Enjoying the Moments

Sean and I have spent countless hours this fall talking and reevaluating what is important to us and if we are spending our time on things that are important to us. It has been a very powerful experience for both of us. We have been very honest with each other and more importantly with ourselves. We realized that some of the things we were spending our time on were simply no longer important to us and have stopped doing those things. We realized that some things that are very important to us, we were not spending enough time on. Or the time we were spending wasn't very focused. We continue to talk about this and continue to edit our schedule to reflect the things that are important to us. As you might imagine, spending time as a couple is one of the items at the top of our list. We have been making a big effort to spend time together as well as to spend time together with other couples. It has been a lot of fun. Another thing at the top of our list is spending time with our kids, individually and as a family. We have been watching much less TV in our house and playing more board games. We have been doing chores and shopping more as a family.

This week we were lucky enough to go to each of the boys schools for a special event. Nate had a choir concert. This is his first year of choir and he seems to enjoy it. It may just be that his voice is easier to carry to and from school than his trumpet was! It is amazing to see the physical differences in a group of 12-14 year olds. We truly enjoyed watching Nate sing and unfortunately I didn't get a photo.

Jack has been learning about colonial times in social studies. His class held a wax museum this past week. Each student was assigned a character from colonial times and needed to have a costume from the times and give a one minute dialogue about their character when they were "activated". Jack was Robert Hunt who was a chaplain. In order to activate Jack, one needed to hand him his bible. Jack's costume was pretty creative and he did a great job with his dialogue. He was activated over and over and rarely got a break in his 20 minute session.

Blake's class hosted a writer's workshop. They have spent the past 6 weeks or so focusing on writing stories. The class was divided into 4 small groups. each author took a turn in a special chair and read their story. Each group also had 2-3 parents listening and providing positive feedback. Blake was one of three students to welcome the parents at the start of the session. His story was about a kickball game and how his good friend diffused an argument by making a joke. He did a great job!

It feels great to have an adjusted mindset and to be fully present in these moments. We both feel blessed to have taken the time this fall to reflect and adjust. We feel the impact individually, and as a couple. We are seeing positive changes in the kids as well. And heading into Christmas this week, we will truly enjoy the holiday and all the blessings we have.