No 'do-overs'!

Where has the past month gone? Paul works, I work, he does yard work, I do the house. Sometimes we dance the dance with our family and find time to do a little something together but, honestly, there just isn't enough time!!!!

I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy living my life by a day planner. I don't enjoy running in a wheel like a little hamster....you know, going 90 mph and never getting any where. This is not how my husband and I envisioned our retirement. So after many, many months of searching our souls we have come to some hard decisions. We are moving back to Montana.

Why, you might ask? It is not one thing. It never is. It is adding up the sum and figuring out that what you might like your life to be and the reality of it are two completely different things. Ideally, we would prefer that our work was a hobby to be enjoyed instead of expected. Ideally, we would be able to pick up the phone and get together with our family and friends and not feel like we were imposing or that they felt an obligation to squeeze us into their already hectic lives. It is no ones fault. It's just the way life is. As far as I know life is rarely ideal. You have to take what it gives you and make the best of it and so that is what we are doing.

By moving to Montana we will have more time to spend together as a loving couple and not just act as ships that pass in the night. We will be able to sit and really talk to each other again, and not just talk, but listen to what the other has to say. We will get back to the old days. Work will come second to play because by making the move, it can. Paul will be able to hunt and fish and get his passion back, and I will be able to hike, quilt and scrapbook. Oh, how we have missed those things. We will not miss the pace of life in the city or the traffic. Our lives will slow down and our life expectancy will go up! The omnipresent pressure of the demands made on us here in Phoenix will fall away and we will drink in the clean air and smile again.

Now, don't think for a minute that we won't miss things about living here in Arizona. We will desperately miss our children. We will miss our grandchildren and parents. Not just a little, but a lot. But we had to weigh how much time we actually got to spend together with everyone against all else and hope that by coming back for the winters that we can fill in the gaps spent by months of being away and enjoy the time we can actually spend together. That is our fervent hope and we will do everything in our power to make that happen.

Happiness is an elusive beast but we are trying to find a way in this economy to make the best of what life has to offer. There is always a price to pay for change but it is with my deepest conviction that this change will be the last major one for a long while. May peace come with it and understanding from all. It is with my deepest love that I send this out to you.