My husband and I share a dream. Someday, somehow, we would like to own a lake house.
My husband owns a boat, and it is his favorite place to be. He takes his boat, the Lukie 5, out on summer weekends and cruises through the local rivers and channels. Sometimes, when the lake is calm, he takes it out on Lake Michigan. You haven’t seen the city of Chicago until you have seen it from a boat on the Chicago River. The view will take your breath away. Music playing, cooler full of beer, friends and family aboard… to my husband, it just doesn’t get any better. So, the lake house dream started out as his dream.
Slowly, it became mine, too. I can see it in my mind. A slightly run-down cottage with a rickety screen door that slams with every arrival and departure. Bedrooms crammed full of bunk beds; the more people we can sleep, the better. A kitchen with a linoleum floor and a tiny table, perfect for late night card games. Perhaps a screened-in porch for reading and board games. Swimsuits hang, drying on the clothesline in the yard. If you stand on the far right side of the porch and crane your neck just so, you can peek around the neighbor’s house and see it. The lake. It may be hard to see, but it’s there. You can feel the lake breeze, can’t you? Crystal blue water, punctuated by wooden docks. There is our boat, swaying gently in the bobbing water. We’ll spend our summer weekends here at our lake house. Maddie and Katie, running down to the beach to build a sand castle. Me, lounging lazily in my beach chair with a good book. Our lake house.
Of course, this is all just a dream, a hope for our future. Someday, we say.
As we continue remodeling and decorating our new home, we begin to make piles in the basement. Garage sale piles, storage piles, and now, a ‘someday’ pile. The someday pile holds our recently discarded bedding, an unused dining set, and an old dresser. They’ll be perfect for our lake house. Someday.
Join in Slice of Life Story writing on Tuesdays! Add your link at Two Writing Teachers.
Murphy's Law 
I feel the lake breeze! I do, I do! Beautiful writing. We all need dreams. Thanks for sharing yours with us!
That middle paragraph is just. So. I can’t even. There is something about slices today that just has me reading them aloud to hear the cadence and rhythm that lie within. This piece has that.
P.S. I am jealous that you have enough space to start that someday pile. 🙂
Where would we be without our dreams. Here’s hoping yours come true sooner rather than later.
Such a lovely image- the lake house that you may someday have, and your someday pile.
It’s great to have dreams for someday. I have lots of them. One of them includes a beach house in Ogunquit right off of the Marginal Way. And a pied a terre in Manhattan. Don’t know if either of them will ever happen, but I’m hoping they will… someday.
Beautiful writing, Dana. If you do get that lake house, I want an invite!
What a beautiful dream. I love how it is coming to life in both you and your husband’s minds and the great description you had to create the image for readers. I like that you are doing something tangible to work toward your dream (the someday pile). It seems like that would make the anticipation build even more. I look forward to someday reading your summer slices from the cottage.
I love the idea of a “someday pile.” No matter what your dreams are we all need concrete ways to set aside things for our hopes and dreams.
They (don’t know who they are) say, if you visualize it and write it down, your vision will happen. So I’m guessing this will be in your future, because you have written so clearly, we all have that vision swimming in our heads. Sounds like it will be a place for memories of a life well lived.
I think I need to discover my own dream and a “someday” place. Your description is so vivid I felt like I was part of it. I would totally spend time at your lake house!
I could so vizualize your dream cottage. It is so like the cottages I stayed in as a child! We must dream and the more concrete we can make our dreams, the more likely they are to become real. I make a vision board each season as a look ahead to what I want to accomplish. It helps to keep the dream visually there.
I have a spmeday beach house like that….I have SO MUCH stuff for that someday house….if you need something…anything…let me know….I probably have lots of duplicates 🙂
We had a mountain cabin for many years, Dana, & loved every day and night spent there. I hope you have your dream soon. Sounds lovely.
I think dreaming with your husband is one of the best things to do, especially when the kiddies are little. (I’m assuming things from your profile picture!) I love the idea of a someday pile! Our dream is a farmhouse on family land. 🙂 Someday!
Love your ‘someday’ pile and dream. I can feel the breeze too while I’m sitting here wondering what my someday dream is …
What a pretty picture you paint. I don’t have a lake house, but I could feel the breeze and see the sparkle on the lake with your words. So wonderful to share a dream with your husband!
Julieanne
Dana,
Some friends have a lake house-call it a cottage…it has many of the things you vividly described! I hope your someday comes true…it sounds like a fun place to be hangin’ out!
A “someday pile”! Love it!
And your someday cottage sounds wonderful! May your dream come true!