Monthly Archives: February 2016

An unplanned day at home

We had an unplanned day at home this past Monday.  Faith got sick, which meant that Miller and I would be at home from school. This also meant that there was no way I was going to get Wilson to go to school if everyone else was at home.  He had a pretty convincing argument – he said that he wanted to stay home to “play” because he didn’t get to play at school.  I reminded him that he got to go to recess and lunch but he said that “in lunch we only get to talk.  That is not playing.”  And…..I was won over and he got to stay home.  I have to admit that I selfishly let him stay home because I knew that he would help entertain Miller while I cared for Faith.  Other than Faith being sick, It was a very enjoyable day.  The weather was warm enough to wear shorts and the boys had a new game which included filling buckets full of water, building sand walls, and flooding the sandbox…and my yard.

I sat on the back porch, watching the boys play in the sandbox while I read my home school book. I was almost I tears thinking about how much I love my children and how excited I am to spend more time with them this summer and next year. Summer can’t get here soon enough!

I have wanted to home school my children for the last three years. I am finally going to be able to achieve my dream of doing that next year. It says in the Bible, “Delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  I will be given the desire of my heart – home school my children.  My children bring me so much joy. I want to spend more of my time enjoying them while they are this age, because we will never be back here again. I look back with such fond memories at the time I spent with the kids when they were 1,3 and 5 . I miss those years. I don’t want to look back at this time of life and have any regrets.

I stumbled upon his Robert Frost poem which sums up my feelings exactly…

I shall be telling this with a sigh

        Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, 

        and that has made all the difference.

Hotel weekend

Last Christmas Tom won a two night stay at Aloft hotel in Ballentyne. In our usual fashion, we left the gift certificate sitting in a dresser drawer until two weeks before the expiration date.  I called Aloft and thankfully they let us extend the expiration date until we could go in January.  

We decided to take the kids with us to the hotel on Friday night and then Tom and I would stay without the kids on Saturday night. Aloft was a fabulous hotel with a pool and the friendliest and most helpful staff. We truly enjoyed our stay and the kids loved it. 

The kids swam in the pool Friday night, Saturday morning by 8:00am they were down there again, and then they retuned two more times that afternoon.  Well worth the stay. 

Friday night we took the kids out for dinner at Red Robin. There I realized that we never take the kids out for dinner, and the reason why. It cost us over $70 to feed five people dinner, dessert and two beers for Tom and I. We can’t afford to do that very often. It was a special treat.  

 Saturday night we sent the kids to my parents’ house for the night.  The first thing I did was take a nap (which was desperately needed) and then I went out for Indian food with Tom. 

The funniest part of our date night was when Tom and I were trying to decide what to do after dinner. We discussed whether we wanted to go out or go back to the hotel room to watch football, read and sleep…is was only at 9:00 at night. Our conversation went something like this….

Tom -what do you want to do now?

Me- I don’t know. I feel like we should do something fun. 

Tom -why?  The hotel can be fun 

Me – I don’t know. I feel like we should be out doing something fun and different just because we can….even though I really just want to go back to the hotel. 

Tom – you know, tonight I am just hoping to get some rest. 

Me – Should we each sleep in our own double bed? Lol 

Our priorities have changed over the years. We are no longer out to prove something or have the night of our lives.  We just want to relax, have a good meal and get a decent night’s sleep.  We ended up going to the hotel room, watching tv and I fell asleep by 10:00, even after having a two hour nap that afternoon….and I slept in one bed while tom slept in the other one. It was great!!  I can’t wait to have another “stay In a Charlotte hotel”  weekend. I realized that we don’t have to go out of town to get away, we just need a hotel with a pool and a babysitter.  

Here are the kids enjoying their hotel experience…