On Doing Nothing

Yesterday and Monday, I did a lot. I know everyone has different ideas of what constitutes a productive day, but in my current state of "way too pregnant," getting anything done in addition to eating, sleeping, and feeding my family is big stuff.

Both Monday and Tuesday I made a "to do" list and got the enormous satisfaction of scribbling out most of the things on each list.

But here's the thing. If you read my last post, you know that despite two productive days, I am still STRESSED OUT. A few too many things on my mind, a few too many hours on my feet, and a few too many pounds being supported by those feet. Oh, and a few too many dirty pairs of toddler underwear. And so on.

So today, I got up, showered, had breakfast and made my list in my little notebook. I wrote down about seven things I needed to do. It wasn't too much later (although it was AFTER the first poo in the undies incident of the day--not mine, Johnny's) when I came back, looked at the list, said "no way" and shut the notebook. And I haven't opened it since.

With that, although I was initially a little hard on myself about it, I gave myself permission to do nothing today.

You read that right. I did nothing today. (Hold on, I'll be right back. I have to start a load of laundry and take the trash out to the curb.)

Those of you who know me well might be thinking, "so how is that different from what you normally do?" And that's fair. It is. But doing nothing today showed me that most days, I really do a lot.

Today, I spent most of the day on the couch. Sometimes I was awake and staring into space. Sometimes I dozed or full-on slept (this was during Johnny's nap). I took a few minutes to write a random blahg about my miserable dreams.

That's about it. Really. I didn't even READ, people.

And now, at 9:30pm, I honestly have absolutely no regrets. I'm positive this is exactly what I should have done today. The list awaits tomorrow, but tonight I feel lighter, my head has stopped spinning, my feet don't hurt. And I'm about 1/20th as tired as I was yesterday at this hour.

So even though I can't (and wouldn't want to) do this everyday, thank goodness I could do it today. You ought to try it sometime.