Breaking Family Routines

Of course, as a professional organizer I am a big believer in routines, but I think abandoning routines once in awhile can be a good thing. I include our family in the group that doesn't take advantage of all of the wonderful museums, free and low-cost recreational park activities and the many other enriching family programs that are available every weekend in and around D.C. We tend to fall into our regular a.m. routine of reading the shrinking paper and enjoying our coffee while the kids watch cartoons, before all of the normal weekend activities start like b-day parties, sports practices and play dates.

This weekend we diverged a bit from our routine mainly because our youngest had been cooped up all week with an especially harsh stomach virus, and I think we all needed to do something different. We went down to the Building Museum on Saturday because they have a Lego exhibit that we haven't seen yet and they were hosting Engineering Family Day with lots of fun activities planned for kids. Though parking was a bear, the day was so much fun. I think it fed a spark our son has to the building professions, and we all walked away learning something. It was great to experience this all together as a family. I had to laugh that I did learn how to make structurally strong columns out of a sheet of paper and my daughter and I made many of them yesterday securing her second level of her firehouse she made out of a cardboard box.

We never made it to the Lego exhibit, as we ran out of time, but all agreed that we will be back to take in that exhibit. I strongly recommend a visit to the Building Museum.

Also, another great source I've discovered for local activities is the Patch. It is a local, on-line newspaper and there are many neighborhood versions that are available. I happen to read the Huntington-Belle Haven Patch.

I think this past weekend was an eye opener for us and one we will want to replicate with regularity. I hope we can do it!