I love spending time with my family. Whether it’s all four of us together or some combination of at least two of us time with my family is pretty much my favorite thing in the world. With COVID we’ve had a ton of time together as a family over the past year.

When Becky and the boys got home yesterday after being out of town over the weekend Becky pointed something out that pretty much floored me. My jaw dropped as I tried to figure out if her comment was true. Near as I can still figure she’s 100% right.

Due to COVID I haven’t had an entire weekend to myself like I had this past weekend in well over a year. How crazy is that? These weekends don’t happen often when there’s not a pandemic, but they usually aren’t nearly this rare.

The entire weekend was spent doing thing on my time. Go to bed early, wake up when I feel like it. Not much of an agenda, just a list of what I want to accomplish. Change my mind and want to do something else? Sure, why not? Turn up the music a little louder than normal. Eat at the random hours when I’m actually hungry and eat whatever I’m in the mood for (corned beef? Yes, please!). When I want some quiet time I just turned everything off and chilled. When I wanted to walk I went. Hmm… which movie do I want to watch as I wind down? Oh, that’s right, whatever one I’d like to watch. The entire weekend was at my pace, my volume, and on my timeline. Ahh…

For sure, while it felt amazing, part of the reason it did was because it had been a while since the last one. Granted, I didn’t have any idea it had been over a year, but I knew it had been a while regardless. There’s a crazy deep level of peace and serenity when I have quiet time like that once in a while.

If I could only choose one for the rest of my life I’d choose family time over solo time without having to put any thought into it. That’d be an easy choice. It is wonderful that it is not a binary thing and I’m able to add the occasional alone time to the mix of family time. Weekends alone like this help me to be a better husband, dad, and friend. My batteries recharge and I’m able to be a better me than I would be without time to myself.

This weekend was exactly what I needed and I’m so grateful for having the entire weekend to myself. The next one doesn’t have to be anytime soon, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it does happen in less than a year this time.

Thanks!!!