Saturday, September 8, 2007

Family Time

My great plan and determination to start de-cluttering this morning was replaced by a more important activity: family time.

There's a scarcity of "quality family time" for a family whose parents both work full time outside the home. Weekends are more often designated to doing chores, catching up with home projects, and attending social events which really can't be truly classified as "quality family time" (ok, some may argue).

A couple days ago, Hubby called me on the phone while he and my son G were at the Taekwondo Dojang. He announced that there's a Family Taekwondo this Saturday, and we should go. My response was less than enthusiastic and he was surprised. "I thought you wanted to do this?" he said. "Well, yeah, but I was thinking of de-cluttering this weekend". He wasn't pleased to hear that. He pointed out "It's only for an hour. How much de-cluttering can you do? besides, you'd always have clutter". So I told him I'd think bout it.

When I woke up today, I stepped on my treadmill which I have not done for a long time and did an hour of walking (I desperately need exercise). After that I was pumped and ready to de-clutter. Hubby woke up, went to his Taekwondo Class, and before he left at 8:00, he reminded me that the FAMILY Taekwondo is at 9:00 AM today.

And so the dilemma. De-clutter (Just myself. No, I won't involve my kids in decluterring, are you crazy?) or Family Taekwondo? Well, my "family oriented spirit" won and I decided on family Taekwondo. I rallied the troop. My daughter whined a little bit (she's into dance and all the girly girly stuff, no sports, and not Taekwondo), but I bribed them with buying the graphic novel (Anima) that they wanted to buy. I told them we'd buy after the family Taekwondo. I know... I shouldn't even be "bribing" for family fun time, but I did.

Then my hubby called from the Dojang at around 9:10 AM - "Are you coming?" he asked. "Yeah, all of us. I'm bringing my parents too to watch". I told him to just stay there and we'll meet him there. The the ringer came when he said "Oh, I am going home. I am thinking you guys can go and I'd go home and mow the lawn". "WHHHHAAAATTTT????" No, no, no. I was supposed to de-clutter and I decided to attend this FAMILY Taekwondo. I told him it's a FAMILY Taekwondo, and if he's not going, I might as well stay and tackle my de-cluttering mission. Long story short - we all went.

Now, you'll ask, "how was it?" - Well, aside from the fact that I fell face flat on the floor when my family were doing the race (me and daughter vs. hubby and son) everything was great! Man, I really wanted to win that race with hubby but I tripped at the end while trying to reach my daughter's hand to win the race. Oh yes, it was embarrassing. Good thing I brought a big dose of self-esteem with me today that I wasn't really that embarrassed. And thanks to the foam mat, my face wasn't bruised.

Really, we had fun, and even daughter N got into it. We learned all sorts Taekwondo kicks, moves, etc. It was really a good family time.

Another one is scheduled next month, and yes we are going. Now, it's 5:53 PM and I still have not started my de-cluttering mission. I prepared lunches when we came home, then we did some minor chores, then we went to Costco, and now I am blogging. (Sigh!). Maybe next week I can de-clutter. But wait, we have a wedding reception to attend next week!

Maybe next year, what do you think? ;)

2 comments:

Mixednuts said...

Hi Liza, I too need to buy boxes and start sorting out things I can donate with the yuletide season just around the corner. It takes so much time but it needs to be done. I would have chosen family fun too.

Joyful Days said...

I need to declutter. I just brought home more clutter from my parent's house. Dad is talking about selling the house, so everything needs to go.

I'm trying to figure out how to do this in all my "spare time." Ha...I might have to do something drastic, like leave my computer.

(()) to you,

Julie