How To Do Nothing...

So the parents are having the entire house painted right now. I am very excited for the end result, which will be a beautiful light tan with with trim. So peaceful. Getting there, however, is a not so peaceful story. Can you say CHAOS?!

The plan was to paint the bedrooms first so we could put those back together fairly quickly and move on. There were some minor setbacks when they found more wall damaged by water than expected. So....we're still in limbo and have about another week left of painting. This means we all have to leave the house at 7am and come home at 5pm...to shuffle more stuff around and try and keep the kids in order. It is quite tricky, really.

So what do you do all day when you can't go home? Well, we drop Cal off at work at 7am, then hang out at McDonald's (or Mickey Donalds as Grant calls it) and play in the play area until Spencer's school starts at 9am. Then either Grant goes to preschool or we go to our ward play group at a park, or maybe a museum. Last week Grant and I drove half way down Las Vegas Blvd. It was interesting and stimulating, but after the 15th wedding chapel, we decided to head to the park. Today we went to playgroup and spent 2 1/2 hours basking in the beautiful weather. Ahhh, Vegas sure does redeem itself this time of year.

After playgroup, we ran a few errands, stopped and got a slurpee, chased birds at the park, rolled down hills, checked out the newest toys at Toys R Us, until it was finally time to pick up Spencer. By then Grant was pooped, and Dallin had literally pooped all over himself. Luckily, I had several changes of clothes handy. We kind of live out of our car during the day. Dallin is such a trooper. It's been kind of fun not having anything to do. Actually, it's more like not being ABLE to do anything. So instead of rushing my kids from the park, we stay longer . As long as they want, really. And why not hang out for 2 hours at Toys R Us? And when Grant had fallen asleep in the car from exhaustion (and Dallin was napping peacefully in his carseat), Spencer and I sat in the car, pulled out a stash of oreos, and brainstormed theme ideas for his upcoming birthday party. I found out that he plays chase with the girls at recess and that he doesn't run as fast as he can so they don't feel bad and can 'catch him.' Sometimes they scratch him. But he doesn't mind. ?! He doesn't like the fig newtons I put in his lunch. And he really wants to invite Courtney (our neighbor that sits for us) to his birthday party and do I think she is home so he can play with her? What a delightful hour that was. I wasn't even annoyed that I couldn't read my book. The book that after 4 days of 'nothingness' I have only been able to read 10 pages of!!!! How ironic is that.

When Grant woke up we went to the Library and exchanged our movies. We got Veggie Tales and The Magic School Bus. I'm trying to be better about what they watch. (They'd watch X-Men or Lord of the Rings if I'd let them! Uhg!) When we got home, our neighbor Christopher, who is in kindergarten too, was knocking on our door....waiting to play kick the can in the court with Spencer. The painters were gone by then, but what the heck? Dinner was going to be chicken nuggets and applesauce anyway. So they played in the court until dark.

I am grateful for a few things. One, that we have a house to live in (and that Grandma and Grandpa have been so generous to us). Come 1pm, I'm out of ideas and just want to sit on a couch. Or lie on a bed and read a book while Grant (maybe) naps. Or eat something out of the pantry. Or get on the computer at random. This feels like a primary lesson, but I am really grateful for my house. :) Being homeless with kids, even with a car, would be the most stressful thing on earth.

Two, what am I stressing about doing every day that keeps me from doing 'nothing' with my kids? Last Thurs when we had to be out all day I took Grant to the Children's Museum where we explored the first floor for 2 hours! I was sitting next to the nicest grandma who had brought her grandsons. We chatted about motherhood, and she said she wished she had left her house messier to spend more time on the floor with her kids. And cooked more simply so she could spend more time playing games with them. It was very interesting. She also noted that she would have scheduled time to herself to rejuvenate so she COULD feel good about doing nothing with them.

I also recently read that kids these days are so entertained and quickly gratified that they are never bored. Bordem, according to this author, allows one to discover who they are. By constantly stimulating our kids, even with 'educational' things and such, we do them a disfavor by robbing them of the down time they need to develop as an individual. Very interesting, I thought.

So...tomorrow we'll start all over again...doing nothing. :) You'd be amazed how exhausting doing nothing can actually be. I think we'll crash at Uncle John's (Cal's brother) apt at nap time to regroup and rest. And simply not have to use a public restroom. Other than that, we'll be going to preschool, exploring even more new parks, browsing through Target, stopping for ice cream, and doing, well, absolutely nothing...at least nothing I can cross off my 'To Do'' list. :)