TODAY IS CANCELLED! I used to say that when I was frustrated and overwhelmed. I still do. But somehow my cancelled days have become some of my favorites. I put down my plans. I put aside my expectations. I slow down and I listen better. We spend hours outside. We spend hours painting or playing with Legos. We spend hours reading books. In bed. In pajamas. Or splashing in the pool. I accept upsets as inevitable as the day has been cancelled to give us more space and more room. We put aside the mealplans and I open up the fridge or we putter around in the garden and taste all the different things. Today is cancelled. So instead of doing things... We went outside. We caught a few crickets, some spittle bugs, a grasshopper. We found that our released friend the half blind toad has found a home in our garden where he will eat up to 10,000 bugs this summer. He has become ridiculously plump and makes good use of the toad pool that I put out for him near the compost, although he prefers to spend his days hiding beneath the squash plant where he seems to be eating the squash vine borer moths as they come to lay their eggs. (Thank goodness!) We played with play-doh mixing all the colors even more together on their path to becoming a uniform brown. We named the colors that we could still identify, all marbled together, and we cut out letters with the dough and talked about the letters that we made. We rolled long worms of dough and cut them with the blunt kids scissors. We picked the things around the garden and made a stir-fry of baby squash, lambsquarter, baby kale, broccoli greens, squash blossoms, dandelion greens, onion and garlic in olive oil with a dash of salt. And because we picked it together after we planted it, and grew it, and tended it, and because we cooked it together? Everyone piled onto my lap and dug in. And now they are playing with Legos and Playmobil people and lost in their own little worlds of calm. Today is cancelled. Because following plans was not a good plan for this type of day. Because we let go of what was supposed to be, we were freed up to enjoy what was. We needed this, after being gone from home for a three day weekend. After my oldest going off to the city for two weeks for visitation-vacation. We needed this after Monday and Tuesday being a chaotic re-settling in with derailed plans and grumpiness. Having a bad day? Stamp CANCELLED on it with big red letters. In the beginning you may find those days to be frustrating, but eventually youll find them being your favorite types of days.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:11:07 +0000