Nuthin.

My kids are at that astonishingly frustrating age. What did you do at school today? Nuthin.  What is that? Nuthin? What did you do to your sister? Nuthin. What do you have for homework? Nuthin. What's wrong? Nuthin.

There is a whole lotta nuthin goin on up in here. And if I learned one thing in my vast(11 years and counting) experience as a mom, it is that "nuthin" always means somethin.  "Nuthin" means I don't want to talk to you about it right now. "Nuthin" means I'm busy. "Nuthin" means I hit her back because she totally deserved it.  "Nuthin" means I will take care of it as soon as you forbid me from watching anymore tv or playing any video games or god forbid ask that I do something like take out the trash. "Nuthin" means everything.

So today I woke up, get the kids out the door to school. They were relatively presentable, which is to say the only stains on their clothes were related to breakfast or brushing their teeth which is permissible because oral hygiene is very important and what's a little breakfast smudge? It's nuthin. I was going to take a long walk, but abbreviated it so I could run some errands. I have a package to mail and desperately need to buy some food that will not withstand a nuclear holocaust.  I am pretty sure the kids would be ok with eating Doritos for a few more days, but the overall benefits to that diet are- yeah you got it- Nuthin. Yet as I return a few emails and provide some mutual support to my fellow life challenge group members and create a few more emails, I have a little redhead who is sitting next to me gently petting my arm. "Whatcha Do-in?"    Nuthin she tells me. Of course. Yet she keeps petting my arm.  Maybe she's on to something. The package can wait and I think I have chicken frozen and a vat of sour cream- I'm sure I could Mcgyver some sort of dinner out of that. So let's do nuthin together.

We snuggle on the couch. Pretty soon lil Miss Nuthin is hungry. I start trying to rustle up something quasi nutritional and come up with a bag of caramel corn. I start sifting through my recipes hoping there is some long lost recipe for chicken that coincidentally includes copious amounts of sour cream. And I find one. Bella is content with nuthin and I am content not going anywhere so I call my neighbor over to imbibe in our nuthin-ness. She agrees. She also agrees to supply some of the ingredients for the dinner - since I am out of most. Which is to say, other than chicken and sour cream(and doritos and caramel corn) I pretty much have nuthin. We try to watch a movie, although seinfeld episodes would have been more apropo. We end up talking and taking turns snuggling with the monkey until it is time to get the kids from school. The after school rush begins- snack, homework- whatcha got? Nuthin.  I start baking dinner and my husband calls. What did you do today? He asks. Nuthin I tell him.

That's awesome! I wish I was there doin nuthin with you. Don't you know it.