The perfect weekend

Happy Monday 🙂 In light of it being Monday, and me being back in the “real world” as far as work is concerned, I thought it’d be fun to write about what a perfect weekend looks like to me. Now that I’m no longer home all day everyday, I treasure weekends more so than I ever have before. When I was freelancing, I still preferred weekends to weekdays because my husband was home, but now weekends take on a whole new meaning.

I wrote a post a while back on “How to make the most of your weekends,” and I still base my weekends around that. Now, however, I have to do more cleaning and preparing for the week ahead (stuff that normally could have waited until Monday or Tuesday).

I actually just got back from a solo trip to the grocery store for this week’s meal plan. As much I as prefer to fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to cooking, a meal plan is now becoming a necessity as I no longer have time to head to the store every day. This week I am making Baked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches (have you guys seen these floating around Pinterest?? Yum), homemade salad (courtesy of John), crockpot BBQ chicken sandwiches, hamburgers on onion buns with a side of herb butter rice, and frozen pizza (can’t help it…it’s easy and I LOVE me some frozen pizza haha).

In addition to getting the grocery shopping done, I also make sure the house is clean for the week – including all the dishes and laundry being done. This is usually pretty easy for me because I do keep up with it during the week.

Now…on to the fun stuff.

I’ll start with what a perfect weekend for me would look like, and conclude with what our weekends actually do look like.

My Perfect Weekend vs My Actual Weekend

Weekends start on Friday night, right? Fridays for us always involve a trip to Publix for dessert, beer and a movie. There is no better way to start the weekend then by relaxing, and with two little kids, this is the best way to do it. This is always the plan and it’s followed through 99 percent of the time. Friday nights rock for us.

Saturday

Our Saturday’s normally begin at 6 am when the little ones wake. In a perfect world, they’d sleep until 7:30, but I actually don’t mind getting up early. I sit with the girls in the kitchen while they drink milks and John and I have a coffee. John sometimes has to work on Saturday, so he’ll either head out to work within an hour or he’ll watch the girls while I freelance. If he does work, I normally freelance on Sunday mornings while he watches the girls.

If we’re both home and I don’t have too much work to do, we always try to squeeze in a fun morning activity. If the weather’s nice, we’ll go to the park or on a bike ride. If it’s warm out, we’ll usually go to Target, Barnes and Noble or the mall. We got lucky in that our girls LOVE running errands and going to normal stores like the grocery store and Target, haha. We’re always home by noon at the latest for naps.

This past Saturday, John worked so I took the girls to Walmart for new puzzles and some cleaning supplies. We had planned on going to the bookstore but both girls were extra cranky, so we just decided to head home for an early nap.

Nap time is when I clean or work. If John’s home, we’ll sometimes relax and talk or watch TV together.

Almost every Saturday, we go out to dinner. We normally don’t spend much – usually less than $30 – but it’s so fun to get out. We try to eat outside if we can and most of the shopping plazas around here have live music on Saturday nights. It’s a great time for all of us and the girls are almost always perfectly behaved. Saturday night involves relaxing and watching a movie or Netflix once the girls go to bed.

Sunday

A perfect Sunday would involve sleeping in until 7:30, going for a walk or a bike ride, and doing lots of cooking, baking, and blogging. One day, that is what my Sundays will look like 😉 However, now they look a bit different.

We do usually get up and get outside again if the weather is nice (and assuming I don’t have any freelancing to do). This past Sunday, I did have some work to do so we got a late start to our day. We decided to take the girls to Barnes and Noble for some playing instead of going to the park. They have such a great time there and never want to leave. I also love being there – I’m able to flip through books, sit in silence with a coffee or play with the girls. Today, I read through The Pioneer Woman’s Holiday Cookbook (ummm, I officially can’t wait for the holidays) and played with the girls.

We came home around 12:30 and got the girls down for a nap. I then headed to the grocery store to get my shopping done for the week. I was gone far too long for only getting a few items, but it was nice to be out and about without the little ones in tow, haha.

Now that the girls are in FT daycare, I really have been trying to make the most of my time with them. They are so, so sweet and truly the best little girls I could have asked for. In a sense, working FT has made me a better mom because I really appreciate the time I get to spend with them. They’re going to grow up so fast, I just know it, and I don’t want to look back with any regrets. Those two (and John) are my world and I thank my lucky stars for them each and every day.

This evening, we’ll make dinner and play outside – sounds perfect, if I do say so myself 😉

What does your perfect weekend look like? And…what does a weekend for you actually look like?