The Day We Did Nothing Together

Last Saturday, Kidzilla and I spent the entire day together.

We did exactly nothing together all day. And it was awesome.

The Fab Hub went for an extended hike with a friend so Zilla and I were left to our own devices for the day. I thought of all the ways we could possibly spend our day together and came up with a whole list of terrific Mother-Daughter activities.

But we never even looked at the list.

During dinner Friday evening, Zilla and I talked about how we wanted to spend our day. We tossed around a few options, but the one thing that came up over and over again – from both of us – was to just spend the day together “only girls, no boy” as Zilla says.

Our Fab Dad woke up early, made my coffee, kissed his sleepy girls goodbye, and headed off for the mountain. Zilla and I snoozed until much later than we would on a weekday. After she woke up, she came to our room and crawled under the covers in our bed for a snuggle. We watched some kid shows for a while and snoozed some more. We skipped the getting dressed in real clothes part until much later in the day and spent most of the day hanging around in comfy pajama-type garb.

We decided we were hungry around mid-morning and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast. I think we had toast and cereal and some fruit. There may have been hard-boiled eggs involved. We just grabbed whatever easy fixes we found in the refrigerator.

For the rest of the day, we played, watched silly videos on YouTube, read books, and had a little carpet picnic for lunch. We took a mid-afternoon snooze on some blankets spread out in the sun on the living room floor. We enjoyed some snuggle time with the Rotten Cats and listened to some music. We pretended to do a few chores.

We did actually accomplish the task of putting dinner together so we’d have a hot meal ready for the Fab Hiker when he got home hungry and tired. He requested chicken, so we decided chicken in the slow cooker was the way to go.

With Zilla helping all the way, we put together our own little chicken recipe. First, we browned some chicken breasts on the stove before tossing them into the slow cooker. We always do this – I hate pale, slow cooker meat. We added onions, garlic, and fresh sage (all from the CSA box) to the pot to keep our chicken company. We also added some salt and pepper, a few pats of butter, a sliced lemon, and a sliced lime (the secret ingredient). At the last minute, we decided the recipe needed a little something sweet to balance out the savory flavors and the citrus, so we drizzled honey all over the top. Oh, and we tossed in a small container of homemade vegetable broth to make sure it didn’t dry out.

And then we got back to the business of doing nothing together while our chicken took care of business on its own. Total time spent making actual effort? Fifteen minutes, tops. But it was fifteen minutes that reaped great benefits later in the day.

No, you are not looking at a cool new food photography technique. It’s just the reflection of the food in the sides of my black slow cooker. Pretty cool, though, right?

The chicken turned out quite well and was nicely accompanied by some leftover sage and goat cheese mashed potatoes. The Fab Hub was happy. A delivery order went to Super Sister and the Almost Brother-In-Law who are busy getting their new home ready for after their wedding. My Sister said she liked it – called it interesting. She said the flavor of the lime and sage was unexpected and “hits your mouth later.” She liked it. Too bad the potatoes were only a small dish of leftovers or we could have sent those along. Super Sister would have loved those. Instead they got homemade potato salad. (Both potato dishes – CSA delivery once again.)

As I was getting Zilla ready for bed, we talked about our day. We agreed that it was a great day and were glad we got to spend it the way we did. I hope that what she learns from days like this is that sometimes unplanned time to just be together is a great thing. It’s wonderful to go places and do things and plan fun activities. But there is something to be said for a quiet day just enjoying the quiet and the company of those you love best.