Monday, May 30, 2005

Doing something fun for a change

Maybe you know the drill just as well as I do - Monday through friday you and your spouse leave your house a 7 or 8 and don't come home until 6 or 7. (if not leaving earlier and returning later). Leaving you very little, if any time, to spend with your kids. Thankfully, I have about an hour in the morning with them (generally, I am saying my daily prayers, while they are crashed down in front of the TV, but there are always our lighthearted moments together) and I also get to bathe them and put them to bed every night.

Since I am an orthodox Jew, Saturday is Shabbos - our sabbath, so unlike some of you who are not sabbath observant, I am commanded by religion to take a day out of my hectic schedule and spend it with my family. Usually I spend most of the day with my kids. We attend synagouge, have a few nice family meals, get a nice family nap (sometimes) and then wind the day down with a trip to the playground down the block. And then when the sunsets on Saturday evening - the craziness starts all over again. Sunday, for the most part is errand day, where either one of us or all 4 of us prance around town shopping and gathering.

Given this frenetic pace, it's a rare day where we get to do something fun. Yesterday I put my foot down - seeing that it was Memorial day. We spent the day at the Aquarium, and the kids had a blast (well, at least Mitch did, Mike was kind of freaked out by the whole 'huge fish in dark rooms' concept, maybe next year he'll take better to it.).

It was great to see the smile on their faces, and to hear Mitch talking about it afterward. I think that we need to do this more than a handful of times a year.

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