In October 2009 I quit my full time job. Partly to help out my father and partly to have more time for my family. I was starting to feel like my "career," despite my love for it, was spiraling downward. I mean, I still LOVED the work I did but there was just something missing. Not to mention the 9+ hours a day I did NOT get to spend with my son, who'd been in day care since he was 3 months old.
When dad mentioned that he was starting to become overwhelmed by the tasks required to maintain his place, I had one of those light bulb moments. In the nearly 6 months since making this change I've rediscovered time for things that I thought I'd lost - cooking, photography, reading, sewing, snuggling with my son, being amazed by my daughter, joking with my husband, enjoying EVERY single day that I'm given, and most importantly, being truly happy with what I have, not what I want.
I also realized that the single most important thing in life is finite. No matter how rich or powerful you may be, you can NEVER buy more of it.
TIME.
Use it or lose it because you only get one shot to make the most of it.
Never in a Million Years.... did I think I'd ever be living here... AGAIN....One day though, I realized in looking back on my own childhood, some of my fondest memories were of the time spent here with my grandparents, in this VERY house.
I knew that I NEEDED to make sure my son had the opportunity to look back with that same fondness, and have memories of climbing between the lines of a barb-wire fence and smelling cows & manure and summer thunderstorms.
I NEEDED my daughter to see that there was more than big cities and shopping malls and animal sanctuaries - there's working cattle ranches, and silence, and to realize that sometimes being bored is ok.
In the nearly 25 years since I lived up here, a lot has changed. There's now high speed internet, cable TV (dish etc) and the elementary school that I attended has been closed. But, a lot has stayed the same - there is still only a flashing red light at the main intersection of town, the cattle trucks still park out front to have lunch next door, the postmaster still knows everyone by their first name, and the hot springs down the road still attract all sorts of interesting people.
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And then you do what you think you won't!
That's right, we're back in Chico, as of November 2011. We're making it on one income, still homeschooling and enjoying life!
