Lessons learned

I think the trauma of the weekend alone with the kids still has its effects on me. It's not that I was alone with them for so long. It's more that I still remember my questions of "Why am I even here?" in the middle of the Chinese New Year festival with two exasperated kids, quickly counted my efforts as a loss and went home to a pleasant rest of the weekend.

This time it's going to Half Moon Bay. Tom and I had already marked down today as a good day to catch a low tide at a normal hour. Ten-thirty is still a little early to make it to Half Moon Bay for a Saturday morning but the more we looked at the chart, the more we saw this opportunity doesn't come everyday. Well yes, low tide does happen everyday but not a negative tide and not at an hour that is not 3AM.

But as we started planning out the day, last night after the VeggieTales movie at church, we were met with fatigue and dread. Tom wakes up at 6:15 for men's accountability, I get both kids out the door for Tobey's soccer class at 9, meet at soccer, Eli and I could grab Lee's sandwiches during Tobey's class and we're on the road at 9:31 to Half Moon Bay. All I need to do is lay out and pack extra clothes for the day trip and oh, Saturday's high is only 60 degrees so better wrap them up, but then will it be too cold for them to step in the water? Blah blah blah.

Then Tom said the magic words: "I think I'm too tired to go to Half Moon Bay." And sensibility set in. Looking at the chart for other times and dates, sure, it might be late October before we get a decent day for tide pools, but at least we'll be sane today. And finally our over-achieving side didn't get the better of us. We could attempt tide pooling on some other day that's not as ideal and if we see a great tide pool, great, if not, then the kids would still have fun in the sand and water. Our activities don't always have to be the bestest all the time. Like the day we just "wung it", looking for Half Moon Bay tide pools and ended up in Santa Cruz, a good time together just has to be one when we are all happy.