It’s fall in New England and it’s the nicest time of year here. As a result, I have 4 weekends in a row planned that are all about fun. Last weekend we went up to a friend’s cabin that is in the middle of nowhere in the Adirondacks. We ate, canoed, picked wild cranberries off a bog that you could only get to by boat, made a roaring fire, talked and played cards. It was a wonderful weekend with friends…and they were extremely tolerant of my cranky 1.5 year old. Of course we dragged him canoeing with us. He looked very cute in his pint sized life vest and truly seemed to enjoy boating..for about 10 minutes. Hopefully his tolerance will grow with time. My 5 year old had an absolute blast. In fact, if the two of them did nothing except throw rocks in the water all weekend, it would have been worth the drive.
Just say no to Guilt
It got me thinking about how little time I actually spend relaxing and I quickly started feeling guilty about all the exterior painting I needed to do. I call this feeling “catholic guilt.” Anyone who’s been raised catholic or has been subjected to catholic school will know what I mean by that. I then said, “shut up brain” and told myself there are 52 weekends in a year and it’s okay to have fun 4 weekends in a row.
As it’s almost October, I wonder where all the time went this year? How are there really 52 weekends in a year? It does seem like a lot of time to not have accounted for. As I think back, there were many days where we could just barely keep up with laundry and grocery shopping. I also try to do one fun kid thing too such as a trip to the pool, the lake, museum, a local festival, or the park…and if I’m really ambitious, it may somewhere further like the zoo. Plus there are swimming lessons, music lessons, birthday parties. If I really think about it, I guess there is a lot we jam into the weekends.
Weekend warrior or Over scheduled?
I usually feel good on a Sunday night if we’ve either had fun, learned something new, or made forward progress on some house project. Treading water just seems like life’s passing me by and I’m not making the most of it. I can’t tell you how many people tell me that they blink and their kids are grown up. I want to have more memories of lazy summer days, but I know I’m just not wired that way. The good thing is, neither are my kids, so they’re always up for an adventure.
Babci’s getting older and I do want to make the most of the time we have with her, so I guess that’s why this summer was heavily weighted towards yard sales. I want my kids to remember her cooking, her garden and her general jolliness.
What will you remember from 2010?
The only purpose of this post is to ask, is time really flying by for all of us? What will make 2010 memorable for you? Is it some big milestone, either financial or otherwise? Is it a big family vacation, or a big job change? Or is it a lot of little things?
For me, 2010 felt like the year I started to get my life back a little. My baby is mostly sleeping through the night. We are spending more time outdoors again. I’ve had a number of moments this year where I thought “this is what I imagined my life with kids would be like” ie, doing most of the things we used to do, but dragging the kids along with us. Most of the major big ticket renovations at our house are finished. We only have my mom’s fixer to deal with instead of two places torn apart. We have a goal to have my mom’s bathroom finished before the end of the year..maybe it’ll be functional by then, but I doubt it’ll be done. Okay, that’s all for now.
What was 2010 like for you?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m with you on the guilt!
We haven’t done any fun weekends in about a month. I think this weekend we’re going to drive into the city and do a museum. Even though I know there’s stuff we should be doing at home. But I feel guilty if we do and guilty if we don’t.
This is going to be the year I stepped off that ‘treadmill of life’; working like a crazy woman and doing the weekend warrior bit!
I struggle with the balance of the weekends because I love working on my house and garden. I’m making progress- my weekend ‘to do’ list is about half the size it was last year!
The big milestone for me personally is starting my blogs. I always “wanted” to do something, but finally starting to actually do stuff is a great feeling. But that means I don’t have any free weekends and doing 2 full time jobs, so 2010 has gone by super fast for me. I don’t have much responsibilities yet, so if I don’t do it now, I am not doing it after I have a kid… I do want a long relaxing holiday. ..
It was a big year for us!
We paid off the home mortgage in February. My little sister had her first baby (a little girl), the grandparents got a pool ready for the kids, my 6 year old got her ears pierced (gulp), I joined Yakezie ;), I bought a new lawnmower (not too exciting unless you have seen my old one), and we went to Disney (oh wait that was last year, I miss it, it was a blast) erh Hilton Head Island.
Suba et all – I actually love reading all your blogs and I think it’s a great accomplishment the amount of care and time that goes into your posts.
Nicole, I’m acutely aware of that feeling. I can’t sit on my patio and relax without wanting to pull the weeds from in between the bricks. It’s a sickness..but you know what they say, step 1. Admit that you have a problem.
Molly, before we had kids, our weekends were sometimes scheduled for months in advance. We’ve definitely mellowed now and try not to pre-schedule our whole summer. That’s progress if you ask me.
Money Reasons – great milestones!! Hurray for no mortgage payment..I’m working hard to get the last one banged out as fast as possible. Last year we ended up buying 2 lawnmowers (we negotiated both decrepid ones with our houses, and both happened to die permanently a month apart from each other). That was not a fun purchase but a memorable one. I suppose we should be thankful that we got 8 years out of one and 3 out of the other.
I grew up with “Catholic Guilt” but get it when thinking about visiting family, not over house chores (thankfully since I hate chores, lol). That said, 2010 has been amazing!
– I started BFS in February and am in love with blogging!
– My husband and I discovered Curling in February as well, which has really become a fun part of our life.
– Hubby graduated from grad school in August
– He then immediately started his new job as a school librarian
– We have visited family and had many great weekends with friends.
– I did get the guest bathroom toilet fixed this year as planned.
– I started volunteering a little more than in 2009.
– I started Crystal Clear Thoughts and It’s a Dog’s Life For Me this month!
– I’m spending a 3 day weekend in a ranch house with a group of friends in 2 1/2 weeks.
– I met all of you!
Overall, it has been an excellent year. 🙂
Our only huge loss was that my husband’s grandmother, Mary, passed away. She had a long battle and was in pain, so we are all trying to accept that it was a blessing for her at least. She has been the first of our grandparent’s to die, so I do see a lot of loss in the next 10-15 years…