Quality Time with Your Family?

This weekend was the Victoria Day holiday here in Canada, and for most people, yesterday was a day off work.  For our American friends, next Monday you will have the same with the Memorial Day holiday.  How did you spend your long weekend?

For many people, this past weekend was the official kick-off for summer and they spent it at the cottage/boat/trailer on a lake somewhere north/east of the Greater Toronto Area. Having had a few summers to enjoy a cottage years ago, I can certainly understand the draw.  And for the first time in years, we actually had great weather! Of course, there are many things I don’t understand about long weekends at the cottage.

First – the drive on a Friday before a long weekend. There is a mass exodus out of the Toronto area and tens of thousands of drivers are on the roads, trying to get out of the city.  The result is an insane amount of traffic, and a trip that would normally take 60 to 90 minutes takes double the time or sometimes even longer! It doesn’t really matter where your cottage/boat/trailer is – whether is it north or east of the city, the traffic problems are the same. And it’s always about finding the best route to get there.

Second – the bugs. This time of the year can be the worst for black flies. And soon it will be time for mosquitoes and deer flys. Now, I enjoy nature as much as the next person, but I still find bugs to be very irritating.  That’s probably why I enjoyed spending my summers in the Swiss mountains – fewer bugs.

Third – all of the work that has to be done.  Opening the cottage (unless you have a fully winterized one) can take up the entire weekend, if not several weeks.  From raking leaves to putting in the docks, there are never ending jobs to take care of.

This often means that the first long weekend of the summer is actually very stressful and involves a great deal of physical labour. So, are cottagers really getting that quality time with friends and family?Feel free to check in on the comments section.

Dan and I spent the weekend here at home.  We didn’t make any plans, except to organize our place to make room for the baby that’s arriving this fall. We did work hard on Saturday, but on Sunday and Monday had the opportunity to spend some great quality time together. We now share a small office and it’s very cozy when we are both in there! For some reason though, we actually enjoyed it. What we were reminded of again this weekend is how happy we can be just enjoying each others company.  Some of you might have read How to Attract Your Perfect Partner from a few months ago and even though it’s been almost three years, we are still in the honeymoon phase.

We do have dreams though, and even though we don’t have access to a cottage every weekend, we do have the chance to visit the family cottage once a summer. We both love being in nature and the fresh,clean air away from the city. We have a dream to live in a home that is in the woods, near a lake, close to the mountains to enjoy hiking, rock climbing and skiing. I’ve seen this home many times in my mind, I could draw you a picture if you like.

What are your dreams? Do you enjoying going to the cottage – would you like to be able to live up there? Do you have a vision for your dream home? Would you like to be able to spend more quality time with your family?  If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then ask yourself this, what are you doing to bring that dream closer to reality? Are you taking daily action that will allow your dreams to come true? Or are you hoping that you’ll get lucky and win the lottery?

Life is very finite, we get one chance – it’s not a dress rehearsal.  Are you on your way to making your dreams to come in this lifetime?