A Piece of Quiet

10:17 pm.

Caleb is in bed. He was allowed to stay up later tonight, thanks to a rare two-hour nap this afternoon. He's not asleep yet; sounds like he's listening to police scanners in there. But that's just his new favorite toy: a large, rather realistic looking (and sounding) police car. Caleb has barely been parted from it since Christmas morning.

Course, I don't let him bring it in the car. The last thing I need is to hear sirens, see lights, and pull the car over only to discover the policeman is my son in the backseat. Heh.

The other new favorite around here is a set of Handy Manny tools, complete with singing tool box. Caleb loves pretending to take things apart with the screwdrivers and whacking his other (unfortunate) toys with the hammer.

Ah, the sights and sounds of an almost-three-year-old after Christmas!

Our Christmas was good, albeit busy. Busy and happy.

Today that busy-ness came to an abrupt halt. Mom and Harry left this morning before the sun came up. Caleb and I spent the day at home. We played with his new toys, his new jungle gym, read new books and watched new Veggie Tales movies. I don't always make the time to play with him like I want (and some days it's beyond my control), but today was fun. Restful. Just right.

You know what else I did today?

Are you ready for it?

Really?

Nothing.

I did nothing. And I had to give myself permission to do it, too.

I'm a busy person by nature. This is both a good and a bad thing. But this morning, realizing how insanely busy we've been the last six weeks, I decided to halt my To-Do list before it gained momentum and ran me over and decided to put everything off til tomorrow.

The late Christmas cards that still need to be mailed? They can wait.

The Amish Friendship bread I wanted to bake? Eh, one more day won't kill the starter.

Dishes? Those can wait, too.

Today was a sabbath, my first in quite some time. Even Caleb got into the spirit of things and took that nice, long nap while I frittered (yes, frittered) away the afternoon on WoW.

At first I felt guilty. My list of projects grows, and housework always needs tending to. But I heard a Still Small Voice telling me to rest today because I needed it. My family needed it. So I did.

Boy, did it feel good!

Tomorrow will come with its demands and responsibilities, but for now I'm enjoying the peaceful end to a quiet day.