Slow Down

Funny to me how people think that because Ryan and I don't have kids, we have unimaginable amounts of time to sit around and do nothing.

And we do have time...when we're not working, or commuting, or working out, or cleaning, or doing laundry, or cooking, or paying bills, or searching for jobs, or putting together our reception, or looking for houses, or trying to sell the ones we have. Once all those things are done every day, we so enjoy the 52 seconds of down time we have.

Saturday we had a carefully scripted plan - as we always do. We got up at six, Ryan got ready for work, and I settled in with my "me time" of scrapping and Downton Abbey, season 2. When he came home from work, we planned to attack {with a vengeance} the room with all our junk in it...the room with the constantly closed door because of said junk.

But he texted partway through the day and said he wouldn't be home as early as he thought because they were swamped. So I did some laundry...and emptied the dishwasher...and took out the trash...and got ready...and did some more Downton watching...and reception work...and watched the time tick away.

By the time he arrived home, it was almost dinner time. And neither of us felt a mad cleaning and organizing rush coming on. Nor did we have a clue what we wanted for dinner.

So we went to plan B. Dinner out. A leisurely meal at IHOP...during which we dreamed up our meal plans for the coming week and made our grocery list. And then we wandered through Hobby Lobby for a while, sniffing out treasures. {Okay. I was sniffing. He was following along like a good husband.} And then we made our way through the grocery list.

It was somewhere along the cereal aisle of Meijer that Ryan stopped the cart and put his arms around me and said, "You know what we're going to do? We're going to go home, put in a movie, pop some popcorn and just RELAX."

I remember days like that. Happened a lot when we were dating. When we just sat without a care in the world, ignoring laundry and other chores in favor of REST. Those days appear to be...well...a distant memory.

But we did it. We came home, put the groceries away, lit a bunch of candles, popped popcorn, made coffee {you knew that one was coming}, and snuggled in to watch a movie.

I needed that. I needed NOTHING for a night. I needed to sit and rest and laugh at a silly movie and know that the closed door to the junk room could stay closed another day - or week, even - and what was important was that for one night, my heart could rest. My heart could enjoy the beauty of a fireplace and candles and quiet.

I say all of this not to tell you a sappy Shafferland tale, but to say to you...choose a minute of rest. Kids or no kids, we are all far too busy for our own good. Take a night, trash the scripted plan and just REST.

It's beautiful.

Cherish it.