Treasures

Every year, life is moving faster and faster and people are (consciously or not) making the choice to move faster with it or to step off now and then. I'm so happy that we decided to step out of the hectic lifestyle of carpools, business meetings, phone conferences, daily household chores and pre-planned children's activities. They blurred one in to the next and we felt lost in the fog of everyday life and drifted away from what really matters. So we made the decision to start off fresh and moved away from what bothered us. Now we marvel at the wonders around us again, taking in the new sights and sounds of our new surroundings and just remember how beautiful life is. 

Visit to the Energy Explorium

There is an ad on TV that resonated a lot with me lately. It is from Pure Michigan ("Treasure") and invites people to come and visit the beautiful state of Michigan. "Once we were dreamers, adventurers set out to discover new lands, new people, new ways. Once we were great explorers in search of hidden treasures, secret hideouts, magic lands. The treasure is still here and waiting to inspire a new generation of dreamers..."  This ad describes how I feel, why I thought moving away from the stressful/ same old life we had was best for us and what I want my kids to see and know while they grow up. It is not about the money, material goods or keeping up with what everyone else does but rather it is about spending quality time the children while they are only that little once, making fond memories daily, and seeking new adventures everywhere we go. This means exploring new playgrounds, going to small arts festivals, taking long walks or having fun in the backyard. I learned that it doesn't take much to make a little child happy as long as I am right there too, being happy and relaxed.

Sunday afternoon fun in the new splash pool

Amelia's favorite time of the day is having "family breakfast" together. It doesn't matter what the food is but rather that all 4 of us sit together, saying this short, childish German table rhyme ("Piep, piep, piep, wir haben uns alle lieb, guten Appetit") while holding hands and then eat. It seems a little strange that she choose this part of the day to be her favorite but after thinking about it it is actually not. It is special because we never had many breakfasts as a family together since Derrick had to go to work during the week and didn't eat breakfast and on the weekends we often had plans or were in a rush to get out of the house that we cut it short or only had one day out of the week for a family breakfast. And now, every single day we are enjoying breakfast together and this is why Amelia loves it. And so do we.

My happy, silly boy

We have only been here 7 weeks but I can tell you that it was the right decision for us. In those short few weeks, we have explored new places around town, discovered hidden treasures in the backyard and beyond the fence, found out-of-the-way playgrounds, met new people and made already some friends, but best of all spent lots of time just being together. Of course this took some effort and adjusting since my husband is now home all the time when we were used to see him mostly at night. It means that we both parenting the kids now (where usually I did the majority of the parenting as he was earning money to support us) and that it takes communication and cooperation to do a good job. It also means that I had to take a step back in my approach of running a tight ship and letting more things go or do them much differently. For example, my cleaning schedule is pretty much out of the window and so is the organized weekly shopping trip. We are much more spontaneous now and out and about a lot more so that I learned to just go with the flow and do things when I have time or they are needed to be done. Of course, our kids still have a pretty set schedule (for bedtime, naptime and meals) but they also can be flexible if we need them to be. Overall, we have figured out a good system that makes us all happy and gives me and my husband the option of getting some needed me-time in when we trade off watching the kids. So far though, we have not spend much time catching up on our hobbies (for me that includes scrap-booking, sewing, reading, crafting, etc and for Derrick it is writing, reading and fishing) as we enjoy doing things together or just relaxing.

Summer 2008: Fresh in love. And our love for one another has only grown since then

Sometimes it is good to go backwards as it makes you realize what you really want and what is most important. For us, that means spending time as a family and living a simpler lifestyle.

Typical morning in bed with our two babies

(Here is the link to the TV ad if you want to see the full clip:  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pure+michigan+commercial+treasure&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=5134DCD33BF37A2A29FD5134DCD33BF37A2A29FD