How to get your PhD in nesting

More nesting. I apologize. But these are particularly good nesting moments that needed to be shared. They happened post-Christmas, which was technically part of the same vacation as the last post. But I couldn’t bore you with 60 images in one sitting. Or you’d never visit this site again, and that would make me so very sad.

You may recall from the last post that I’m working on obtaining my PhD in nesting. Some of you also may know, from experience, that getting a PhD – whether it be in biophysics, mechanical engineering, or the art of relaxation – is hard work.

I spent the first day of 2015 ingesting healthy foods. Which is challenging when someone with a horse tattoo is trying to steal your spiced pumpkin seed garnish.

And I’ve been working on strengthening the mind/body connection with my spiritual guru. He’s an industry leader, having developed a patented set of progressive methods to induce relaxation. Furthermore, he’s published numerous papers in several relaxation journals, and is frequently cited by Psychology Today as one of the great minds of the 21st century.

Let me introduce you:

Central to his theory of relaxation are 1) find a comfortable spot, preferably an off-limits bed and 2) follow a rigorous set of stretching, snoring, and other breathing exercises.

What can I say? It’s working. I’m feeling more relaxed. As a bonus, my dissertation is humming along.

Teaching me this material exhausting. Post-lesson, my guru often demonstrates more relaxation poses, each one more innovative than the last. While this position looks standard enough, get up close and you’ll notice that he’s been able to roll his eyes into the back of his head.

The kids have adopted their own form of relaxation, which includes listening to KISS, hooting and hollering like a band of merry child-thieves, and making a general mess of the house.

Allowing our kids to listen to rock & roll on high volumes causes our relaxation index to dip, so we usually reverse course with some light reading. We like the classics, all of them, with a preference for Latin and Aeolic Greek. Here is Rodney skimming through “The Odyssey”, pre-translation of course.

We eat to relax. That’s one thing we’ve always done well.

And then we play with our food. Because isn’t that what you do when you’re armed with this many waffles?

Sam is taking this whole relaxation thing seriously, and has developed a new play pose:

Apparently it’s “more relaxing” to eat bananas in bed than at the table. Fortunately bananas don’t come with crumbs.

Emma’s play is colorful…

…and sunlit….

Mine is equally sunlit. I highly recommend enjoying a little of this…

…while watching your kids set the table. (PS, Lauren is a masterful menu writer, and hand-letters each one individually with things like: “Menu of today: Stufed squash and A dish of pasta”)

Also central to nesting is a desire to build an outdoor fire in the dead of winter. And drink beers while sitting in front of the fire, moving the chairs every few minutes to avoid the gusts of smoke that only seem to happen at this time of year. Again, this relaxation stuff is hard work. Uncommitted, slothful, stay-indoorsy types need not apply.

It’s also very relaxing to have firewood collectors so that you can sit quietly, drink your beer, and watch others do the heavy lifting for you.

Lastly, we’ve found that it’s important to channel a vestige of Summer by spending a little time down on the dock, dipping toes in frigid water, throwing stones, disturbing the peace, etc.

What can I say? We worked hard at relaxing over the holidays and I think that we did a pretty good job. Now if we can somehow manage a repeat performance during our Spring break in February, I’ll be a very happy camper student indeed.