all the time in Sydney and now seems like a wonderful luxury. Plus she knows everyone on the mountain, loves the boys and tells them all about the work she does with the disabled skiiers.

Things I have learnt in the process so far:

- Be flexible, everything won’t go according to plan. If you know me you will know this can be hard for me to accept, but I’m trying

- Have fun, try not to be serious about everything. At times this needs to be a constant mantra in my head

- Try not to use consequences to get the boys to do everything (however reducing YouTube time does have the greatest pull in getting them to do anything!!)

- Listen to the boys and Tim, kind of links with the first point. We have time to be flexible on what and how we do things so let's do the things we all want to do

- Tag team – allowing each other to have time out is vital, I have found a yoga class on the mountain (amazing) and Tim the gym. One of us taking the boys out in the snow and letting the other one chill at home has become an amazing treat. ie. allows me to write this blog whilst the boys are snowmobiling and tubing in -10 temperatures…

We are all missing our friends but it’s wonderful to spend so much time together, next month my parents arrive and we move to a slightly bigger place and our balance will change. By the time we hit Mexico and Central America we will hopefully have this 24/7 thing nailed. There will certainly be more stories.