Is it possible to find serenity and anxiety all in one day? I have. Both the ity/ietys (doesn’t completely work as a title) have found their way into my soul. Wayne is off snowboarding. Tomorrow we try to snowshoe and sled. It’s almost St. Patrick’s day. So begins the endless spring of the Northwest. We will have spring till July 14th. But I’m excited about it’s new presence in my life. There are crocuses, cherry blossoms, daffodils. The world is wet, but it is green and vibrant. The cold is less this week with temps tempting above 50.
So where do -itys fit into all this? It’s midday, and I know my mental list will not be fulfilled. It stretches long. I look throughout my house and see things needing to be done. I have learned to take stock and more control. In my endless to dos, I pause for the things that matter. I read books to the girls. I fix angel wings. I’m not moving fast today. One of my goals was to get the girls more involved in chores. Oddly enough, this takes lots of time and effort. So we do things in 15 min intervals with play breaks and chore choices and other parental mechinations to make things fun. Laura gets to was the dishes by hand since Sara loaded the dish washer. Laura adores anything having to do with getting wet. I take out the trash and compost since it’s raining outside. Sara does her reading for us while we wash dishes to “entertain us”. It all works out. I find my serenity in this piece of domestic life. The day feels good. Only dishes got done. Only a pancake breakfast got eaten. Only a husband got to embrace a birthday tradition. If those are the onlys of my day, it’s probably ok. Still anxiety creeps and tells me more most be done.
Instead I eat lunch.
Now a switch.
Lunch was fun. We had just had pancakes. I knew I wanted something, but I wanted something light. So I took the leftovers from Thursday’s post, the last small piece of salmon, the citrus relish mixed with the mayonnaise dressing, all sprinkled over the ends of the fennel, zucchini salad. Delight! It totally hit the spot.
Yesterday was an active day. We swam again in the afternoon. It was dry enough for me to bike Laura all over Ballard for chores. We saw Helen and had purple cookies. The day before, we had a playdate with new friends. It’s been a nice end of week.
The day has ended. I got the things done that needed doing. I cooked dinner for hungry snowboarders and Claire and the girls. I made this for dinner. It seemed to please. I added the zucchini salad. The chicken breasts were huge. We all slowed down at half a breast. Tomorrow is my snow day. I hope we get to snowshoe amidst our sledding.