Family Time: Zoot Style

MrZ works at least 40 hours a week. Add at least an hour to each day for the commute time and we’re looking at 45-50 hours a week he is taken by his job. Combine that with his 5-6 marathon training sessions a week and we are down to only a few possible family hour a week. Now, factor in everyone else’s schedule: Nikki’s soccer, LilZ’s theatre (school and children’s theatre) and my theatre parent board obligations – and you have about 4 minutes of family time allowed for us each week. Often times we take advantage of the other person finally being home and we do something we need to do without the kids: errands, lawn care, electrical work and sports watching. In other words? If we don’t actually take the time to schedule family time (Like Botanical Garden’s trip 2 weeks ago and the train ride this last weekend), those few minutes each each when we’re all together slip by and we end up going 7 days straight without actually being in a room together for anything other than meals.

And that’s not an exaggeration.

But somehow, last night? We ended up with a chunk of time after dinner when we were all at home and no one was watching a game or running errands. LilZ was doing homework, but the rest of us were just hanging out in the kitchen. It started with MrZ seeing how many balloons he could get to stick to my hair while I caught up on my feed-reader with the laptop. Then, of course, it became Static Balloon Extravaganza 2010. And here are the pictures to prove it:

Yesterday Y wrote her own entry about a moment she never wanted to forget:

I looked over at my husband, who had the biggest smile.

I walked over to him as we watched her limp out of the room with her “crunches”. I wrapped my arms around his waist and said “these are the moments I never want to forget. I don’t ever want to forget that this happened.”

And so, I write it in my blog.

I looked through these pictures and thought of what she said. It is exactly why I’ve never considered – even for one moment – not having this blog. It gives me a medium to document these small moments of my family. The ones that don’t result in pictures framed on the wall, or even life-long memories. After a few years we might even forget it had happened. But in that moment, watching the giggling from the entire family, it suddenly became what Y said: A moment I never wanted to forget. So, like Y, I write it in my blog so that I can giggle about it several times over throughout the years.

Because – let’s face it – how can you NOT giggle at such a serious face wearing balloons as a beard: