Time away

My wife and I went away to a wedding this weekend, just the two of us.  My mother took the two older boys to Manitoulin for the weekend, and my mother-in-law looked after the youngest one.  We went early on Saturday, stayed the night, and came back late on the Sunday, so we had almost two whole days to ourselves.

It was amazing, and not just because we had some time away from our family responsibilities.  We also had the chance to reflect on our lives as spouses and parents and employees and volunteers and to get a sense of what might need to change and what should probably stay the same.  We made some decisions about how we want to practise Christmas differently this year, and about how we should arrange my work life over the next few years, and about whether we want to pursue adopting another child.

This kind of talk and reflection tends to get put off in the midst of raising children, when even going to the bathroom without interruption seems an impossibility, so it was good to sit and eat and chat and plan with each other over the weekend.  It’s something that we need to do more often.