You guys. The fall. It is SO MUCH. It is the first day of school,
new classrooms, new teachers, new friends, birthdays, football season, school
conferences, so many fundraisers, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Tae Kwon Do, school
pictures, show choir, apple orchards, jack-o-lanterns. Now I love fall and fancy coffee drinks
and beautiful trees as much as the next person. And I really do love football and the new
school year and apple orchards. But whenever you cram so much into three short
months, no matter how much you love all of it, it is still overwhelming. And
now that I only have my loves every other weekend so it’s even harder to do all
of the mom things I want to do with them.
So when I found our first free weekend in months, I wanted
to celebrate. Do we go to the movies and dinner? Do we visit friends? Do we
have friends over for a party? Or…do we have an intentional weekend of nothing? But not
planning anything - that's not quite how I do things. So in true Jenny
fashion, I’m making this free weekend into a holiday – a Hygge-Day to be exact.
I’ve been in love with this idea of Hygge since I heard
about it a few years ago. From what I’ve read from non-educational websites, it’s
Danish and is the art of being cozy, comfortable and chill. Supplies? Blankets,
loungewear, comfy socks, candles, hot cocoa, books, movies, board games,
pastries and stew. This sounds like exactly what my family needs. So much of
the time I feel like all we are doing is running from one thing to another, crashing
in bed, getting up and repeating. I know I’m preaching to the choir. We need a
weekend to reconnect, reset and recharge. We need a Hygge-Day.
I told the boys about my grand idea. Hmm…reading? No
screens? I’m not getting many fans. But then I mention comfy blankets, candles, board games,
family movie time, candles, popcorn, hot cocoa, pajamas, candles, stew and pastries. Did I mention candles? (For some reason, candles are really important for Hygge!) I should
have just led with the pastries. We are all in. Ok, they aren’t 100% sold on the
reading time, but I am. And we can do art, writing (okay maybe just me) and Legos
too. We are all so excited for this Hygge-Day.
What’s awesome about Hygge is that it is celebrates being
happy with what you have – you don’t need fancy blankets or socks. Now I do
have to do some prep work for our Hygge-Day because naturally I’m going to make
a production out of our weekend of nothing, but even I am going to try to keep
it simple. I’m going to run out and get the required candles, hot cocoa, marshmallows
and tea. I’ll swing by the Bake Shoppe to make sure we are stocked on pastries.
Friday night everyone will make their pile of books and we will find games we all
want to play and movies we all want to watch to eliminate the stress of the inevitable
fights we always have. And I’ll pre-cut all of the veggies for Moose’s favorite
chicken stew because this is a chill day for me too.
If this goes according to plan, this might become my
favorite tradition that we break out more than once a year. Because even my
kids are craving downtime from the wicked schedules we keep. Snuggling on the
sofa all day as a family is exactly what we all need before going into the holiday
season – especially this year as we all navigate the new life we have together.
So if you can’t reach us next weekend, we will be unplugged
yet plugged into each other. Phones and tablets will be powered down but we will
be recharging. Doors shut, hearts open. Lights off, Hygge on.
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