One life to live

We get one life….. We get to decide how we’re going to spend it.

Without giving much away, that was one of the themes in the new movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

This past Saturday was a long day. My son had a soccer game in the morning. We made a trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods for goalie gloves, had lunch and then got him a haircut, all before 1:30. Since I took a day off from training on Friday, I had to get a good run in, especially with the decent weather. I got Christopher settled at the apartment, put on my running shoes and got in a great 6.23 mile run around town. I needed that, but I was tired after all that we had accomplished in the day.

After my run, I asked Christopher what he wanted to do later and he said he wanted to go see the new movie Jumanji.

We had already driven by the movie theater that morning for the soccer match and to Dick’s. I just wasn’t feeling it, to drive thirty minutes back for a movie that wasn’t on my “to see” list. I really wanted to veg and do nothing….BORING (Side note: I don’t allow the kids to use that word as they are smart enough and creative enough to always find something fun to do.)

Standing in the shower, I decided to go.

Why not, Matthew?

We were having a fun weekend and I wanted to make the most of this time with Christopher, one-on-one. The girls were out of town at another soccer tournament, we couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. It was Christopher and me for the weekend…a guys weekend.

Let’s go have some fun. Why not?

I immediately hopped on the online ticket website, reserved our two seats, center seats, six rows back; the perfect seats for a movie.

I am so glad I decided to go. Christopher and I had such a great time and the movie was terrific. We had two huge buckets of popcorn and I even had two beers.

Movie theaters, these days are nothing like the ones I grew up going to. Now, there are theaters where you can reserve your specific seats, put your feet up in recliners and can even buy beer, wine and real food, like hamburgers, pizza, and wings. We settled for popcorn, a sports drink for Christopher and I had the two local craft beers as we enjoyed Jumanji.

We had such a fun weekend together and I look forward to having another boys weekend with Christopher again soon. In fact, I look forward to having one-on-one weekends with each of my children when the opportunity and schedules allow. It’s great being with and doing things with all three kids, but I also need those times when I can just spend it with them individually, doing fun things, having experiences together, one-on-one.

Now, let me say, there is nothing wrong with putting my feet up and doing nothing on a lazy Saturday. In fact, that’s healthy to do at times.

Life must be a balance. However, as fast as children grow, I have learned that spending too much time, feet up on the couch watching basketball, takes away from the precious time we have with the ones we love.

I’ve got one life to live and I want to know my children as intimately as I can…their goals, their dreams, their hopes, and even their worries and fears. Spending individual time with them allows for those conversations to happen openly.

Unlike the movie, or being a video game character, we don’t just fall out of the sky with another chance at life when we die. This is it and we’ve got to make the most of it.

I appreciate the words of Principal Bentley in the movie, “You get one life… You get to decide how you’re going to spend it.”

I’m going to do my best to spend mine wisely, especially for and with the ones I love so dearly!

Happy Friday everyone!