THE LEAST STRESSFUL DAY EVER

I knew the bigs have been conspiring for a while, but I wasn't sure what they were up to. 

I found out today.

Actually, I discovered at the start of this week that they had planned a Valentine's Day surprise for Tim and I.  However, they thought V-Day was one of the holidays that Tim had off of school and that he would be home.  Once they found out he had to go to his practicum all day and officiate all evening, they went to the calendar and wrote "DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING" across today. 

So, let me tell you what it means to do absolutely nothing.

Tim and I slept in until 8:30.  The kids were all awake, had eaten breakfast, and were playing quietly in one of their bedrooms.  I came out to say good morning and was told I was already off schedule because they were expecting us to sleep until 9:00.  Life's rough when waking up at 8:30 is too early, right?  We were told to stay in bed and just relax, so I busted out a magazine and Teebs came to snuggle with Tim.  

Right at 9:00 Silas, Devon, and Naomi walked in with two plates overflowing with food.  They'd made us a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and jam, sliced apples, and peeled mandarins, served with lemon water.  Lemon water!  Ummmm .... we're not a lemon water kind of family, so they had kicked things up a notch for us.  They also gave us each a cup filled with candy hearts, as this was technically a V-Day treat for us.  Devon was our server for the meal, the one who checked in periodically to see if we needed anything and cleared our dishes when we were done, and all four kids hung out in another room while we ate. 

After breakfast we were directed to the living room.  We'd been given the choice of two different movies that the kids had checked out from the library specifically for today.  We opted for Yours, Mine, and Ours.  I'd watched it with the kids a couple months ago and we all loved it, but Tim hadn't seen it.  Tim and I watched alone for about half the movie while the kids cleaned up breakfast, prepped lunch, and played for a while.  Then they came in and joined us for the second half.  Love that movie!

We were sent back to our bed again and just relaxed for a bit until our next meal was served.  The kids brought us smoothies and wraps - one that was peanut butter and honey, one that was cheese, tomato, barbecue sauce, and mustard - for lunch in bed.  Delicious!  Naomi was our server this time around, except that she called it being our "servant".  So cute!

They also checked to see if we'd needed refills on candy hearts a couple times by this point and were shocked that we hadn't finished off our cups yet.  They'd anticipated us eating a big bag at each meal and at each movie.  In fact, they'd bought six bags just to make sure there would be enough to last all day.  Ha!!  We told them we were getting old and couldn't pound candy hearts like we used to.  They, on the other hand, were enjoying ridiculous amounts of them in the other room while we ate our meals. 

Lunch was consumed, visiting occurred, and then it was nap time.  Silas and Devon watched a movie and the rest of us were sent to bed.  I slept for two hours.  Ah, bliss!  I'm not a napper, but was so tired and konked right out. 

We woke up about 3:30 and the kids were chomping at the bit to move the evening along, which meant we were served dinner in bed earlier than our normal 5:00 mealtime.  Their plan was to do quesadillas and salad, but, thanks to a scheduling glitch, there was no lettuce in the house.  So we just had quesadillas, which was fine because we'd already had two big meals in less than seven hours and I was stuffed.  Silas was our server for that meal.

A little after 4:00 we all headed to the living room for the second movie of the day, Bringing Up Baby.  It's another one we'd seen a couple months ago and all thought was funny, and we enjoyed it again today. 

The movie ended and we were sent back to our room again for dessert.  They served everyone apple pie with vanilla ice cream and root beer floats.  Ay yi yi!  It was delicious, but everyone hit a sugar wall at some point and couldn't finish their dessert.  Even the person who had said, just moments earlier, that they couldn't overdo it on sugar. 

We still had about an hour until people needed to start getting ready to hit the sack, so the kids had everyone pile on our bed to play a game together.  We laughed our way through a game of Catch Phrase, blondes agains brunettes, and snacked on pistachios to balance out the sugar coma we all had going on.    

Then three kids went to bed.  Then one kid went to bed.  Then I came here to tell you about what a great day I had. 

Today was so relaxing!  I slept, watched movies, played games, and ate food I didn't prepare.  As a human being, this day was a luxury.

The little Ws are wonderful!  I'm so thankful that our kids are thoughtful people.  I'm proud of the way they worked together to make this day happen.  I loved hearing them remind each other that today was all about blessing us.   As a mom, this day was an encouragement.