Q-U-I-E-T

You know, until you are a parent, I don't think you can really appreciate quiet. The blissful sound of nothingness. Of course once you are a parent, of young children at least, there are times that quiet is not a good thing. True quiet usually means someone is up to something and if you don't want a mess of grand proportions you better get up and get investigating. I remember back in the day too, when Tim and I would realize it was quiet, sometimes with the kids right underfoot, we would spell the word to each other, out loud. Q-U-I-E-T. It was a mantra of sorts. I think one of the biggest surprises to both of us as parents was the volume level, and Tim often used to say, "I never knew it would be this loud."

But it is quiet here today, and we are, these days, experiencing quiet of another sort. This quiet is "Woah! Both of them are at after school activities and we have the house all to ourselves!" quiet. And it is good!

Many good things can be said about kid free time you know, but today, we chose to revel in the quiet. Tim is actually asleep right now on the couch and I am quietly typing away. The only sounds are the keys, my thoughts, and the fairly constant blow of forced air heat. No music. No TV. No beeping or buzzing from phones. Just pure, blissful quiet. It will be a short session since, due to the cold, and to the drying nature of said forced air heat, my fingers are a messed up land of cracked winter skin. Then today, my fingers were aggravated even more by the world's worst paper cut, ever, on my right middle finger. Typing is sort of, really, truly, a pain.

But I could not waste this opportunity.
To reset, recharge, regroup.
An opportunity to reflect, on nothing.
A moment to be thankful, for alone together time.
To be thankful for
QUIET.

Whirling Dervish

…and Martin Luther King Jr Day has come again. And we failed to finalize the putting away of Christmas. But alas, many things got in the way. There was, after all, coffee to be drunk, there were instruments to be played, which would be a "task" on a school night, but oddly enough, on a day without structure, were what they should be; things to be played and enjoyed. Laundry was done and groceries were bought, but at the same time magazines were read, and series TV was watched.

In a frantic "what have we REALLY done today, we have a bit of a time table here if we are ever going to eat dinner" frenzy, all four of us just spent the last 30 minutes out in our rather tiny kitchen. In a whirling dervish of sorts, chicken was defrosted, and a squash was cut. Accompanying said culinary pursuits was a Science Olympiad project, mid project, in the middle of the island. Cake was made on the side counter, and a martini on the other side counter. Laundry was switched and changed. And now, after the 30 minute flurry, it is back to fun and leisure.

Somehow it seems, what needs to be done does get done. And on a day off, I am always impressed by what can be accomplished in a flurry of activity, over a short period of time. When leisure and fun are the true objective, work falls to the back burner.

And all that I intend to do in a full day, sometimes in a VERY short period of time, happens.
And that is probably something we should remember everyday.