With all this time on my hands, stuck in the house I did school with the kids and that's pretty much it. I cannot stand having work to do and not being able to do it. Feeling completely hand tied and house tied we began ordering things we will need to tackle the next projects on the boat.
So far we are now waiting for massive deliveries from all over the country...
- A natures head composting toilet
- 3 solar panels
- A/c inverter
- 4 batteries
- Battery boxes
- Wiring
- Fresh water tank
- Cushion foam
- Sea anchor
- Bilge paint
And a bunch of other stuff I can't even remember right now. So we are in the waiting game now for all this equipment to arrive. We managed to track down some marine grade plywood which is easier said than done here on Whidbey Island and got some cabin paint. We figured while we waited for the fun stuff to arrive we'd get some of the construction work done and get started on the interior painting but as luck would have it Mac, our five year old came down with a fever and was out of commission for the beginning of the week and no sooner does he get better then Finn our little one gets sick. I
really wish everyone would get sick at once instead of dragging it out for weeks with each of us taking our turn at it, such another big waste of time.
really wish everyone would get sick at once instead of dragging it out for weeks with each of us taking our turn at it, such another big waste of time.
Unfortunately with all this annoying time on my hands I've had a lot of time to think and worry and stress about stuff. Since our last sailing excursion with the kids being such a disaster I couldn't help feeling that we had made a big mistake. Here we have sunk most of our savings into a dream we've
been fostering for years but now I've been struck with the reality that it's not going to be as awesome as we've always dreamed. Deep down we always know our dreams are never as great as we think, usually a lot of hard work and disappointing outcomes, but you have to try anyway or else you'll always wonder.
been fostering for years but now I've been struck with the reality that it's not going to be as awesome as we've always dreamed. Deep down we always know our dreams are never as great as we think, usually a lot of hard work and disappointing outcomes, but you have to try anyway or else you'll always wonder.
We read all the sailing blogs and read about everyone's great adventures, sailing the world with their kids, pictures of smiling happy families, snorkelling in the Bahamas but they neglect to mention the brutal days which I assume is almost everyday considering they usually only update their posts maybe once a week, often less. But that's okay too, I've always said the memories are what we do this for, every camping trip we have ever gone on has been a nightmare but we keep packing up that tent every year anyway. When we look back on the dirt, the cold and dampness and inevitable downpour of rain, the bug bites and disgusting outhouses, we forget how miserable we were and idealize it in our minds, suddenly all the hardships are funny, how we handled it, the stories we have to tell and that we survived to do it again next year.
I have no disillusions that sailing with the kids will be all sunshine and lollipops, it's going to be a long, dredging march through hell but that one day out of twenty that we manage to have perfect
weather and the perfect anchorage, where all stars align and that one amazing day will outshine all those other hard ones. It's no different if you're on a boat or in a giant log house, not everyday is going to be awesome, but it's that rare awesome day that we live all the others for.
I had hoped the kids would take to sailing easily, I know I was fooling myself that that was even a possibility, knowing my kids who freak out if you hold them upside down, they are not the adventurous sort but that needs to stop. We should have had them out sailing from the minute they were born but circumstances prevented that. I refuse to believe that they are too old to adjust and come to enjoy it, it's just going to be harder than we'd hoped. We have a lot of hardships facing us, Marks work schedule, meaning I need to get very comfortable and knowledgeable about sailing since I will have to do it solo a lot of the time, our boat being all we could afford is not very live-aboard friendly, family members who think we are crazy and ruining our kids lives and wasting our money, and so on and so on. But there will be those awesome days and all we can hope is that the positive will be enough to make the negative worth while.
weather and the perfect anchorage, where all stars align and that one amazing day will outshine all those other hard ones. It's no different if you're on a boat or in a giant log house, not everyday is going to be awesome, but it's that rare awesome day that we live all the others for.
I had hoped the kids would take to sailing easily, I know I was fooling myself that that was even a possibility, knowing my kids who freak out if you hold them upside down, they are not the adventurous sort but that needs to stop. We should have had them out sailing from the minute they were born but circumstances prevented that. I refuse to believe that they are too old to adjust and come to enjoy it, it's just going to be harder than we'd hoped. We have a lot of hardships facing us, Marks work schedule, meaning I need to get very comfortable and knowledgeable about sailing since I will have to do it solo a lot of the time, our boat being all we could afford is not very live-aboard friendly, family members who think we are crazy and ruining our kids lives and wasting our money, and so on and so on. But there will be those awesome days and all we can hope is that the positive will be enough to make the negative worth while.
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