Spontaneity

I know spontaneous people. Sometimes they appear a little disorganized to me, but my judgment probably just stems from jealousy because spontaneous people always seem to have so much fun. I am not spontaneous. I plan most things at least a week or two out…right down to the last detail. Spontaneous to me is planning something a couple of days prior to the event.

Last night I got a lesson in spontaneity. One of my friends, a Married Single Mom like me, was over for dinner. Her two kids are the same age as my three, so they had a great time playing. After dinner, the kids decided to play in the big dustbowl the pool people have created. Please note this is not sand or nice, brown dirt. This is Georgia red clay. The kids had a blast burying their feet in it, building volcanoes, and tossing it in the air to see it fly. Since it hasn’t rained in forever, it flew rather well…into hair, onto clothes. Normally, my uptight self would not allow the children to have such fun at my expense (I say my expense because I’m the one who cleans up!). But since we had friends over, I let them carry on. This is probably the most fun they’ve had in awhile. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures because it really was quite a clean-up afterwards. I did, however, vow to be more spontaneous in order to add a little flavor to our lives.

This morning in the shower I “planned” my first spontaneous outing: we’d hurry through our schoolwork and head to a park that has a fountain. I didn’t tell the kids where we were going, and the surprise added to the fun. Until I told them to get their swimsuits on, they were sure I was treating them to Shrek the Third. I attempted to keep that guess alive by trying to convince them that there was a new underwater theater, but they didn’t buy it. All the way there, they theorized about our destination, and until we pulled into the park, they were sure they were going to their friends’ pool.

The kids were thrilled to be there and even more excited to be joined by Theo and Leah and by Grace and Jack. We moms had a good time chatting, and the kids were lost to us for a couple of hours. What a great way to spend an afternoon. I really must try this spontaneous thing more often!