Hooray for Family Day
Posted by Hari Berzins on May 20, 2013 in Kids'-Eye View, Parent, Recent Posts | 6 comments
There’s much delayed gratification when building a mortgage-free home. We live in a tiny house and sometimes long for more space. All we have to do is look up the hill to know…it’s coming.
Maybe not as fast as we’d hope. I said not too long ago, “We can’t do another winter in this tiny house.” But maybe we will find ourselves here this Christmas. If all this rain has anything to say about it, it will be longer than we thought.
While we are delaying gratification, the rest of our lives happen. Family Day to the rescue.
Karl contemplates the size of this Granddaddy.
Family Day has gotten us through many difficult times. During the time of our restaurant, New Day Cafe, we closed on Mondays and made a point to do something fun every Monday–Family Day.
Operating a restaurant was grueling. Karl worked 80 hour weeks. I tried to keep up with the house and kids and manage the restaurant. I would not look at it as a great time for our family, but yesterday on Family Day, Ella said, “We had so much fun in Florida. We had Family Day every week and did such fun things.” She didn’t remember the long hours or the dirty house or the stressed out parents. She remembered the fun we had on Family Day.
It was a light bulb moment for me. We can navigate the hardest of times and still keep a sense of joy when we have traditions like Family Day or family dinner or family tickle fights. These are the moments that stick.
Yesterday, we climbed rocks and watched water rush down a mountain creek. We wound our way down Hwy 8 to a little Mexican Restaurant and ate too much. We laughed and managed to spend the entire day in the company of each other.
That’s what sticks.
Now that’s a creek!
Super Twin Powers Activate
Simply,
Hari
P.S.
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I think it’s so true that the rest of life “happens” while we are delaying gratification. “Family Day”–what a wonderful idea!
🙂 Thanks, Jane. It certainly fills my well.
The little things – it is funny how they end up being the things most remembered. I learned this a while ago while watching Oprah of all things one afternoon. On the program she had the children of a previous guest who had died of cancer. When she asked the daughter what her fondest memories were it ended up being the late night bowl of Cheerios that she and her mom would eat together. It wasn’t the trip to Disney or all the other “Big” memories that her parents tried to cram into her mother’s last days, but the Cheerio’s. I can’t look at a box of Cheerio’s without thinking of this and remembering the little things and how precious they are.
Love to see happy kids and parents:) Keep the memories coming! Liz
YAY for Family Day! And yay for rain, mountain streams, gigantic trees and luscious green! Thanks for sharing Hari.
This is a beautiful piece, thank you for sharing this part of your family life. An excellent reminder that some good things get even better the longer we wait for them.