Girls just wanna have fun, right? Well for me, I love it when my awesome gal pal, Miss C, heads to town and we do our famous Chocolate and Chick Flicks extravaganza. Upon her arrival, we both get out our laptops and head to Redbox.com. Imagine 2 women in side-by-side recliners with dueling laptops. We each pick out our top 1 or 2 movies and then take turns watching the trailers together. Whichever one gets the most laughs or mentions of cuteness and/or chick-flickiness wins. We reserve our selection and head out. On our way to the store we formulate our battle plan, plotting which areas of the store to pillage and plunder in order to acquire our chocolate hideousness delectableness.
Miss C is in town visiting today! I have to tell you, it’s been really hard for me to restrain myself from renting a movie in the past week. There are a couple of new releases out that fit the chick flick bill, and I’ve almost succumbed at least once. I chose to be patient for the greater good!
Now we’ll have to wait for the perfect opportunity to view our chick flick without interruption. Typically, that happens when the boys are at school, or in the afternoon during “quiet time.” Sometimes we start the movie in the morning when the boys are at school and then finish it in the afternoon during designated quiet time. Let me tell you, I’ve become a huge fan of closed captioning so that I can keep the volume lower when the kids are home (in case there’s any bad language, etc.), so I don’t miss any of the dialogue.
You might be wondering what quiet time is. It’s something I started when Monkey was a baby and I’ve kept it up ever since. After Prince Charming was born, and all the trouble we had with his reflux and sleeping habits, quiet time became almost like religion around here. With quiet time, I knew I could count on a little chunk of time to do stuff like: 1) go to the bathroom, 2) actually sit down and eat some food, 3) pay bills, and 4) the holy grail itself, take a shower that’s long enough that you can actually shave your legs if you want to (not to be confused with the barely-get-your-body-wet-and-then-have-to-jump-out-really-fast-because-while-straining-your-ears-to-listen-over-the-sound-of-the-water-you-hear-crying shower).
Right after lunch at least one of the boys would take a nap and I eventually got them on the same schedule. Depending on how long the nap went, quiet time could be a half-hour, it could be 2 hours, or anything in-between. The one stipulation, whether sleep was involved or not, was that both boys had to go into their rooms, keep the door shut, and spend a little time alone. Keeping the door shut actually came about from all of the sleep problems the boys were having. Naps were always better when I shut their doors and turned on a fan in the hall (which I still do to this day). As we moved past the nap stage, I would have them bring in a couple of their favorite toys (that were quiet), books, etc., and play with those things while quiet time was observed.
Moms need a little break now and then and quiet time has been my regularly-scheduled sanity savior. Some days you just need a few moments, and the simple act of eating a snack or watching a quick reality show (guilty pleasure!) helps you plug back in to the rest of the day feeling better. It doesn’t have to be long, but for me, it is necessary.
The boys have always loved quiet time! Even if I don’t have quiet time planned during the weekend, they will often request to have it anyway. It’s always interesting to see them do this when we have visitors over. The last time my Dad was in town, they were fighting over who got to spend quiet time with Grandpa. So, I set a timer for 10 minutes and Grandpa went from one room to the other every 10 minutes. They had lots of fun!
As for today, I’m looking forward to hanging out with Miss C. I hope to get our chick flick in before the boys get home from school. I can hardly wait to figure out what movie we’ll rent and what kinds of chocolate we decide to pig out on. There’s nothing better than getting to spend time with a great friend while enjoying a good movie (that the men will never watch with you) and consuming copious amounts of apply-directly-to-the-hips chocolate. Chocolate: It’s what’s for breakfast! Right? Now that’s what I call a day!
