Dreaming of Family Adventure

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Dreaming of Family Adventure | Duluth Moms BlogAt the end of a busy day, sometimes I lie in bed and wonder whether this life we’re living is all there is. Day after day we rush out the door to work in the morning, work stressful jobs all day long, only to rush home in the evening to throw some sort of dinner together for cranky little people. Then we wrangle those kids into jammies and put them to bed after a few stories. During our one-two hours of adult time before bed we either work or watch TV (ie. fall asleep on the couch). Upon waking the next morning, the cycle just starts all over. So again I ask, is this really all there is? Now don’t get me wrong, I love my family dearly and we have a good life. My husband is a great partner and is truly my other half. Our two-year-old twins are awesome and funny little people. We can pay the bills and even take an occasional vacation, so I really shouldn’t complain. Sometimes I just get a little bogged down in the monotony of the day to day.

Lately, during my nighttime wonderings, I’ve been trying to think of what I would change about our life to break the monotony. I ask myself whether I should look for a new job, change careers entirely, or perhaps consider becoming a stay-at-home mom. However, I don’t think that any of those options would get to the root of the issue. A new job might be fun and exciting for a time, but at the end of the day, I feel like we’d ultimately be in the same place we are now; always rushing, always busy, and always feeling that we’re not spending enough quality time together as a family.

Dreaming of Family Adventure | Duluth Moms BlogI recently shared these feelings with my husband and it turns out that he was actually having similar thoughts! He told me about a book he’s reading that chronicles families who sell all their belongings and take off traveling across the world for months to years at a time. But that’s crazy, right? Then it hit me: That’s exactly what I want to do! It would combine our love of travel with our desire to slow down and spend time together as a family.

We’ve been having fun throwing around ideas for how to make this happen. We’ve tentatively decided we’ll take a 10 month career break in about 6 years. We’ll make small changes to our day-to-day spending right now and start putting money away so we can spend that time in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. When the time comes we’ll quit our jobs, sell our cars, and rent out our house. We’re doing a lot of research right now and we’re quickly learning that we certainly aren’t the first family to go on an around the world adventure and it’s actually more affordable than one might think.

Will it actually ever happen? I really hope we pull it off, but I’m not 100% sure we will. There are a lot of factors to consider and a lot of uncertainty. Can we really quit our jobs? How much money do we need to save? Is it okay to pull our kids out of school for a whole year? All of these questions can quickly let fear enter the picture and make me think that maybe we should just stay home. Even putting our plan on paper like this frightens me. If we tell our friends and family our plan will they be supportive? What if we put ourselves out there by sharing our dream and in the end it doesn’t come to fruition? I guess we’ll just take things one day at a time. For now, I have an exciting family adventure to dream about while I’m falling asleep at nighttime.

 


 

Dreaming of Family Adventure | Duluth Moms Blog{ Photo credit: Three Irish Girls Photography }

Kristina is a native Duluthian and a mom to boy/girl twins who are two years old. While in grad school in Boston, she met her husband who is originally from Ireland. They returned to Duluth 5 years ago to be closer to at least one of their families. Kristina works as a nurse practitioner in a local urology practice. She enjoys planning vacations that she hopes to actually take one day, using a label maker to organize all the things, and going on adventures with her family. 

1 COMMENT

  1. I love this! We’re currently on a month long adventure cross-country–for all the reasons you describe above. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one who feels the desire for something different and “more.”

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