Lazy

One of the (few) things I miss about the winter weather in New England is the handy excuse to stay in and do nothing for an entire day. The kids and I used to do “blizzard days” where everyone was allowed to stay in their jammies, watch as much television as they liked, and generally withdraw from polite society for the day.

Cheerios by the handful? Sure! Build a giant couch fort? Why not! Learn to be a hermit like your mother? OKAY!

We don’t have weather like that, here. Plus I have this husband who believes in accomplishing things and hanging out with people and stuff, so lazy days can be hard to come by.

Fortunately this weekend the stars aligned.

Ingredients for an awesome Saturday:

1) Husband away on a trip. (Sorry, honey. We love you. But if you’d been here we all would’ve been spreading pine straw out front or something, and you know it.)

2) Gray, overcast morning followed by a rainy afternoon/evening.

3) Sleeping in. (Unless you happen to have four legs, in which case it was more like “bark your head off, go outside to pee, run around in circles, wonder why the one with the coffee cup seems a little cranky.”)

4) One warm, cuddly, lazy puppy.

5) Endless television and then Corpse Bride before bed. (Good wholesome undead family entertainment.)

6) An entire day of breakfast food. (Cereal for breakfast, pancakes for lunch, eggs for dinner.)

Chickadee is jonesing to join an activity that involves a Saturday class. We don’t often have a completely slug-like day like the one we did this weekend, but I really think they’re good for the soul, and I’m reluctant to schedule something on the one day when we CAN just turn off the world and stay in and hide. Sometimes I wonder if I’m teaching the kids the value of a quiet mental health day or if I’m just being lazy, when we do that, but generally if I take a nap my concerns seem to pass.

Those sorts of opt-out days are made for pondering the deep questions in life, you know? Like:

Why is egg in the hole clearly superior to just having eggs over-easy with toast? Is it the circular piece of toast from the cut out? Is it that the bread is grilled in butter rather than toasted and THEN buttered? Is it just that my kids are weird?

Why will the same children who turn up their nose at fruit either on or in their pancakes beg me to make them a dutch baby with cinnamon apples and then go on and on about how good it is? I’m pretty sure this one is because they’re weird. Because WOE BETIDE the person who puts those very same cinnamon apples on a regular pancake, dude. Seriously. Don’t even try it.

How does a dog whose center of gravity is only about a foot off the ground manage to jump high enough in the air to knock me in the chest? Does she have springs in her feet?

Does it count as a productive day if I do the laundry? How about if I clean the bathrooms inbetween episodes of Hannah Montana?

[Typical conversation during Hannah Montana:
“This is the dumbest show I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah.”
“Billy Ray Cyrus is kind of creepy.”
“Uh huh.”
“We should watch something else.”
“Probably.”
“Want me to paint your nails?”
“Sure!”
“Why are we watching this?”
“I have no idea.”]

We made some videos of the dog. That was almost like expending actual energy! Okay, I’m lying. It didn’t really take any energy at all.

And I let them have ice cream sandwiches for dessert after their eggs. Because sometimes you work up a powerful hunger for processed sugar after a hard day of doing nothing.

39 Comments

  1. J from Ireland

    I never heard of “egg in the hole” I think I will try that, it look yummy. My 12 yr old daughter and I have similar conversations watching Hannah Montana and the suite life of Zac and Cody.
    We call days like that “Lazy days” jambos all day, watch crap on telly, eat handy food. My kids LOVE lazy days, my husband hates them so we have to wait till he is on the lates to have them. When other kids call to our door my kids tell them “we won’t be out today we are having a lazy day” no shame. Luckily the weather is always shite over here in Ireland so we get to have lazy days at least once a month!!

  2. Jennifer Joyner

    I love those kinds of days! Kids need a day once in a while to stay in their pj’s and veg. Sadly, I find myself in the minority around here. Soccer games! Playdates! Birthday parties! Festivals! It all makes me very, very sleepy…..

  3. Billie

    Here I was getting ready to tell you that we call those things eggs in a basket. Then I clicked on the link. Wiki calls them eggs in a basket as well. It looked like they didn’t butter both sides of the bread though. I cut out the hole, butter both sides of the bread and the hole that I cut out, put the bread in the pan with an egg. Fry, flip. The hole gets cooked the same way so we have a nice little fried piece of toast. Yummy!

  4. dad

    It’s genetic!
    My version of “todayismydaytonotaccomplishadamnthing” syndrome also involves continuous breakfast food plus a minimum of 5 football games, potato chips, having my face totally licked by a dog and snuggling.

    Oh the humanity of it all.
    It just doesn’t get any better than that.

  5. Randi

    Those are the best days. We call those PJ days. We had one on Sunday – and for the first time I was the only one actually dressed! We had homemade chicken noodle soup (it was raining here) and spent the day watching TV and playing board games (and I did some photo editing too) – but our Wii broke!! Yes, seriously, that can happen!! It’s just stopped reading most of our discs – so I’ve ordered a cleaner for it – here’s hoping that it works!!

  6. Megan

    I love the IDEA of lazy days. Mostly I love the idea in the mornings of days I have to get up but now and then everything works out beeyewtifully and the allure of a lazy day happens on the same day as an actual day-with-nothing-to-do. Unfortunately after an hour in bed and an hour watching DIY shows (WHAT?? Bathroom Renovations are endlessly entertaining!) I get all twitchy and HAVE to get up and do something.

    I finally figured out a compromise for myself and discovered if I go for a really long, really tiring hike in the morning then the rest of the day I can loll on the couch and eat bread-and-olives-and-cheese. It’s a slightly insane way of having a lazy day but hey, at least the floor doesn’t get vacuumed!

  7. Karen

    Those are the best kind of days, right up until a dog barfs on the floor, or the kids flood the toilet, or someone stops in unexpectedly. But i have no pity for the person who catches me in my PJs with unwashed hair. They should seriously call first.

  8. Paula

    Our family LOVES PJ days! My boys have been known to actually beg for them! Playing board games in bed is particularly fun! Randi, our Wii broke too! In our case it was the CD/DVD drive that died. It would be $100.00+ to replace so, so far we haven’t. Amazingly the boys have not complained. I miss it a lot though, no more Animal Crossing! I had worked so hard on it! sigh…

    Can’t wait to see Licorice vids!

  9. Lucinda

    Awesome. Except we call it “family time” which generally involves popcorn and tv. I used to feel guilty about the fact that our family time centered around the tv. Not so much now. Thanks.

  10. Headless Mom

    Can I come to your house? I sooo need one of those days. Especially the rain.

  11. Holly

    Eggs in the hole are delicious smothered in salsa. I love lazy days, too. Especially in the fall.

  12. Heather

    Glad to hear that you have not washed away. It was also a good day to avoid cranky tailgaters. After watching the rain on TV Sat night – I was so glad that I talked the husband into not going to the game. Rain, bad plays, bad calls and a cranky two year old would have been awful. Unfortunately, we then worked on the house all weekend since it was sunny in up north. Glad you had a great restful day!! We feel the same about Sat classes here.

  13. Jill W.

    We call it “eggs in a nest” and it was one of the first things I ever learned to cook when I was a kid. Way more delicious than toast and eggs, thanks to the grilled in butter thing and the circle.

    I am so trying the Dutch baby recipe. Never heard of that before.

    I LONG for a lazy day. I have a 4 year old, it’s all energy all the time.

    I once mocked my husband and 12 year old nephew for continuing to watch a HM DVD for at least an hour after the girls had left the room. The assured me they were just making sure it sucked as much as they thought it did. ;)

  14. Tracy

    There is nothing more regenerating than a Mental Health Day. When my kids were growing up, we would have these days at least twice a year while they were in school. We had a great time, playing games, watching cartoons, and eatting, well, basically anything you wanted. I enjoyed them more than the kids (I think). It was a lot of fun and some really great memories. As adults, they still tease me about them because I still take them….occassionally. =)

  15. My Kids Mom

    We call that “egg in a nest” and my kids love it too. Not sure the difference since they have the eggs over easy pretty often. Your lazy day sounds lovely- mental health, especially maternal health- is very important!

  16. Mary

    I was just thinking yesterday, as I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen cooking (it was raining here, too!), how I miss those winter days when I would spend the entire day in the kitchen cooking. Only I’m still in New England. So its only a matter of time for me. Darn.

    How sweet would it be if we could get a nice day of beautiful falling snow, spend the day in the kitchen doing some good ol’ home cooking then have all that snow just melt away so we could go play in the yard again?!?!?!

  17. Celeste

    Ah… a lazy day. They’re the best. They are usually preceded by an announcement: “I’m having a lazy day today.” I finally had to make a rule that there would only be one lazy day a week during the summer. Otherwise the kids would have lived in their pajamas.

  18. Nicki

    I swear we’re sisters. Or maybe twins. But sisters at the very least.
    I LOVE the days when we shut out the rest of the world and do absolutely nothing. They are so rare and beautiful. And I justify them by saying that we all need some time to decompress. And when anyone tries to argue, I feed them. See, no talking with your mouth full works. So does a full happy belly.
    Congratulations on your well-deserved lazy day.

  19. Jamie

    LOVE those days! I’d like one soon as I feel like we’re having too many “oh-shit-we’ll-never-get-everything-done-today” days. And I’m tired of ’em!

  20. MomCat

    Love that kind of day, definitely trying that recipe! Thanks! (Dogs really do have hidden springs in their feet. Cats, too.)

  21. Half Assed Kitchen

    Days like that are necessary. Do not sabotage them with silly things like classes, work or social interaction. I repeat: do not sabotage.

  22. Karen

    We call your egg-in-the-hole a birds nest. One of my favorite breakfast foods.

  23. Katie in MA

    That is a day of awesome. :)

    But did you not get to have a whole bunch of Flood Days recently? Or are you far away enough from Atlanta that you were spared?

  24. heels

    My mom always called that “toad in a hole.” I still thought it was delicious.

  25. Joshilyn

    Yes what heels said. That is toad in the hole at my house. *nodnodnod*

  26. jwg

    My father called them Cleopatra’s Eye. No idea why. We had days like that on Snow Days. Baking was always part of the deal, along with some kind of soup or stew. Now the kids are grown and gone but I’m still working and refer to a day like that as a Mental Health Day. It involves a stack of books, the TV and cooking nothing. Thanks to global warming we hardly ever get enough snow, but a Mental Health day can happen in August.

  27. Tammy

    I’ve never heard of Dutch Babies before. Will definitely have to try that!

    It must’ve been an informal Breakfast Food Weekend because we made pancakes on Sunday too. Or rather, I made pancakes. From scratch even. Go ahead, slap me now.

  28. Dawn

    Whenever anyone questions my sanity for living in the frozen north, I just smile and say, “SNOW DAYS!”

    It has been documented that societies that observe strict Sabbath days have better mental and physical health. I personally am a big fan of deliberate, regularly scheduled down time.

    Breakfast food. Mmmmmmmm…

  29. Paulla

    Sounds like a lovely day! That’s what I love about snow days here in Maine. I do think it helps you get through the next week to have one day like this. You know, the whole “day of rest” thing. Smart! :)

  30. GrandeMocha

    My hubby just doesn’t get the downtime idea. He keeps bugging us about getting dressed and doing something. I work full time and the kid goes to school. If we get a chance to have a jamma day, we take it!

  31. Jenn

    We call it Eggs in a Frame, and make it southern style with butter on both sides and in the pan. But now that I think of it, I haven’t made it for my daughter yet. Something to do!

    There’s a restaurant chain in the midwest called Pannekoeken that is devoted to the dutch baby. I grew up calling them German Pancakes.

    And we had a pajamma day on Sunday. Rained All Day. It was almost a sick day as the hubs and I both were in that dead tired state that usually precedes being very sick. He’s also one of those achievers and usually hates lying around but he napped for several hours while my daughter and I watched movies and made puzzles.

  32. erin

    Days like that are the best!

    But, umm, I thought my family were the only ones who make egg-in-the-hole? How did the recipe get out?! (FYI: We also like it made with a sliced bagel – flat side down, of course.) Oh, the buttery, eggy goodness. Delightful!

  33. Katie O

    We always called them a ‘One-eyed Jack’ –

  34. mama speak

    Why is it that b-fast for dinner is only acceptable when dad isn’t there? (Unless it’s your dad obviously.)

  35. Brigitte

    Looking forward to my energetic 4-year-old slowing down enough to enjoy a lazy day.

    Nothing ruins a proper lazy day like a husband who wants to get STUFF accomplished. Sheesh! ;-)

  36. Keryn

    It never occurred to me to describe my Saturdays (and Sundays sometimes!) as “quiet mental health days.” But? Now I totally am going to use that.

  37. 12tequilas

    It’s hilarious how many names there are for that egg dish. My mother always called it “Bird’s Nest,” but on a summer-camp camping trip, we were told it was called Rocky Mountain Toast. I think when you make it outside on an open flame, you have to call it that.

  38. Erin

    We had a retreat-from-the-world day on Sunday. It started when the girls (4 & 2, which is a miracle in and of itself) didn’t wake up until after 8 and we realized that leaving the house for church by 845 was NOT happening. And then we ran with it and did a whole lotta nothing. It was fabulous. I think those days are critical AND a great bonding opportunity for the family.

  39. Megs

    We bought a house in soon-to-be snowy RI three months ago and have been furiously renovating it for my daughter’s birthday party. It is finally DONE and can’t wait for lazy Saturdays. Oh how I miss thee!

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