I (Robin) just committed to being the soccer coach for my son’s team. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but I’m going to spend a lot of time doing it.
Spending time. That term says a lot. Spending time like spending money costs us something. There is an investment of energy, focus, minutes. It means that something else won’t get done. Something else will have to wait. Is that worth it? What is more important? What should we do first?
A couple of weeks ago we were planning to go to a friend’s wedding in Waco, TX (a couple hours north of San Marcos). It was the last week of summer, so we decided to make a very-mini vacation out of it and have some fun along the way. We looked up a movie to see and potential museums in Waco (no, we didn’t look for the David Koresh museum).
Thursday, the day before we were to leave Erica said, “I think our minivan is having problems with over heating.” That’s never a good conversation. I woke up early on Friday and drove the van over to a local mechanic. He said, “You have a severe leak in this part of your van. We need to order the part and install it later today.” The only problem is that we were supposed to leave at 11am. What do we do?
We had 2 other vehicle options: my Ford F150 and my mom’s little Honda hatchback. Keep in mind, we have a daughter in a wheelchair (that weighs around 100lbs). There was no way that our van was going to be ready in time for us to leave. There was no way that the Honda would fit our family and the huge wheel chair. Our only option was to take Kennady out of her chair and put her in a special oversized car seat. Then, we would load the massive/awkward chair in the back of the truck. She is 12yrs old at this point and around 70lbs. She doesn’t bend real well because of her muscle stiffness. All that to say, it would cost us a lot of energy and time each stop we made.
What were we going to do?
Spend some quality time with our family!!
We went for it.
We loaded the truck and took off for Waco.
We found a movie showing for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
We got to the theater extra early and let the boys spend $4 in quarters on one really bad arcade game. That was a huge highlight for them. We are usually so tight with our money that this felt like a huge spending spree.
The kids LOVED the movie. Erica thought it was awful. I thought it was fun. It was a almost too violent for us, but was within reason for our family. We had looked it up on KidsInMind and felt good with the review.
After the movie, Avery gave us a presentation on his Heelys. These are the hottest thing for 6-10yr olds these days. Move over figure skaters!! Check out his skills.
Finally, we headed out to the wedding. We looked up the address on Google Maps. The address it showed on the map looked too far away from where we thought the wedding should take place, but we decided to trust it. Wrong idea.
It took us 45min out of the way and by the time we got back on course, WE MISSED THE WEDDING. However, we showed up right as the party was kicking off. It was so fun to hang out with these folks. They have unique wedding traditions. We enjoyed the conversations that followed and the delicious food we ate.
All in all, the investment of time and money was WORTH the quality family experience we had. We made memories in the midst of the sacrifice and sweat. Fun times!
Spend some time with your family! It’s worth it!
Check out this wedding dance
What People are Saying