Here's the run down of how things have gone so far.
As you may recall, we were going to pick an activity from a box every week and do something positive together as a family. My husband has been saying for a long time that we need to create more positive memories (I have the most appalling memory!) and so this was my attempt to do that.
We did ok for the first little while and I got some great closet doors out of it (see this post: http://lisaandtheboys.blogspot.ca/2016/01/closet-doors.html), but then things gradually fell off the rails after only a few weeks.
On Feb 7, we didn't pick an activity (according to my fancy-dancy activity tracker, by which I mean the paper calendar that hangs in our kitchen...) and on Feb 14 we didn't pick an activity. Sigh.
On Feb 21, we picked the following: Do something touristy as a family outing in or near our city.
The kids, as I recall, weren't thrilled with this, because they couldn't think of anything we wanted to do. I don't even remember what we did, if anything (remember what I said about having an appalling memory??) and I don't think we did anything really as a family. So - you know - whatever.
We didn't pick anything on Feb 28, Mar 6 or Mar 13...
Now, in my sort-of defense, that was also birthday season for us (Kid#1 had his bday on Feb 1 and Hubby's is Mar 12) and we were having house renovations done so with moving all the furniture around and losing our back room and dining room for a while, we... um... sort of misplaced the box with the activities. Oops.
I know I should have kept better track of it, but the contractor emailed me on Saturday to say "you are cleaning everything out of the dining room so I can start there on Monday, right?" and we were already busy that weekend so everything got moved really quickly late Sunday night.... #firstworldproblems.
So we sort of lost the box. Found it again in the basement playroom, along with some china dishes. Clearly this wasn't at all thought-out. I would never do that in my more rational moments.
When we finally found the box again, we picked to do 30 min of exercise each day (the week of Mar 20) which was after the March Break. That was pretty easy for the kids - they walk home from school and do physical activities three or four nights of the week. As for me, #fail.
On Mar 27, we picked to say "please" and "thank you" more often and that one sort of worked - at least at dinner time when we were thinking of it. Did it have any long-term benefits? I doubt it. And it became more of a family joke rather than any sort of politeness habit formation.
Missed April 3. The week of April 10 was supposed to be about taking pictures of things that made us happy or that were fun. I recall taking one or two photos. I think Hubby remembers to take one. Otherwise, #fail.
April 17 week was supposed to be volunteering for a worthy cause. I collected batteries for my son's school fund-raiser. Hubby already volunteers for the local speedskating club. I don't recall if the boys did anything. We certainly didn't volunteer all together as a family.
We haven't picked anything since then. Kid#2 had his birthday April 23, so that was another thing happening that was great, but got in the way of the weekly activities. Throw in Easter, March Break, moving furniture back into the newly-renovated back room and dining room, science fair (both kids got medals - YAY!)... well, lots of weeks went by with no intentional positive and fun family activities.
So I think I've been too over-ambitious and too serious about the whole thing. We're one-third of the way done 2016 and I'm thinking that we don't have the time and we don't have the priority to make the time for these activities. Thoughts? Where would you go from here?
Oh - and here's one of the pictures of things that were fun (week of April 10). At least I have that! And it sort of describes my family too.... ;-)
2 comments:
I really love this idea, and I totally get that life is SO busy, but I'd love to see you stick with it, maybe once a month instead of once a week. At the least, would you consider posting your list of ideas? Maybe it will inspire us to do one or two of them.
I still do a similar thing which is an activities advent calendar, where we try to do one thing together every day in December leading up to Christmas. Over the years the things have gotten smaller and smaller, and it's still getting harder and harder to squeeze it in, in between all the activities the kids have on, plus work stuff and Christmas prep stuff. But I do have to say, a lot of really great memories and traditions have been born from that advent calendar. So even if you only get around to a few more activities between now and the end of the year, I think it could turn out to be great - so hang in there!
I really do enjoy it when you post your December activities every year - makes me think about how you have it all together and how much your family must enjoy doing these things and making the season special. You're making great memories for your kids!!
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