Over the weekend we had a great time. Why did we have a great time? The simplest answer I can come up with is because we spent time together and you know the old saying, “Family time is quality time,” I really do think someone was onto something when they came up with that. But it is true, the more time you spend with your family the more you get to know them.

IMG: Sxc.hu

Friday we all decided to hit up a brand new chinese restaurant out here, “Aikou” and I must say it was delicious. I made sure that we all tried something new though and everyone had to try something. Even if they never had it or didn’t think they’d like it. I grew up with hearing you never know if you’ll like it if you don’t try it. Today, our saying is “try it once, if you don’t like it never eat it again.” I figure this way at least they know and can say they’ve tried it. Granted I’ll probably never make them eat Rocky Mountain Oysters or a cow’s tongue but they’ll try other things. Oh and yes I’ve tried the second one, when I heard about the first one I couldn’t get near it. Course in all fairness I was almost completely vegetarian during that time period and had thought it was oysters I’d be eating. Do you make your kids try things even if they think it looks gross?

On Saturday we went off to a last minute baseball game, which I posted about yesterday. Today we played a few rounds of rummy and go fish and after that it was family day in the terms of cleaning house. Okay, so the kids didn’t honestly love the cleaning house part but they loved that everything we did was with them. I will admit to enjoying that too. Just think in less than two weeks they’ll be here all summer long….I’m not sure if I’m counting down until they get out of school or until they go back. What time of family time did you do this weekend?

My husband and I have always been pretty strict about the kids’ bedtime. It changes and shifts as we need it to - during the school year it’s 8pm with reading until 8:30 and then lights out. During the summer it’s 8:30 with a 9pm lights out. We’ve found this works best for us because we know the kids are getting enough sleep (and not sleeping until noon), and it guarantees that we get some time alone in the evenings to unwind and spend time together.

Most nights we just watch tv or a movie together, and we’re both grateful for the ability to pause the tv not just so we can skip commercials but because it’s usually at the weirdest moments we remember something we wanted to talk about or because whatever it is we’re watching has prompted a discussion.

Every now and then we’ll get in the mood to play the Wii which works out well because we get it all to ourselves! Other times we’ll be up for some Scrabble or Monopoly while watching a movie we’ve seen before (so we don’t have to concentrate on it too much - we like the background noise).

How do you and your SO find time to spend together?