938 weeks. That’s how many weeks we have with our kids before they turn 18.
Our son is in kindergarten. We have 631 weeks left. So we’re committed to making the most of them! Years before our son was born, my wife and I found ourselves working so much we barely spent any time together. Since I work on Sundays and at that time, Saturdays too, and Brittany works for herself, every day wound up being a work day.
Something had to change. So Brittany started working on Sundays. And we both took Mondays completely off. We called our Mondays “Monday Mashlett Venture Days,” and because we started around 2014, we really called them: #mondaymashlettventures. Every Monday we got away from home and work to spend time together. In fact, we recently went back and started mapping out our “Mashlett Ventures” which you can see here.
Then in February 2019, we added a child to our family. We had to decide whether to continue our Monday adventures or change it up. Years earlier we had seen a model of the time we have with our kids depicted with marbles. Each marble represented a week. When it’s gone, we can’t get it back. And every week we lose one marble.
The model ended by urging parents to “lose your marbles on purpose.” So when we had our son, that’s what we decided to do! We bought 938 marbles and put them in a jar. And we decided that Wilder was going to be a part of our #mondaymashlettventures.
Now, every week, as a family, we lose one marble on purpose. Every week, we go out and intentionally make a memory:
- We go on an adventure
- We try something we’ve never tried before
- We visit a place we’ve never visited before
- We laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Until we cry
- We hike a trail we’ve never hiked before
- We camp. In a tent.
- We drink coffee and steamers together
- We order something on a menu we can’t pronounce
And every week we leave a marble somewhere.
There’s one in a fountain in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. And another at the Easternmost point of the United States, in Maine. There are several placed along hiking trails and in the gardens of coffee shops all over Michigan. At the bottom of the foam pits at a few different trampoline parks… you might find one of our marbles.
We sent one down a waterfall in Puerto Rico and buried one in the sand on Belle Isle. Wilder was born in a snowstorm, so the first time his bare feet felt the grass was several months later. We left a marble in the grass at Proud Lake Recreation Area right where his toes touched first.
So far we’ve left 307 marbles… somewhere. And we have 631 left to be intentional with.
Do we forget to take the marbles with us sometimes, yes.
Do our schedules get busy and we miss a week, sure, but we do try to make up for missed weeks by doubling up on other weeks.
Is every adventure a perfect family outing: no
Now that Wilder’s in school on Mondays, Saturday has become our day.
Now that we have two foster boys living with us, they’re a part of our adventures too! And we love taking them to places we love!
Every week you’ll find us planning our next adventure. Our next shenanigan. Our next memory. All week long we look forward to losing our marble!
Because we know we only have as much time as there are marbles in the jar in our kitchen. And we lose one every week, whether we’re intentional with it or not.
Trust me, we’ve stopped blinking. Time goes by so fast. After all, time is just a moment. But the time we spend with each other, over time, that creates history. So if we’re intentional with our time, the marbles become memories that are not easily forgotten!
How could you be a little more intentional with the time you have left with your kids?
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