A bunch of leftovers

First - lots of great comments on my Balance post. Brandy asked how to even get started finding balance, and I think you just get to a point where you realize you NEED to. I had a very rich personal life before kids - an advantage of infertility, of sorts. I had children later in life (33 when Cam was born) so I had been in my career for over ten years, had a circle of friends I cultivated and spent time with, had hobbies, did triathlons, and was able to do a lot of things with Aaron as a wife BEFORE being a mother.... so I know what makes me personally happy. The kids? They are huge, happy addition to my balance, but I know that I'm missing out on other things that feed my soul. So I'm getting them back in as I can. But it's a work in progress for sure.

And yes. Free range parenting. That is how I grew up and I'm all for it. But that is for another post.

The leftovers from last week:

• Friday Aaron and I took the day off of work together to help a friend pack up her family home. We did that for the whole morning and then in the afternoon, when and saw Avengers. AWESOME MOVIE.
• I went out and got myself a bike. It's a plain old, go out and ride, bike. I had a bracket mounted so Maggie can ride on the back in a Rhode Gear seat (which she loves). And Aaron pulled out his bike (which is in good shape) and attached a pull behind bike for Cam. We are all excited to go for family bike rides! Aaron may even ride with me to daycare with the kids some days.
• We needed to do some garage re-arranging to store the bikes, which resulted a bit of a purging of our storage area. I found the china that I was given by my stepmother... I wish I had pulled it out sooner. I sorted through and was able to cobble together a full set of 8 non-chipped place-settings. It makes me happy to have it to use.
• On Saturday we went to a Kentucky derby party and I may have had one (or 3) too many Mint Juleps. I never tried one before, and I liked them a bit too much, I think. 
• Sunday, I had planned to help my friend with more packing - so I had childcare all lined up. Cam had his first 'drop off' play date and he did great. Helped that is was with his very best friend, but hey. And Suzanne came over and played one on one with Maggie. I was just about to leave to help, when she called and told me she didn't need help. All children happy and content and NOT with me? I went shopping. ALONE. On. The. Weekend.