The end of our first summer in Vermont is nigh. Our stay here has impacted me deeply and profoundly, as I've had ample time to reflect on our family life, my own goals, my hopes for the kids... We were all nervous about leaving everything we knew for this long but found that being away from the minutiae that seems to make up so much of our regular home life bought us all time for some personal growth and adventure.
I'm not going to pretend that being away for the summer solved all of my problems. Far from it! I still don't know what form my desired re-entry into the workforce is going to take, and the Guv and I still haven't balanced that desire with his sometimes oppressive work schedule. However, I did set some more readily attainable goals, such as preparing to finally launch my primary blog, www.ecotackle.com, which will debut within the month. EcoTackle will feature environmental products and tips on how to become more green. Green activisim has become my passion, and I look forward to sharing it in the blogosphere. Second, on a personal level, I rededicated myself to fitness. It's amazing how my love of baking shows up around my middle! I never want to obsess about my weight or appearance, but I need to balance my love of cookies with my desire to set a good example for my daughter. (Make note that, to me, that means fitness, not necessarily rail-thinness.) So, I decided to take up tennis again, since I wasn't bad at it and can transition back to the game through some adult group lessons. I'm hoping to find some more friends with some common interests through tennis and regular gym trips, too. And that's the third attainable goal I set: getting out with friends more, and making more new friends. There are some people who I'd like to get to know better, and I look forward to asking those people to lunch, coffee or tennis. Our little town in NJ has so many people who've lived there forever that I've found it hard to make many friends, but I also haven't tried very hard. I hope that my kids learn better from the Guv in that regard, as his charisma is infectious, and he has more friends than I can name or count.
In the end, perhaps the most important thing I learned this summer is that my kids can live with A LOT fewer toys. In fact, we can all live with less "stuff." The best times we've had this summer are teaching Petunia how to ride her two-wheeled bike, or watching Dash imitate a seal at the beach. We spent some great days at local farms so that the kids could learn about maple sugaring, cheesemaking and other things and found that they enjoyed those trips immensely. As they age, I look forward to spending our time and money on experiences instead of on plastic toys recalled to China. But more than anything, I look forward to coming back to these Green Mountains over winter breaks for ski school (yikes!). I came from these mountains, and it brings me joy beyond my own understanding to be calling them home again.
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