Family Time

All of us building towers together--Adults chose not to be photographed

The latest area that I have been working on is "Family Time."  That would be the time of day when we all hang out together.  Probably like most families, we trend in this area--sometimes we are really good with doing things as a family, and other times not so much.

After much soul searching (or like two seconds of thought), I realized that a big part of the problem is me.  My whole family, except me, likes to play games together.  My whole family, except me, likes to sit and watch whatever sport Hubby is interested in on TV together.  While everyone else in my family is busy playing yet another game of UNO or Sorry, I am doing dishes and then escaping to my room or the office, anything to get away from game playing.  While everyone else in my family is snuggled up on the couch watching yet another game of football featuring two teams I care nothing about, I go do something else.  I rationalize it by saying that I've been with the kids all day, now it's Daddy's turn.

But then a few weeks ago a thought struck me as I walked past the living room and saw my whole family, except me, sitting together on the couch watching some game or another.  I should go join them.  So I did.  They all moved over a little and made room for me in the snugglefest.  I asked which team we were rooting for.  Hubby, David and Lizzy were going for one team, Joy for the other.  Joy always picks the team that's winning, and if it's currently tied, she picks the one with the prettier jerseys or the better mascot (definitely a die hard fan in the making).  

There I sat on the couch with knees and elbows squishing into my sides, heads resting on my shoulders, legs splayed across my lap, watching some game (was it football or baseball?  I don't remember), and I thought to myself--This is the good life.  

Suddenly it didn't matter that I could care less about the outcome of the game we were watching.  It didn't matter that I would rather be reading a book.  What mattered is that I was sitting on the couch surrounded by wiggly bodies, laughing at David who is yelling at the TV because his team did something he did or didn't like, taking an elbow to the gut, tickling each other, and laughing while Hubby tells us all to be quiet so he can hear the game (like that's going to happen).  

It's great that Hubby likes to spend time with the kids in the evening, but being a homeschooling mom doesn't give me a "get out of evening family time free" card.  Yes, I hate most games, but since my family loves them so much I went out and bought a new game that we could all play that didn't make me want to gouge my eyes out when I played it--I bought Appleletters.  Joy is a bit too young for it, but she loves to help me play.  Last week Hubby, David and I played Scrabble and the girls were on my team.  I let Lizzy figure out most of our words with only a little help from me.  Something about letting a seven year old do most of the game playing helped to control my fierce competitiveness.  I no longer cared that Hubby was going to crush me as always.

Playing games and watching sports will never be something I really enjoy in and of themselves, but I am treasuring the moments we spend doing them together as a family.  Because even though I spend all day every day with my kids, there's just something different about the time we spend together when Daddy is around that makes it all the more special.  
 

And then jumping up and down to knock them over