Ever had a long week? Not a bad week - just a long week. Time to get outside...
“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, 'This is what it is to be happy.'" Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar: A Novel
“The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.” Henry Miller
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” John Muir
"We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape Read more [...]
Ben and I were asked recently about whether we had "overcome something hard in the past". Nothing immediately came to mind, and for that I am thankful. We have never been laid off or had a catastrophic financial issue. We've always been methodical in our decision-making and plans. Like most of us, though, we've also had a bit of good luck. When reflecting on some "difficult times", however, a few things came to mind:
1997
The year we married (…although that was not "difficult"!) - We worked retail jobs and really, really wanted to get out of retail schedule/lifestyle. So we spent six months paying off debt and then took non-retail jobs for a net loss of $30k per year. (Yes, leaving retail for other industries was actually a pay cut for Read more [...]
Yep, the blog has been neglected. Big time. We've had quite a bit going on, but really, that's just an excuse.
Since writing our 2012 year in review, we've...
Prepared our home for sale
Traveled to Europe
Sold the home
Found a rental
Got a new job (Tiff)
Continued working full-time
Traveled for work, and...
Had a kid venture into the competitive soccer arena (with the family in tow)
We are currently packing up the house and continuing to purge.
So, although the blog has been neglected, our goals have not!
Later this month we will vacate our home of 6 ½ years to move across town to a rental home. The home selling process has been yin and yang. Living in a house you are trying to sell is not easy - having to "live" in Read more [...]
Reflections on 2012
We had a lot of fun, made ourselves uncomfortable, and experienced many firsts - such as...
Venturing into the writing world (i.e. this blog)
Delivering our first ever April Fools pranks to our unsuspecting boys
Taking our first overnight train from Seattle, WA to Davis, CA
The tickle in our tummies from learning trapeze
Our first backpacking trip to beautiful Yosemite
The other stuff wasn't always fun, or easy. But worth it, it was.
Big decisions were made that are changing the course of our family.
We sold and gave much more than we acquired.
New friends entered our lives - some of Read more [...]
