Family time

Over the past year, the last 5 months especially, this Hough patriarch and matriarch have pondered a LOT about our little family and all the distractions that can pull at us...even the ones that are "good" but not necessarily "best" for our eternal benefit. We're still trying to figure it out as we go, but one thing we have omitted this spring that was a huge obligation and thief of our time and energy, is baseball. It was a tough choice and one we discussed with Jake, who would have been playing competitively again this year. But he announced in January that his goal for the year was to get his Arrow of Light award in scouts. We made him aware of the fact that also participating in baseball could really complicate and even interfere with that goal as you have no idea when practices, games or tournaments are during the week or which weekends. So he felt letting go of baseball would be the better choice to make. And we couldn't have been MORE proud of Jake. There are some ADULTS who can't even distinguish between "good, better, best" and prioritizing. It's not that Jake couldn't do it all. He's the kid that is totally capable of jumping from one thing to the next and doing it well. The questions is: WHY? Why put yourself and your family through months of crazy chaos when it's not necessary. I don't want my kids to grow up thinking they have to do everything. He just turned 10. There's a quote I heard once that I like. "The Lord is not frantic and he does not wish us to be." We have nothing against sports (hello? Jared got his first Masters in Sports Medicine) and I'm not completely convinced this is the end of sports in our family (maybe recreation instead of competitive)....as I said, this is a work in progress for us...taking it one year and one child at a time...and I'm pretty sure it's going to get harder before it gets easier, yet it's liberating to know that we've taken that first step outside society's ring of "over scheduled families" and are spending more time focused on not just one member of the family, but the family unit as a whole. It's tricky with our callings (Jared's more than mine) and we wouldn't have it any other way. However, this is why we have felt we need to be EXTRA careful in how our time, outside of serving the Lord, is used. Time cannot be recycled. When a moment is gone, it's gone forever. I consider myself highly efficient and organized. I don't waste my time. Which is why this is so eye-opening to me and Jared. Even without baseball or any other competitive sport or major time/travel commitment for that matter, it is super difficult in finding a free Saturday or half of a free Saturday to spend together. But we're hoping to make it a monthly priority, in addition to the "outing-with-Dad" that the kids (Jake and Cooper so far) each get once a month to spend time alone with Jared, because that guy is a man in demand these days.

Okay....soap boxes aside....Last month we took the kids to the home of a single sister in our ward who spends all her free and not-so-free time caring for her aging mother in another part of town. Her yard has fallen by the wayside so for her birthday gift, we took our family to her home and we worked to cleaned up her front and back yards. We went to the tulip festival later that afternoon, which was a first for us.

Last week we went on a hike at the Hoyt Arboretum. It was a perfect day for hiking and we took Jake's scout book and identified trees and other forest plants for his forester badge while we were there. Fortunately the trail was such that we could take a stroller. Calvin was out like trout shortly after we started. I wonder if there are backpacks for kids over 2 years old. I would have carried him but our backpack is more suited for the little babies up to a year. Calvin is in that in between stage....too big for the backpack, but not quite big enough to keep up with us and we want to go on more hikes.


Look at these TREES!!! The kids got to see redwoods, cedars, and giant sequoias for the first time.




It was one of those days where both the sun and shade felt good on their own merits. You could almost feel the sun pumping invigorating shots of energy through your body when it hit your skin, totally recharging you. Then the shade felt good after you'd been warmed by the sun. Not too cold. Just right.

Along the way, I even made up new lyrics to the Primary song "Sing, Sing, Sing".
"Hike, Hike, Hike.
I like to hike.
I like to hike a trail.
Hike, Hike, Hike." And we sang it in rounds.
Whoa! Stop the presses! One cannot find artistry at this level every day (thank goodness, right?)

And one cannot pass up a super stump on which to sit and have their picture taken.




Karcyn was a champ. She didn't complain ONCE about being tired or hungry or anything else during the two hour expedition. Nor did she ask to be picked up. She hung in there to the very end. The last five minutes Calvin woke up and wanted to walk, so we got him out of the stroller. That's when Karcyn asked if she could sit in the vacant spot. She totally earned it.


Before we got home, the kids perused the book-of-hikes and took turns picking out their requested hiking destinations for next time. And now we feel one hike closer to our kids than we were before.