The (Belated) Weekend Edition: Never a Dull Moment

...unless you were watching us. Watching us would have been very dull.

Unless you were watching my son. (The older one.) He did a few interesting things.

But the rest of us barely moved more than our eyeballs!

The schedule was empty, the weather was lovely, and (this is key) Junior was elsewhere. There was no sense of urgency, no big project, no drama, barely even any noise.

So to be clear, the weekend probably looked dull if you were watching, but it didn't feel that way. Or I guess maybe it did, but only in a good way -- a mellow, comfortable, easy kind of way.

I am very, very good at doing nothing. It's one of my favorite things to do. I'm not one of those people who needs to stay busy all the time.

Which is why watching me is pretty dull.

But BEING me is not dull at all. I rarely get bored, so for me -- dull works.

And the only thing duller than my weekend is, apparently, this blog intro! So let's get on with it. There aren't going to be any meaningful lessons or deep thoughts. Just pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Of us doing what we did. Which was...nothing much.

I lounged outside in my new comfy chair and finished reading a book to my oldest son ("A Week in the Woods" by Andrew Clements) which was my sole activity for the morning. Perfect!

That book inspired many camping-themed activities for him. One of which was, uhm, camping. In the back yard. All by himself! I watched him throughout the afternoon, but it remained a solitary and earnest endeavor. (I was glad, because I had already decided I would opt for my usual, dull, sleep-inducing bed when the time came.)

One camping-related thing that might have looked exciting was when he tried to starting a fire using a magnesium block and striker bar (like the boy in the book)....but it was another sustained lovely dull activity, because the sparks would occasionally fly but the pine needles did not ignite.

(He also asked for a bottle of iodine pills to purify the neighborhood street puddles into drinking water, but I said no. I prefer his drinking water nice and dull; no technicolor motor oil or swirling larvae allowed.)

My husband came home with a new wheelbarrow, which was used in many dull and non-work-related ways. It proved to be a great place in which to have a snack, take a break...

...or read a book.

I watched my daughter read for quite a while, because her interesting book cover provided me with a very entertaining perspective.

Mostly, though, I just sat with my feet propped up and watched the trees sway and the clouds migrate, and pondered the way the leaves framed a perfect square of sky.

I also watched the chipmunks and squirrels skittering about the yard. Lovely entertainment, yet so nice and dull --no grizzly bears or shark attacks here, if you know what I'm saying.

Then I watched my son make an invention he called a "marshmallow shooter," which sounds exciting and loud, but was really more of a mental exercise than anything. (Plus, marshmallows! And tiny metal springs! We're talking peaceful, mellow ambitions here.)

I shot random photos of the sky, because it had hypnotized me. And then I increased the color saturation to re-create the blue Kansas sky of my childhood, and leisurely contemplated the difference between the two.

And if I have failed to fully convey to you the quiet loveliness of a delightfully dull day, let me attempt to illustrate it with this video:

Did you hear that?

No??

My point exactly! Ahhhh.....

*****

PS. And then Junior came home and the dullness came to a screeching halt. Things turned literally, instantly, unexpectedly razor sharp!