Wonderful Weekend

Besides Thanksgiving, this has just been a wonderful weekend with the kids. I wanted to spend some time with them, getting into their little world, and put my work aside so that I could do just that.

See, I need to do this a lot because it doesn't come naturally to me and if I let things run their own course, there are times when my kids wouldn't get the attention they deserve. I know a lot of women who spend hours and hours playing with their children, inventing activities geared towards their children's ages etc... but there is a big part of me that probably shouldn't have had kids because I'm too involved in my own activities. And, then of course there is a big part of me that should because my life would not be complete without them.

I've kind of always been in my own little world, my own thoughts. The only time my family saw me in high-school was when I would come down for dinner. The rest of the time I was up in my room rehearsing for my Broadway début in Les Miserables playing the part of Eponine. Never made it past my Music 101 class at OU. Anyway, I also managed my own bank account, car insurance, part-time job etc... at the age of 16 and was doing a lot of things even a lot of college students don't know how to do. My point is that from a very young age, I've learned to manage things on my own, hence controlling things on my own and I'm good at that, good at doing things for myself and for the family but not so good at doing things with other people. This includes doing things with my kids. One of the real struggles I've had getting used to two is the time balance between my time at home for myself and my time with them and it's been an uphill battle trying to learn that sometimes, the laundry needs to pile up or today I can't maybe find time to read, knit or cook because there are papers to be graded plus the kids need some time too and it's okay to not be able to do it all. When you have kids, you have to divide your time and make sacrifices and lucky for them, I am getting into the groove of things- unlucky for them it's taken me this long!

This was a great weekend because we just had fun together. We went to the park, we had Thanksgiving, Gab and I read books, Louise sat in the kitchen as I cooked and acted interested, and this morning we headed to Ikea to get our Xmas tree (you get a refund if you bring it back, so the tree is free!). No trees yet, but we still had fun. And, we had fun because I accepted that on my time to do things for me, I was giving it to the kids.

Hopefully there will be many more times like this in the future.

Stay tuned for my adventures in trying to make Louise her own mini oven for Xmas. Not pleased with what's available on ebay or in stores (way too expensive) and definitely not wanting plastic, I am attempting to make an oven/stove just her size out of a nightstand!