All the small things...

...become very, very important when you have kids. It's funny the things one starts to relish. The odd placed revelry we experience in seemingly mundane, beige pastimes.
Earlier this morning, chaos was reigning as pancakes were being cooked for two hungry, impatient kids when a shrill beeping rang out. Ha! Salvation! The washing machine was finished! I dutifully plodded from our kitchen to load up the basket with the heavy, soggy mass of clothes before swiftly slipping out the door and down to the washing line. And what a pleasant ten minutes it was. The sun was shining, the chooks were having a happy morning cluck about their yard and everything was calm. I even stretched the moments of peace out with a ferret around in the veggie garden, looking for another seventy two zucchinis.
This brief bliss got me pondering all the other simple moments of calm pleasure I've learned to treasure. I'll list them, I'd love to know what yours are.

1. Doing the groceries alone. Now, I no longer whip in then out with a swift list. I traipse mindlessly up and down the aisles in that fluorescent light, supermarket daze, dropping things into my basket which I just might fancy. The only thing ushering me to the checkout is a heavy, overfilled basket.

2. Cups of tea. This is the turning point in life when Nanna behaviors creep in. Once all has hushed after lunch while the junior members sleep, I methodically boil the kettle, select a tea bag from my vast, special afternoon, tea collection, pop it in a cup and wait. Once it has steeped sufficiently I toddle off with it and a biscuit in hand to my drawing room, turn Richard Stubbs on and quietly sip. Content with the illusion I'm sharing a cuppa and conversation with another adult.

3. Cranking the stereo in my sensible Corolla with empty car seats in the back. I might not look it, but in these moments I'm 100% rock.

4. Walking. Continuously, without interruption. I did this recently on a blissful, humid evening, at dusk on the beach. I slopped happily and meditatively through the water with not one stop made to pick up a stick, a rock or a large, slimy piece of seaweed.

5. Adult only meals. Meals without screaming, complaining, bickering, spilling or smashing. Meals where the only sound to be heard is the gentle tink of cutlery on plate.

6. Lengthy cooking. Cooking without fingers in batter. Cooking without trucks being smashed into my shins. Cooking without need to turn the stove off in order to resolve a dispute in the bedroom wing. Cooking without going A over T on a My Little Pony. Cooking with chillies!

7. Laying in a dentists chair (yes, really). The worst part of this experience is the needle. Once that's over with you'll find me in la la land dreamily pondering life while I watch the fish mobile swirl above my head.

8. Toileting in solitude. It's not until you can't that it becomes so enjoyable to sit on the throne alone.

9. Standing in the shower. The water is hydrotherapy. The fancy smelling soap is aromatherapy. The steam is a sauna. Perfect, yes? Just no banging on the door kids, thanks.

They are all child free pursuits, I know. Seems like I wish I'd never had them (well, sometimes...?!) But, absence makes the heart grow fonder (and the patience stronger!). It's the time away from them, recharging, that makes having kids the most fun. They're awesome, really. Especially after a quiet sit in the loo.