Live the Life You've Always Imagined

I loved reading Kelsey's recent post at Rising*Shining (Kelsey, let's please plan another visit when you are in Austin!). She and Chris have decided to save like crazy for five years in order to pay off their mortgage. Once their mortgage is paid off, Chris will continue working his job, but Kelsey will be freed up to work for herself. 

I love examples of people deciding what kind of life they want to create for themselves and then building a plan to make it happen. [As a side note, our world is set up in very unfair ways that advantage certain people to be able to live this way (based on race, parents' education levels, etc.) But I believe all people should be able to live this way, which is why Montessori For All exists.]

Back to Kelsey and Chris. Her story made me go back to Matt for another conversation about the kind of life we want to build for ourselves. "Are you sure you don't want us to save up so you can work part-time?" We're sure that's not the path for us. 

Then this weekend we were invited out to a lake house in the Hill Country. It was stunning. As we passed through tiny Texas towns, several questions came up:

• Should we move to a tiny town to build more intimate connections as a family?
• Should we save up our money and buy a lake house retreat for weekends? 

Our answers are no and no. But the questions are worth asking. We only get one chance at this little life of ours.

I think our big goals right now are to keep investing in our house as a mini-sanctuary. We want to come home from work every day and feel like we can escape from everything together as a family with games, books, and swimming. We still have several things that we want to do on our house, such as adding umbrellas around our deck and pool. We want to feel like we are on vacation on the weekends, and we want to invite friends over frequently.

We also want to keep traveling. We've got a fall break, winter break, spring break, and summer break. I want to explore with my family and experience adventures together. Then there's the 6-month sabbatical I want to go on when our children are older.

And date nights! Our monthly date nights are expensive between the babysitter, Alamo tickets, and food! And we aren't even fancy food people. These feel like the right things for us to be prioritizing right now. 

When September rolls around, we need to get back on top of using Mint.com to track our expenses. Our budget reflects all of our current priorities, but we need to make sure we stick to it. Easier said than done!

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