Family Day

When we lived in Asia, our family day was a really important part of family life.  Because of the nature of what we did, it was hard to feel like we could take time off.  Even leaving the city or "getting away" in on trips weren't necessarily the relaxing, idyllic times we dreamed of...usually the travel was somewhat stressful, sometimes a child got sick, spending days in hotel rooms cooped up with kiddos can be interesting...so as our years overseas went on, we found more and more that simply staying home and doing things as a family around town were the most rewarding.  We were able to rest well in our own beds, let our house helper manage the cooking and cleaning, eat out at some fun places, visit parks, etc.   And even though we only did a few of these extended "staycations," we did try to spend one day a week that was just us as a family, no work responsibilities or emails.  (We tried to not even answer our phones unless it was an emergency!)

For us that day was usually Monday.  We often started the day at McDonald's for breakfast, then if the weather was nice, made our way out to a park, the zoo, or a kid's playplace.  Later in our time in our city, Starbucks had opened, so that was always a fun option too--we'd take a game with us, drink some good coffee and stay as long as we liked.  We had lots of games of Toy Story 3 Memory at Starbucks throughout the spring! 

One day last April (April 4, to be exact), the weather was nice enough that we sat outside on the Starbucks patio on one of the busiest streets in our city of 3 million:

 This really only looks mildly busy...

Ahh, coffee.  The juice of life.

 Happiness is. . . cuddles on Daddy's lap and a free balloon.

 Make that three free balloons!

Looks like on this particular day we were playing Chutes and Ladders as well as Princess Uno.  Fun times!

So, though these aren't the "Goodbye" pictures I talked about yesterday, I thought since I was going back I might as well go waaay back.  Family day doesn't exist for us in the same way now since John works from home and is with us so much more.  We do try to take Saturday afternoons as special family time, but we also have some time on Sundays for those kinds of things as well as our regular family devotions and other meals, etc during the week.  I don't quite feel the same need for family day as I did overseas, it's just different here.  But I really appreciated the way my husband protected and prioritized family day during our life there--valuable time together is not to be underestimated!

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse of a typical family day!