The great summer struggle

We are half way through the second week of the school summer holidays, it's a glorious day, and do you know what my children are doing? Sitting on the sofa playing on their pad.

I have officially become stuck in the summer struggle.

The reason I'm calling it the summer struggle is because, well simply, I'm struggling!

I've been looking forward to the school holidays. Dreaming of lots of nice days out in the sun, nice relaxing picnics in the local nature reserve, action packed days out with the kids, fun activities in the garden. The reality hasn't been quite so great, for the first week and a half, at least.

As Neil has just finished his first year at school, this is my first experience of a proper summer break. I wasn't, and still am not quite sure how to approach it. I've been wondering if I should be planning our days, or being a bit more spontaneous and just kind of going with the flow. I've been going for the latter, which hasn't worked out so well for me so far I must say.

I'm going to have to switch tactics and start planning days and activities. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a lazy day at home, playing on the pad or watching tv and just relaxing a bit, but that shouldn't be the every day.

The trouble is, my head is all over the place at the moment, and I couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery right now, never mind organising fun filled days to keep the whole family happy.

I keep having little ideas, 'ooh that might be fun, the kids might enjoy that, yada yada' but so far that has been as far as I get, ideas.

My house is what you may call a bomb site at the moment too, and it's not helping. Most morning when I'm off work I say to myself, right we'll get some housework done and then we can concentrate on having a fun afternoon.
I'll have to admit I'm not as domesticated as I would like to be, my tidying skills are lacking a bit, and I find myself pottering around the house, taking ages on little tasks that could probably wait until the bigger things have been done, and often end up finishing with not much really being done. The kids will often ask if we can do something and I tell them "Mummy is just tidying up first and then we can", but because I never really finish tidying, we don't usually get the stuff done..

 I really need to crack on, and just friggin tidy, or just forget about tidying all together and just start having a bit of fun. I prefer the sound of the latter but I'm sure the rest of my family will disagree, as they climb their way over the mess.

I'm joking obviously, my house isn't that messy. But I do feel like it's one job after the next, and I never feel like I'm fully done. I don't know why I have such an obsession with having the house tidy before we can do anything else anyway!

I'm also not sure if I'm putting off this fun business because I'm worried my attempts to entertain the children will fail miserably. Some past attempts of 'fun' have been met with blank faces, mainly from Neil who would rather watch a minecraft video than spend time with his boring mum!

It does make it a little bit more difficult to plan activities knowing that most of them are going to be met with resistance from Neil, who has his own little routine at home, and that routine does not include spending time in the sun! I should mention that Neil does not do too well in the warm weather, and he hates sunlight, which means on the really warm and sunny days we usually have to plan close to home, so we can get back quickly if he's having trouble.

Luckily I haven't heard the dreaded words yet, by which I mean 'Mum, I'm bored', my children thoroughly enjoy spending time on their pads, but I want them to go back to school in September with amazing memories of fun and laughter.

I don't think it helps that I'm regularly reading wonderful tales of family fun on other blogs, and then feeling like I'm letting the kids down because our activities aren't quite as amazing. Does anyone else get that, or is it just me?

I must say before I finish, before you all start thinking I'm some awful parent that just shoves my children on the sofa with a pad all day, that the children don't do that all day, but I certainly do feel like I haven't provided them with enough entertainment.

I'm gonna make a bit of a pledge here, that the remaining 7 weeks of the holidays will be more exciting than the first 2, and that I should spend less time thinking about activites and more time being pro-active and just getting things done.

Do you have any tips on how to survive the summer holidays? Do you plan each day with lots of fun activities or do you just go with the flow and see what you fancy doing each day? How do you manage housework when you have two children looking for a bit of fun? (besides perhaps just throwing everything away and going for the minimalist look in the house, no stuff means no mess, right?)

If you have any summer tips, please share with me before I lose the plot!