My journey of becoming a stay-at-home mom was tougher than I expected. After a short maternity break, I went back to work for several months while my husband finished his undergraduate degree. Then we moved to a new city where he began dental school and I began being at home with our son. The...
One Year Later: His and Hers Stories of Hurricane Irma 9/6/2017
One year ago today, I was experiencing the beginning of my first hurricane. And it was a big one. Hurricane Irma was the strongest storm on record to exist in the open Atlantic region. It was projected to be a Category 5 hurricane, the highest on the storm scale when it made landfall in...
Five Ways Running Helped Me Transition During an International Move by Rebekah Orton
In August 2016, I moved with my husband and three children from eastern Washington to Vienna, Austria for my husband’s job. We’ve lived in four states during our marriage, but this was our first international job posting, and we had moved from the East coast to the West coast less than a year before....
The Adventure of a Lifetime: Moving to Mexico by April Stanfield
Last spring after an incredibly difficult 2016, we had reached a point with our family where we felt we were overcommitted, undervaluing our relationships, and barely getting by as a family. It seemed everything was taking precedence over what my husband and I felt to be important to our family life, and even though...
“Being Here Has Opened Up the World to Us. We’re Thinking and Dreaming Bigger.” – An Interview with Jessica Templeton
Having just returned from 2 years living abroad, I wanted to put together a series of posts about living abroad and the lessons learned from that experience. This interview is with my friend Jessica about her experiences living in Germany. She’s had a lifelong dream of traveling Europe and now because of her husband’s...
10 Things I Learned Living in a Developing Country
For two years my family and I have been living in a developing country – which is the politically correct term for a third world country. Before we moved here, I had no idea Antigua was a developing country. I mean, I knew not to expect all the comforts of home, but I didn’t realize the...
Learn How to Give Compliments and Say Something Nice
Say Something Nice “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” It’s a mantra taught to each generation because words have power: to build and destroy. The right words can make all the difference. Kind words spread positivity and help us develop more connected relationships with family members, friends, neighbors, and...
How the Amazing Gift of Clean Water Changed My Life and My Heart
The Gift of Clean Water – Ignorance Isn’t Bliss When we moved our family from the US to a little Caribbean island for 2 years, I really had no idea what to expect. I pictured the turquoise blue waters, pristine sandy beaches and palm trees that I’d seen in pictures. I figured it would...