The Balancing Act: Alone Time and Family Time

How is the weekend over already? I feel like it flew by in a flash and all I want is for it to start over!
I feel like the days are going by quicker and quicker and I'm desperate to slow them down. I see my children growing up, some are dating, some are getting taller, some are talking about careers and I sometimes feel like I'm still that 20 something young lady still trying to figure it out myself. It almost feels like a snow-globe. I'm standing still and life is a blizzard whirling around me.

This weekend was your typical, regular weekend, but it also felt like a long weekend. We squeezed in a lot for a short time! For once, time and life seemed to slow down.

Fridays always begin with a coffee date for Mark and me. We go to Bolder Coffee in Rogers after one of us drops off the kids, we get our favorite coffee drinks and we split a muffin. Mark catches me up on all things brewery and I give him a ton of unsolicited advice and options. It's the job of a wife that never ends, or gets old....for me at least.

It's the little moments we steal as husband and wife
that make a big difference in our marriage.

**Side note: For a long time Mark and I used to make all sorts of time for date nights (benefits of a built in babysitter, AKA older brother) and for awhile we really haven't taken many date nights. We go out to eat as a family but really haven't been making time for us. And I really wanted a proper date night. "Let's dress up and go out and do something different!" That's what I wanted and what we needed. Sometimes in a marriage life can quickly go from exciting to auto-pilot. Moving through the motions is fine at times but then when you see your partner is off auto-pilot and living life without you, you  start feeling a tad resentful. His life is full and exciting and yours is boring...very, very boring. Then loneliness sets in. And then fights begin. And that's where we were. However, we nipped it in the bud real quick and agreed that we need to reconnect. So this weekend was about us, family and loving each other and making time for each other as often as we could. Marriage is WORK. And marriage doesn't work without COMMUNICATION and UNDERSTANDING. You have to HEAR your partner and LISTEN to them if you want your marriage to work. You have to make TIME for each other, without the children. You have to remember why you fell in love in the first place and keep that love alive somehow.**

That night Mark and I hired the world's best babysitter, our niece Lyndsey. I picked her up from school, while Mark picked up pizzas for the kiddos. We headed out before 6pm and made our first stop at a super fun place called Cannibal & Craft. AKA, Tiki Bar!!!! Mark loves tiki bars and I love watching him geek out at them! However, if that tiki bar does not play tiki music, it will drive him insane. He wants the whole full on tiki bar, experience. And I completely agree with him! Who wants to listen to Rap music at a tiki bar?? Music can reuin the experience, no matter how great the atmosphere is. Think about it, if you go to Hawaii and you're at luau, do you want to listen to Rap music or do you want to listen to luau tiki music? Other than the very disappointing playlist, the place was really amazing. Drinks were spot on and the decor was perfection. We will go back but probably when it's later in the evening. We went a little too early like some parents on a rare date night.

A tiki bar in Fayetteville, AR of all places!

Decor was absolutely fun and perfect.

We were a little too ambitious and took on a fish bowl.
We didn't even finish half of it. Our age was showing big time!

I don't have a picture of where we went to eat at, but we went to the Old Post Office for dinner. It was okay-I guess I was expecting something more since there was a line. It's basically like Grubs-but a little better. Would I go back? Maybe, but it wouldn't be first on my list. The highlight for us was running into my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins!

Then we went to a pinball bar called Pinpoint. It was so much fun playing pinball on the old machines. Pinball machines always bring back memories of staying at a hotel on vacation and going to the back game room to play on the pinball machines. The smell of chlorine of the pool and the vending machines of candy, chips and soda waiting to be bought. It's childhood for me, it's a warm memory for me that I love so much. So if you get a chance to go, you gotta go. It's nothing fancy. I was expecting it to be swanky for sure. But it was like a basement with a bar and pinball machines. Don't bring the kids-this an adults only pinball bar.

Pinball machines everywhere and it wasn't busy on Friday night.

Star Wars was really fun to play.

After that we went for drinks at The Vault and again, no pictures. Not because it wasn't great, because it was! It was dark and I didn't get any good pictures for my blog. It's a bar literally in a old bank vault. It's small, cozy but very open. I ordered a gin and tonic that didn't necessarily taste like a gin and tonic but it was still good. I'm very old...school and I like my drinks as is, not swanky. Theirs was swanky.

After that we went home and called it a night by 10pm. We did a lot in a few short hours and had a good time. My God we are old.

The next day we went to the lake to celebrate our girl, Kinsey! Our niece was turning 19 and we weren't going to miss celebrating with her. Kinsey is a hardworking girl who we are just so proud of! She's going into the medical field as a surgical tech. She is always working and putting her way through school. So we all gathered at the lake while my parents are camping to celebrate Kinsey.

The perfect gift for the birthday girl and future surgical tech.

Kinsey and her boyfriend, Trent.

Everyone was there, other than our Ryan. He wasn't feeling so well plus he's also working 3rd shift now and so it's taking a little time for his body to adjust to his now hours. And Marc wasn't there-he usually doesn't come out to family events.

Glasgow Gathering

Girl talk around the table with the birthday girl.

My favorite couple, Matt and Alison.

Everyone had a good time at the campgrounds with Kinsey. Chris took Will out on the canoe to fish and then the guys cooked, kids played baseball, the guys played corn hole. It was a great night! Not too hot, not too buggy out. It was perfection. Today is Kinsey's actual birthday and I hope she had a wonderful party at the lake. We love you Kinsey and we love this family of ours!

Will and Chris-thank you for taking Will out!

Will wants one now!

My corn hole champ-even if he loses:)

Chris winning at corn hole!

Now that's a fire! Dad and Mark cooked for everyone.

He'll always love playing baseball with his Daddy.

Marriage is work, family is work. But like they say "work hard, play hard." That just doesn't apply to actual jobs. It applies to all aspects of life and we worked hard at it this past weekend and played a lot too.

Our Sunday ended with Mark taking a trip to Missouri to pick up some chairs for the brewery with our head brewer, Will-not our son Will. He's too little to brew. Ha! I cleaned up Mark's office while they were away, and then ended our weekend with a migraine. Ugh. But it was a good weekend of balancing it all. Balancing Mark and me, balancing time with family. It's all worth it. Well, my head is hurting again and I need to do laundry. So I'm going to end it here...

A truck full of chairs at a bargain for our brewery.

I hope everyone has a beautiful week! Take care of yourself, your relationships and be apart of moments as much as you can be. Balance.