The Glorious Weekend!

I haven't been blogging as much lately because I can hardly ever find time to get on the computer, upload my pictures, and have a second to write. When I do have "downtime" - it usually consists of me holding a sleeping baby Violet. She is 11 months now, and I feel her babyhood slipping away.



I don't want to miss a moment of it, so I often find myself just staring at her when she's sleeping. I find it to be a pretty great use of my time! ;-)

I have been volunteering in Paprika's classroom on Thursdays (Mr. M's day off work). It is great to get in there and see her in her "element" - working at something that is becoming an increasingly large part of her life.



This past week was the library field trip and only five parents got to go. I know that sounds funny, but a lot of parents wanted to go...but the library had a limit. ;-)

I got to go because I am the classroom photographer (second year in a row). Wow, how I love that job. Super easy and it gets me a front row, all-access pass to all the fun classroom activities. I'm photographing the Halloween parade in a few weeks. How great is that?!




Paprika loves having me or Mr. M at her school volunteering. She looks forward to it so much and she is so proud of us. My heart really tugs at me, wanting to homeschool Paprika. I think that may be in the future for our family, but for right now, this going-to-school thing is working.

Paprika loves being in the classroom (why I do not know) - and loves all her little friends. Even though she is YEARS ahead in school-work, she tells me she is not bored. I think she likes the "novelty" of school...which may lose its luster before too long. But maybe not!

At home, she keeps busy with all kinds of studies. She is reading voraciously and reads at about a 5th grade level now. She loves writing, making up stories, creating her own math problems, learning about science and history, playing outdoors, and of course...spending time on the computer. Paprika never met a computer she didn't like! ;-) She is trying to learn digital animation and I often find her creating art on the computer (mostly just Microsoft Paint) - or working on her iPad making her "masterpieces" (as she calls them). Yesterday she learned what a blog is (from Brainpop, Jr.) and well...now she wants to write a blog. Oh boy!



Our weekdays are busy. I don't like that term "busy" because sometimes it just seems like an excuse of why you can't do this or that. But really, our weekdays are quite packed. Monday through Thursday are all about school and swim practice. Mondays are my "crazy" days because that day we also have Paprika's piano lesson. Then the evenings are filled with homework (ugh) and piano practice (usually about 30 minutes/night).

While Paprika is at school, that is my time with just Ginger and Violet. On Friday, I took them both to the library and got Ginger her very own library card! I checked the whole collection of Elephant and Piggie books for her and Paprika (those are their FAVORITE books).  Ginger picked up a few romance novels she wanted to read! Haha. She liked the "princess" covers. ;-)



We also go to the park quite a bit, and in general just have "downtime" during the hours Paprika is at school. I usually try to get Violet to take a nap while Paprika is at school, but I don't have a very good track record with that! She usually has other ideas! Ha!



Then on the weekends, the glorious weekends...we do NOTHING!  Haha.  Well, we used to try to do a lot.  And we still do some things.  But when Mr. M is working on Dancing With The Stars, he always has to work on the weekends.  I used to feel kind of bad about that - like I was missing out because every other family was doing this or that amazing thing on Saturday and Sunday.  But what I realized (recently) is that after having a very busy and full week ALL week long...running from this activity to that...is that the kids really just want to be home on the weekends.

Sure, we go to the park still (usually at least one park/day) on the weekends.  And we play in the backyard a lot.  And we go out to dinner usually on Friday and Saturday nights as a family.  And if there is a birthday party or what not, we will go to that.  So, it's not like we are sitting home all weekend.

I guess what I mean is that we try to have a lot of unstructured free-time on the weekends since our weekdays are so tightly scheduled.  I love it that on the weekends, we don't have to BE somewhere at a certain time.  Or stress if we don't go to this festival or that event.  We let the kids decide what to do on the weekend, and if it means just hanging out most of the day and playing hide-and-go seek in the backyard, or building a fort out of bedsheets, or painting on the kitchen table...that is what we do!

I do make the girls get dressed (so we can go anywhere at a moment's notice if we choose) - but they pick out their own clothes and do their own hair.  Sometimes the hairstyles are more "bird's nest" than anything else...but hey, it's the weekend!  ;-)



So, lately, instead of dreading the weekend (because I'm home alone with the kids all weekend) - I have come to really look forward to it.  To let out a big sigh of relief.  No swim schedules, no chance of being late for school, no piano lessons to make, no homework to get done...just time to relax and enjoy.  In the way that works for our family.

I think it's the time we ALL look forward to every week...and yet, if we didn't have so much going on during the week, I think it might not seem so special and relaxing.  At least that's what I'm telling myself!  ;-)



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