ONE YEAR!!!!

So it has been a year since we started this adventure! Time really does fly! Looking back through this blog and thinking about where we were a year ago is really mind bending. A thought that occurred to me the other day is how this life here in France is so much more of a conscious choice. We actually continue to choose to live here and search to experience it rather than merely existing in a life that passes us by.

Summer is here and we are talking about what we really are excited to visit and see...not just what camps can I occupy the kids with and how do we stretch it until September. Today we are working at home and then we are going on a drive before we pick up the kids from school. So much is about experiencing...not just floating...although it was so nice yesterday, I must admit to lolling by and in the pool most of the day!

Some of our English speaking friends here are on work contracts that moves them around every two years or so. That forces you to value your time with them and make the most of it. Dinners...overnights with Nathan and Celia's friends...coffee or lunch with friends after dropping the kids at school. In our old existence, we took our friends for granted that we did not have to make an effort because they would always be there...even if it was running into them in Nob Hill or at the soccer field...never consciously, but still a choice of not truly appreciating those that mean the most to us in our lives.

As a family, we talk more and spend more time together. We are not coming home from a long day at the office only to want to escape into ourselves to unwind. We talk and laugh and play in the pool at the end of the day. We have time to be quiet inside ourselves so we are able to actually be with each other. We work on projects together...Nathan with Mike in the garden...Celia or Nathan helping me with the grocery shopping...everyone doing a task to get dinner on the table...doing the Saturday cleaning together...it all builds relationships on top of getting a task done. Previously, I was so drained at the end of the day, I would make dinner in silence while the kids studied in their rooms. We would eat quickly in silence and then collapse in front of the TV until falling into bed.

If we take anything from this adventure we are on, it is to experience life and not to allow it to overtake us and make us into glazed eye zombies too exhausted to exist. To enjoy experiences that build memories and give meaning to our lives! Carpe Diem!!