I don’t really take vacations. Six months in and my husband and I have yet to go on a honeymoon. While I would love to it’s not really in our financial goals or time commitments at the moment.
The Yellow Envelop
But when I found $25 in an envelope recently, given to us at our wedding, I thought why not put that towards one night at a B&B instead of just a dinner out.
After all, while we had adjusted from dating to marriage beautifully, these few months had been challenging circumstantially. We have both been sick on and off, my husband hurt his back, we moved (mold situation), had work issues and so forth. Life stuff.
We could use a mini break.
We are running a Sunday morning brunch and so we worked until one. Then packed an overnight bag and headed to a B&B uptown. The lady asked us where we live and was surprised but happy to learn that we were staying in our own city just trying to get out of the house. She loved the idea!
We dropped our bags off in the room and headed out in search of Chinese food for lunch. I had my hubby take a picture of me by a bright colored wall that shared my love of black and white stripes.
I’ll pretend I’m a tourist.
I tried to look up at the buildings with new eyes for architecture that maybe I hadn’t noticed before.
We ate our lunch and then with bellies full of hot sauce we meandered slowly to the park and sat in the shade watching a little boy play in the fountain. We headed back for a round of cooking shows via El Gourmet. After a short nap, where we thought about food and didn’t really sleep, we headed back out in search of dinner.
Later we had ice cream in bed.
None of this fit into my current diet plan.
But I looked over and saw the subtle smile on my husband’s face and a relaxation I hadn’t seen in some time. It was a relaxation that I had first noticed in my own head over dinner when the pain around my so often strained eyes had lowered. We slept, read our devotional, had the lovely little breakfast that our host made for us, and walked my husband to work ending our little staycation by 8am.
Though it had only started at 2pm the day before I found myself more revived and ready to start the new week.
All The Feels
I felt peaceful again. More thankful for our marriage. More determined to keep moving forward no matter what setbacks were to come our way. I arrived home thankful to see our two adopted fur babies that had stayed overnight with my mom. The best fur babysitter in the world.
As I started to catch up on work scheduling and prep for the week we lost power and thus internet due to some construction on the street.
So I sat on the bench outside in the sunshine writing this post and thinking about ways to fit more small reviving moments into our lives.
The last 18 hours had served as a reminder, teaching me again the beauty of THE moments.
Taking moments to soak up life even if it means taking a staycation and supporting a local B&B. Even if it is just looking at where you are with new eyes. Or taking a healthy eating break for an ice cream bar in bed with the one who gets you on the day to day.
To my husband, my family, my friends, and my fur babies, and everyone else I love you. Let’s embrace small moments. They make up our lives.
And maybe take a staycation or two.
