Last week, I was invited out with girlfriends and I desperately wanted to go. It would be space for me to connect with friends, space for me to have fun, space for me away from my home office.
However, the same day I was invited out was the first day my husband didn’t have to work late AND we didn’t have a baseball commitment. We had the opportunity to have family dinner together. Slowly. Together.
I opted not to visit with friends and chose instead to visit with my family. Dinner was slow, almost too slow. We had good conversation however I was frustrated at how unfocused my kids were on finishing their dinner. The promise of dessert after was not enough to give them focus to finish. Finally, painstakingly, everyone was finished with dinner, dishes were cleared, leftovers were put away.
I made the announcement: “we are going on a family walk.” {It was already decided, by me. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.} The girls were thrilled, my youngest {have I told you she’s the household cheerleader?} shrieked with glee and shouted “yeahhhh!” They still didn’t hustle to get out the door, however at least they were excited about the prospect of a family walk. My son on the other hand, was less than thrilled. He had a negative attitude and complained about having to do what everyone else tells him to do. I shook off the negativity and said, “oh well. We are all going.”
The walk started off slowly, finding helmets, scooters, bikes, ambling around; meanwhile I grow more and more impatient as I imagine the daylight slowly slipping away and our walk won’t happen.
Eventually, we made our way down the street. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was happy. The older two were racing their scooters, my husband and I walked slowly behind them pushing the stroller. We chatted about our days, we yelled to the kids to stop at the end of the street {safety first & yelling was most necessary because they were so far ahead}.
Our goal was the airport near our home. Our kids love watching for airplanes {especially my littlest}. We made it to the airport and watching planes take off and land. Our scootering kids raced in the large parking lot and the youngest asked to “get out”. She wanted to walk around herself.
We meandered around the airport looking at small planes, large jets, old planes, and news helicopters. The kids eyes grew large as they found bigger & better or older & cooler airplanes. Our youngest shrieked with joy “airplane! airplane!” She was so thrilled.
It was a delightful end to a full day. It was worth saying “not tonight” to a night out with friends to spend quality time with my family. That’s not always the case, however it was this time.