Vacation Week Translates Into Family Dinners, More Sleep, More Fun, More Points For All

Madison Challenge Week #7 shaped up to be a winner! We were on vacation, at least 3 out of 4 of us, and this proved to be real point gainer.  Bob, Sophia and I enjoyed sleeping in, reading books, eating together as a family and expanding our horizons with daytrips.  All this, combined, made it a banner week.

Not having to wake up to the alarm clock every morning afforded each of us time to catch up on some much needed shut-eye.  We usually get 8 hours of sleep, but that amount of sleep after hours at work is never the same as 8 hours of sleep on vacation.  It is just more restful after a relaxing day.  So we all felt invigorated by catching up on our sleep.

This extra energy translated into some very interesting day trips right here in Connecticut.  The most interesting and educational was a road trip to the Connecticut State Library in Hartford to visit the Museum of Connecticut History.

What a gem this museum is for anyone with any interest at all in the State of Connecticut.  While you may already know that General Electric is based here in the Nutmeg State did you know that Underwood Typewriter, Winchester Repeating Arms, Universal Family Scale Company and Colt Firearms also have shared this honor? 

Right next door to the museum is the Connecticut Supreme Court.  This was Sophia’s favorite part of the trip.  “It’s just really cool to be in a court, because I’ve never been in one before,” she said.  I, for one, am glad it was her first time and unless she decides to become an attorney I hope that is not a place she has reason to visit again.

We also spent some time researching our ancestry in the library’s History and Genealogy Department.  What a fascinating place where, armed with the right genealogical information, you can research your family tree.

There is no specific line item that I can see that gives us points for this kind of activity, but we are going to put our time under cultural arts.  We all learned so much and walked away feeling fulfilled from our day in Hartford.

We ended our evenings all week with a family dinner.  While we would like to say that this is commonplace in our home, it is just not possible.  Weekends we do manage to accomplish this goal, but during the week it is a stretch.  So it was a real treat to work together preparing the evening meals, with no homework or work to interrupt us, and then have a sit down meal with our complete family, 5 points!

Sitting down to a family dinner is such a great way to end the day.  We talked about what we did during the day and often brainstormed about what we should do to fill our free time the next day.  Boy do I wish every day could be so fulfilling and relaxing, but come week #8 it’s back to reality.