“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” - Andy Warhol

It feels like ages since the last time I put pen to paper, or finger tips to keyboard, in my case, but I will say it has given me additional time to reflect, on my recent experiences.  I have been keeping busy.  You know us Northerns, we have to shove 9 months of activities into our summers, to compensate for all the time we were held up inside, throughout the cold months.  We anticipate this weather all year and once it eventually gets here, look out.  Hot days, warm nights, bathing suits, boat rides, waterlogged kids and lots of SPF.  Yes folks, summer is in full swing where I live.

Every year we kick off our “official” summer with my daughter’s birthday.  Now normally just her birthday bash is enough to tire us (her parents) but in addition it is always followed by the July 4^th holiday.  So you can imagine that we start off the summer with a BANG.  This year my husband sandwiched a week’s vacation between our “official” start of summer and the July 4^th holiday.  As a family, we have NEVER had a vacation together with NO plans or destinations in mind.  A staycation, sounds like a nice relaxing time, right?  Wrong, we burned the candle at both ends, and in the end we needed a vacation from our vacation but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Andy Warhol said, “You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.”  A staycation always seemed like a really boring idea to me, who wants to explore the places around them when you can travel to all the parts of the globe and see uncharted territories?  Not me!  I fancy exploring unfamiliar places, experiencing new things and seeing it all.  Who wants to see the mundane scenery of your home and the area in which you live?  I expected it to be boring because I’ve ultimately lived in my home town, most of my life.  What more is there to see or do?  What could we possibly do that would make it feel like a vacation?  Please don’t get me wrong, I appreciate where we live but the notion of staying home to vacation seemed rather uninteresting to me.  Come to find out I was certainly not bored during the course of the week and we didn’t need to do anything different to realize we were on vacation.  Guess it turns out a vacation is more a state of mind than a destination.  Having said that, I still love to travel and whenever I get the opportunity to explore new lands, I’m out of here.

Throughout our staycation, as a family, we took time to golf, paddle board, kayak, waterski, go for boat rides, tube, sit by the campfire, eat smores, look at the stars, have several BBQs, devote time to family and friends, swim in the lake, watch firework displays, hang out in our backyard, go to the movies and eat out. I’m smiling thinking back but I suddenly feel like I need a nap.  So much for a relaxing vacation, right?  We really packed it in but had a blast doing it because we were on vacation, in our minds. We treated the week just like a normal vacation; no work, no regular chores, no getting up early.   We did manage to indeed sleep in later than normal, but only because we were up well after midnight every single night.  We got too much sun, too much exercise, drank too much and were sleep deprived but it was so wonderful to have no plans or any indication of what we were doing next.  It’s no vacation to Bora Bora (let’s be real) but I would definitely do it all over again, just not right away.  I was BEAT, in that good way, like after our vacation to Disney World.  You all know what I mean, haven’t we all needed a vacation from our vacation, at one time or another?

Whether it’s summer where you live or not, take time to relish in the simple things all around you, in your “normal” environments.  Make the time, even if it doesn’t seem all that thrilling to you or might even bore you, you might be surprised how wonderful your current surrounding are. Summertime, where I live gets busy and takes on a life of its own.  Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate all of the greatness when it’s so rushed.  That’s why I feel fortunate to have had a whole week of nothing planned with my family to enjoy the simple things that we constantly do, but go by so fast when you are cramming them into a few months.  I have always known that we live in a terrific locale, in the heart of the Finger Lakes, flourishing in the summer, but as we all do at times, I took it for granted. When I take the time, I am reminded how good it feels to get outside in the summer; smell the fresh cut grass, enjoy the sun on my face, watch the sunset, enjoy swimming and just feel a sense of life when I walk out the door.  It’s the little things, which in the middle of our normal busy schedules we take for granted or can even bore us, that should put that spark, in our lives, and make us thrilled to be alive.

Please enjoy my 8 year olds writing, she is not a writing fan but her mean mom is making her write and get the cobwebs cleaned out since she left school.  Sometimes we should all try to think as simple as kids…

 

The 4^th of July

I went to my family’s cottage, on the lake, for the Fourth of July.  My parents went with me and some of our friends came with us.  We went swimming and after that tubing.  Later my cousin joined us.  All the kids spent time jumping off the dock.  One friend was afraid at first but his sister jumped right off.  We did this all day.  Later we had a campfire and smores.  We watched the fireworks on the lake.  I had fun.