Monday, February 11, 2008

A Great Weekend

Three weeks ago I went to the Salem Women's health forum. This one featured "Dr. Mom" Marianne Neifert addressing the issue of balance in you life and how she finally found it. Well, since Dr. Mom had her first kid at age 20 and then proceeded to have four more in the next seven years all while going through medical school and residency, I thought I had a pretty good grasp as to why this lady's life was so chaotic and where exactly she went wrong. Besides, I am not one to go to these kind of touchy feely chick-comoraderie events. But my co-worker mom friend thought maybe we could get something out of the lecture and registration was free. And if nothing else, it was a good excuse for us to go out without the kids.

The lecture was quite good and very funny. Dr. Neifert is an experienced motivational speaker, who had a very polished speech about balance and how to acheive it. It certainly wasn't Earth shattering news, but it certainly got me thinking about the kinds of things I want to do, the things I don't want to do, and how to work toward those goals.

This weekend seemed to me the perfect example of balance. Friday we socialized; we even got out the house for greasy burgers and tomato bisque (I had a shrimp appetizer and a beer, too, for all of you calorie counters!). Afterwards, Mac and I spent some time together.

Saturday the weather was quite cooperative for a balanced day. I was up early and had a 6.5 mile run done by 7:45. I was rewarded with what I believe was my first ever sighting of a live mephitis mephitis (that's a skunk for the less nerdy readers) and a bald eagle that flew right overhead on my last mile. We had a family breakfast (pancakes!) and then I watched the kids while Mac went to hit a bucket of golf balls. I got the kids ready to go while he was out and then we were off to the park - an outside park! - where we were joined by two other friends and their kids. That afternoon, I took advantage of the sun and pruned all the roses and tied up all the berry canes. And then we were off to socialize again - this time dinner at our friends' house.

Sunday things were a bit more leisurely. We had a nice breakfast again and then Megan and I went out to garden together. I got the herb garden all cleaned up (it still needs weeding) while she "helped" me prune, dig and move dirt to totally random places in the garden. During nap time, I did more work around the pond. Then there was time to hang with the kids, eat a family dinner, and have a Iron Chef marathon after the kids were in bed!

I told Mac that I thought the weekend was a great example of balance. Now if I could only do that every weekend!


Aside: Before proofreading, I left out a word and this entry read "Then there was time to...eat a family and have an Iron Chef marathon." Now that would have been completely unbalanced!!

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