On staying home and doing nothing

Is there anything better?

Somebody asked me this morning what we had planned for the weekend and I actually had to stop and think about it even though the answer is: nothing. And when I realised that, it made me so happy. I love doing nothing on the weekends. I love not having to go anywhere in the evenings. I love being home on Sundays, with a pudding out the oven and the kids in pyjamas extra early because of school the next day. I must have looked unhinged but I don’t mind. ‘We’re not doing anything!’ I said, with a big grin on my face.

As soon as the pandemic ended, like everyone else I guess, I went into overdrive with making sure our weekends were busy and full. There was a phase when we just kept having people over for dinner on Saturdays all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I do love it when people come over for dinner, and they still do, but I’m just saying that I have learnt that I don’t have to do it every single consecutive weekend - which is what I was doing in my frenzied post-pandemic state. I used to stand in front of our giant wall planner, pen in hand, satisfied that our weekends were already filling up months in advance. (Oh god, I think now)

But then last year, I sort of fell into a bit of a slump creatively and emotionally and I had very little energy left for any of that. So it just all… stopped. I used to worry sometimes that if I didn’t make so much effort then, I don’t know, my kids would fall out of touch with friends and be left out and suffer for it. Well, they didn’t. We didn’t. I didn’t. We’re all fine.

We’ve since slipped into this little routine of bowls of vegetarian spaghetti on Saturday nights with the telly on. The children get so excited for it, we bake something for afters, and I find the whole thing just immensely comforting. Maybe it’s (still) this time of year but I’m enjoying any excuse for staying cosy, for not going anywhere, for not planning in advance all the time. So: here’s to a weekend of doing nothing. If you can get away with it, I highly recommend it.

I’d love to know what you are doing this weekend (let me know?). If the answer is nothing, even better yet.

With love,
Huma x

PS In the spirit of staying home and doing nothing - did you see all these pretty pyjamas are reduced? And if you are short like me, then this pair is especially lovely (length is perfect if you’re 5ft 2 like me - I don’t mind admitting that I sometimes buy from the kids’ section and bought these the other day!) if you opt for age 13-14 (and they are a lot less expensive than the ones above even in spite of their reduction).

PPS I almost didn’t post this and struggled to write because I’ve been doomscrolling the news, but I realised that if I let that get to me everyday I’d not write at all and that’s not a pattern I want to slip into. So I’m here anyway and it’s my hope that perhaps this will light you up a little. I hope it did.

PPPS It delights me to see I have more paid subscribers this week - what a genuine surprise! Thank you so much for supporting me in this whimsical writing endeavour of mine. If my writing does light you up, and you would like to share that in the form of a pledge or paid subscription, then please know that even if I don’t send you tons of extra content, you will have simply made me very happy and I hope that makes you happy in turn!