Days that Don’t Go as Planned

Day 4 in Bocas Del Toro started out rough.

There were yelling and negativity from the start.

The kids were whining about doing school and begging to watch.

Henry took forever to get ready to go.

We locked ourselves out of our Airbnb.

Lucas, Henry and I (Judy) went to check out a small island that and ended up getting dropped off at a part of the island that smelled horrible and had a playground covered in trash and broken glass.

Henry left his sunglasses on the water taxi.

Henry stepped on something and his foot started hurting.

We were all having trouble getting out of that negative funk that started right when we all got up, and things just kept spiraling downhill.

The day could have kept getting worse. We could have chosen to continue to be grumpy.

As I was coaxing a whining Henry to keep walking to the water taxi, I took a deep breath and realized that the only way to turn the day around was to start thinking positive.

Lucas, Henry and I got a water taxi to meet Michael on the main Island. We found another playground the boys could play on.

The boys played frisbee and raced cars down the playground slide.

We got lunch from a woman selling home-cooked food on a folding table at the edge of the park. It was delicious.

We went to the grocery store on the main Island and found ingredients to make chicken nachos and we found a frozen pizza (no homemade quiches yet- but if anyone has a recipe please send it along).

The property manager let us back into our Airbnb when we got home. We ended the night watching Spaceballs and eating frozen pizza.

I fell asleep during the movie and woke up to the boys rewinding the part where Lone Star and Dark Helmet are fighting and their Schwartzs get crossed. The boys were giggling uncontrollably. Oh, brother!

One lesson we learned and that we seem to keep having to learn is the power of positivity. Things are not always going to go according to plan, but a positive attitude can go a long way to making the most out of each day.