A Night at the Beach

June 7, 2011

Staying with my parents has transported us to a weird sort of reality. A working vacation.

Maybe our new life will always be a bit like this. Isn't that what following your passions and doing the work you love kind of looks like? I don't know for sure, we're only starting this journey.

What adds to the vacation element is that we're staying in my parent's beautiful home and because we're new to the area there is a certain "touristy" element to every day comings and goings.

Like going to the beach.

Since arriving here two weeks ago Damien and I have been pretty serious about getting our life in order after the chaos of the move.

Damien has been focused on his responsibilities. Being the overall breadwinner and provider, getting our family outdoors, and unloading the possessions we need from the trailer.

My focus has been establishing a homeschool routine, home and kitchen management (with my mom), and organizing our stuff in my parent's house.

Our days are very full. I think at some point leading up to the move I had a notion of taking a vacation when we arrived. Snort!

After months of moving chaos - the lack of routine (except for sort, organize, pack, repeat), the compromises in home cooking, and our writing/professional projects put on hold - our family needed structure, right from the get go.

So these have been busy days. Certainly not a vacation. But not nose-to-the-grindstone, 9 to 5, daddy at "work" with mommy and kids alone type days either.

These days we set our own schedule, according our individual needs and our family goals. But my oh my, how many goals we have (smile).

Last Monday after another full day of morning school, healthy cooking, exercising, home management, writing, programming and more we needed a little break - all together.

An evening at the ocean was in order.

Where we used to live in Maine was a solid hour from a decent ocean beach. Going to the beach was not an evening activity.

And this is why life here feels a bit like vacation because come evening, when we're a bit tired and cranky and just need to reconnect with each other and nature - we can head to the beach. It's a 10 minute drive to this particular beach (there are many in the area) and we were treated to this spectactular misty sunset at the end of our hectic day.