To New Adventures

For the first time, in a long time we are finding ourselves enjoying a weekend with no work and no plans. Plans meaning social events and chores. Chores take up a lot of time when you live in Fairbanks, Alaska and without running water. We shower and do laundry out of the house. We haul all trash from our property ourselves and drive to get drinking water in big five gallon jugs every week. We chop and burn wood. We shovel snow. We run the dogs. And then we do all the things a family with two young children and two adults with jobs do. And we do this in a town that might be small in population but geographically very large i.e. it takes forever to drive anywhere.
But this weekend, no one had to work, there were no parties to go to and most chores were caught up on. I don't think that has happened since Willum was born and before that I was pregnant and we were constantly behind on everything practical. Today we had time to take a walk together in the sun. Time to talk and dream and plan. It was so lovely and so needed. We've been dividing and conquering everything this past year, and in some ways it has felt more like surviving than living. We've been working hard towards goals that we've set and it has been worth it, but it has also been hard. Today, we got a taste of what it's like reaching those goals and it was beautiful and reassured me that we are doing all this for the right reasons. I'm not deliberately trying to be vague here, it's just more a feeling than actual events happening. A process of moving from a great stage towards an even greater stage of our joint lives that meant pushing ourselves beyond previous limits. I'm excited for what's next in this great adventure of mine.
P.S. This was written with one hand while the other held sleeping Willum who currently refuses to sleep alone.