Okay, so this past weekend wasn’t great. I was on my own with the boys since Thursday morning as Richard flew to Florida to have a look at a sailboat. I was absolutely exhausted, at my wits end, feeling overwhelmed and wondering what the heck we were doing buying a sailboat and taking our three, wild, wrestling, fighting boys with us. It has taken us over a year to get ready and we still have three busy months ahead, and I just thought, why are we doing this?
I don’t think the boys played without some kind of conflict for more than ten minutes. I should have set a timer to see what the actual time was, but they were stealing toys, hitting each other, crying and yelling at each other. And we are going to move them from a 1300 square foot home where they have large bedrooms, an entire basement and a back yard to play in, and bikes to ride, to a 39 foot sailboat where they will be practically playing, sleeping and schooling all over each other!
I hurt my knee over the course of the weekend so I was hobbling around on Sunday afternoon, popping anti-inflammatory pills and trying to ice my knee. Ethan was crying as he was waking up from his nap, the boys were outside so I really should have been keeping an eye on them and I couldn’t imagine myself hopping around with a bum knee in a small space, trying to go up and down the companionway, keeping an eye on the boys so they don’t go overboard!
I was chatting with friends at church and they said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if you guys got pregnant on the boat and then you could take guesses as to the child’s nationality, based on where the baby would be born?” (Thanks, Dave!) I absolutely do not want to get pregnant during our year of cruising. I would like to think that we are finished with our family, but my husband seems to have other ideas…? Yeah, wouldn’t morning sickness and sea sickness together be great!?!
We have a few pessimists in our family and circle of friends that think we are crazy. They wonder why we are taking our kids into a dangerous situation, with dangerous weather and a dangerous sailboat. They say we should wait a few years until our youngest child is older. Well, when is life absolutely safe? When is the correct age to take kids on an adventure like this? When will an opportunity like this ever come along again? When will we ever be in this place, at this time, right now?
Why are we doing this? I strongly believe that this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for learning, adventure and drawing closer together as a family. We will meet new people, see new places, learn to speak new languages, try new foods and experience things that we will never experience again in our traditional North American lifestyle. We will be doing school together and living our lives together on a small house that happens to float and sail.
Sooooo? Carpe diem! Seize the day!
L
