RIVER RAMBLES AND STONE THROWING - FAMILY TIME

Sometimes it feels that  we don't spend any actual time together as a family, in the midst of having two children, running a household, and working 72 hours a week is it any wonder? Life is so busy, and our week truly is spent in a rush. We're out of the house for almost twelve hours every day and the whole working week passes by sometimes with the feeling that we haven't actually spent any substantial time together. By the time we're home from work, the children need tea, bathing and bed and then we do what we need to around the house before winding down ourselves. The morning never leaves time for anything does it, in fact our morning routine leaves a lot to be desired as it's always a scramble with us never actually leaving the house any earlier even though we swear we will every single day.

Every time Friday rolls around I promise myself we'll spend quality time together, do something exciting or make lovely memories, but of course something crops up - one of the boys is poorly, Johns working or we have a tonne of errands that have to be done and right before my eyes our precious weekend slips away. I know you shouldn't live for the weekends, but with our manic week I'll hold my hands up to doing exactly that. I make mental notes that I'll definitely spend some quality time with John and watch that film he's been begging me to watch with him for months, that I'll get crafty with Noah and whip out the glue sticks and glitter or that me and Patrick will spend some real one to one time. None of it happens because whilst we're just passing over the hump day, I've already got a list as long as my arm of the things that will more than likely, not happen. It's sad and it's not something I want to become a habit.

Family time has to be top of our list and I've come to realise it doesn't have to all be Instagram worthy. I'm not wondering out to the back of beyond and sitting the boys in muddy fields for the sake of a photograph on a grid, I'm simply focusing on enjoying our time together doing whatever we love, and if I can capture it on camera - that's a bonus. This weekend with everything I've just spoken about at the forefront of my mind, we went out to explore, we really didn't venture far because I didn't want to sit the children in a far to head off on a faraway destination so knowing our village probably stores some hidden gems, we let Noah guide the way. This in itself was fantastic, he loved feeling in charge and it was completely stress free as we had absolutely no plan and so we wondered. He led us into the woods, with a little bit of guidance from John so we didn't end up in the middle of a dual carriageway. After successfully managing to avoid a road traffic accident, we actually turned up in a secret little beauty spot less than a mile from our house. A beautiful delicate bridge awaited us, a small stream running through (though labelled as a ford, we saw too many number plates in the water too even be tempted by a drive through) and what felt like an endless forest. To Noah, he saw the troll bridge from the Three Billy Goats Gruff, Hansel and Gretles forest and the perfect place to practice his stone throwing, so any guessing what we did. After stomping across the bridge enough times to realise absolutely no troll was going to come out to scare us, we began a stone throwing competition. Even though we tried our absolute best between stopping Patrick opting for a mid October paddle, Noah won and everyone was in good spirits. We collecting acorns, found secret footpaths beneath the soaring trees and really enjoyed each others company. It made me realise just what family time is about for us, it isn't paying £50 for a day out at our local farm or traipsing around a natural trust, it's not giving ourselves expectations because sometimes, the best days materialise from nothing.