We’re celebrating Mother’s Day by featuring a guest post from one of our favorite hammocking moms—Brenda Steffen. We’ve known Brenda since Color Cloud Hammocks was first inspired across the sea, and she’s now a blogger and contributor to the City Mom’s Blog network in one of our home cities—Chattanooga, TN. City Mom’s Blogs across the country are connecting and celebrating mothers, and we are excited to be partnering with Chattanooga City Mom’s Blog on their first ever “Chattanooga Mom of the Year” contest, winner announced Sunday, May 7th. If you’re not in Chattanooga, you can still give your own “Mom of the Year” a hammock by ordering through our shop (allow 3 days for shipping). Happy Mother’s Day to all our #hammockmoms!
As a kid, water captivated me, in any form. I was never a great swimmer, but I loved to float ON the water: rafts, inner tubes, canoes, boats, ships.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I was born to float.
Later, I wanted to be a Marine Biologist to save the whales. The siren song I heard came through loud and clear: I belonged on the ocean. In the end, I joined a volunteer crew onboard a hospital ship to help people rather than the whales. Floating, at least on calm seas, became a favorite pastime.
Soon, I met a brawny sailor who got my attention when he spliced and knotted ropes to make his own hammock to hang on the aft deck.
I don’t remember what became of that hammock, but the Sailor and I tied our own knot once we left the ship. When he returned to sea, my own feet stayed on land. I missed the ocean, but I acquired a new floating pastime: hammocking. (I am the proud owner of one of the first ever Color Cloud Hammocks to hit the market: California Roll.)
My hammock and I have been on countless adventures and in multiple countries together. I’ve hammocked in campsites, beside lakes and oceans, at friend’s houses and in public parks. I’ve hammocked by myself, with the Sailor, with friends, with my own mother, and with my growing belly while pregnant*.
Nowadays as a mom myself, I spend a lot of time chasing a toddler. I take my hammock breaks when I can get them, whether it’s a camping trip where I get a moment to knit while the little guy briefly naps, or a trip to the in-laws overseas, where I can float while he’s busy playing in the dirt.
Being a mom also means that nowadays when I travel, I pack less clothing for myself and more snacks for a growing boy. Of course the portable hammock also goes with us on every adventure. Thankfully, Color Cloud Hammocks double as pillows on airplanes, proving once again that they are most certainly FUNctional.
You don’t always have travel to far flung corners of the world to find hammocking happiness, though. The furthest trip many moms, including me, take some days might only be the grocery store and the playground. Happy hammocking can and should also happen locally. Done properly, hammocking in your own backyard can transport you to a whole different place.
This Mother’s Day, why not treat your favorite mama (or even yourself!) to some love that floats? A Color Cloud Hammock makes a perfect gift, and gives any mom a break from the diapers, dishes, and disarray that often comes with parenthood. I guarantee you, she’ll thank you. And while you’re at it, maybe even offer to babysit. She may not have much time to float these days, so chances are she might not want to share her space, once she begins her Color Cloud journey.
Then again, Color Cloud Hammocks have lots of room for both little and big ones to join in on the fun. No matter where I hang my hammock, my son ends up in it somehow, with or without me. I don’t mind. He’s shown me that you don’t always have to cross an ocean to have an adventure.
I think he too, might have been born to float.
* Hammocking is a great way for pregnant ladies to put their feet up and relax. However, take extra care getting in and out of your hammock, and don’t try any daring advanced hammock hanging during this time.
Read more from Brenda at TypingSunflowers and Chattanooga City Mom’s Blog
