Distractions!

I made a bit of a self discovery this weekend.

I discovered that distractions are a good thing, they help me feel more balanced, feel more complete.
Most of the time I balance life between kids and work.

The past 15 months I have been consumed with just those two things, the house and work.
Upon moving to Oregon, I got caught up in unpacking, organizing, arranging and rearranging our possessions and our lives.

For perhaps the past 6 months or more there was no longer much need to organize the house and kids except for the minor day to day details. This left me with mostly work to focus on.

It had been such a long time since I had something in my life beside kids and work. I doubted myself and whether I was ready for 4 days of only kids. I wasn't sure I could spend four days just cooking and cleaning without going crazy.

But Thanksgiving break came and was staring me in the face.


Thanks to a listening ear that pointed me in the right direction I felt ready to face our first holiday without extended family, without work.


And it was great.


There was time with the kids, teaching the girls to make homemade pies, preparing turkey and dressing, and making homemade crescent rolls (grandma's recipe).



There was time for setting a proper table, time for board games and time for just simple family fun.


But equally as fun was the time for new distractions and adult fun in the sand at Winchester Bay, Florence and the South Jetty.

We even made it up to Portland for time with my oldest sister and her family and friends.
I needed this weekend of distractions to remind me of what it is like to feel, to remind me of how to play. I needed this weekend of distractions to get me away from the 'all work and no play' life that I have been living for too long.

But it is a new week and now I have to let go of the distractions of this past weekend, keep my mind from drifting back to all the fun we had and try to focus on work!

At least until next weekend.