Need Time Off : Knock Out Routine

One wintry December morning

That was one of such days when one does not feel like getting out of the warm quilt and the alarm, being victimised of repeated snoozing, keeps buzzing at every 5 minutes interval for 1 hour signalling to get up to the march past of the day. Finally I had to force myself to wake up at Dhruv’s call realising that having slept for 11 hours he would have been feeling hungry. Aah Winters!!!!

It was 7.30 am.

Lots of work piled up. Serving milk to Dhruv, having my cup of green tea, cooking and packing lunch for daddy, making breakfast for Dhruv and myself. Oh God, I did not feel like doing anything.

10 am.

All the above chores done. Reluctantly yet done with satisfaction. Another realisation now – what all chores are to be done for the day….oh lots and lots. I tried running the list in my mind.

Cleaning the dishes
Vacuuming the house
Cooking lunch for Dhruv and me
Ironing clothes
Washing my oiled hair

I got jittery. I decided let me prioritize. So the not so final list.

Washing my oiled hair, and
Cooking lunch for Dhruv and me.

But what about relaxing? Therefore the final list.
Postpone everything, there is still lots of time.
Lie down, relax with a new book that I had borrowed from the library. After all sunny days outside are not so common.

The new book on my agenda  was the complete illustrated guide of Twilight series ( Gosh, it took me a long long time to get over my fetish for Twilight).

The letter from the writer and the publisher was followed by an  interview of Stephanie Meyer by another author Shanon Hale. The whole thing about the interview, about getting to know a writer’s mind was so intriguing that I could not see any possibility of mine shutting the book anytime soon. Somewhere inside I felt inspired about telling a story.

During this whole time of concentrating and focussing on the book, Dhruv was jumping over me from the adjacent table onto the couch where I had fixed up my chilling out sunny spot. He had figured out his brownie. Disturb mummy, ask out aloud for the brownie, keep pestering.

What next?
Mummy gave in.
On the basis of a profound thought, lets be reckless today keeping aside all the rules of the house ( of course no harm is meant by breaking rules once in a while). Cheers to Recklessness!!!! The brownie – the laptop was out for the sake of the love for Mickey mouse sans the rule of 1 hr watching, sans the rule of shutting down laptop when the alarm rings. (The alarm here is set as a reminder for Dhruv that his video watching time is over since the concept of time telling is alien to him and a clock for him serves the purpose of singing numbers from 1 to 12).

Today the rule was different – until mummy decides to put down the book.

It was a lovely day. Sunny outside, bright and relaxing inside..And it was a wonderful day from Dhruv’s perspective too. Endlessly watching ‘new new twinkle’ (the laptop as per his vocab). However, I promised myself ‘We will get back to our rules tomorrow. But the book is so very interesting. Anyways we will do the right thing’.

The relaxing schedule went on until 1 pm when I reluctantly decided to put it down, wash my hair and prepare the lunch before 2pm. We had lunch in the next half an hr and both of us went out for a walk since we still had 1 hr before it got dark. I bumped into a friend from Slovakia, whom i had befriended in one of the parenting courses i attended, on the way. We did some chit chat, came back home as it got dark, had some snacks, sang rhymes, started the bedtime routine and Dhruv peacefully went to sleep by 7 pm.

Life is all about revelations and that day’s revelation was even mothers can  take time off for themselves and indulge, doesn’t matter if some rules and routine are bent and broken in the process.

 The list of pending chores was deferred to the next day to be considered with a fresh mind.