I have never been good at relaxing.

Give me a weekend, and you can be sure that I will check my work email regularly and consistently, overschedule our social activities, and jam-pack the weekend with more errands than humanly possible.

So, it's a beautiful afternoon in Costa Rica and what do I do? 

Try to overschedule! I harass Tom with questions of "what should we do now?" Bug the girls to get a jump start on homework, double check our hotel reservations, and generally am true to my typical form. 

Everyone is annoyed with me.

The girls want to feed the hostel macaw, Banano. Tom wants to finish a blog post and read. 

Granted, we have already gone on a hike, chatted with folks at the hostel, taken a two-hour tour of local animals, and eaten at a soda (lunch counter). 

I really thought that on this trip I would already be different. And would have lost ten pounds. 

What is my hope and dream for our trip? That I can learn to be in the moment. That I can learn to slow down and relax, even for a bit. That I can be patient with my kids and maybe just feed the parrot. Or, I can be present with my husband and sit next to him and just read. 

Oh, and that I can lose ten pounds.