I have almost always felt pretty content with my life-happy, joyful even. I loved our life in Colorado and usually feel we will return there after this year long adventure. Although Nick and I are not from Colorado, it definitely feels like home. This trip has helped put a lot of things into a much clearer perspective. While this \u201cperspective\u201d is certainly what I hoped for, living it is not always spectacular. Before I start this rant, I want to state that I am loving this year on the road most of the time. I love the fresh air, the time in nature, time with my family, seeing friends and family that I forgot how much I loved spending time with, experiencing new places, camp fires, bike rides, sunsets, lots of swimming and the ocean- man I missed the ocean! However, it isn\u2019t always a feeling of joy and contentment that overcomes me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When school started back and I saw the back-to-school posts, I have to admit I felt a pang of jealousy. I missed coming back to school from summer break (although 5 weeks off never felt like quite enough). I missed the feeling like you can accomplish anything. You realize that you have your dream job and you vow to never forget how great you have it (don\u2019t ask about this in October though). I love when the kids come back and they are truly happy to see you. Their hugs tell it all! Teachers are hopeful, kids are nervous, parents are relieved\u2026the excitement is palpable. I watched my school\u2019s Facebook as they had a Meet and Greet, a Red Carpet Welcome and watched the amazing teachers and staff at my school as they got kids excited about learning! Who is going to grill the hot dogs? I secretly (I guess the secret is out) longed to be a part of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funny thing is I didn\u2019t see it coming. As I experienced such amazing places with my family, reunited with people I have missed dearly, and felt relaxed in a way I haven\u2019t felt in 15 years, I didn\u2019t know jealousy was waiting just around the corner. In some ways it made me relish our family fun even more, and reminded me to soak up this time. On the other hand, I felt how important purpose is in one\u2019s life. I now understand that vacations are so much fun because of their contrast to and brief relief from real life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an attempt to regain a purpose-driven life, I dove into preparing for homeschooling- a job that I seriously underestimated over the last few months. It is really hard to motivate 3 of my own children to want to read and then respond in writing, dig into a math lesson with mom, or want to receive feedback to help them improve in any area whatsoever.. We are trying to connect to what we are experiencing and we recently did a great lesson with gravity and tides and we spent time observing real tides right at our campsite in Maine. This took a lot more time preparing and planning that I wanted- truth be told! I am hoping to capitalize on future location-driven learning. It has been a fresh challenge as I realize I can\u2019t completely recreate school learning, but we can do some things that we can\u2019t do in school. We really dug into PE and spent an hour or two a day in the pool. The bright side is they are really getting to be amazing swimmers and divers. Writing narratives still needs a bit of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At times we love it, and at times we don\u2019t. However, I remind myself that the ups and downs would be with us even if we were at home. At least here, we can take a hike or walk around the campsite.Today we arrived in Vermont after driving from Maine and through New Hampshire. Right now I am going to join my family at our new campsite\u2019s pump track- which is a welcome new fun activity. I am hopeful about the rest of the journey we are on and excited, and nervous and scared and\u2026you get the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have almost always felt pretty content with my life-happy, joyful even. I loved our life in Colorado and usually feel we will return there after this year long adventure. Although Nick and I are not from Colorado, it definitely feels like home. This trip has helped put a lot of things into a much…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,25,9,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biking","category-homeschooling","category-water-activities","category-wendy"],"yoast_head":"\n