So I just want to be more active in general but most decisions now involve a toddler!! Big challenge huh. Being active is in some ways easier because he keeps you on your toes all the time. The problem is getting anything useful done. He’s at that stage where he needs a lot of attention, is very inquisitive and constantly wants you to do stuff.

At the same time my wife and I have been talking about things we want to do to our home. It’s great having ideas but it just adds a ton more stuff to do doesn’t it. So last night we tried to get a bunch of things done all in one event and it turned out really well.

The things we wanted to achieve were:

• Get some ideas for the lounge
• Have a nice cheap meal out
• Have a change of scenery, don’t stay at home all the time
• Do a bunch more walking and moving than usual
• Free up our weekends for fun stuff

In all it was a really good experience and broke up the week. Too often we just go home, cook dinner and put the little one to bed. A good normal routine but dull. Just being out of the house made things more interesting for us and more fun for him and saves his toys at home for another day so he doesn’t tire of them or of being at home.

During our visit we saw a bunch of useful things to give us ideas. We didn’t buy anything because that wasn’t the point and our little man loved it too. He kept trying out the beds and pretending to go to sleep, was he trying to tell us something :-). and it was a lot of fun chasing him round the store to wear him out.

Dinner was actually really good too. I’ve eaten at IKEA a couple of times but I had forgotten what the food was like and for the price I was quite impressed mainly because it was different than you get anywhere else. I had salmon and spinach lasagne which is kinda nice for like £2.50 or something. Nate, our little one, loved it because he had cool pasta shapes with a little sauce. My wife had gravy with her meal and he loved dipping chips into that and it was so much less fuss feeding him out of the house than it can be at home. We also sat next to their play area in case he wanted to take a break.

So we achieved all we wanted and during a week night so we didn’t have to leave this all to the weekend and freed up some time for fun instead. We’re obviously lucky to live in a city with an IKEA but it’s not the only time we’ve done this kind of thing. Garden centres like Frosts are good too but the food there is a lot more expensive.

You notice how I didn’t talk about the walking and exercise. It’s all we did but we didn’t notice it either which was the point. The idea was to Get stuff done, live your life, have fun and use the activity that comes with it with no extra effort or time needed. As a result we saved time and energy instead of creating more work.

I bet you do the same kind of thing so feel free to tell me about it. Maybe you can give me some more ideas I can try out and it always helps to have more options.