How ’bout…

Things are falling into a routine zone these days, even though we’re still not in the water. (Still. Not. In. The. Water… For God’s.Sakes, STILL not in the water…) We have breakfast, do school work-which is becoming enough of a regular thing that the girls roll into place in their different lists of tasks- and then we carry on with whatever activity we’ve worked out to meet the balance of keeping them occupied while forging through our own lists of boat duties.

Today it was math, writing, reading, crafting and then a bike ride/walk into town, followed by some stainless polishing, hull waxing and canvas waterproofing while the girls played.

I say daily how lucky we are to have kids that like each other, and man, do I mean it. They are so incredible in their imaginative play, and so consistently good to each other that they often get so lost in their worlds that I have to rattle them out of it for lunch requests or rallying cries to go somewhere. It can be Playmobil people or creatures, shells and sticks or coconuts, but no matter the components of the world they’re in, they’re fully immersed. I call it the ‘How ‘Bout’ game.

“Lily, how ’bout I’m at a store, and you’re the owner, and how ’bout I’m wondering if you have any giraffes, and…” “Yeah, and how ’bout I say “Not today, but….” and on and on and ON. This also applies to conventional play dates at home that I eavesdrop on, which I love hearing, but the two of them really have the concept down pat, and it makes me so happy on so many levels. When it comes to pulling me in, I must admit, I’m not a how ’bouter. I’m a ‘eh, really?’ kind of negatron that often doesn’t get asked back. “Why are we shopping for giraffes, anyway?!” “BeCAUSE, we are!” Dubious look from Mom halts game for an agitating amount of time, and then I’m edged out…

ANyway, they How ‘Bouted for two hours while we worked on various jobs, and Andy brought the finished shaft back to the boat from the machine shop. A big ‘whew’ is that it installed perfectly well without removing the rudder post (a fear that we had going from a two piece shaft to a one piece). We’re technically on track to have it in place, to have the new dripless seal installed and to launch tomorrow afternoon, finger’s crossed. Since the scheduling of boat progress is not often embedded in the calendar of logic or common sense, ‘technically’ and ‘reality’ might not align, but again, we’re hoping for the best.

We met friends at the playground in Stuart this afternoon, where the kids played for three great hours. The two sets (each had a friend their age) played both separately and apart, while we Moms had a grand old time chatting and catching up; it’s nice to add more adults into the mix of the days, for sure.

We’re still not sure which direction we’ll head in once we splash, since the winds aren’t cooperating for a Gulf Stream crossing any time soon. One concern that we have is to get over there and have this off-year weather pattern continue to not give us a window to get back in time either. That said, we’ve opened the door of possibility to crossing the Okeechobee Waterway to get to the west coast of Florida, where we’d head south to the Keys and Dry Tortugas before heading up the east coast, in a big loop. We have a couple of more days to decide what to do, but either way will be an adventure that we’re excited for.

Found this pinned to the bulletin board at the marina, and it hits the nail on the head for a good chuckle: