The Best Days are the Days We Don’t Do Anything

I’m one of those annoying people that only realizes how good something was as it’s about to end.  

Or just after it’s ended.

In my early days of motherhood, I was chatting with my sister, a then experienced mother of 3.  

Since I was at the game of motherhood for a solid 3 months, I felt the need to let her in a few of the secrets I had discovered about motherhood. 

Yes, I’m just that obnoxious.

I told her how I decided to be happy at a stay-at-home-mom.

I needed a destination each day, a reason to get out of the house.

She was sweet and listened to me like she does because she’s nice.

And then she casually said, “Well, I love the days when we have nothing to do and nowhere to go. Those are the good days”.

At the time, since I was so wise as a mom of 3 months, I thought we were just different people.  

That she really didn’t know anything about what might be good or make me happy.

But, I’m a moron.  

An obnoxious moron.  

In this way and so many others.

Maybe it’s that I have 3 kids now.  

Or maybe it’s that I’m finally used to the life of a stay-at-home-mom.  

Maybe it’s that I have made some terrific friends online that keep me company on Facebook and Instagram every day (cool? pathetic?).  

Maybe it’s that I’ve had so many terrible experiences dragging my screaming kids in and out of places I didn’t really need to go.

Maybe it’s all those things. 

But I know now that the best days are the days that we don’t do anything at all.

Nothing.  

Nothing at all.  

Yes, those are the good days.

Sure, we eat, get dressed, maybe do a little laundry, possibly run a vacuum for a few minutes, put the dishes away, but other than that, not much.  

We don’t load into the van and go anywhere.  

And we don’t stress about a to-do list or a playdate or learning any big lessons.

We just stay home, play in the backyard, get dirty, laugh, have fights, eat watermelon, make big messes and clean them up.

Those are the good days.

Part of what has made this so very true this summer is that we have allowed our kids to totally take over the yard.  

Yup, there is no mistaking anymore–kids live here!

Early in the summer my husband and I put together a playhouse for the kids.

And then we dug a hole for a large sandbox.  

It’s a little rough, but there is plenty of room in our new sandbox for digging and dumping–the two favorite actives of my boys.  

Upon the deck, we have 2 little swimming pools.

Well, one is just our old turtle sandbox turned into a pool for Dominic.  

We spend a lot of time filling and emptying these pools.

Because really, how can kids have any summer fun without water?

How can mom have any summer fun without water?

To the side of the deck, I have a little garden.

At the end of each day, we check for ripe tomatoes and pull a few weeds.

I wish I could say I charged out there every day I could, excited to play with my kids.  

Yeah, I wish.  

I am, unfortunately, always with something on my mind, some project to get done that distracts me.  

But, we’ve had lots of good times out in our little yard this summer and I really cherish the days when we don’t have anything to do but head outside and play.

As I said, I don’t appreciate anything until it is almost gone and the same is true here.  

In just a few weeks Gus will be starting preschool.  

We all feel really good about him heading to school but I am not excited about how it will change our lives so much.  

His school is only 3 half days a week, but suddenly we will have 3 days of rushing out the door, loading up the car, dropping off, waiting around, running errands, and just general not-being-home-doing-nothing-ness.

And these days of freedom, of just being home, are numbered.

But I love them.  

I love being home, doing nothing, well at least not anything other than just enjoying my kids attempting to meet their needs.

All the best and I hope you are in your own homes today doing nothing, loving life too.