Sunday, August 4, 2013

Spontaneous

Having 2 small children is a lot of fun but it's also a lot of work.  Over the course of the last 3 years, I've lost pieces of myself.  I've found a lot more but there are times when it is so exhausting to be a mom that I just shut down.  At the end of the day, there is no time left for me or the things that I want to accomplish, be it chores or just fun stuff, like scrapbooking or heck, even reading a book!

My husband struggles with the same issues.  I'm lucky enough to be a stay at home mom which makes the financial woes a little more but there are infinitely more rewards to it.  But sometimes, we all get stuck in the mud.  We can't see our way out of it.  We see the dreams and hopes we had crashing down around us.  We start to see only the bad and forget all the wonderful things we have going for us.  That's when I know it's time for us to get out of dodge.

This past week just worked out so that Josh had one day off, one day on, one day off and then a late shift.  Where we are in Ohio, it's only about an 8-9 hour drive to the ocean.  Me being me, Josh's schedule and our bleak outlook sparked an idea.  After a bit of discussion and a whole lot of running on my part, Thursday morning saw us off to Virginia Beach.  It took us a heck of a lot longer to get going and a lot longer to get there thanks to 2 small children and some crazy bad rain but we made it.  We camped, played in the ocean, saw parts of the country we'd never seen before....It was amazing.  The car trip back took much longer than getting there had (isn't that always the case??) but in the end, it was incredibly refreshing.

I'm reminded that life takes us down paths we didn't envision but that doesn't make it the wrong path.
I'm reminded that life doesn't have to adhere to a schedule.
I'm reminded that it's okay to rinse off all the sand just to jump right back in it.
I'm reminded that the world is a bright, wonderful place.
I'm reminded that I can be spontaneous, even with small children.
I"m reminded that cutting loose is necessary.
I'm reminded that not everything has to be a huge, expensive production.

Onward and upward.  I've got some novels calling my name.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful people.