I imagined driving 15 hours to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to see one of my best friends. Or maybe back to our friend’s cabin. Or to Red Lodge. In the end, we stayed home, at the recommendation of my daughters. “If we can’t go somewhere where we get to see all the grandmas at one time then I want to just stay home and play. ” Margot decided for us.
I leave tomorrow for Write Doe Bay. I will be gone for six days, quite a bit longer than the few 24-hour periods I’ve spent apart from my children in the last six years. Like one of those end-of-garage-sale deals where hosts hand out paper bags that you get to stuff with treasures for a dollar, our week was affordable and full of goodness.
Our staycation was the ideal for two reasons: 1) I got a solid 11 days of playing with my kids, which infused my body with appreciation and love. 2) I got a solid 11 days of playing the the kids, which excited me for my first solo trip.
Day 1
Shopped for lumber to make a coffee table I designed and convinced my husband to make. Cleaned house. Read books. Rehung the swing to accommodate those growing limbs.
Day 2
At the creek. Saw the year’s first bees. Ruby found a stone that “feels like my cheek.” Margot found a stone with a fairy horse hoof print. Played pirates. For the first time in nearly two months, I can fully bend my knee! Ruby took a picture of it.
Day 3
Library. For the kids: Leprechauns (Mysterious Encounters), Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter, Princess Stories, Rapunzel, The Kissing Hand, Cut-Paper Play! and (my favorite) Sugarbush Spring. For the mama: Success with Organic Fruit, Backyard Fruits and Berries. Collected so many eggs. Broccoli cheese quiche.
Day 4
In the garden. Planted spinach and peas. Dug, tilled, prepared and imagined. Planted my first ever fruit trees: plum and peach. Girls collected 17 millipedes and 23 worms and fed them to the chickens.
Day 5
Lolo Hot Springs. Swam and swam and swam. Saw the season’s first buttercups. Picnicked and drove home in silence while their tired bodies slept. Evening hike with Alice.
Day 6
Ran for the first time in six weeks, despite my perpetually swollen ankle and rickety knee. It was hard and rewarding. I pushed Ruby; Margot biked next to me. I felt strong and able. And, my ankle swelling went down a bit. I pounded that fluid straight into the earth. Yep.
Day 7
Gymnastics day camp for the kids. I worked for six hours with great concentration and productivity. On my new website and in the studio with Amanda, baby Isla, Lexie and visiting chickens. New stuff coming to the shop this month.
Day 8
Made hula hoops. Learned of Margot’s expertise and watched Ruby’s pure joy in rolling that hoop down the hill and hauling it back up. And again. Beet carrot soup, my kids favorite and a sure sign of garden bounty on its way.
Day 9
Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, every morning for weeks now. Bought daffodils. Hula hooping. Ran again, this time pushing Ruby with Margot running by my side. She announced she wanted to go for just a bit and then be pushed. She ended up running three miles. Tangerine sorbet. Watched Stuck in Love with my love and liked it.
Day 10
Andy made the table with his influence of painting the ends in the colors lumber yards paint them. I swept the driveway and shoveled the last of the snow around the yard to encourage MELTING. Hula hooping all day. Bookended by friends over for coffee, friends over for dinner. AM for the coffee, pile of vegetables over barley for the dinner.
Day 11
Andy and the kids decided to go skiing and I straddled my my options: wanting to fold up into that time with my family versus wanting to organize six days of clothes and my thoughts on writing. They left and I stayed home, unsure of my choice and feeling good about my choice. Went for a windy run. Hula hooping.
And now I’m off to stretch into something I’ve never done before at a place I’ve never been before with people I’ve never met before. Lots of new experiences this week. Bring it.
