After being sick for pretty much an entire week, I was anxious to get up Monday and get going. I am perpetually behind on everything, and now I was basically a week more behind than before. After dropping off the girls I came home and settled in at my desk (aka, a TV tray in front of the corner of my couch) to get busy. Staring at my out-of-date to-do list, though, just made my eyes cross as I tried to decide which item was most pressing.

It was Monday, and I was stressed.

So obviously I did what every good procrastinating perfectionist does. I opened Facebook and began scrolling. Sure, I probably needed to look up details for an event or to send a message to someone. But then I started scrolling – and you know how that goes.

I definitely got distracted, but I couldn’t get rid of the irritating banner at the top of my feed. The one that said [I’m paraphrasing here], “Ta-da! It’s Leap Day! LEAP! DAY! An extra day! For YOU! How are you celebrating? How are you spending these extra 24 hours? Tell all your friends! Tell them about it!”

Oh shut up, Facebook, I grumbled. That is not how Leap Day works. I don’t have extra time and quit acting like I do. — Which is essentially what I posted, in a disgruntled update.

Most of my friends grumbled right along with me – the joy of complaining about Leap Day nonsense on a Monday, I suppose. I normally try to avoid grumbling on Facebook. Well, too much. So it was nice of my friends to indulge me and commiserate.

You know what was even nicer, though? My friend Jill, who suggested I “do something, do just one thing” to make the day special. After all, she pointed out, Leap Day will only happen a few times during my girls’ childhoods.

Wouldn’t it be great if this was the point at which I could tell you about the super sweet and special ONE THING we did to commemorate Monday? It would. But bedtime came before I could think of, much less fit in, any one thing. And that’s okay.

But it did remind me that I should let go of my ALL OR NOTHING approach to special occasions.

A couple weeks ago Annalyn “invented” a recipe. Basically she invented pudding pops, but she made the process infinitely more complicated than necessary. And added chocolate syrup. She wanted to do it for Valentine’s Day, but I put her off, saying we should wait until St. Patrick’s Day. I told her I’d try to find a cloverleaf mold even. And then she made a list of all the possible variations on her chocolate hearts/green vanilla mint clovers.

And then I decided this was ridiculous and obviously too much work and BLERGH.

Like her mother, Annalyn is an all or nothing girl. She loves coming up with elaborate, RIDICULOUS plans for craft projects and recipes and parties and vacations. Most recently, she created what she calls an “art-it” out of a diaper box, some red Solo cups, a couple Rubbermaid containers and half a roll of tape. It’s essentially a pretend 3D printer.

Which is both crazy and impressive, but not the point.

My point (yep, I have one) is that we can do a little thing, just one, to make our holidays or our everydays special. We don’t have to go all out. We don’t have to fix an entire meal based on a theme or complete craft projects that involve glitter or spray glue. We don’t have to throw a black-tie gala or do 50 random acts of kindness in one day.

We can just do something, just one thing. And THAT idea, that reminder? It works for me.

A few years ago I turned a simple batch of sugar cookies (made from a mix) into “Irish” cookies for St. Patrick’s Day. A little mint extract, some green food coloring, and some creme de menthe chips (aka, chopped up Andes mints) did the trick. I think I’m going to suggest that to Annalyn in lieu of her very complicated pudding pop concoction!

What’s one special thing you can do to celebrate something this month?

If this is your first time linking up with WFMW here, PLEASE read the guidelines I shared in this post. Highlights include linking your specific post, not the front page of your blog, and making sure to include a link back to this site in your WFMW. Thank you!!