How was everyone’s weekend??!! This was our 6th weekend home since the lock down began. We had some just gorgeous weather here in Wisconsin and I think everyone was trying to soak it up. It is going to be much cooler the rest of the week.
My phone alerted me on Saturday morning that Asher’s soccer game was about to begin. (Clearly, there was no game- the team manager just forgot to update the app). His swim team was also supposed to be hosting a home swim meet all day yesterday. I am actually the Volunteer Coordinator for his swim team, which is a highly labor intensive position that requires hours and hours of work leading up to these home meets. Let’s just say that my weekend (and entire last 2 weeks, honestly) would have looked extremely different if the swim meet had been on. It would have consumed my entire Sunday. Ethan would have had a soccer game too, so Ivan would have probably gone with him while I was at the swim meet with Asher, and he probably would have had tennis league on Saturday afternoon. Ivan would have had his own soccer game sometime during the course of the weekend (plays in an adult league)- maybe Sunday evening around 4 or 5 pm.
Instead, we did this:
-had a Friday night happy hour at home with a beer and the shrimp ceviche pictured the other day, followed by a walk
-watched the old movie My Girl with the boys
– Saturday morning spent writing and doing an amazing Stretch/ Repair workout, followed by a long walk
-cleaned the house with the boys, Ivan cut the grass and trimmed edges
-the boys played outside a lot
-sat out on the deck for a long time on Saturday afternoon
-we all went on a long walk/ bike ride Saturday evening
-watched The Good Wife x2 episodes on Saturday with Ivan while the kids played video games, PLUS we later watched an episode of The Amazing Race with the kids
-ate a lot of popcorn
-another leisurely morning on Sunday with a workout and long walk following
-stopped to take pictures of baby geese. I mean goslings.
-cleaned out the fridge, made a grocery list, planned a few meals
-cleaned out and weeded my little garden, did several hours of yard work with Ivan thinning out some flower beds, rearranging some bricks, trimming some trees and putting out the rest of our yard furniture by the firepit
-read my book, did my Duo Lingo app
-meditated both days
-watched The Amazing Race season 20 finale Sunday night
It is difficult to think about, in some ways… If all of the stuff in the first paragraph had occurred, when would I have been able to do all of the stuff in the second paragraph?? I guess I wouldn’t have. And that makes me feel sad, because I had a really nice weekend. But, I also generally enjoy all of the activities that we would have done too! So it’s a real pickle. 🙂
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| They’re so cute! Ivan asked if we will need to stop and say “awww, hi baby geese!” in a baby voice every time we walk by the pond (daily…) to which I replied, “yes, we will.” 😊 |
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| My itty bitty garden! Trust me, this is all I can handle right now. Total newbie gardener here. Tips welcome!!! |
Ivan and I did some talking on our walks about this whole dilemma. We have always known that our schedules are busy, really busy, but we always felt just kind of used to it, I guess. It seemed to be pretty much the standard life around here, for the most part.
I still have a really hard time knowing what I would or should cut out. So many activities these days sort of force you to either participate or at least pay for multiple seasons at once or the whole year. Ethan’s tennis membership is for the whole year. There is no way to really “just” be a member for the summer, for example. If you sign up for soccer, you are basically in it for both fall and spring. I suppose some of the off season training is optional, but they of course like to stay in shape for the next season! Swim is done in multiple sessions, so that would be an option to cut back, but that is by far Asher’s MOST favorite activity and the thing he would definitely not want to reduce at all.
Anyway, I don’t really have the answer but I do know that I’m loving the reduced activity level right now. The kids, and we, are super disappointed that their spring sports seasons are cancelled because it is something they do love and look forward to. But I think at the very least we could maybe stop looking for extra stuff to sign up for constantly! Or, try to figure out ways that we could “cycle” certain new things they may want to try to certain seasons of the year (like only in the summer or only in the winter).
We have always felt that it’s good for the boys to stay busy and active, which I still agree with, but I think there is a limit between healthy/ busy and crazy/ busy. Busy at the expense of everything else might not be the answer either…. I will have to report back on this, because I don’t feel like we have resolved this issue or come to any light bulb over the head conclusions about what to change.
Some scenery we are all really missing right now, but also sort of enjoying the time away from (in some ways):
I still have a really hard time knowing what I would or should cut out. So many activities these days sort of force you to either participate or at least pay for multiple seasons at once or the whole year. Ethan’s tennis membership is for the whole year. There is no way to really “just” be a member for the summer, for example. If you sign up for soccer, you are basically in it for both fall and spring. I suppose some of the off season training is optional, but they of course like to stay in shape for the next season! Swim is done in multiple sessions, so that would be an option to cut back, but that is by far Asher’s MOST favorite activity and the thing he would definitely not want to reduce at all.
Anyway, I don’t really have the answer but I do know that I’m loving the reduced activity level right now. The kids, and we, are super disappointed that their spring sports seasons are cancelled because it is something they do love and look forward to. But I think at the very least we could maybe stop looking for extra stuff to sign up for constantly! Or, try to figure out ways that we could “cycle” certain new things they may want to try to certain seasons of the year (like only in the summer or only in the winter).
We have always felt that it’s good for the boys to stay busy and active, which I still agree with, but I think there is a limit between healthy/ busy and crazy/ busy. Busy at the expense of everything else might not be the answer either…. I will have to report back on this, because I don’t feel like we have resolved this issue or come to any light bulb over the head conclusions about what to change.
Some scenery we are all really missing right now, but also sort of enjoying the time away from (in some ways):
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| Ethan and his best friend 🙂 |
Okay, I know some people reading this are in the same exact boat. What are your thoughts?? Have you had any revelations about this? How are you feeling? Missing the activities or not so much? Help me figure this out. 🙂
5/3:
Steps: 14,601 (thank you yard work!)
Meditate: Done!
Read: 15 minutes
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for home workouts! I am grateful that I have the space to work out at home during this time the gyms are closed. I am also grateful that I already had some basic equipment- a mat, some dumbbells, and exercise bands. I am grateful that Beachbody exists and I’ve been able to do some super intense workouts at home. And, I’m grateful for a new friend I met through Instagram who is doing this workout along with me! It has been really fun connecting with someone and messaging each other after the workouts to talk about how it went! 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
I'm many years behind you in this conundrum so I have no advice, but this is something we need to be really mindful about. Like you guys, both me and my husband work so we need to be careful about how many activities we let our son/future child participate in because I don't want to feel like I am running from one activity to next. Life is stressful enough as is! I don't remember feeling stressed/overly busy as a child, though. But I grew up in rural ND and was 1 of 5 kids so I don't think my parents COULD have us all in a bunch of activities. We basically had one activity/season and I had piano lessons and swimming lessons in the summer for 2 weeks. We had a trailer at a lake campground growing up so my parents worked with us on swimming skills so those 2 weeks of lessons (every day, 5 days/week) were enough. I would like my son to have a childhood like mine with plenty of time to just be and learn how to entertain myself. But things are set up so differently now with traveling teams and multiple seasons for sports. Ugh. I just don't want any part of that! Ha! So we'll have to find a way to balance making sure our son is involved in things he's interested without making our schedule hellacious!
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Yes, it is very different these days compared to when we were kids! I was in quite a few activities as a child too and pretty "busy" you could say, but definitely not in as many year round sports and competitive teams. I played volleyball all throughout school but that was basically just in the fall, except one year I played club. I was into music and did piano and cello year round, softball in the summer, tried track for a few years, did girl scouts when younger, etc. but I know I wasn't off at practices/far away games/meets 4-5x per week for one sport as my kids sometimes are now. It is really difficult, since you sort of slowly get sucked into it! The kids love it, they enjoy the time with the friends, and then slowly the competition level rises and no one wants to be left behind. All of the clubs and teams seem to encourage year round participation and training, so there's never really an "off season". It does get hard to keep things at a lower level these days it seems. It's about choices too, of course, so I'm not trying to blame anyone but ourselves for the situation. We have allowed it and overall we really do enjoy the games, the meets, etc. I don't even really know that we exactly want to back off on certain things, but sometimes it just gets to be a bit much. Quite the conundrum for sure!
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