Living simply

Ok, so this might sound like I'm up on a soap box but so be it. How busy is your life? If you have kids how many different activities are they involved in that take you away from the home in the evenings? How many things are you involved in? I'll give you a quick run down of our week before I continue. Sunday's Aaron has orchestra practice at 8 am and LifeGroup starts at 9:15. We'll get home after our weekly lunch at Mazzio's(the only time we eat out, unless it's date night) around 1. M-F Aaron works 6:30-3:00 (home around 3:15) Ethan and Levi have school 7:45-3:15 Monday Ethan has an afterschool art class that runs 3:30-4:30(home about 4:45) T/Thur Katie and Evan have MDO 9:30-2:30 I work MDO Wed we have church 6-8:30 Thursday Ethan has piano 4:30-5:15 I try to make it to the gym for classes on M/F at 11 and T at 6:30. And mixed in this routine Aaron and I try to work in a date night. Not an easy thing when you have to find child care for 4. I try to have an evening with my girls and that happens about once a month. We might have a family thing or an extra church function. This might sound like an easy schedule for most but for us it feels a little too busy. Tuesday and Thursdays are the worst. I never really planned on 'working' out of the home. I like being at home every day(or at least having the option). I leave the house at 7:30 to take the boys to school. I have an hour to get done what I can before I need to leave to be at the church to help get the classroom ready for the day. We leave around 3 and go get the boys from school. It's after 3:30 when we get home and EVERYONE is starving! So I rush around to get dinner on the table and we're eating by 4:30. Except on Thur when Ethan has piano. We eat after around 6. We try to keep our weekends open for family time but that doesn't always happen. I will not be working MDO next year. I'm not even sure I'll put Evan in MDO next year. I lead a bible study on Wed. now and have decided not to do that in the fall. For us, it's all about simplicity. We don't think our boys need to be playing organized sports at the ages of 5 and 7. Playing catch in the backyard with dad is just as fun(and you don't have to deal with traffic or spend any money on gas to get to a ballfield). Katie doesn't need to be in gymnastics or dance when she has dress up clothes and a music player here at the house and a trampoline in the backyard. Evan really isn't big enough to do anything yet =) Aaron wrestles with the kids. We go on bike rides and family walks. We spend lots of time in our backyard with the kids digging in the dirt and pretending they're pirates at the top of their playset. We stay at home alot. The thought of driving somewhere everynight and paying, what sounds like a crazy amount to me, for someone else to spend time with my child is not appealing to me. I'm not sure what we'll do when they get older and start asking to play baseball with their friends or whatever. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But for now, we're living simply and spending all the time we can with our children. Trying to make the most of the little time we have before they grow up. So, I'll ask it again. What takes you in different directions and away from the house? If a busy schedule works for you, then that's great. It does NOT work for us.