The True Magic of the Last Few Days

There was no work done this weekend.

I can’t remember the last time I was able to say that. My laptop stayed shut and tucked away the entire time. Emails were read but not responded to. And as I’m sitting on the couch in the living room writing this while sipping on my extremely hot coffee and the rain pours down outside louder than I’ve ever heard it, I’m comforted by the fact that that’s exactly how this weekend should have gone.

We celebrated Riah’s 6th birthday this weekend and spent the last three days with family. Friday night we went to watch my younger sister fight in a boxing charity event in Chattanooga. My whole family (minus Amy who lives in GA) went to support her in her first ever boxing match. It was loud, country music and people yelling for their favorite champ were pretty much the only things you could hear, but it was still so different and fun nonetheless. She ended up losing, but all of us swore she should have been the winner, especially in round 3. Maybe next year.

Meanwhile, Riah turned 6 on Saturday! Our big boy is 6 years old which is so, so hard to believe. He was 2 1/2 when we first got them, a little wild child with long hair and a temper. Now, he’s so damn sweet and such a charmer who wears his heart on his sleeve but has the confidence to lift anything, no matter how heavy it is, because he “has abs” he says. What a perfect goofball.

We took the kids to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, a staple in town that we used to go to when we were young. It just might be the coolest place for children, and I can say that confidently because I found myself having just as much fun as they were. My mom came too for the afternoon and we just all had a blast, watching the kids’ eyes grow big with excitement and wonder playing with the different exhibitions and dig for dinosaur bones in the sand. It’s a magical place, but the real magic came from spending the afternoon together, uninterrupted and completely focused on having fun. That doesn’t happen often enough. Why is that?

On Sunday, we had a party for Riah at the farm with our closest friends and family. PJ and I made chicken salad sandwiches and pimento cheese sliders, ordered our family’s favorite cake from a local bakery, cleaned up the pavilion that had seen better days since we haven’t entertained there for months, and hung some Paw Patrol decorations at Riah’s request.

Parties are always when PJ puts 110% into everything he does to get ready for them. I swear he could have been an event planner in another life. He likes everything to be tidy and perfect and goes above and beyond to achieve it. Case in point: he brought this piñata that I bought two years ago and forgot about (it’s been sitting in the corner of a closet ever since) to finally use at the party, and because it wouldn’t stay on the string, he climbed up into the rafters of the pavilion to hold the string the entire time so the kids could take turns hitting it. His mind works in such creative ways, and his body follows suit no matter what the task is. I’m so lucky I get to do life with this man.

So that brings us to today, Monday. A very rainy Monday actually, which I don’t mind one bit. Today will be spent sending approximately 10,000 emails and catching up on all the work that wasn’t done this weekend. I’m still getting used to this work from home thing, almost four years in, but I’m almost positive that in a normal job, most people do in fact do zero work on the weekends, and instead leave it for Monday through Friday. I’m going to be more diligent about following that schedule going forward. This weekend has opened my eyes in a way and I need to start putting everything away on Friday night and not opening it until Monday morning.

I hope there was some good in your weekend, too. xo