I recently had a hair cut…a crooked hair cut at that!
I think highly of hairdressers, even if they might cut crookedly, mostly because they try so hard to make small talk and manage to look like they enjoy it. ‘Where are you from? Are you having a ladies’day out? Did you trim your bangs yourself?’ (as stylist files mental note that this woman likes crooked hair)
At my recent hair cut the stylist started running down the list of ‘small talk to make with moms when I’m so not a mom‘ and she asked ‘any big family trips planned this summer?’
First of all, I can’t pin many destinations on a map of places that I’ve been, but I do love to travel. I want to fill up my map of pins. I want my kids to travel. I think it is one of the most valuable things you can do with your time and money.
But no, there are nada big trips planned. Not because I don’t think parents ought to travel with their kids. Not because there is a right way and a wrong way to spend a summer with three small kids. But because…..we don’t want to this summer.
The other weekend we sat around the lunch table and thought, we should have a picnic dinner tonight. So we made some sandwiches, bought some ice cream and spent the afternoon at the park. The kids squealed around the park, Conor and me chasing them. Then we piled into the truck, drove up the hill and stood in a field with a live kite tugging in the wind above us. Conor smiled at me and said he had the best day. Then some animated penguins came out singing and dancing because I’m basically Mary Poppins. . . .if she danced like Beyonce and ate like Jim Gaffigan.
This is the kind of summer we want. Unofficial Bucket List: Day trips to these Okanagan beaches, picnics in the park, driving to fruitstands, fishing dates, lots of BBQs, getting our basement reno done so I finally have an office and place to think about doing yoga. Also, being local for the summer helps me to nurture my very adult summer goal of curating the contents for a classy cocktail bar. At the end of this summer, I will turn 34 and I intend to enter this new year with the hosting repertoire of a lazy and cheap Martha Stewart mashed up with Don Draper.
We are a social family, we love having people over and being out and about. But there is nothing I enjoy more than being a homebody, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I love working on our perpetual renos, attempting DIYs, flipping through cookbooks, reading on the deck, fishing dates, trying to sew something, cleaning out my closet, sitting on the lawn with my family, planning my next meal.
I respect the role of travel and adventure in personal development and deepening our world views but I also think there can be a lot of personal development when we learn contentment, to be satisfied in the here and now. Like that old saying, ‘ the grass is always greenest where you water it the most’.
Aside from my children having a mother with crooked hair and epic pop-culture delusions, they have a mom who is pushing her agenda for a simple summer. We all need to parent from a place of our strengths and I am putting a hard spin on ‘homebody’ as a strength. Because I think it is a good thing to just enjoy where you are and what you have.
If I can show my kids to enjoy one another and the simple times; if I can show them to seek out fun and adventure in their own backyard and their own town, then I think that will be a plus when times are slow and money is tight and adventure is what you make it. Learning contentment always starts with the here and now, and maybe some waffles.
Thanks for reading and cheers to a simple summer!
Love Shawna, Your Nerdy Girlfriend who offers you an open invite to join me on the deck for a classy lady cocktail!
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