It is not often that we are able to sit back and say “that was a perfect weekend”. Some of our weekends are more relaxed than others, but they can also be busy and sometimes we find them over filled and exhausting. At the end of 2018 we made a sort of vow that we would try and do things in a way that worked for us, and spend less time trying to run around after other people. This has meant tailoring our lives slightly to meet our needs above what other people expect of us, but we have adjusted. We are both busy working parents and we want and need to have time with our kids, and make that a priority, whilst the kids still want to spend time with us. Soon, they will both want to be off with their friends and we will barely see them, so for now, we are trying to maximise on that. This does mean that what other people consider a priority, we may not put as high on our list, and it does mean we have to plan well in order to make sure we get it right, but when it does work, we feel happy (and slightly smug)
This past weekend has been the Easter weekend so we have had the advantage of bank holidays and extra days off. We were meant to go away this weekend, as a family, but about a month ago we decided to move that plan to a few weeks away, and simply have a weekend to ourselves, doing what we wanted, at home. A sort of weekend staycation. We didn’t tell anyone about our plans, because we know how life can be and the diary would then fill up. We kept it on the low, and went with the flow. It’s been a perfect weekend as a result.
We also implemented some screen free time. We turned off and handed in our phones and iPads for 24 hours. Kids and adults alike. We not only survived that but we pretty much enjoyed it. The kids came up with some creative ideas to communicate instead of using sms or iMessage, we talked to each other. We watched a movie together, we read ACTUAL books instead of resorting to screen time, and we even left the house without devices and managed to cope. I will be sharing more on screen free time this week. We plan to do it more often.
So what did we do?
On Friday we managed to get a visit to the DIY store, and grocery shopping all done before the crowds and crazy descended. We also managed to get some dump runs in, clearing out a few things we have needed to get rid of. I managed to go for a gentle 3km run, and the tween had friends over for a sleepover.
On Saturday we pottered about, and then spent a glorious afternoon in a friends garden eating cake and drinking Pimms, whilst our children exhausted themselves chasing their friends around with Nerf and Water guns. At this point we had turned our phones off so there were no photos and no social media shares happening. I can’t say I missed either.
On Sunday we slept in (sort of, if you count being gently prodded at half hour intervals by cats and children who seem to not understand the concept of “let mum and dad sleep”) until 10am. Then we baked, then we headed off to celebrate Easter with friends at church and ate far more good food than was good for us, and again our kids ran around in the sunshine. We had switched our phones back on at this point but I left mine at home, so no photos.
We also managed to squeeze in an Easter Egg hunt at our local National Trust house, which is an annual tradition. I did take photos, using my proper camera. Easter Egg hunt spam will be shared in another post.
Today, we look back back at the weekend, and we are grateful. Grateful for some sleep, for good friends we have spent time with, for good food, fun, sunshine and just time together. None of it cost very much money, none of it was fancy, or posh, or impressive, but we had far better. We had each other. It was stress free, we laughed, we all got a touch of the sun.
Just a perfect weekend. We even took a family selfie…