The Same Old Thing

When I looked out my window yesterday morning everything appeared covered in powdered sugar. The sidewalk, road and trees are dusty with snow and this is the first time this winter that I feel over it. I usually love snowy days, but one of the qualities I appreciate about Denver is its volatile weather, with sixty degrees and blue skies one day, two feet of snow the next. Unfortunately, Mother Nature seems to have her engine stuck on the "cold and snowy" gear because that's what we've had for weeks now. Ad nauseum.

I dread long stretches of "the same old thing." I don't like to eat the same thing for lunch everyday. For someone as scheduled as I tend to be, I start feeling blue if the little boxes on my calendar resemble each other too closely. And I've definitely grown tired of looking out the window at blackened, tired stained snow that just won't melt away.

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The other day my girls reminded me of an incident a couple of years ago when they were taking a bubble bath and I jumped in fully dressed (even with socks on) just to make them laugh. As we reminisced they also brought up how a few weeks ago I let them eat dessert first because dinner was taking too long to cook and they were starving. I didn't realize how much they treasure those funny memories. And since most of my days are filled with packing lunches, braiding hair, folding laundry and checking homework, it was refreshing to be reminded that I can be fun. Everyday doesn't have to be all about our nose-to-the-grindstone devotion to the same old thing.

My friend Erin is famously spontaneous. There is a running joke among our friends that when the possibility of breaking routine and doing something fun arises, just ask yourself W.W.E.D? What would Erin do? Maybe it embarrasses her when we joke about W.W.E.D, but I have to admit I have her example in my head. When we had the opportunity to go up to the mountains for one night around Christmas time I thought to myself, that sounds like a lot of work for one night. My next thought was, Erin would probably do it! In the end we were so glad we went. 

So my thought today is that when you find yourself pacing your house like a restless cat, feeling that slightly bored, fed-up-with-the-snow because there is nothing in your immediate future to look forward to kind of discouragement, maybe the answer isn't a life crisis so much as a glaring reminder that it's time to change up your routine. Eat dessert for dinner. Let the kids stay up late watching movies with you. Don't give in to the idea that having spontaneous fun is too much work. And if worse comes to worse, ask yourself W.W.E.D?