There’s nothing much sweeter to me than family time, and “weekend time” as our kiddos call it is celebrated every single Friday in the little blue house. From the time Henry could understand that there were weekdays and weekend days, we’ve been doing a little happy dance together come 5pm on Fridays. Some weeks the kids have countdowns (I think I do every week 😉 ). Even when (and maybe especially when) we don’t have big things planned, days together as a family are just better than ones when we’re apart.

As the 4th of July falls on a Monday this year, we’re joining the rest of America in being grateful for our freedom, while also grateful for a three day weekend. Jason decided to take today off as well, and it’s felt like Saturday all day long. I love it more than I can say–and definitely more so being this pregnant, because tomorrow when we wake up it’ll feel like Saturday all over again. Four days together in a row is nearly family vacation territory. Yes!!!

We’ve got quite the line up this weekend, and it feels good despite it also looking a bit like a to do or baby prep list. We made a family trip to Lowe’s this morning for cans of paint (look out, living room walls!) and we’re planning on things like cleaning out the garage and prepping for a mega garage sale. I’ve got baby bins to wade through while the kids clear out books and toys that someone else should get to love. And of course there’s the usual suspects: lawn cutting and laundry, probably groceries and some vacuuming and cleaning here and there. But smattered throughout the next few days? The farmer’s market, family pool time, reading the stacks of books we brought home from the library today, grilling, writing, biking, and a trip to the beach. It feels like there might actually be room for all of the joys and responsibilities of the weekend that can’t always fit into just two days.

These are not privileges we should ever take for granted, and we know it. Still, celebrating our freedoms by being free together as a family feels like a pretty amazing gift, and we’re going to appreciate it together as best we can.

It’s starting to become very real that these weeks and weekends before baby will come and go just as quickly as we might think–the calendar is filling up with both the exciting and the mundane, but however the days go by, they’re all part of a countdown to this big and awesome change of adding another member to our team.

As far as any of us can see it, the baby bean’s arrival will make weekend time more sweet in days to come. For now though, we’re soaking up summer as a family of four, with four days to celebrate life together and the fourth to remind us of why we’re able.

thankful and humbled, and wielding a paint brush,

mm