Scouty and I took this book out of the library. It is about a girl who lives in a town where every day is Christmas. She wakes up every morning and opens her presents and eats Christmas dinner and stuffs her room full of toys.
She's really bored with life.
The one day she looks forward to more than anything is Un-christmas, when she gets to go to school and eat TV dinners and the mailman brings the bills.
It's a cute story and it was written because every kid, at some point, wishes it could be Christmas every day.
But, it actually got me thinking.
We do the same things with our time every day. The reason certain days are special is because they're out of the ordinary. We might think it's because of the presents and the cookies and everything... and those things are awesome. But really, those things are only awesome because they so rarely happen. It is totally true that if we got presents every day, they would stop being wonderful really quickly.
You know how we're moms and we wake up and make breakfast and get kids dressed and brush a bunch of teeth and put on the same shows while we get dressed in the same clothes we've been wearing for years? And we pack the same lunches and take kids to school and play the same puzzles with the baby and lay her down for a nap at the same time every day, and then we workout and shower and keep buying the same soap and snacks? And we pick our big kids up from school and go to the same park and the same grocery store and do a craft and read a book and daddy gets home at the same time every day?
It sucks.
It's so boring, right?
I hate it, too.
I've decided to come up with a list of ideas of ways to make my days go by a little differently. There must be something we can do to mix things up every once in a while? If everything wasn't so mind numbingly THE SAME every day, maybe we wouldn't feel so unplugged, like we're just mom robots going about our mechanical robot business without any emotional and spiritual involvement.
I need ideas.
Don't respond and tell me about how you've got it all figured out and all you do is give your kids a bowl of rice to play with and voila! your life is totally enjoyable and stimulating. I won't believe you. Or, if I do, I'll just think you're crazy and a little bit smug.
What are some things that don't cost a lot of money and aren't totally annoying and exhausting that we could do to make our day feel a little bit out of the ordinary? So that we can administer some novelty to our daily routines and get a little happier?
Do you have a flower market near you? I don't have kids, but as a kid I would have loved being taken to the flower market to pick out a certain number of flowers to make a fresh bouquet at home. Is it free? No, but for me, fresh flowers in my living space make me so happy.
ReplyDeleteI have no clever ideas. Mainly because moving has kind of made me into a little bit of an agoraphobe. We go on lots of drives. I like doing that because Simon can catch a quick nap and I can think and listen to my music without kids crawling all over me. And I can get familiar with the area and do some scouting for photos.
ReplyDeleteFor Christmas, though, we've been doing a little holiday activity every day, from going to see Santa at the mall to baking cookies to watch a little Christmas movie on Netflix. It's been fun trying to think of a little activity to do each day, and it's not like we've spent much money at all doing it.
I always write the longest comments where I'm saying absolutely nothing. Sorry. :/
I have no clever ideas. Mainly because moving has kind of made me into a little bit of an agoraphobe. We go on lots of drives. I like doing that because Simon can catch a quick nap and I can think and listen to my music without kids crawling all over me. And I can get familiar with the area and do some scouting for photos.
ReplyDeleteFor Christmas, though, we've been doing a little holiday activity every day, from going to see Santa at the mall to baking cookies to watch a little Christmas movie on Netflix. It's been fun trying to think of a little activity to do each day, and it's not like we've spent much money at all doing it.
I always write the longest comments where I'm saying absolutely nothing. Sorry. :/
I'm struggling here, too. I think I'm so bored that it's hard for me to entertain my kids. I've been attempting, though. The other day we made pumpkin bread, then we made play dough. Tomorrow we're going to see lights at The Grotto. There's over 1 million lights, there. I'm thinking another baking sesh is in order--but even that can be taxing at times with little hands.
ReplyDeleteI'll let you know if I come up with something brilliant. ;)
x
Okay, I don't have it all figured out. I don't really know how to make the everyday extraordinary. And believe me, at home most days I struggle to get the laundry done and try not to have a freak-out when my kid throws food on the floor then rubs it all over her head. Still...for some reason this post just got me thinking and suddenly I had a million ideas.
ReplyDeleteA few things that add a special sparkle to my days:
-Breakfast for dinner. I look forward to these days.
-I take my girl to my husband's work and we eat lunch together.
-We have family dinner on Wednesday nights. My husband works super late most days, so these Wednesday nights are special. I cook something a bit more elaborate. And make desert. And it feels nice.
-I take my girl to Starbucks and I buy her a kids milk and a cafe mocha with extra cream for me. We sit and chat (well, babble, she's 18 months), and I feel like I'm out on a coffee date with a friend.
(Okay, so by a million suggestions I meant four. And all my of them are about food. Hmmmm.)
my kids are older now, and I was a delirious sleep deprived graduate student when they were toddlers, so definately no "got it all together" here. these are the things i can remember that we used to do to break up the days:
ReplyDelete- build a fort in the house. my kids LOVED this.
- have a picnic in the backyard.
- bake together. my 14 yr. old just helped me make xmas cookies today. it made me so nostalgic for the days when he was little and we cooked together regularly.
- tea party with real tea. invite all the imaginary friends.
I love the flower idea. you could also go exploring to pick flowers if you have an wild places near you. Or if not, maybe an outdoor scavenger hunt for whatever kinds of things are appropriate for your area (i never did this, just thought of it).
Have fun!
I do weird things like re-arrange the furniture, plan elaborate potluck dinners for my friends and their kids. Some days I get super hipster dressed up to bring the baby to Safeway.
ReplyDeleteObviously I need some ideas. My days are monotonous and insignificant.