While I try to generally look on the bright side if I can, I’m not honestly always someone who sees everything as sunshine and rainbows necessarily. I feel like by nature I’m actually naturally a bit more “pessimistic”, which is why over the past 5 years or so I have actively been working on changing this (hence the gratitude and mindfulness practice and work!). I’m pleased to say, I think overall it is working and I have felt so much more positive on the whole in my life.
Some days though, no help is needed to see the silver lining. Yesterday was one of those days! I feel like it was literally the perfect Sunday. I apologize if you are having a rough Monday and this all sounds very Pollyanna, but I’m just being honest- I had a fantastic day!
It started with a little early morning reflection on our back deck. The birds were singing away and I could just tell it was going to be a glorious day. I had talked with Ivan on Saturday and said if he didn’t mind, I wanted to take the morning to myself until noon. I had some work to catch up on, I wanted to write my blog post/journal and I wanted to get my new workout in.
After taking some time to leisurely enjoy my tea, write my gratitude entry and my entry in my highlight journal (see link here to check out my journaling system if you haven’t!), I wrote my blog post and then got going on Workout #1 from the new The Work program that I started on Beachbody on Demand. Whoa. It was TOUGH! Yesterday was a “push” day- so lots of pushups and press type exercises. My heart rate was through the roof and after 45 minutes I was toast. (I was actually toast after about round 2, but would have been embarrassed to quit after Round 2 of 4 on Day 1, so I used the trainer shouting at me from the TV to motivate me to get my @$$ in gear). It was a lot of athletic style/ functional training which I liked a lot- I felt like a football player maybe, or possibly a pro volleyball player(?) getting trained.
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| Post-workout shot! I had to prove to my new Instagram friend who I am joining in this program that I actually did it. 🙂 |
After the workout, I needed to get my breathing back to normal, so I went on a short walk around the block. It was beautiful outside!! Sunny, warm, no wind. Just a gorgeous spring morning! The boys and Ivan were still watching The Flash series on Netflix they have been engrossed in most weekend mornings, so I went by myself and called my Mom. We had a nice chat and then I returned and sat out on the deck to finish our call.
I did a couple hours of work and wrapped up by around 12:15. After a quick snack we all headed outside. We decided to go for a walk, although the boys rode their bikes. We walked for maybe 25 minutes or so and it was just so enjoyable. It was strange to feel this sense of just an open day before us- nowhere to go! It’s just so rare for us to have a totally open weekend, so I was really loving it.
After our walk we sat out on our front patio for probably at least an hour, just enjoying the sunshine while the boys played out in the cul-de-sac. They rode their bikes around and kicked a soccer ball and just had fun. Eventually Ivan and I hopped in the car and rode over to McDonald’s to pick up some ice cream for everyone. We all sat outside and ate our ice cream (Oreo McFlurries!)
Asher started working on an extra credit school project he has been planning. His Literacy group is reading Alice in Wonderland, and one extra option is to somehow create the Cheshire Cat. He decided he wanted to make a huge one out of a box we had, so he brought out his supplies and got working on painting it. I was enlisted to help. It was just beautiful out and I found it really relaxing, just sitting out on the driveway painting a box with him. 🙂
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| He was so into this! It was adorable. |
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| He came up with the whole concept himself! I thought it was great. |
Finally by late afternoon we decided to head inside for a little while. We had had a late lunch of some leftover milanesas (breaded steak) and decided to watch the original 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland. I actually couldn’t recall if I ever saw it, though I knew the story. We all found it…weird? It is just a weird story! While I think Alice is quite charming, the whole thing is just very strange. I won’t say it’s one of my favorite Disney movies, but nevertheless I’m glad the boys watched it. I feel like there are so many references to that movie- “down the rabbit hole”, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, “off with her head!”, the Madhatter and the tea party… Now that he is reading the original book, I think it’s good he saw the movie too! We may watch the Johnny Depp version sometime (2010) but I have a feeling that if Johnny Depp is in it, it’s going to be even more weird!!
I do like odd little Alice though! She is so curious and I like how she always pushes the limits beyond what would be expected of her conventionally.
After the movie came maybe the best, most unusual part of the day for me- I took a nap for an hour!! Besides my little power nap last week, I can’t remember the last time I took a nap on a weekend afternoon. It. was. glorious! I left the window open and the breeze was coming in my room…I just laid down and drifted to sleep. Ahhhh. It was heavenly.
When I woke up, we all went back outside for another hour or so. Asher did more work on his cat and I helped/ supervised. Then Ivan and the boys all played some form of tennis/ soccer in the cul-de-sac for a long time and I had a cup of tea while reading my book! (The fiction selection I’m still working on, Finding Grace, is actually getting very good! Turning into a page turner).
Once the sun started to go down it did start to get a bit chilly (was only in the low 60’s, but the sun was so hot it felt much warmer most of the day). We went inside so the boys could practice piano. I needed a shower (never showered after that intense morning workout…oops…) so I decided to take a bubble bath!! (Again, this is something I quite rarely do). I did a face mask that I bought several months ago and had only tried once. It was so nice!
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| In my quest to document this rare, perfect day, yes, I did take a photo of my bathtub. Haha! That is a first for me. |
Finally, we ended our day with some homemade nachos (made by Ivan). This is a major family favorite- he chops up fresh pico de gallo and loads up a tray of chips with refried beans and cheese, bakes them to melt and then we top them with the pico. SO GOOD. We watched an episode of The Amazing Race (this week the episode involved them traveling to Tanzania, which had some amazing scenery shots of wildlife!).
And that was a wrap on my perfect day! It made me spend some time thinking about our “normal” Sundays and how this was really different and how we might make some changes to incorporate more moments like these during non-quarantine times. But, those thoughts are thoughts for another post. 😊
I’ll leave you with a couple of Alice in Wonderland quotes, just for fun.
“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” – Alice
“Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.” – Alice
“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!” – about the Cheshire Cat
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” “I don’t much care where –” “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” – talking to the Cheshire Cat
And my favorite:
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – The White Queen
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for perfect days. They really can be quite rare, and not every moment is always perfect, even in a perfect day. But we need to appreciate and raise up the perfect days for what they are, instead of only focusing on the many imperfect days and hard times that come. I hope that by documenting this “perfect day”, when the next plain out “bad day” comes along (because it will, they always come too…), I will remember that life is full of ups and downs. Just as surely as this perfect day passed, the bad day will too!
GRATEFUL KAE 
Alice in Wonderland IS weird! I think the author was a bit odd, too. I read a book about the author that was fiction but read a bit like non-fiction and it sounded like the author had an odd crush on a younger girl named Alice and that inspired the book? It creeped me out a bit actually! 😛 It sounds like you had the weather we had on Saturday. It was such a perfect day here. Our Sunday was rainy but we actually needed the rain. Today is beautiful again. The isolation is way more doable with the weather being nicer!!
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