My girls need a lot of “help” at the beginning of each new school term. I need to prep-them to

• get up early for school, after the gotten-used-to-later-than-usual, waking up time during the holidays,
• be attentive in school, after the gotten-used-to-endless-fun-and-play during the holidays, and
• complete daily school assignments, after the stree-free and “workload-free” days during the holidays,

Normally it takes me only 2 -3 weeks to get rid of the glum and moody faces of my girls, and be greeted by happy and cheerful ones. This time I had to work much harder. After settling them in, we were interrupted by the long Chinese New Year break, then immediately followed-by extended bank holiday weekends. Long festive breaks, and bank holidays are good, but they do indeed interrupt our daily routine, especially young school going children…….and their poor mummies. During this getting my girls back to school mode time, I virtually had to put my hobbies and all the activities I love on the internet expressway on hold. While my girls were at school, I went to the gym and yoga (my daily must-do), prepare the meals for the day and all other activities to keep the household in running order. After picking them from school, I need to ensure that they complete their assignments and prepare for their spelling, dictation, quizzes that seemed to be happening every other day. I was left with close to no me-time. It was extremely challenging, filled with many firsts too…….I even shut down my 2 year-old Mac for the first time, something that I never imagined that  would ever need to do!

Finally, my girls are happily settled-in back to school and require less of my time…… yeah, i get to boot-up my Mac and warm-up my oven. *grinning from ear-to-ear*