I remember when my kids were little and not in school yet, the days seemed long and the weeks seemed to go by so slowly. I remember looking forward to the weekends just hoping we'd have a full schedule of things to do. Now that the kids are older and our weeks seem to be busy enough, I am always hoping we have nothing planned over the weekend and we can just get caught up on house cleaning and spend unscheduled time together relaxing. Funny how that changes. This past weekend was one of those busy one's. We'd only been back from Hawaii a couple of days so I was still on Hawaiian time but we had dance and basketball Friday and Saturday. It was Nate's last tournament so I wanted to get to as many games as I could. Then Sunday we had my family over for a birthday party. By the time Sunday night rolled around I was EXHAUSTED and not at all ready to dive back into Monday. But Monday came, as it always does. I always find that I'm off the first couple of days back if I don't get a legit (yes, I said it. What can I say...I live with pre-teens) break over the weekend. Luckily we tend to have more relaxing weekends then busy one's. I try really hard to keep our weekends as free as possible. I find Saturday mornings are perfect for house cleaning and grocery shopping (Costco on Saturday, Its crazy, I know. That's why I send Ryan. I'm usually at home getting the kids to do chore's. I guarantee you my job is worse.) Then we have the afternoon to fill with whatever we want. But Sunday's I like having nothing scheduled. A day where we do absolutely nothing but spend time together. Sometimes relaxing, sometimes going out and doing activities as a family. I also try and have some time to talk about important things. A time where we can sit and learn together. For example, being from Canada we don't talk as much about Martin Luther King and the important things that he did, so that is something I will bring up on a Sunday chat and we'll learn and discuss things like that. It's really become my favourite day of the week. But sometimes life is busy, and sometimes we have to schedule stuff on Sunday. I try not to, but sometimes it happens. So when I do have a busy weekend, here are some things I like to do to get myself back into the Monday groove.
1. Eat supper as a family. It helps us connect after a busy weekend with people running here or there.
2. I try to get some family time in, even if its short. Playing a game or reading with Hayley, or just sitting by the fireplace chatting.
3. I try and have my kitchen clean so that I don't have to worry about it in the morning. Monday mornings always seem to be the hardest.
4. I try to have some me-time. This usually consists of a hot bath or doing yoga. Something that relaxes me after a busy weekend.
5. I write in my journal before bed. Writing helps me sort things out and leave things behind so I'm able to move forward. If I can write about my weekend then I can put it behind me and focus on the start of a new week.
6. And most importantly, I have to let go of what didn't get done over the weekend. Sometimes the bathroom didn't get clean or McKenna didn't have time to practice her solo. Maybe we weren't able to talk about something I felt was important. We can't do it all, so acknowledge that you did your best and there is always next weekend or the weekend after that.
Use of time is definitely a hard thing to learn how to balance. But what about you? Do you like your weekend's free or busy? And what do you do to get yourself back into the start of a new week?
When I'm busy I tend to take less pictures. This is the only picture I've taken since Hawaii..
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| Group stretch |
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