Make It Monday: Nothing

Happy National Nothing Day! 

I've been thinking for a while about "celebrating" some silly and quirky holidays this year. Imagine my surprise this past weekend when I finally made some effort to do that. I found out that today, the first day we'd be participating, is National Nothing Day, a day to celebrate nothing, to do . . . nothing. Exciting, huh?  The day was created by newspaperman Harold Pullman Coffin in 1973. There's no evidence that it's truly a national holiday since that requires an act of Congress, but that wasn't going to stop us from joining in the fun!

So, what did we do today? Well . . . nothing of course! 

Maybe that's not entirely true. I should say we didn't do any "work," per se. I didn't vacuum. I didn't do any laundry. I didn't even make dinner since we had leftover pasta fagioli from yesterday. (I did make fresh biscuits though, so I may have cheated a little.) I didn't even wash dishes!

What did I do? Spent precious time with my kids. I admit, I'm more of a Martha than a Mary (Luke 10:38-42) when it comes to the kids. I can get so distracted by the cleaning, the cooking, the laundering, the washing, the picking up, the putting away, the constant doing of running a household and raising children. I don't function well in a mess. I get stressed by clutter. I can justify the work since my 3 ducklings, as I like to call them, are always with me, always talking to me, always playing right. by. me. I spend nearly every second of their waking hours interacting with them. Between school, projects, and the every day activities, we are together constantly. But what they crave, what they desire is for mommy to neglect sweeping for 30 minutes and sit and play LEGOs or babies with them. Oh, of course I play with them, read to them, and partake in many activities with them, but sometimes it's just not enough. 

So, what did we do today?

 Made cards for a bunch of people.

 Assembled a rice crispy house kit they were given for Christmas.

 Put together many puzzles.

Read lots of books.

And we played. Lots. Jake told me many times that he loved National Nothing Day. When I asked 'why' he said, "Because you don't have to do any work. You just get to play with us!" 

We also worked on a special project that they are very excited about. (Hopefully I'll blog about it next week.)

When Leighton got home from work, we all made a trip to the library. Once at home, I made some shakes and fresh whipped cream. You know, they weren't even bothered that I was doing "work." When I asked if it would be OK, they assured me they didn't mind. Wasn't that nice of them?

Now, I can't say that no work was done today. The kids did put away their toys. I put some dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I even made my bed. We also put away all the supplies from the day. Today wasn't about being lazy, but about setting aside a whole day of quality time with those that always have my presence, but desire my full attention. 

I think I agree with Jake; I too loved National Nothing Day.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to wash the dishes . . .