Why I Don’t Need Every Weekend to Be an Adventure

Some weekends are for mountains. Some are for laundry, a good book, and nowhere to be.

It’s a regular Saturday morning. Coffee brewed, cat on my lap and a book in my hand. I just worked 4 long shifts and I’m beat. There’s plenty to be done to catch up...

Dishes.

Laundry.

Garden chores.

Kids to shuttle around.

An intentional meal.

For years I felt like this type of weekend wasted my life away in the mundane. Turns out, it was exactly what I needed.

I love a good adventure. 10-year-old Kaci definitely dreamed of world travel. And the truth is, I’m about to fly across the country and leave my family to their own devices for a hiking adventure in the mountains of Washington. But I don’t want every weekend of my life to feel like something I have to maximize to feel like I’m living.

White Mountains adventure ;)

There is this sort of invisible pressure to make all your free time productive or memorable in some way, and honestly, I JUST had this conversation with my 16-year-old. He is noticing the feeling that he wants more adventure than our life is currently providing (and I love that insight for him!). It turned into a nice conversation about how and why I am choosing this hiking homebody life intentionally, but he doesn’t have to. He can make his own life the way he desires when he becomes an adult. That’s the beauty of it!

Life is all about choices and in midlife I am more intentional with how I spend my time. I don’t want to succumb to the pressure to do something worth talking about, go somewhere epic or make the most of every good weather day. I’m done feeling guilty when everyone online seems to be doing something better than me (at home AND on adventures).

In some ways, it feels like we have turned our downtime into something else we have to be good at. A performance, if you will. And I’m not immune to it. Sharing my life online means I’m often documenting what I’m doing too. It can easily turn an experience into something to capture instead of something to live. I’m learning to notice that too.

I’m beginning to see that adventure shouldn’t feel like an obligation (to myself or to the ‘gram). It should feel like something I GET to do. I want it to feel like the gift it is... Every. Single. Time.

“I get to hike today”

versus

“It’s the weekend and the weather is good, so I must hike somewhere epic”

Forcing myself to make each experience bigger and better was making me feel icky and more importantly, it was taking some of the joy out of the things I actually love doing.

Found a swimming hole at the end of this hike and jumped right in!

I’ll never hike in some of the really cool places I see online and I’ll never travel to some of the countries I dreamed I would as a kid.

But I CAN see lots of really cool places and meet lots of really cool people along the way in my everyday hiking homebody life.

And guess what? My son can absolutely seek an adventure-filled life, and I’ll be cheering him on the whole way!

These days, ordinary weekends with nowhere to be are some of my favorites. They might look like morning coffee chats with my husband, grocery shopping for a meal that I haven’t had time to make in a while, reading on the couch with a kitty in the middle of the day and puttering around my garden giving her a little attention too.

Max the lap kitty keeping me company

And I’m happy.

Happy with the life I’m creating in real time. I’m no longer measuring my life by what I’m able to accomplish or what happened this weekend. I’m measuring my life by how the mundane feels. If I can be happy folding laundry with an audiobook on a rainy Saturday, I can be happy anywhere.

At 48, I know myself better than I ever have. Life will do that for you if you let it. I’m not trying to prove to anyone my life is interesting. I’m living the life I want to keep showing up for, day after day.

I’m not trying to keep up.

I’m not trying to exhaust myself with Instagram-worthy hikes to earn rest.

I’m spending time doing things that restore me to more of myself.

I laugh sometimes at the name Hiking Homebody because it can seem like a contradiction. But the truth is, it perfectly encapsulates me.

I love spending a day on a long hike in the mountains.

I love traveling to new places.

But I also love coming home.

Maybe one is part of why I love the other so much.

I’m not choosing between adventure and a simple life.

I’m building the second half of my life where both fit. Like yin and yang.

I don’t want a life I feel like I need an escape from, and I don’t want a life where I become a hermit either. I want both.

And this is why I started sharing more online too. I’m not here to encourage people to create a life that is filled with constant adventure. I’m here to encourage people to make room for adventures in a life they already like living.

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In just a couple of days, I’m leaving for another adventure and I am so excited!

I’m going to hike and explore a completely new-to-me spot. I’ll be finding my limits and stretching them where it makes sense, seeking quiet coffee time with a good view and coming home with stories galore.

When I get back, I’ll have plenty to share. What worked, what didn’t, what surprised me, and probably a few funny trail tales.

And I’ll be so happy to come home to the simple life I’ve built when it’s time.

I think that’s exactly what I’m finally figuring out. I don’t need every weekend to have a new adventure. I just want enough adventure to keep me curious – and enough simple days to make coming home feel like a warm hug.

Tell me: What does your favorite simple weekend look like?

P.S. If you found Hiking Homebody because you’re trying to get outside a little more without turning your whole life into one giant adventure, welcome. That’s pretty much what we do around here. I’ll have plenty of Washington trail stories when I get back. Subscribe and I’ll send you the next note from the trail – or the couch.