Ninety minutes from now, life will be back to normal. My children will be at their respective schools, my spouse will be at his office, and I will be in my writing space closing in on the end of a manuscript. The dogs will be curled up on the couch and will raise their heads when I pass them as I make trips to and from the kitchen for coffee.
Life will be restored to its comfortable balance in an hour and a half. Vacation is over.
I happen to be one of those parents who believes that giving children “experiences” is a way to build meaningful memories into their childhoods. We don’t spend a lot of money on our kids, in part because there’s not a lot to draw from. That’s by design. Rob and I don’t have full time jobs with bosses who expect us to be present forty hours a week. As he and I are both self-employed, we make our own hours. Those hours flow from how many clients we can obtain. Fewer clients mean less income, but the silver-lining of the black, financial cloud is that both of us are around the house and the children much more than I think typical.
In an effort to squeeze the last little bit of time out of vacation, I announced at midday yesterday that after dinner we would have “Family Reading Time” until bedtime. I was asked what we would be reading, to which I responded, “We are not reading the same thing. You can, individually, read whatever you want, but it should be ‘for pleasure.'”
My two older ones had travel books, #3 had a NatGeo science reference book, #4 had Auggie and Me, Rob had a non-fiction about economics (which he found particularly funny and was laughing out loud distracting his co-readers), and I had John Irving’s The World According to Garp.
We sat together for an hour and a half, quietly reading–for pleasure.
Now, you’re probably wondering how this came together without complaints or whining.
Cake.
Homemade cake with coconut frosting is a sure incentive to make children (ages 8-15) sit and spend some unplugged time with their parents.
Truth be told they weren’t totally quiet, they asked for a second piece (which they were denied), and #3 gave up soon after he finished his one and only piece. (He was clearly in it for the food.)
All in all though, I think it was a success.
Next Sunday, we’ll be doing it again.
I’m thinking chocolate cake with peanut frosting might be in order.
I love this post!! I also love cake, but would never, ever need cake as an incentive to spend an evening reading for pleasure….
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No, maybe not you. But the kids?
Scott?
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Sounds like a great evening. Did you partake of the cake, Jenna? If you didn’t, I’m impressed. I don’t think I could make and serve cake without eating some of it.
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Me? Eat cake? All the time. In fact, I not only had the largest slice (I was cutting after all) but I put cacoa nibs and roasted almonds on top of mine–Almond Joy-esque.
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Mmm, sounds so good. I thought I read in one of your posts you didn’t eat sugar or some horrible thing like that.
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I’m vegan and have a hell of a good vegan cake recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/155534/vegan-cupcakes/
I bake it in a 9-inch round pan, not in cupcake form.
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Ha! You’re teaching your kids how to bribe someone with food. This is a trick known to only the wive’s of the family. Very sneaky.
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You’re funny
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