Have you ever waited in line for something or prepared for a new endeavor, filled with worry and angst and wondering (I yell in my head), “HOW IS THIS GOING TO GO?” Without fail, those moments between the velvet ropes of anticipation could be much better spent. I could be praying, speaking sweetly to one of my children about life, finally trimming the dog’s nails…you catch my drift. There are a lot of things better than waisted energy on worry and letting oneself become consumed with angst.
I wish I had learned all for his before we started homeschooling and planned a trip to Spain.
One of the catalysts for our decision to homeschool was that Eric, my amazing husband, was going to be gone for most of the year. We have seen him in such brief snippets since last April (15 months ago) that if I think about it too much it makes me sick to my stomach and frankly, pretty angry at the world. I let that happen for a good portion of July and folks, that didn’t go so well. This week I steadied the course and with a righted ship we are tackling the days considerably more successfully. I have taken some time to reflect on our past year and the adventures it held. Most notably, 3 months in the Andalusia region of Spain.
We traveled to Spain in the hopes of seeing our beloved, missing piece at least once. We were instead blessed with a handful of unforgettable moments and days that I will treasure for the rest of my life. On top of that, the girls and I were able to see and do so many new things that I am just now capable of processing it all. This week, while the girls attended camp, I focused on putting together a slide show from our trip. It is set to a song very dear to our family. I guess you might call it our theme song. When it plays we belt it out, off tune and insanely loud…and hot tears run down my cheeks as I think how awesome it is to be raising kids who love life.
Spain left us hungry for more adventures…at least after we slept in our own beds for a few weeks and were able to regularly do our laundry and take long, leisurely baths. I can’t wait to see what the next few years hold for us and until then we will embrace the warm, happy thoughts from our time in Andalusia. I’d love to share some of our favorite pictures of the people and places we grew to deeply love during our 3 month adventure. I promise to go into more detail soon…but as I have written here, I am JUST NOW able to grasp what we accomplished, learned and experienced. It’s coming at me like waves and I am grateful it ebbs and flows so I can still function. I’ve been a lot of places and done a lot of things but I’ve never….NEVER been as proud and satisfied with a choice and an action as I am with this adventure.
Get out of line, grab the chance, embrace the days…or snuggle back in for some Netflix binging…but create a balance. Try all the things. You won’t be sorry.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Published by whoajennie
I am defined by moments that have gotten me where I am today. One of those occurred on a spring day in southern Spain about two years ago and my life has never been the same since. I was frozen with fear and exhaustion after several months of traveling with my best little entourage and our backpacks. After receiving a sweet, encouraging message from an old friend I loaded us all up for one of the most amazing days of happy accidents in all my life and probably my entourage’s too, seeing that they were 5 and 7 at the time. We drove to Ronda Spain, followed by Granada and in less than 12 hours had more adventure and excitement than many years hold for the average person. That day changed me. It defined the second act of my life and led me to today, writing this in the hopes that I can quit living life by the book and start writing my own story. I hope you’ll come along for the ride because I anticipate it being filled with many more days that end in a gypsy cave with music that grabs my soul and shakes it around…or something like that. But that’s a story for another day.
Today I am more simply a 37 year old wife and mother that refuses to be defined by the basic expectations of those roles. My entourage is most frequently composed of two very good listeners who are big thinkers and huge feelers. They are elementary in age but wise beyond their years. When we are lucky, their superhero, my quiet, witty, adorable (wait, he says I can’t say that because I’m describing a man, not a puppy so he told me to say average but who are we kidding, he’s pretty cute…) husband is also along for the ride. We homeschool so we can be with our kids as much as possible, give them room to breathe, read all the books they want, practice cursive or checkers, develop skills and passions…and to travel of course. They love to travel as much as we do. They love new places and we don’t have to minimize our experiences because they are young. It’s easy to adapt big experiences to little bodies when we plan ahead and come prepared. That being said, we don’t take them everywhere. Sometimes we do things as a couple or we take trips with other people on our own because part of a healthy marriage is having healthy friendships with each other and others.
We moved to Kailua, Hawaii Summer of 2016. 3,600 miles of driving and 2,800 miles of flying after selling and packing up our home in North Carolina, here we are. It’s glorious, beautiful, breezy and I love it. There’s enough here to keep us busy for the next 3 years but we still plan to travel and that’s where you come in. We don’t tend to do things half way and we like adventure. People tell us all the time that we “take so many vacations.” This makes me laugh a little because not every trip is a vacation but hey, I know we have a lot for which to be grateful. Because I know not everyone lives the way that we do, for a myriad of reasons, I’d love to create a place where it feels like we can take you along. I want to build my entourage. Why not? The more the merrier.
View all posts by whoajennie
Jennie- this is amazing! What an awesome adventure you and your girls had. I am so proud to call you one of my oldest friends and I am in awe of your strength, faith, and courage to take the world on!
LikeLike
Thanks so much Brandi! That means a lot to me. You too have so much strength and I think we are doing a pretty good job of navigating this life. 😉
LikeLike