I don’t know about anyone else but sometimes
I feel like I should be doing more. Spending more time with the kids. Being more
engaged. Being more fun. Hosting more play dates. Making time for just Logan and I. Seeing friends. Visiting family. Etc. I know we all probably feel like that and I know I find myself compering my choices to others when I see all the great things others are doing. Consciously I know that
we all share and celebrate the good things online and not as much the bad. That’s great and I have no issues with that,
but I do have to remind myself that what I do is also enough, even if it’s
different. One way I have come to
appreciate how privileged we are as a family is by downloading all my photos to
the computer at the end of each month.
As I go through the endless stream of photographs I am always struck by
how lucky my children are to have so many opportunities in their lives and how much time we actually do spend together. Recently I was listening to Gretchen Rubins podcast, Happier, and one of the hacks she recommended was making a "Ta-Da" list. She suggests instead of making a 'to do' list and crossing things off, you can switch it up and make a "Ta-Da" list to celebrate all the things you did accomplish, regardless of how small they are. I adapted this idea to help me reflect on all the experiences and memories we create as a family as I go through our photos each month.
Here is a snapshot of our February break "Ta-Da" list.
- 1 Escape room and dinner with friends (adults
only). I love making time to spend with
friends, reminding ourselves that we are adults and have interests and needs
beyond our parenting/work duties.
- 1 adult trip to the lake, 15 km of
cross-country skiing, and 4 adult only meals. Thanks to my parents for keeping the girls
from Friday to Sunday. It’s just what Logan and I needed.
- 1 pleasure reading book completed, 2 professional resources read/skimmed and 4 hours of auto-book listened in the car.
- 2 Birthday celebrations, Cooper (2)
and Logan (36). We gave Cooper the
Build-a-Bear experience as a birthday gift.
I am a BIG fan of experience birthday gifts. Logan also had an experience gift, the adult- only weekend getaway and the Escape Room experience.
- 10+ hours of skiing/snowboarding lessons
for the kids at Table Mountain. The first
tow days were frigid cold, like -30C, EEK.
On the last day Logan joined us and we spend the day on the hill as a
family. Both kids improved their ski/snowboarding
skills immensely.
- Countless hours of watching the Olympics in
the evenings. We mostly watched the
skating and snowboarding events. Halie
was inspired by the Big Air competition in snowboarding which resulted in her
trying rails and little jumps in the terrain park.
- 1 sleepover with our friends Kelsea,
Madeline and Zurie and one trip to the pool.
- 1 trip to the outdoor skating rink.
- 1 trip to the dog park to spend some time
with Tanner.
- 2 stomach flues and endless trips to the
bathroom to wrap the week up.
I encourage you all to focus on writing a "Ta-Da" list of things you’ve done in a course of a week/month as a family instead of thinking about all the things you didn't get around to. You’ll be shocked to see just how many little
things you do all together.
