8 years ago, Trish and I were married. We were together for 4 years before that as well. I am the luckiest man on earth, to have run into her at the right time, fallen in love with her and somehow, gotten her to fall in love with me. That first night we met (12 years ago next week, actually) was pure magic. I still remember that first kiss like it was yesterday, where our laughter melted into smiles and a kiss. A week later, I thought that I might end up marrying her.
She’s really brought the best out of me and put me in touch with nature (I was a city boy). I don’t think we’d be on the precipice of realizing the dream of moving abroad if it weren’t for her. It was her intuition about birth and parenting that started our path of questioning the norm, learning as much as we can, and following our hearts. (though perhaps we followed our hearts to each other and everything else followed)
So here we, remembering the day we had to have, to tell the world that we wanted to be with each other forever. I remember how M being born was something that really cemented things, like it was the whole reason we were together. (I actually asked her that first night if she liked kids ;-)) I can’t wait to see what happens next - moving to Costa Rica, realizing our dreams, having more kids and just enjoying life in general. True love rocks.
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I’ve always wondered about people who blog daily. I certainly can’t do it - at least not now with my current workload. Maybe when we’re in Costa Rica, but I really hope I spend less time at the computer when we’re there.
In the past month I built a social network site for unschoolers, which is now in the testing phase. Sometimes you have to run with an idea while the inspiration is there, and it had to be done. I’ve had a couple of NYT articles on my mind, one on how discoveries & advancements occur thanks to incremental knowledge & improvements over time, and another article that posited that innovation was more important than perfection. The first made me develop the site, allowing me to make something I cared about while increasing my knowledge, while the second convinced to make the site live as soon as possible as my anal retentive streak could keep it on ice for weeks while I tinkered.
There’s also the issue of selling the house that’s hanging over our heads. Spring is coming and doing stuff with 2 active kids is near impossible. We caught a nice break when a carpenter/contractor we requested an estimate from was open to bartering for a website. Looks like he might be down with becoming a duck owner too - he was very interested in them and I’m waiting to hear what he thinks of the eggs we gave him.
This whole time Costa Rica has been in our minds. Cold weather made it easy to think of the warm weather there. The empty trees inspired visions of the greenest of green leaves. We’ve made it to March after a milder than usual winter and will see about getting the house on the market next month. After that, we cross our fingers & wait.
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Will hopefully include a viewing the Bodies exhibit in NYC, a visit to South Street Seaport to view some of the boats and stuff, a visit to a local water park, a fishing trip for Arp and M, and a trip to the beach (either the Jersey Shore or Long Island). I can’t wait to see Bodies!
What are your plans for the rest of the summer?
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It’s strange to think of myself as being unschooled, but it seems to be true. It was part of an interesting dual existence - part-time schooling and part-time unschooling. I didn’t even think of it as unschooling until an astute parent pointed it out at our local unschooler’s support group. I think it accounts (on some level) for my general disregard for authority and groupthink. Read more »
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I broke out an old sketch book today to do some duck drawings and came across a list that Trish & I made several years back. It’s called Things to do differently with our children and was probably written some evening when the dream of being parents devolved into a round robin on stuff our parents did that we didn’t like. What’s interesting is that we’ve followed it almost 100%:
- Non-stressful, non-regimented buffet bbqs: Some of our family have bbqs that are pretty much outdoor equivalents of proper, full-course dinners. This involves several people for various food prep jobs, stress-oriented cooking on a grill, place settings and all that. We’ve avoided this one very well, including a couple of large friends & family bbqs. People eat when they’re hungry, what they want and spend the time enjoying company instead.
- More than 3 cookies per serving: Trish’s mom had a rule that you could have only 3 cookies at a time with no exceptions whatsoever. If you had 3 cookies that were only 1/2″ in size you were totally SOL. She should prolly add the other Random Yet Mean Food rule from her youth: no chocolate at breakfast. Again, no exceptions and yes - that meant that Cocoa Pebbles were out. Same with Cocoa Puffs. I’ll have to ask my MIL to clarify if having 4 pieces of Cookie Crisp was enough to break both rules and ensure a week of hell.
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