Sweet strawberries and the value of puttering

Strawberry picking.

It sounds...well....lovely, doesn't it?  Who doesn't love to eat those sweet little red berries, all yummy

and warmed by the summer sun.

Lovely....that is until we have to start picking them....ourselves!  lol!

So, last month we did our annual trip to the strawberry patch.  This year we wised up as we wore boots.  It was so muddy last year, that all we heard was a lot of complaining about mud and being dirty! (Yes, we have all girls!)  

So, this year, it was just us girls.  Kurt was editing.  I had wondered to myself: was I a little off my rocker to attempt to pick strawberries with everyone, but esp. our youngest - affectionately called, "Celia, our silly pants", who is 19 months?  

But, we bravely plunged ahead.

I'd like to tell you that it was a sweet, lovely strawberry picking experience, where everyone was just thrilled to be there, but.....well....not so much.

But really, it wasn't the girls.

It was me. (sigh!)

I had a plan and I wanted to make it happen.

What was the mission?  To pick 2 full buckets of berries. (Visions of strawberry jam danced in my head)  

I had a vision of what I wanted and I was going to see it through.  Alas, the vision didn't materialize.

At the marriage conference we were at in LA last month, we learned about the value of puttering.  Puttering?  What was that I asked?  It sounded like wasting time on purpose.  Definitely not efficient.  Definitely not something I do...very often.  

But the more I learned about "wasting time," the more I realized I need it.  And it's actually the opposite of wasting time.  When we get time to "putter," we get reenergized to engage with others, focus more, and we get recharged to step in with the kids....etc.  

So, as I look back upon the strawberry picking experience, I realize that I needed to chill out and putter with my girls that day more in those sweet strawberry fields.  Maybe we might only get to one bucket instead of two, but having fun and enjoying the ride with them would be more fun and ultimately more memorable and sweeter - just like those amazing berries!