A Resting Place Family Weekend

I have some good memories, from when I was little, of the warmth of home. With two very ambitious and very social parents, our family life was often busy. But I remember plenty of times when I was washed over by the true and simple comforts of home. Most symbolic for me is deep memory of the sound of John Denver playing on the record player. This was the 70s, and the world seemed huge, but that music flooded my life with a stillness, a peacefulness, a restfulness that held everything in tact. The house would be calm, everyone accounted for, the day done, and all was right in my world. I felt totally solid in those moments, and they happened often enough to ground me. I get teary now if I hear John Denver. It is a good teary.

As I watch my own three littles now, getting fully into the groove of a new school year, I can see the frenetic nature of their lives. School, daycare, soccer, errands, homework, drop-off, pick-up, events and appointments and commitments always on the calendar. Lots going on, with never enough down time. I work so hard to not over-schedule them (a challenge for me in this crazy world we live in), and I actively plan in resting time, but still, their lives are rarely still. 

So I hold strong to those “Family Weekends” on the calendar (weekends I’ve often scheduled in weeks in advance) when we do little-to-nothing with anyone beyond our tightest-inner-circle-of-five, and when we hole up in our home, our Resting Place. These weekends, I hope, are the John Denver of my bambinos’ childhoods. My whole goal is to flood us with a stillness, a peacefulness, a restfulness that will hold everything in tact.

By the end of last week I was thanking our lucky stars that we had a Family Weekend on the calendar. It was just what we all needed to refill our love tanks.

While Papi took Meera to ballet on Saturday morning (so that he could see her dance)…

Mommy took the boys out for some alone-time, waffles, and hot chocolate.

And after that, we were home for the rest of the weekend. We played with bubbles…

 

We played with fairies…

Four of us played Uno…

And one of us played with a black marker…

Two of us played “baby”…

And the five of us had company for Sunday brunch.

 

We watched movies (Fly Away Home just never gets old), snuggled up in the family room, trying to remember that everything else can wait until Monday.

It was a good weekend.

“Perhaps love is like a resting place.” ~John Denver