I thought today I would write about the picture found at the top of my blog page.  It was taken last July at a friend of my husband’s cabin. They had gotten together for a guys night of scotch and cigars and I had come out with the kids the next morning for a day of swimming.  That’s me fishing off the dock. My oldest daughter is kneeling beside me separating frozen minnows.  My little one is also on the dock just out of camera range running away from the minnows up to my husband sitting on the bank with the somewhat damp dog sleeping beside him. I picked this picture because it never fails to make me smile, it is a perfect moment frozen in time.  I see it and suddenly I can smell the fresh water, feel the warm breeze against my skin and hear the sounds of water lapping against the dock. It’s so rare to capture a moment like this not only in memory but on camera.  It brings back the feeling of contentment that comes from a happy and stress free day.

We had a lot of fun that day, not a single thing went wrong.  Even my little one finding a leech on her turned out well.  Normally she would have flipped, she is what you might call dramatic, but she stayed calm and I got to be proud of her for reacting with interest to see how it came off with salt instead of breaking out in tears.  We went for ice cream, had a BBQ and spent a lot of time in the lake.  It was a hot day and the water was nice and cooling.  We played a game of finding things on the bottom and trying to guess if it was a rock or clam before pulling it up to see.  My oldest found a clam at one point that stuck its foot (?) against her hand as she pulled it out of the water. Her squeal of alarm was hilarious as she tossed it back in. We laughed at the dog as he would go tearing off after the kids as they leapt off the dock then skid to a stop at the end refusing to jump in after them.  He would only walk into the water from the shore,  even after I “encouraged” him by throwing him in a few times. I threw the kids off the dock a few times as well and watched as they had a seaweed fight with their dad.  We spent a lot of that day laughing at and with each other.  

We ended the day fishing.  It was the first time I had been fishing in years and I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it. The rhythmic peacefulness of casting and reeling your line is almost hypnotic.  We mostly just fed the fish but we had a lot of fun doing it.

I miss these types of days right now.  As we hunker down in what is beginning to feel like a never ending cold snap waiting for spring to arrive remembering days like this make it a little easier.  We will get back to days like this soon enough and amidst the sparrow sized mosquitoes will remember that winter isn’t so bad either.