A few weeks ago our expert from Pine Rest, Kristin Kuipers, wrote about a blog entry about balance and the importance of scheduling quality time together as a family.  After reading it, I started to think about my life or my family’s “pie” as she puts it.  I think my family’s pie has a lot of pieces, some larger than others.  I’d say at least half of our pie is work.  Then there are extra-curricular activities that Sophia does like gymnastics or swimming, my husband has a huge piece of golf pie and I have a lot of slivers for mommy duties, errands, and little things I like doing for myself.  I started to look more closely and realized that there is just a small piece of pie that is actually for family time. 

Last weekend we had a birthday party to go to for a friend out along the lakeshore and afterwards decided to head out to Grand Haven for the afternoon.  We parked down at Snug Harbor and decided to venture down the boardwalk to the pier.  Sophia had a blast climbing up and down the rocks and petting every dog in sight (have I mentioned she’s obsessed with dogs?  She must have pet 30 of them that afternoon).  John and I had a great conversation catching up on the past week and really enjoyed watching Sophia have so much fun.  It wasn’t until we were about an hour into the walk that I realized we were doing it!!  Quality time together with no cell phones ringing, no email to check and nothing scheduled later in the day to run off to. 

At one time I thought that I was failing if I actually had to schedule family time into my weekly calendar.  But, for busy families like mine, it’s important and I don’t think we should be embarrassed or ashamed to admit that sometimes we have to make time for it.  So in the next week, I encourage you to unplug a little, leave the cell phones and computers at home, don’t cram a day full of obligations and just spend some time with the family.  I promise it will be one of the most enjoyable days you’ve had in a long time.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieterouwerkerk/698594611/