Things are not quite the same

The kids have learned to ride bikes on hills for the first time in their lives. It took a few times, and I had to convince them that they should stand on the pedals to push uphill. They've never learned that skill before I guess, never ridden anywhere that wasn't flat as a pancake.

Trips I'd like to take in 2010

One of my favorite things to do is to plan trips. I think it's a stress reliever for me, a mental escape of sorts. Last year I posted this entry on the trips I'd like to take, and I actually took three out of nine, not too bad for a pretty sucky year.

So here are the imaginary parameters for my imaginary trips; they have to be in a realistic price range and within driveable distance if I'm going with the family. This makes the trips actually possible in real life, so if a situation arises where I need a place to go, and quickly, I already have a plan all mapped out, and I've probably already researched the things that I want to do there. (This actually happened last year on spring break, we had to cancel our San Antonio/Beach trip and substitute Big Bend National Park. Big Bend turned out to be one of the best family vacations we've ever had.)

1. Cincinnati, Ohio to visit my parents in their new house. This is a carryover from my list last year since we never got to it. On the plus side, I'm much closer now than I was in Texas.

2. Mammoth Cave National Park, KY. This can be accomplished on our "way" to Cinci. Also, conveniently, our friends in Nashville are only an hour and a half from here, so maybe we'll make this a regional tour.

3. Gulf Islands National Seashore, FL. The cold weather does this to me. I've also been looking at Jekyll Island, GA, but I think I need the gulf. Yes, the gulf is necessary in my life right now.

4. NOLA. Another carryover from my list last year...and probably the year before. I definitely won't be making it for Mardi Gras this year, but I'll get back there one day, I'm sure.

5. Virgin Islands National Park. This is the only one that is actually on the calendar. As in, I'm actually going, in the fall, with no kids. It's a camping trip. With no kids.

6. Washington, DC. We lived in the DC area when the kids were babies, but now that they are a little older, I think it would be a fun trip to take with them. I'd really like to have a chance to walk through the Smithsonian without pushing a double stroller.

7. Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This one is really Tommy's request. He has been asking to go for about a year now. I can see this one actually happening as soon as the weather gets warm enough, especially since it's only about 150 miles away.

Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone are both still on my long-term list; not likely to happen this year, but still something I want to do in the next few years. I had grand plans to drive to RMNP this summer, but that was when we thought we would be living in Texas. So that one is on the shelf for now.

So there's my imaginary plan for the year. Am I missing anything good? Want to come along on any of them?

slowing

We really got our New Year off to a bang; as soon as we arrived in Georgia, all the family members piled into the house for a visit. My nephew left us with a little present- a 24 hour stomach bug that plowed through the entire family after they went back to their respective states. We spent the first few days recovering from that, then a few more days doing the laundry and cleaning that accompanied it.

Sometime around Thursday of this week, I began to experience an unknown feeling: I felt relaxed. For the first time in 8 months, I didn't have to frantically clean or pack up or move a house, I just had time to enjoy my family. I still have plenty of unpacking and settling in to do, but there's no longer any deadlines.

I've decided to homeschool the kids for this temporary season, and since my husband is mostly working from home, that means that the five of us are in the house, together, twenty-four hours a day. It's quite a change of pace for us. A much slower pace, for sure, and definitely not a permanent one, so I'm trying to savor as much of it as possible while maintaining my sanity.

So while I have plenty of time (for now) to spend writing a blog, I'm afraid I don't have anything really interesting to put in it. I hope to maybe start working on my photography skillz again, but other than that, there's not much happening. Just lots of family time. I'm okay with that.

A New Start

Well, we made it to Georgia in one piece, and while I've privately named I-20 my "trail of tears", the rest of the family seems to be holding up just fine. We're settling in here in Georgia, trying to locate the essential things we put in places we could 'easily find', and getting used to a new phase of life.

My dad switched me over to a new(er) computer after my ancient one coughed on him one too many times, but I can't properly upload photos from Christmas or New Year's until I find and reinstall my camera software, and I also can't remember the password to my flickr account, but hopefully I'll have that up and running soon. Be prepared for some lovely Christmas photos sometime around February.

Meanwhile, we'll be unpacking, making decisions about school, finding new doctors, and trying to get used to a much slower pace of life out in the country.

Hope your new year is off to a good start.