When was the last time that you had a night off?
For me I know that I have every Tuesday night off (because we go to my in laws for supper). But it’s not the same as having a night off at home. Don’t get me wrong – I look forward to Tuesdays because my MIL can cook like nobodies business and it’s lovely to catch up with them without the time constraints of the hustle and bustle of every other day. But a night off at home is something special.
A week or so ago I was totally spoiled by Exact. Not only did they give me a sweet voucher (to spend on their brand new online store) and a bottle of my favourite wine, they also saved me from making supper! Talk about the perfect gift! The Monday night curries from The Flying Pan are the bomb and I totally looked forward to not having to think about cooking.
Now it’s not unusual for us to have cooking free week days. Sometimes we have take out or something during the week. Terrible I know. How dare I?! But guys, it’s because homework or extra murals have totally destroyed our afternoon. Which sounds like a total cop out (and maybe sometimes it is). But it means that all the time that I thought I’d have to cook and sort out my life was taken up be screaming relentlessly at my kids to do their freaking homework or getting stuck in stupid Cape Town traffic that starts at like 2pm now.
This time though, the stars aligned and not only did I not have to make supper, it was holidays so we didn’t have any extra murals or homework!!
Can you hear the choir of angels singing in the background?
It was pretty freaking perfect.
So with my new found freedom I had the time to do things that I would NEVER usually do. Here’s what I got up to in one afternoon instead of fighting over home work, driving to ballet, arguing about more homework and slaving through supper that I have to threaten sudden and almost immediate death at everyone to eat. I…
- Did not one, but TWO loads of laundry (I think my mother will be most shocked by this)
- Helped the girls to put on every tattoo that they’d been saving
- Worried about the fact that one wanted a face tattoo
- Unpacked and then repacked the dishwasher
- Sat down with a glass of wine
- Opened my completely ignored blog
- Poured love into it
- Edited about 200 pictures
- Edited a new video for our Youtube channel thingy
- Shopped on the new Exact Online store and bought ALL the things
- Decided to join my family on a 5km run
- Immediately regretted saying it out loud to my daughters who have this annoying way of holding me accountable
I know right?! What the flipping heck was I thinking? Maybe it was the glass of wine. But either way I regretted it the moment the words escaped my lips and my kids heard it (and held me to it). There was no going back though. So I had to suck it up and run my little heart out. And the weather even knew what was up because it went from being a beautiful sunny day to a windy miserable one. Kind of like my mood haha.
And I ran – for all of 5 minutes when I wanted to turn around and crawl back home. Seth wouldn’t let me though, and so we went their normal route. Oh yes, have I mentioned that Seth takes all three kids for a 5km run every Monday? He’s cray cray. But he does. He takes the twin pram with him so they all take turns to run and sit in the pram. That way it’s a workout for him no matter how slowly they run.
In my defence my vague reasoning that I could do it was because Kyla ran the entire 5km in 36 minutes a couple weeks ago. I think I felt challenged that if my 8 year old could do it, so could I. But a runner I am not and so although we did make it home in one piece, it took forever. And I think I’m still sore.
The good news was that instead of wallowing in my sore muscles, we got to open our Exact delivery that arrived to me office a couple of days later.
It’s not often that I have let me girls choose what they want (because there is only so much glitter and mismatching that I can take) but they were stoked to have seen something online and then that thing arriving home for them. I think they liked actually having a say. And it was easy for them to because all the options were great and work so well together.
Overall, I think I could get used to not having to do homework or cook supper. But that’s not reality is it? So I’ll just take this day as a super win and pine over the next one!
For now we’ll leave you with our haul video. We’d love it if you’d subscribe!
1 comment
5km? That’s hectic. You needed a day off. Do it more please 🙂