For the past several years (up until March 2020), our weekends have been notoriously busy.
- soccer games x2 kids, sometimes in different cities, at different times, different teams- spring and fall
- 1-3 soccer tournaments per season mixed in (for each kid) in different cities…and as you can imagine, a tournament eats up, like, the whole day
- indoor futsal games…on the far other side of town…in the winter
- tennis league at 1 pm on Saturdays, IF E didn’t have a soccer game interfering
- occasional tennis tournaments
- swim meets sprinkled in, 1-3 x/month. Could be a multi-day event, hours away and require staying in a hotel, or a single day meet nearby, but either way a swim meet is generally a 5+ hour event including warm-ups + competition time (more if it includes a big drive time!)
- If no meets, usually a Friday night and/or Saturday morning swim practice
- always a piano recital in the spring sometime, and another right before Christmas
- misc. events, like Ethan was in crew for the school play last winter and had a whole weekend of Annie shows for us to attend
- add in birthday parties, play dates with friends and getting together with my parents/ other family events and household stuff (cleaning, groceries, etc..)
Are we having fun yet?? 😉 Just kidding, kind of. All this stuff IS super fun, generally speaking. The kids have a blast and learn a lot and socialize and gain life experience about being on a team and being independent and all of that good stuff.
Obviously when COVID hit, this all came to a screeching halt. Not gonna lie, I did NOT fully miss the volume and multitude of events that occupied my weekends every single weekend.
Now, we are in that funny spot where things are starting to ramp back up. Not full throttle, but little by little. I can hear that train a comin’. It’s rollin’ round the bend. And I ain’t seen the sunshine, since I don’t know when. 😉
But seriously, it’s interesting how it all just creeps back in. I said I wanted to be more intentional with what we let back in, but it’s always hard to know what to cut when it’s ALL “good” stuff. We have had a few changes that should help ease our schedules, naturally:
1. Asher decided to quit soccer this year. Said he just wasn’t really enjoying it that much anymore, was tired of having to choose between soccer/ swim conflicts and just wants to focus on swim. Done! That right there frees up a bunch of time.
This weekend still feels very “pre-covidesque” though. Asher had swim practice Friday night, and again Saturday morning. Then, Ethan had his first soccer game of the season (first game since last fall, actually!!), an hour and 20 minutes away.
Today, Asher has another swim practice (due to weird pool availability times, the practices are kind of smushed together, unfortunately…they take what they can get) and Ethan has a game 2+ hours away!!! I think we are going to divide and conquer today- I will do the local swim practice and Ivan will take the far away game this time.
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| My tiny child…..still patiently waiting on that growth spurt…. |
How are things at your house? Are activities back in session yet? I’m curious what, if any, changes people will be making post-covid, and if the lockdown has impacted your view on how much “extra stuff” you want in your schedule.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I'll definitely more selective of activities for our weekend. I like lazy no plan weekend especially on Sunday as we've declared it as family day, so the only goal is to enjoy each other. Saturday is still pretty busy for Sofia (piano, mandarin and math) while the rest of the family starts to enjoy weekend. coming to Manila made our life easier, as there are less social events on weekend, and make us to enjoy each other more, which I actually like.
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Paul is too young to have activities but I know that is just around the corner. He was taking swimming lessons pretty much year round and those were on Saturday mornings. The company resumed lessons this session but we opted not to do that given my risk profile for covid. I'm hoping by next summer or fall he can get back in swimming lessons as learning to swim is very important to us and he loved swimming lessons! Plus by March he won't need a parent in the pool so it will be more enjoyable for me to just go and watch and not be in the pool with him. 😉 I actually have quite a bit planned this coming weekend. 2 former coworkers + a current coworker (we all worked together) are coming over to have lunch on our deck on Friday, and then that night 2 college friends are coming over to hang pictures on our newly painted walls (I'm horrible at that so always get them to help). Then on Saturday I'm getting coffee with a colleague who is taking the voluntary separation program so will be done working in November and then Sunday we are getting together, outdoors, with another family post-nap. That's a lot of plans for one weekend – plus i Have walks planned on Thur and Mon. But I am trying to see as many people as possible before the cold weather hits. And since I only leave my house to go on walks or to dr appts, I've found I"m ok with 'fuller' weekends. Pre-covid, I tried to only have plans on Sat or Sun – not both days. But now that I'm not commuting, I find I can handle more!
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