Did I forget to mention that it was glorious? It was glorious.
Given that the past few weekends have been busy, I purposely decided to leave this weekend open. I wasn't sure what Dad's work schedule looked like, but I could tell from the "I'm overwhelmed with work" look he came home from work with everyday last week, Dad was in need of some down time too.
Friday night after work we had a babysitter come over so Dad and I could go out with some friends who are just in the beginning stages of adopting. They are a wonderful couple who are going to make excellent parents. They are recently certified and hoping to adopt children around our boys' age. I am so excited for the day when they "get the call" and I hope our children can all play together in the future. The world of adoption is really pretty small and I'm so happy we get to share in their joy as this wonderful journey is just starting for them.
While Jarrett and I enjoyed getting to spend time with them, another perk of the evening was getting to enjoy a night out without children. I forget what it is like to eat my food while it is still warm and what it can be like to have a meal without getting up to help someone else 6, 8, or even 10 times in a matter of a one meal. It was the perfect start to our lazy weekend.
Saturday morning, I got up early to go run. Its something I've been doing now for the past 4 months. Earlier this summer I decided I needed to commit to taking time for myself. Knowing I wouldn't actually stay committed unless I had committed to a race, I took the plunge and I signed up to run a half marathon in January. I've been training since May. I can honestly say, it has been the best therapy for me. I'll blog more about running in another post, but I will share, taking a 4 year hiatus from running isn't well advised. I swear for the first two months, I wondered if I could ever run like I use to. Slowly, very slowly, its coming back so I'm thankful for that.
Getting back early, I debated about waking Dad up as it was the first Saturday in College Football, but thankfully I didn't have to make that decision. Isabelle had already done the honors and had the entire house up. We spent most of the day watching college football on the couch. It was WONDERFUL. I forget how much we missed college football until it came on.
After spending a solid 4 hours in front of the TV, munching on terribly unhealthy food and taking naps in between games, my phone rang. My cousin Brian and his wife Brenda from Iowa were in town and were in the area. They came over and we had a wonderful time visiting with them. People refer to Iowa being God's country and I think it is 99% in part because of the people who live there. Brian and Brenda are definitely some of the strong representation for why Iowans are such great folks. We had such a fun time visiting with them. Gabriel strong armed Brian into playing baseball, football and soccer in the short time they were here. Never mind it was 108 on Saturday, Brian was a great sport. And Brenda she went outside and played chalk with Isabelle on our deck blocks. Isabelle thought she was very fun and asked me about 30 times the following day, "Where Bend-a go?"
Before Brian and Brenda left, the boys begged to go the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Here's the video of the boys participating...
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204981830333696&set=vb.1479750245&type=2&theater
On Sunday morning before church Jarrett and I were talking about what we should do for the day. Jarrett debated about going into work. At Church we received a sign, I think directly from the man above. The sermon was about work, playing and relaxing. The pastor shared how God made us to work hard but to also take time to rest (or play). In today's society, Pastor Troy shared that often times we skip out on the resting part and only do that if we have extra time. The message could not have been any clearer. I looked at Jarrett, he looked at me and we smiled. Jarrett decided to stay home and not to work all day! It was the first Sunday in months (not counting the week we were in Iowa) he didn't go into the office.
We decided to take the kids to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While Isabelle would have preferred to watch paint dry, the boys (including Dad) loved it. They were opened mouth, eye's glued on screen, hand shoveling popcorn into face, the entire movie. I don't even think Dad noticed I took Isabelle to the bathroom 4 times during the movie. After the movie, the boy's imaginations were running on high speed. Before even coming into the house they scavenged through our recycle bin to find as much cardboard as they could. Michael said, "Mom, can we turn our house into a sewer so we can be like the Ninja Turtles." With Isabelle napping and the boys (all three of them) actively at work on creating cardboard cutouts of the weapons the turtles had, I went back to the couch and took a nap. When I woke up 15 minutes later to the feeling of a karate chop and cardboard sword on my back, I looked to see the boys dressed like this...
Yep, there are my two Ninja turtles. Their masks, yes those were my dusting rags. I saw were for obvious reasons. The two of them were entertained for hours practicing their moves and talking about how they were going to fight the bad guys.
They were also trying with all of their might to convince Dad to dress up like Splinter, the 6 foot, talking rat who trained the turtles.
Meanwhile Isabelle and I played with her toys. Now that she's a big girl and doesn't wear diapers, she wants to use all of them on her baby Minnie. I helped with putting the diapers on Minnie and then taking them off and putting them back on. We also built blocks, sang songs and she made me food. It was nice just to have free time, not dictated by where we had to go next and what had to be done before then. The schedule was completely free.
Before bed, we took a family walk and talked about how nice it was to have time to spend together.
Last night after the kids went to bed, Jarrett and I enjoyed watching a movie together. Its one of our favorite things to do, but most of the time I fall asleep 10 minutes into the show. Jarrett was excited I stayed awake through the entire movie. He said, "maybe you should take a 15 minute nap most days and then we can enjoy the movies we watch together, instead of me having to tell you what happened in the show the following morning." He's so funny, isn't he?!?!
Today has also been a relaxing day at home. While Jarrett's labor-less Labor Day came to an end bright and early, he's hopefully getting a lot done while the rest of his office enjoys their holiday. I hope when he comes home tonight, he will have the "I got so much done" expression on his face.
I'm probably the biggest one at fault for our crazy, super scheduled, overly hectic schedule, so having a weekend like this one, reminds me why we need to have down time, when we just spend time, spending time. We hope your Labor Day weekend was labor less, relaxing and wonderful!
Until next time,
Angie
Friday night after work we had a babysitter come over so Dad and I could go out with some friends who are just in the beginning stages of adopting. They are a wonderful couple who are going to make excellent parents. They are recently certified and hoping to adopt children around our boys' age. I am so excited for the day when they "get the call" and I hope our children can all play together in the future. The world of adoption is really pretty small and I'm so happy we get to share in their joy as this wonderful journey is just starting for them.
While Jarrett and I enjoyed getting to spend time with them, another perk of the evening was getting to enjoy a night out without children. I forget what it is like to eat my food while it is still warm and what it can be like to have a meal without getting up to help someone else 6, 8, or even 10 times in a matter of a one meal. It was the perfect start to our lazy weekend.
Saturday morning, I got up early to go run. Its something I've been doing now for the past 4 months. Earlier this summer I decided I needed to commit to taking time for myself. Knowing I wouldn't actually stay committed unless I had committed to a race, I took the plunge and I signed up to run a half marathon in January. I've been training since May. I can honestly say, it has been the best therapy for me. I'll blog more about running in another post, but I will share, taking a 4 year hiatus from running isn't well advised. I swear for the first two months, I wondered if I could ever run like I use to. Slowly, very slowly, its coming back so I'm thankful for that.
Getting back early, I debated about waking Dad up as it was the first Saturday in College Football, but thankfully I didn't have to make that decision. Isabelle had already done the honors and had the entire house up. We spent most of the day watching college football on the couch. It was WONDERFUL. I forget how much we missed college football until it came on.
After spending a solid 4 hours in front of the TV, munching on terribly unhealthy food and taking naps in between games, my phone rang. My cousin Brian and his wife Brenda from Iowa were in town and were in the area. They came over and we had a wonderful time visiting with them. People refer to Iowa being God's country and I think it is 99% in part because of the people who live there. Brian and Brenda are definitely some of the strong representation for why Iowans are such great folks. We had such a fun time visiting with them. Gabriel strong armed Brian into playing baseball, football and soccer in the short time they were here. Never mind it was 108 on Saturday, Brian was a great sport. And Brenda she went outside and played chalk with Isabelle on our deck blocks. Isabelle thought she was very fun and asked me about 30 times the following day, "Where Bend-a go?"
Before Brian and Brenda left, the boys begged to go the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Here's the video of the boys participating...
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204981830333696&set=vb.1479750245&type=2&theater
On Sunday morning before church Jarrett and I were talking about what we should do for the day. Jarrett debated about going into work. At Church we received a sign, I think directly from the man above. The sermon was about work, playing and relaxing. The pastor shared how God made us to work hard but to also take time to rest (or play). In today's society, Pastor Troy shared that often times we skip out on the resting part and only do that if we have extra time. The message could not have been any clearer. I looked at Jarrett, he looked at me and we smiled. Jarrett decided to stay home and not to work all day! It was the first Sunday in months (not counting the week we were in Iowa) he didn't go into the office.
We decided to take the kids to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While Isabelle would have preferred to watch paint dry, the boys (including Dad) loved it. They were opened mouth, eye's glued on screen, hand shoveling popcorn into face, the entire movie. I don't even think Dad noticed I took Isabelle to the bathroom 4 times during the movie. After the movie, the boy's imaginations were running on high speed. Before even coming into the house they scavenged through our recycle bin to find as much cardboard as they could. Michael said, "Mom, can we turn our house into a sewer so we can be like the Ninja Turtles." With Isabelle napping and the boys (all three of them) actively at work on creating cardboard cutouts of the weapons the turtles had, I went back to the couch and took a nap. When I woke up 15 minutes later to the feeling of a karate chop and cardboard sword on my back, I looked to see the boys dressed like this...
Yep, there are my two Ninja turtles. Their masks, yes those were my dusting rags. I saw were for obvious reasons. The two of them were entertained for hours practicing their moves and talking about how they were going to fight the bad guys.
They were also trying with all of their might to convince Dad to dress up like Splinter, the 6 foot, talking rat who trained the turtles.
Meanwhile Isabelle and I played with her toys. Now that she's a big girl and doesn't wear diapers, she wants to use all of them on her baby Minnie. I helped with putting the diapers on Minnie and then taking them off and putting them back on. We also built blocks, sang songs and she made me food. It was nice just to have free time, not dictated by where we had to go next and what had to be done before then. The schedule was completely free.
Before bed, we took a family walk and talked about how nice it was to have time to spend together.
Last night after the kids went to bed, Jarrett and I enjoyed watching a movie together. Its one of our favorite things to do, but most of the time I fall asleep 10 minutes into the show. Jarrett was excited I stayed awake through the entire movie. He said, "maybe you should take a 15 minute nap most days and then we can enjoy the movies we watch together, instead of me having to tell you what happened in the show the following morning." He's so funny, isn't he?!?!
Today has also been a relaxing day at home. While Jarrett's labor-less Labor Day came to an end bright and early, he's hopefully getting a lot done while the rest of his office enjoys their holiday. I hope when he comes home tonight, he will have the "I got so much done" expression on his face.
I'm probably the biggest one at fault for our crazy, super scheduled, overly hectic schedule, so having a weekend like this one, reminds me why we need to have down time, when we just spend time, spending time. We hope your Labor Day weekend was labor less, relaxing and wonderful!
Until next time,
Angie
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