Like mother, like daughter

Growing up, we used to tease my mom that she couldn't just sit and do nothing. When she watched a movie, she sorted coupons at the same time. I rarely saw my mom lying on the couch with a book unless she didn't feel well. We also used to laugh when she'd say, "Time to get your Saturday chores done. It's always better to work now and then play later. Let's listen to the radio while we work!" Yeah, right, Mom!

It appears that in more ways than one, I'm turning into my mother. :) Last Saturday, A gave me my Mother's Day present. I told him a few months ago that all I wanted was a morning in bed without feeding babies, feeding older kids, and breaking up fights. I decided that a Saturday would work better than a Sunday, because of church. I wrote out a schedule for him on Friday night, readied my books to read and movies to watch, and got way too excited.

I tried to sleep in, but that didn't work out so well, what with the loud children downstairs and all. So, I read a book. After a while, I realized I was bored. Not in a bad way, mind you, but bored nonetheless. "Why are the boys yelling down there? Maybe I should go help." "I can't just sit here in bed all morning. Maybe I should get up and take a shower."

I resisted, though, and barely moved out of bed until A put the babies down for their morning nap and took the older kids off to Grandma's house to ride bikes. After that, I got ready for the day, ate breakfast, and started watching Persuasion. Puttering around the house a bit helped alleviate some of the earlier boredom but I was struck by my inability to just sit and do nothing. I used to be able to lie in bed until noon when I was a teenager with no problem. Now, I get antsy if I'm not getting things done by 8 am. I can relax, but only if everything in the house is clean and babies are sleeping. I don't think this busyness is necessarily a bad thing—just another "mom" trait, I guess!

It also appears that my daughter is starting to exhibit similar traits. Sunday morning, she asked me how to spell "schedule." This is what she wrote up:
I told her that we don't usually clean the house on Sunday, but she was really excited about it... and who I am to discourage cleanliness in a child? She dusted, moved crumbs around the kitchen with the broom, cleaned her toy dishes, wiped the counters in her bathroom, and played her accordion for the babies (meant to be a lullaby, apparently, but you can imagine it was a bit more rousing than that).


P.S. Note to my husband: Rather than think to yourself, "Ha! Tennille really does love getting up with the kids and rushing around all morning to get life going," I think what's needed here is more practice at doing nothing. I propose that we have Mother's Day one Saturday every month.