Just one of the stunning views we enjoyed on our hike
If someone asked you what was the happiest day of your life, what would you answer? Most people would probably respond with things like “the day my child was born” or “my wedding day”. These days are very special to us as a culture and as individuals because they hold such precious meaning to the rest of our lives. But what if ordinary days could be filled with more joy than the ones surrounded by all the fanfare? Instead of our happiest days being milestones in the past, being able to look forward to them today.
Dan and I had such a day just a week or two ago. We both took a Friday off of work and had nothing planned. There is something amazingly refreshing about warm sunlight on your face gently calling you into consciousness and having time to talk to your spouse over morning coffee while the baby is still sleeping. When Carter finally woke up, we all had a delicious breakfast of omelets before heading out on a bike ride and walk at the park. Our “walk” on the park’s trail quickly turned into a beautiful hike through the woods taking us over hills and valleys where we saw a family of deer, a field of wildflowers, and some amazing views just a few miles from our home. The day was absolutely beautiful.
After miles of hiking and a visit to the local nature center, we finally made our way back to our bikes with our worn out toddler on our backs and made our way home after stopping for lunch. That afternoon, Carter napped for 3 hours during which we did nothing but relax. No housework, no yard work, no rentals, just total relaxation sitting in our backyard. We finished our lovely day with dinner and a movie at home, reading, playing with Carter, and all of us falling asleep together in our bed. Just a perfect day and certainly one of the happiest I’ve ever had.
I think it’s best said by this verse of “Happiness Is…” from the musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown:
Happiness is being alone every now and then. And happiness is coming home again. Happiness is morning and evening, Daytime and night time too. For happiness is anyone and anything at all That’s loved by you.
P.S. Thanks everyone for participating in our first contest! We will be emailing the winner today to get your shipping information, so keep an eye out for it! Once the winner has confirmed we will do a special post announcing the winner.
We interrupt our normally scheduled post for some excitement on a national level. We’ve been approached by Right This Minute and Good Morning America to use this YouTube video of Carter in their shows:
Here’s what happened. Carter has recently been climbing in and out of his pack-n-play and we could not figure out how he was doing it. Monday afternoon I was playing with him in his room while Dan was taking a nap and Carter started throwing the cat toy (as seen flinging across the video) into his crib and then climbing into it and out of it simply by lifting himself over the side like a gymnast doing the pommel horse. It was amazing actually, that kid is strong! And what did I, as his mother do? Whip out my phone and start video taping him of course!
That’s when things got interesting. As soon as I started filming him, he started having trouble getting his feet over the side of the crib (I’m assuming he was probably getting tired). So he decided to enlist some help from the handy computer chair, and well…you know the rest. The problem is, now that he knows that we all thought it was funny, he keeps trying to do it again. While I may have had a lapse in judgment the first time I allowed him to do it, I really don’t want him to get hurt, so we’ve moved the chair away and keep the door shut to that room for the moment.
Yesterday, Dan posted the video onto YouTube. Within a few hours, we received a phone call (you aren’t as anonymous as you think I guess) from a reporter at Right This Minute wanting to use it for their show. Then last night, Dan got an email from ABC asking if they could show it on Good Morning America! We accepted and are eagerly awaiting our new boat fund to begin flowing in any minute now…okay maybe that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves. But watch the video (and click on some ads please!), send it to your friends, and maybe we will be buying a boat this year after all!
As you may have noticed, we have a two year old little boy in our house. And like pretty much all little boys, he loves to play with balls of all kinds. We also have a terrier named Winston who loves to play with balls of all kinds, and who believes that every ball in existence belongs to him. I think you may begin to see the conflict arising. A couple of days ago, Carter found a light up bouncy ball in one of our cars that he had dropped months ago and was very excited to play with it. So, he started playing with his newly rediscovered ball and then left it on the floor abandoned a few minutes later.
Abandoned balls quickly get claimed by Winston. And so it was that when Carter and I returned to the room some time later, the big green bouncy ball had been reduced to a plastic ball surrounded by a pile of green rubber. I almost started crying when I saw the heartbroken look on Carter’s face as we went to pick up his ball and showed it to me. “Mommy, my ball broten.” (that’s broken) All I could think to respond was, “I’m sorry honey, Winston ruined it.”
As I began to clean up the remnants of the sparkly rubber, I noticed that Carter had started pulling the last pieces off of the plastic light-up center. When he had finished picking them all off, he held the ball up to me and said, “Look Mommy, now it’s a rolly ball”, and proceeded to roll it around the room just as happy as he had been a few minutes ago watching it bounce off the walls. I was completely amazed and to be honest a little ashamed of myself. My 2 year old had a lot more imagination then I did when faced with a problem that hadn’t gone the way he wanted. All it took was a little perspective.
Our son Carter has had an obsession with toothbrushes since he was six months old. Not trucks, helicoptors, or trains…toothbrushes. He wants to hold them and brush his teeth, carry them around the house, and he knows exactly which brush belongs to which person. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say, “That kid is going to be a dentist someday.” Being a dentist would certainly not be a bad career path for my son to aspire to in the future, but my real hope would be not just that Carter would find a profession he wanted to be, but find something he loves to do.
I believe that our culture is a little too stuck on this idea of being. I am a Mom, Engineer, Waitress, Police Officer. I want to be a Ballerina, Teacher, or Baseball Player. What if instead of aspiring to be someone, we aspire to do something instead? What do you want to do? Teach, scuba dive, sail, help people, save lives, play baseball, dance…you name it. Now, instead of trying to fit your actions into your label, just forget the label and do the actions. When you are doing what you love, who you are to other people becomes a lot less important all of the sudden.
That’s all nice and fluffy to think about, I know. What about food, and house payments, and my student loans to get that label, you say. Well, the beauty is that usually the people who are really loving what they do are the ones who are the most successful at it. And, unless what you want to do is own a fancy sports car and million dollar yacht, you probably need a lot less money than you think. So let me ask you, what do you want to do? Then go do it.
Not a blue water boat you say? This baby crossed the Atlantic. All 5 feet 4 inches of her.
For anyone who has ever tried to get decent information on sea-worthy boats will know, it’s not exactly an easy task. As I mentioned in my post about Strictly Sail this year, searching in our new price range of below $50,000 and in the size range of 30′-40′ boats, the results are a bit overwhelming…like 3,602 results overwhelming. For some people out there who have been around sailing for a while, winnowing down that many choices to something more manageable would be no problem at all. But for us, we were at a loss. How can we figure out which of these boats would serve our family well over a considerable amount of time?
What we really needed was a good list of boats that fall into the acceptable range for durability and safety on the open ocean, aka Blue Water Boats. “No problem!”, we say, “let’s just search for blue water boats and see what we get.” Yea…right. Search that phrase and I promise you that you will find a million different opinions on every boat on the market, and that’s because the idea of a blue water boat is so subjective. There are boats that have safely crossed oceans that other cruisers wouldn’t think of using farther than 5 miles from a coastline. After doing quite a bit of research, we’ve found that our top requirements are a stable boat preferably with a full keel (though other types are still an option), as much tankage as possible for fresh water and fuel, good storage, good construction, and preferably one having 2 private cabins so that Carter can have his own space (and so can we!)
But which boats fit that description? Well, that’s where the Mahina Expeditions crew comes in. This group has a lot of experience with helping people choose cruising boats, and even does a day long seminar that we will probably attend at next year’s Stictly Sail. One of their best resources (in my opinion) is a listing of every type of boat that they consider to be blue water quality, along with information about how to distinguish different qualities of boat systems. We’ve been able to use this list to help narrow down the choices quite a bit, and have a much smaller grouping now of boats that we think would be really good for our family. It is nice to have some extra reassurance that we aren’t going to have to settle for a lesser quality boat due to our reduced budget.
Now all we have to do is wait until we can make one our new home! Its not as easy as it sounds, trust me.
We are normal (well ok, not so normal) people that have a dream to see the world and live life as it was meant to be. We both have successful careers in the healthcare industry, even in this terrible economy. We want to break free of the current cycle of trading time for dollars and dollars for more and more things we don't need. So, we have decided to forego the fruits of our economic success and "retire" well before we are 30 and set out to see what is over the Horizon.
We are normal (well ok, not so normal) people that have a dream to see the world and live life as it was meant to be. We both have successful careers in the healthcare industry, even in this terrible economy. We want to break free of the current cycle of trading time for dollars and dollars for more and more things we don't need. So, we have decided to forego the fruits of our economic success and "retire" well before we are 30 and set out to see what is over the Horizon.