A Look at How Our Family Approaches Extracurricular Activities!

FRIENDS!!!

I took a VERY UNPLANNED two week break from blogging. 

I think the last time I posted- I was coming off of a very wonky week. My son James had been super sick and all sorts of weird things had happened.

Well- I was determined to start the next week off on the right foot! And wouldn't you know it, Marshall got VERY sick. He got exactly what James had. Then I got sick. I was SO sick!!!

And then Celine got sick. It was just not good. 

I literally just started feeling like myself a few days ago. 

I am SO thankful we are all back to being healthy!!

So. That's what I've been up to!

How are you doing??? It's the first full week of February- and while January felt like it lasted forever- it's hard to believe we are already in the 2nd month of this year!!

Random thought that inspired today's post....

So when I was sick and spending most of my time on the couch, I was thinking about all the things that HAD to be done and the things that I could put on the back burner.  

Which lead me to think about all of the kids' activities and stuff they are involved in...

and I decided this would be a good blog post! It might bore you to tears...but I like the idea of documenting a snapshot of a part of our life right now!

We are in our 2nd semester of having a high schooler (freshman year) and 4 kids at our K-8 school. I feel like we are in a good rhythm with what everyone is doing regarding activities. 

Here's what that looks like for our family!!  

CURRENTLY:

My oldest daughter plays piano and has one virtual lesson a week. She is also on her school's swim team. She has practice 4 days a week, after school and one swim meet a week. She is a part of several clubs/organizations at school- but those don't require much time outside of school. 

My 2nd oldest daughter played on her middle school volleyball team this past fall. She currently is not involved in anything outside of school. 

My 3rd oldest daughter plays piano and has one virtual lesson a week. She is on the cheerleading squad at school and practices/cheers at a game once a week.

James and Marshall are part of a wrestling club. They wrestle two nights a week for 1.5 hours. Marshall is also enrolled in a crafting club at school that meets one time a week, every other week after school.

As you can see- our kids are not involved in a lot of activities. Aaron and I have been very intentional about saying "yes" to some things and "no" to most things. Not because we don't want our kids to be involved a lot of sports and activities- but because we believe there are a lot of advantages to having a good amount of margin in our daily and weekly schedules.

By not having multiple activities to go to every evening after school, our kids are able to:

- play outside with friends

- take their dogs on walks in our neighborhood

- have ample time for homework and studying 

(my 3 older kids have quite of a bit of school work/projects/quizzes/tests)

- have time to JUST BE 

- relax before bedtime AND go to bed at a set time every night

We're also able to eat dinner together (almost) every night of the week- which is a huge priority for us. 

As far as the weekends go- we keep with the "less is more" mentality and really keep our schedule as open as possible. 

We keep Sunday ONLY for family. 

So- no birthday parties or sporting events are happening on Sunday. We made this decision when our oldest was about 4 years old and was starting to get a lot of birthday invitations to parties on Sunday. We just decided to keep Sunday a "protected" day and now it's just a set thing for our family. Our kids know that if they want to do something with friends- it's not happening on Sunday! :)

We go to church every Sunday morning and have homemade cinnamon rolls when we get home from church. Aaron and I always go for a long walk after we have cinnamon rolls. Our girls take our dogs on a long walk; then they wash and bathe them. We have burgers and fries (almost) every Sunday for dinner and we always end with an ice cream sundae on Sunday :) We have been doing this routine for years and I truly believe it is part of what "anchors" our family. 

 

I am sure many of you are reading this and thinking- wow! They really aren't busy!!

And you're right- compared to so many other families- our schedule is LIGHT.

But I have to tell you- our days feel FULL. It takes a lot of effort to run our home the way we do, our kids always have something going on and the weekends always feel like they are packed! 

I would be an absolute basket case if we had much more on our plate. So the margin we have created is truly imperative for the type of energy that I want to be in our home. 

We are definitely the "least" busy out of all of our friends. I have one friend who has 7 kids- she HOMESCHOOLS- and 4 of them swim competitively and do triathlons, 2 do Irish dancing and they all play competitive soccer. Another friend has 2 boys who play competitive hockey, her husband is a coach for one of the teams and her daughter plays multiple middle school sports. Another friend has 2 kids in travel, competitive sports- they are never home on the weekends!

And each one of these families feel good about what they are doing! We are all SO different and I think it's just amazing. This idea that everyone needs to be comparing what they are doing to what everyone else is doing is SO OUT. 

Aaron and I have never cared about what other kids/families are doing and I am really thankful for that. I know it can really bring a lot of parents down and cause a lot unnecessary doubt in what is the "right" thing to do.

 Anyway..I am rambling now! 

I will wrap this up by saying....we feel really good about the energy in our home. We have regular things on our calendar that everyone enjoys- but no one feels frantic or overwhelmed. We have margin that allows us to enjoy time together as a family and that allows our kids to be kids. 

And here's the caveat- everything will look different in a few months because things will have changed and some kids will be doing different things! That's just how it goes! 

So we just keep riding the wave...staying focused on what's important to us as a family!

Hope ya'll have the BEST day! So glad to be back! 

Come back on Wednesday- I have a fun Walmart Finds post to share!