Life on Cottage Hill

I have always had this very real sense of urgency when it comes to life- I want to LIVE it, big time. I don't want to waste days, I don't want to spend my time doing things that don't bring me alive... I want to really live. To really feel, to really experience this amazing world God created for us. This is why I created my first Life List around the age of 17 or so. The list has grown and evolved over the years with some items being checked off along the way. 


There have been some seasons in life when I have been able to check off many items, whereas it seems I have accomplished very few the past couple of years. My first instinct was to say, "oh, that's what happens when you have kids..." but I violently stop myself because what a lame excuse. I have always said- and believed- that having children should push you to do more instead of holding you back from living. I think they key is to have regular check-ins with yourself and with your family to make sure you're on track to making all of your dreams come true- otherwise the day-to-day will creep up on you and before you know it a month/year/decade has come and gone and what progress has been made on the dreams front? 


So, Dan and I took advantage of a few baby-free hours this weekend to have one of our regular check-ins. Our "Family Strategy Session" if you will. We updated our family master plan and we set some new goals for the remainder of this year: 5 for us as a family, 3 for Dan personally and 3 for me personally. We are now totally focused and determined to check them all off, living life more fully in the process. 


Since we only had a few hours for the conversation we really only covered our shorter-term goals, but this morning while JP was still sleeping and the Peanut was content bouncing away in her jump-a-roo I updated my own Life List, completely inspired by our conversation on Saturday and by my cousin who is running the Boston Marathon today (go, Aaron!). So, it is updated and I can't help but feel that sense of urgency stronger than ever, to cross things off, to experience these dreams I have on paper and best of all to do them with my favorite people in the world.