All Part of a Balanced Weekend.

This afternoon my husband and I had a quiet moment by ourselves to reflect on our busy weekend. Saturday we spent a rainy, dreary day at home with our girls. Napped, read, TV watched, bike rides, library visits and general relaxation were all on the schedule. We literally had a day with a little bit of everyone's favourite activity. Sunday my husband left early for the beach to go surfing. When the girls and I woke up a few hours later we made the sponatneous decision to head to the beach too. It was windy and too cold for swimming, but we spent most of the day just hanging out and having fun while Daddy spent time doing something he loves. Monday the girls went to my Mom's house and we managed to sneak in a date at the movies. It was lovely to be away and have some time together. Movie dates are one of my favourite activities. We capped the weekend off with a great dinner with my parents and everyone went to bed tonight tired, but happy.

While reflecting on our busy, fun-filled weekend my husband and I came to the conclusion that we had finally managed to create a balanced weekend. A balance of fun activity and peaceful quiet. We included a little bit of something for everyone and not one of us could say that we didn't do something just for them. I started wondering why we don't have more of these weekends. Why don't we all feel this sort of satisfication every Sunday (holiday Monday) night? The most obvious reason is that a holiday Monday offers a whole extra day, but still there must be a way to create the same balance on a regular weekend. So what's holding us back?

The answer: expectations. My husband and I have this sense that other people have expectations of us and our time. When it comes to the weekend we feel a strong pull to spend time with our parents, to clean our home and to do a million fun things with our girls. This weekend we spent a limited amount of time visiting, we didn't clean a single thing and although we didn't focus 100% of our time and energy on our daughters they still had a blast. I think this is what people call a light bulb moment, actually a few light bulbs. First light bulb, our kids can and do enjoy the things we like to do. Second light bulb, yes we need to visit family but not every weekend because we have our OWN family. (This is more of a reminder than a light bulb.) Third, our home did not crumble and no one cares that we didn't clean the bathrooms or mop the floors. Priorities shift, and a lovely, enjoyable weekend becomes possible. As it turns out those so-called expectations are likely slightly self-imposed. I am not surprised, but certainly intrigued to have discovered yet another self-inflicted phenomenon that causes imbalance in our lives.

I'm not so deluded as to believe every weekend can be this way, but I certainly am comitted enough to my family to see the importance and value in creating well-rounded family time. I'm looking forward to including our daughters more in our hobbies, to incorporating more do nothing days into our weekends and feeling a sense of satisfication on Sunday night as I fall asleep. Cheers to a great weekend and many more!