A friend recently commented on the playfulness of our family. I must say — the family fun is mostly attributable to Marathon. He has always been playful. He was the smarty-pants class clown in school (from what I’ve gathered) and that spirit is still in him today.

Playing and goofing off is one of his ways of unwinding. On days when he is working at home, we’ll take an hour or so break and run around and play in the backyard — soccer, baseball, kickball, and recently, dodgeball on the trampoline.

In the evenings, after the kitchen has been cleaned, we have family time. For years we had story time with the kids – and still do that from time to time. But at some point last fall, we started playing family games in the evenings – pictionary, clue, blokus, Chinese checkers, crazy 8s…and we’re still on the game circuit.

When Marathon is away during the day, I try to schedule a morning break to do something active outside with the kids. Sometimes, when I’m needing my space, I’ll send them out in the backyard while I do Pilates indoors. I try to play, garden, or play a game with them each day. It’s one of those things that I don’t always want to do, but once I get going, I’m glad I did.

The family that plays together stays together? We’ll see!