Our team had this past Friday off and I was hugely grateful to have an extra day to rest and spend some meaningful time with the family. And it was one of my favorite days!

One of the pieces that made it meaningful was to have some intentionality in how I wanted to spend my time and made sure the crew (especially Vivaan) had a say in it and was aligned with their interests as well. Right before bed on Thursday, V tells me – “I am grateful we have a good plan for tomorrow!” It’s been a beautiful journey to expose him to the power of planning, prioritization and tradeoffs. He is one of those kids who will want to do “everything” in a given moment especially as we get close to bedtime and those are good teaching and coaching moments to enable him to make intentional choices.

I got a good 8 hours of sleep and had a coaching call at 7 am that I was hoping to take from a trail. V woke up early and I could either let him stay on his device or wake up Sumit but instead I invited him to the trail and told him he had to let me focus on my call and he was a great team player (asked me once half way in, can we go back and it was a good moment to start walking back!) I was really tempted to stop at a coffee shop and had my sanitizer and mask but figured I’ll skip and save it for when I was craving my hot chocolate or croissant even more, ha!

We got home around 9 am and then spent the next 30 mins making roasted crispy chickpeas. Again, all 3 of us had watched a video on how to make these the night before and that was the first thing out of Vivaan’s mouth at 6:00 am – “Mama, can we roast our chickpeas?” So, there we were, experimenting with spices and seasonings and trying out something new. It was a huge hit and we made multiple batches throughout the day!

The kids saw Wild Kratts for the next 45 mins or so and I did another coaching call which was also hugely rewarding. It beautiful to see people connect with their own wisdom and brilliance and the gifts they want to bring forth in the world.

We then spent an hour or so doing homework (with some whining and distractions) but overall, we all had fun. V is a lot more into activity books that he has picked himself over the teacher assigned homework. I am finding that he is continuing to keep up with his Kinder expectations and this approach is a lot more fun and engaging. I am continuing to stay curious on what all of this means and how I parent and home-school him.

Mansi made delicious lunch and we all had a long, leisurely meal. This was a lovely treat as I typically do not eat lunch with the fam every weekday. Sumit is typically in charge of lunch and I will sometimes join the crew or sometimes eat alone in silence decompressing from my workday (which typically starts at 6).

We then did chores (ha, wasn’t easy) but we made some progress at folding laundry and putting away my winter and formal work clothes, I still kept my favorite blazer in, maybe I will wear it for fun next week? I do have moments when I miss dressing up, but I am hopeful those days will be back at some point. I am still at a loss of how 4 people can have SO much laundry, but I have been told its normal. I still remember how I could go with 1 (maybe 2 loads of laundry) before I had kids, nostalgia kicking in!

We then spent the next 2 hours researching projects for Father’s Day. In our home, both mothers and fathers day are special events where we celebrate with each other and often take a weekend or day long trip and some solo time. Last year, I went on a 2-day Mother’s Day retreat which was one of the nicest things I had done for myself. Knowing this year will be somewhat different, I wanted to build in some more intention and make sure we do not feel rushed up and had the time and space to enjoy our special weekend. We made a heart (and lots of balls) with the salt dough, glitter slime and a salt painting card for Sumit. It was very joyful…

I then spent some time making dinner and taking to one of my closest friends (that the kids were not happy with and I negotiated for a few mins) but then let them watch a few minutes of their favorite show on their devices. BC (Before corona!!), screen time was a treat in our home but I am trying to relax the criteria in favor of overall peace and modeling to the kids that meaningful relationships are an important part of our lives.

Sumit reunited with us around 6:00 and then we drove to Stanford, had a picnic dinner, and then did a “semi-urban” hike through campus to an outdoor mall where we grabbed ice-cream! We discovered a beautiful cactus garden in the middle of the campus and was lovely to be hiking through it at dusk. I also had another close friend call and we had a few minutes of purposeful connection before V could not take it. The kids slept on their way back from the ice cream store and Sumit and I had about an hour of peaceful conversations.