After the Never Ending summer holidays of 2021/2022, the kids headed back to school today. There were mixed emotions in the household over the last few days; excitement (Julius), nervousness (Quinn), annoyance (Chance), ambivalence (Darby), anticipation (Mama). But we got there in the end!!

For one year only, my four fire crackers will be at the same school, in years 6, 4, 2 and Prep. It will make drop off and pick up nice and simple, and I cannot wait for the school photo/sibiling shot this year!

With Chance in his final year of primary school, it’s time for a “then and now” shot! Can you even?? He did Prep and Year 1 in Rockhampton and the school was about the same distance from our house as their current school is now.

I actually sewed that Star Wars material onto that bag for him, and covered all of his school books with paper, stickers and contact! That kind of effort was clearly not sustainable (or really necessary, let’s be honest!) but the main thing is they had everything they needed and have come home happy and full of stories. We will be having earlier dinners this week (5pm!) while we make the adjustment back into school life, and hopefully all will be in bed by 8:15pm each night. Gotta have a plan, right??

As for me, I’m sure many of you are terribly worried about how I’m going to possibly fill in all of my “spare time” but fear not! I managed a few solid hours of study today which is what I needed to do, and even though it was a rocky start, day one is done and I’m hoping tomorrow will be just a bit easier.

Thanks to Gran and Grumpy as always for being on-hand to help with drop-off this morning, and always. I’m hoping having them all at school will give us all a little bit of much-needed breathing space, and time to re-charge.