Our big trip - me and 3 kiddos loose in —town

I live about 10 hours drive away from my parents and in-laws. It is hard. I miss them all, and I miss the support that having family close by can bring when you are at my stage in life. To even have somewhere I can go and spend an afternoon when I'm at my whits-end and just need a cup of coffee and some wise parental perspective. It is our own fault. We choose to move down here 7 years ago before we had children for a lifestyle change. Now we are kind of entrenched down here - we have friends, a good church, Westley has a pretty good job and we have cheap rent. So it is kind of hard to move back home at this point even though it would be sweet to live close to family.

My ever-giving eldest sister lives very close to my family and has thoughtfully bought me and the children flights back to the town where I grew up to spend 2 weeks, living at her house while she is away and visiting my Mum and Dad and a few days with my in-laws. We fly there tomorrow and I am all excited to embark on a trip of a lifetime. We don't have a lot of money to spare, so flights 'home' have always been a luxury that we have not been able to partake in. Westley will be at our real home here as he needs to work, so it will be me, 3 kiddos loose in —town. I will miss Westley, however, him being at home will free me to do just what I want to do, when I want to do it, so that has advantages! ;)

Here are my hopes for this trip:

• to spend lots of relaxing time with my Mum and Dad. Drink lots of coffee together and chat.
• to spend quality time with my sister and her family (when they return from their trip) and with my in-laws and all other local family and friends I plan to see. The name in-laws seems so cold, I don't mean it to. I am blessed with wonderful in-laws who I consider to be my real family, I just could not think of a better way to group them together in a way that you would know who I meant.
• to enjoy the time with my children, their first plane rides!
• to enjoy 'pretend' living in —town. Visit the shops and parks.
• to saturate myself in Wuthering Heights. I am finally moving on from my world of Jane Eyre and onto another great Bronte classic. I'm excited and sad about Wuthering Heights (I know how it starts and I wonder how it could possibly be made good).
• to get some Kirsty Allsop, Phil Spencer and Kevin McCloud action on television - I will take what I can get, Location Location Location, Relocation Relocation, Grand Designs, Grand Designs Revisited, etc. I don't mind really, I just miss these guys and would love to catch up on as much as I can on my family's pay tv :) It is for these shows that I would find a life without television very difficult!

If you have holidays where you are, enjoy them! Enjoy your children, enjoy your family & stay safe :)