"Yes" Day

It's a "yes" day here today. Snow is falling outside on this cold grey day, I want to get the house ready for Aimee and Dave's return home from Chile tomorrow, and it's just been a long (but not bad) week in general, so I decided to let the rules go today. There are still some basic boundaries, of course, but if a request can be granted with reason, I'll do it. You boys want to sit in your pajamas all morning and watch the Clone Wars movie while eating an entire box of cereal? Go right ahead. And sure, while you're at it - take turns chugging the rest of the juice right out of the bottle. Your older sister isn't here to care.

That sort of thing.

Surprisingly - but I guess not really - they aren't spending the entire day in front of glowing screens, and are now upstairs builiding with Legos and listening to books on CD, which is their favorite pasttime anyway. In any case, it's a pretty peaceful day, and I think it's nice for everyone to have a "yes" day on occasion, if at all possible. That being said, it's not really possible for me to have a day like that. But if it were, what would I do with such a day? How tantalizing. When I have bits of free time here and there, I find I'm filling them up with cleaning, school-ish planning and organizing (such as it is for me), and the like...and if I'm not doing those things, I feel a little guilty. But what if I did have the opportunity to do just whatever I wanted and was forbidden from doing all the necessary things?

Hmmmm....it would take me a while to decide, but here are some things for starters:

I would take a long, hot bath, with a good book in hand. (I even have the book - Falling Together, by Marisa de los Santos, the author of a couple other books I really enjoyed.)

I would eat a meal slowly. Without sitting down. Also without sharing.

I would sit in front of the fire with a cup or two of coffee. That's it. Just sit.

Later I might go for a run. Or not, depending on how I felt.

And I probably would look through some school books and put a gazillion library books on hold, because I actually do enjoy that.

I wouldn't want to be without the kids all day, although since I can't even take a 3 minute shower without a certain little one screaming right outside the shower door...they might have to be happily occupied elsewhere for some of it. But my point is, my "yes" day wouldn't necessarily have to be a "me" day. I do like my kids, and I like having them around. I'm just thinking about what I would do if I didn't have anything else to do. You get the idea, I'm sure. At any rate, those are just a few of my ideas for a personal "yes" day. What would yours be???