Life gets stressful and busy and this summer has been no different. I keep telling myself to STOP and get in the moment, enjoy the here and now – but my head just keeps swimming to the next thing on the agenda. I can’t shut it off, I am always going 100 Miles Per Hour. My family calls me the whirling dervish….But, that’s not what this post is about, this post is about the one afternoon I did shut if off! Our afternoon on a boat!
Our next door neighbors have a boat and near our house is a big lake – we’ve lived here for 3 years and have talked about going out on the boat a lot but never have. But a few weeks ago, all that changed. I had a hundred things to do, the grass needed mowing, I needed to run to the store, the laundry was piled up, waiting – but the neighbors called and invited us to go out on their boat that afternoon and I said yes! We packed up some snacks and threw on our swimsuits and off we went.
I know nothing about boats. I can’t help with the trailer, I can’t help drive, I don’t know which bin they keep the lifejackets in…so I was stuck. Stuck doing nothing. As the boat picked up speed across the lake, I looked up at the front and saw the smiles on my kids’ faces, and literally felt the weight of everything fly off my shoulders and into the waves behind us!
It was one of the most relaxing afternoons I’ve had in a very long time. Sitting there on the boat, I couldn’t do the laundry or the dishes – I could do nothing and I embraced it. The kids had a blast (even my Broken Boy, who was the only kid who got to drive the boat, since he was the only kid who couldn’t swim)! My youngest told me on the way home that it was the best day of his life.
It was so worth letting go of what I thought needed to be done to go out and do what my family really needed. Fun, time together and a mom who isn’t frazzled and running around like a madwoman all the time! I truly look forward to the next time we go out on a boat – so I can be forced into relaxing and enjoying without guilt.
One of the perks of living in the “land of lakes”!! Makes the freezing cold in winter bearable – LOL! It is my homeland, but we couldn’t take the long winters and moved to a southern state. My sister is still in ‘winter land’ and embraces the snow and ice – I’m a wimp. But we still love to visit in the summer and a picnic at the lake is still a treat. Still miss the colorful fall and the vibrant colors of the flowers in summer, even the snowfalls that leave a beautiful frosting the the trees. I enjoyed your day on the lake; it does set you free from the everyday.