Family comes first and so for the past few years as the family has expanded (that’s us up there and not pictured is my crazy and sometimes annoying 75 lbs. dog Clark) my other creative outlets like photography, writing, reading and just trying to keep my mind sharp by learning new things has generally taken a back seat. That’s okay though because seriously nothing has been more satisfying than watching my daughter grow up – she’s all of three now and if you ask her she can do everything by herself so I guess my work here is….done 🙂
I’m trying to revamp that now and have made a commitment to spending more time on things I want to try to do. A few things that I want to accomplish the rest of this year and into 2021:
- Publishing a new photo at least once per week
- Blogging about something interesting I’ve learned, read or come across at least once a week
- Learning a new language (seem to be working through Spanish and I took it in high school and college but that was forever ago now)
- Keeping a positive mindset – I sometimes fall into bouts and fits of negativity and COVID hasn’t helped that but as I always tell my daughter – thanks to our minds we are LIMITLESS so there is nothing we can’t do!
It will also be so nice to finally travel again once COVID is over. Our son is approaching six months and has never been on an airplane (the horror I say!). My life pre-COVID involved plenty of work travel which allowed the family to take a lot of nice vacations during downtime. Just last year (2019) we were able to take our daughter to Florida, the Bahamas, Boston and Ireland.
Travel is so important to us and we both feel so fortunate to be able to experience the world with our kids. It can sometimes be a pain and God knows it isn’t perfect but the memories we make are worth the hassles, frustrations and near broken skulls 🤣
We live in Chicago – though we are probably going to move in the next few months as the condo we never thought we would outgrow has suddenly shrunk when you add the two kids. In the meantime, I’m generally spending my time relaxing on the back porch with the kids and a nice frosty beverage or glass of red wine depending on the weather.
Lastly, I’m an avid music fan – though I can’t play or sing at all (doesn’t stop me from constantly singing in the house though which drives my wife bonkers) so I’m sure I’ll quote a few songs here and there throughout various blog posts. One of my greatest accomplishments to date is that my three-year old daughter knows at least five or six Beatles songs and two Dave Matthews Band songs that she will sing along to when they are on the radio. We still have a lot of other music to get to but for now having an extensive knowledge of those two will set her up for success later on in life (No ‘WAP’ garbage for this kid 😒)
If there is one quote I always come back to it is this:
I can’t believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we had spent our living days well. I can’t believe that we would lie in our graves dreaming of things that we might have been
Dave Matthews Band – Lie in our Graves
We only get to take this trip on Earth once and for a very brief period of time so we might as well enjoy it. Stop worrying and start living.