Day 22 in the May blog a day challenge: Rant About Something
So I'm a day behind. Yesterday was a little off. Although we had a wonderful morning-- breakfast at home with some sweet friends (blueberry waffles topped with fresh blueberries, bacon and OJ, oh my!) my sweet girl was having a difficult day as she was cutting a top tooth :( It finally broke through last night but she did not take either naps yesterday and was pretty much a hot mess all day. I got a glimpse of what life is like with a child that does not sleep (whining much?!), and boy, let's just say I really enjoyed a glass of wine at the day yesterday! Here's to hoping all of our children are good sleepers like E usually is (a girl can hope, right!?)...
I usually like this blog space of mine to be a positive place for me to document life and what it throws our way, but today sweet Jenni is pretty much giving us permission to get a little fiesty so why not?! I actually contemplated not doing this but after much thought, I had to just get it done. And yesterday was a perfect fuel for me to just get it out of my system. For yesterday, as exhausting as it was, showed me just how important it is to do this.
So what's my rant? My rant is this: people that never go anywhere because everything is "too far." This was a frustration of mine back home in San Diego, and it is even more of a frustration to me here. I'm not dissing anyone inparticular-- it is just the attitude as a whole. I understand that life gets busy, and that often it is really hard to get out of the house with more than one child or whatnot. But I'm talking about the people who just stay home all the time, watching TV, going to the same 'ol same 'ol restaurants and who live the same predictable lives because they are, dare I say it, afraid to try something new (is that what it is? Or is it too comfortable, lazy, boring, I don't know!)??
We technically live in a "small town" now. Before, we lived in a suburb of San Diego, but there were a ton of nearby "cities" that encompassed us. Now, we live in yet another suburb but the other nearby cities are about 20+ miles away. We can get to downtown in about 15 minutes (urban dining, nightlife, concerts, the whole enchilada!). We can get to incredible shopping areas in about 35 minutes. We can go down south and experience beautiful culture and that's only about 20 minutes away. However, I've found that most people here just like to complain about the lack of dining, lack of things to do, and instead opt for a boring, mundane life because they are not willing to drive 30 MINUTES for a change in scenery. It drives me absolutely BONKERS.
A few weeks ago, we had dinner with some of Joshua's extended family members that actually live here in town (how crazy is that!?). We've only seen them a few times since we moved, but Joshua's cousin asked us, "So have you guys gone out and explored since you've moved here?" Our answer was "YES!" I was so proud that we were able to say that. Life is too darn short to stay too comfortable. Try new restaurants. Go take a drive and go down a road you've never been before. Most likely, you will discover something that you love-- whether that's a great new place for tacos or the most awesome hiking path ever.
What fueled this post is that yesterday, when my sweet girl wouldn't sleep, I put her in the car and we drove about 25 minutes south to a sleepy, quaint little artists' town. Most of the shops were closed for the summer, and the summer heat started to beat down on us in the middle of the afternoon, but we had the best time exploring some of the shops that were open, playing in the grass, and just getting out of the house. We grabbed some soft-serve ice cream (Eden had a few bites, yummy!) and just sat there in the grass enjoying one another. It turned around my exhausting afternoon, energized me for more play before bedtime, and my sweet girl took a little catnap on the way home (winning).
Life is so beautiful. Get out and enjoy it-- be adventurous.
Don't let "having kids" make you into a boring person or let them be your excuse to not live life to it's fullest.
Shouldn't we striving to be an example to our children anyway? That means putting on clothes, getting out of the house and showing them that life is beautiful and we need to see the beauty in it.
In closing, have you seen this video? It will be the best 20 minutes you've spent all week. What a way to live life to it's fullest. Now go live. Rant over :)
So I'm a day behind. Yesterday was a little off. Although we had a wonderful morning-- breakfast at home with some sweet friends (blueberry waffles topped with fresh blueberries, bacon and OJ, oh my!) my sweet girl was having a difficult day as she was cutting a top tooth :( It finally broke through last night but she did not take either naps yesterday and was pretty much a hot mess all day. I got a glimpse of what life is like with a child that does not sleep (whining much?!), and boy, let's just say I really enjoyed a glass of wine at the day yesterday! Here's to hoping all of our children are good sleepers like E usually is (a girl can hope, right!?)...
I usually like this blog space of mine to be a positive place for me to document life and what it throws our way, but today sweet Jenni is pretty much giving us permission to get a little fiesty so why not?! I actually contemplated not doing this but after much thought, I had to just get it done. And yesterday was a perfect fuel for me to just get it out of my system. For yesterday, as exhausting as it was, showed me just how important it is to do this.
So what's my rant? My rant is this: people that never go anywhere because everything is "too far." This was a frustration of mine back home in San Diego, and it is even more of a frustration to me here. I'm not dissing anyone inparticular-- it is just the attitude as a whole. I understand that life gets busy, and that often it is really hard to get out of the house with more than one child or whatnot. But I'm talking about the people who just stay home all the time, watching TV, going to the same 'ol same 'ol restaurants and who live the same predictable lives because they are, dare I say it, afraid to try something new (is that what it is? Or is it too comfortable, lazy, boring, I don't know!)??
We technically live in a "small town" now. Before, we lived in a suburb of San Diego, but there were a ton of nearby "cities" that encompassed us. Now, we live in yet another suburb but the other nearby cities are about 20+ miles away. We can get to downtown in about 15 minutes (urban dining, nightlife, concerts, the whole enchilada!). We can get to incredible shopping areas in about 35 minutes. We can go down south and experience beautiful culture and that's only about 20 minutes away. However, I've found that most people here just like to complain about the lack of dining, lack of things to do, and instead opt for a boring, mundane life because they are not willing to drive 30 MINUTES for a change in scenery. It drives me absolutely BONKERS.
A few weeks ago, we had dinner with some of Joshua's extended family members that actually live here in town (how crazy is that!?). We've only seen them a few times since we moved, but Joshua's cousin asked us, "So have you guys gone out and explored since you've moved here?" Our answer was "YES!" I was so proud that we were able to say that. Life is too darn short to stay too comfortable. Try new restaurants. Go take a drive and go down a road you've never been before. Most likely, you will discover something that you love-- whether that's a great new place for tacos or the most awesome hiking path ever.
What fueled this post is that yesterday, when my sweet girl wouldn't sleep, I put her in the car and we drove about 25 minutes south to a sleepy, quaint little artists' town. Most of the shops were closed for the summer, and the summer heat started to beat down on us in the middle of the afternoon, but we had the best time exploring some of the shops that were open, playing in the grass, and just getting out of the house. We grabbed some soft-serve ice cream (Eden had a few bites, yummy!) and just sat there in the grass enjoying one another. It turned around my exhausting afternoon, energized me for more play before bedtime, and my sweet girl took a little catnap on the way home (winning).
Life is so beautiful. Get out and enjoy it-- be adventurous.
Don't let "having kids" make you into a boring person or let them be your excuse to not live life to it's fullest.
Shouldn't we striving to be an example to our children anyway? That means putting on clothes, getting out of the house and showing them that life is beautiful and we need to see the beauty in it.
In closing, have you seen this video? It will be the best 20 minutes you've spent all week. What a way to live life to it's fullest. Now go live. Rant over :)
