The kids are presently dancing in the upstairs hallway singing “10 day weekend! Never going back to school!” I’m not sure how funny they’ll still find it when they’re in school on Good Friday and also Memorial Day – but right now in this moment they think that school being cancelled again for tomorrow is the best thing ever.
After waking up this morning to an inch of ice covering the over 9 inches of snow we got yesterday we actually managed to leave the house this afternoon. For a few hours the sun came out, the earth warmed up and people started moving. We jumped in the car and drove to the library for an exciting adventure out of the house. Unfortunately the library wasn’t open (I’m assuming due to the weather), so we were stuck with trying to figure out what to do. Trips “out” have been few and far between this week and we weren’t ready to just turn around and go back home. We ended up doing a walk-about in TJMaxx and then going to two grocery stores (did we need to go to two? No. But again, it was part of that being out thing).
At our Co op we ran into a friend we’ve made who makes jewelry and sells it at the market downtown. We were catching up and I mentioned how much I was enjoying this week at home with the kids, how nice it was to see them totally relaxed. This was something I’d actually been thinking about earlier this morning. This is the first time in probably a year that I’ve seen both kids so well caught up on rest, so relaxed, so stress free. You see, the wonderful thing about not being able to go anywhere or do anything is that you are forced to slow down and relax. The good thing is the three of us are pretty good at hanging out with each other and only moderately getting on each other’s nerves (sigh). We’ve all spent a lot of time together, so we actually can balance ourselves out pretty well.
We’ve played outside in the snow, played board games, told jokes, cooked meals together, visited, read books, had naps, gone to bed early, slept in, relaxed, laughed – lots of laughter, bonded, even watched a little TV (somehow in this I’ve been trying to keep up with my course work – but it’s been a slow week in that department). It has been one of the best weeks we’ve had in a long time.
Our other long breaks recently have been filled with travelling to Calgary or driving to Virginia Beach or other action activities. All of which have been lots of fun and filled important needs in other ways. But this is the first time in ages where we’ve had a significant amount of time to just be and do nothing. What I’ve discovered is we are all nicer, happier people because of it.
It has been such a blessing to have this down time. The power of recharging is immense. All of us carry a great deal of stress in our busy lives. I have set up our lives to be as simple and as nurturing as possible, but even so there’s always more than we can do. The ability to simply stop the world for 10 days and recharge has been amazing.
Day 28 of the 44 days of happiness came while we were sitting at the table playing the Train board game. We were laughing and arguing and being silly and each trying to outdo the other. The joy of a simple game brought us all great happiness because we were rested enough to enjoy the moment.
