A couple of weeks ago was our first residential and it was fantastic! A residential is when Quaker Cottage takes one of its groups of families on a 3 day trip to Corrymeela near Giants Causeway for a retreat of sorts. The moms and kids are separated during the day and do different activities from sand dune sliding to visiting Dun Luce Castle to making face masks, etc. Breakfasts and dinners include everyone, though, and the moms and kids get to see each other during the evening hours if they want to. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to bring dads, so they have to stay home…dads rarely get to do the fun stuff, sorry 😛 Overall, it is a great time for the moms to take a break and reflect on how far they have come and/or where they are at now and let the kids have some fun and connect with one another as well.
Corrymeela
My personal favorite activities during residential were: the slippery water slide, plastering children’s faces to make masks, sand dune sliding, hearing the moms scream during their night line (where you blind fold a group of people and lead them through an unfamiliar area while they hang onto a rope), watching the wee ones have a ball going down a ginormous green slide, and night time chats with kids and moms.
Me on the slippery water slide.
Sand Dune
All fun aside, however, residential also reinforced my desire to not have children for at least 10 more years. I was exhausted being with kids from 7:30am to 11pm! I need to train for a marathon or something before I have children to build up some more stamina. But the nap on Friday afternoon when we got back was glorious 🙂
Moment of peaceful sand dune sliding before being asked to teach some of the younger girls how to squat...
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