what we bought

Last year My husband and I decided to buy a place by the water - a lake or river that felt like home - to vacation and make memories at with the kids. Not to do this someday, but to do it now. To do it now so that our kids had childhood memories of this home. We didn't know what we wanted other than, the most we could get for the money we had, clear water good for swimming, boating, and fishing. We didn't even have a targeted county, just wanting something that we could drive to in under 4 hours so we could go for a weekend without having to take a day from work or school. Honey and I traipsed through all sorts of places, we learned about set-back laws, we - or rather I - got stuck knee deep in a peat bog that was not the dry land the seller claimed. We saw beautiful places, but after a ten hour day none were home. I was discouraged. We went again. We found it. A river property, with prairie and forest, with neat boulders and nice beach area, with a bay for the kids to swim and learn to handle a kayak in. Then the stress of buying it. By the time it was ours it was too late to show the kids more than photos. After Thanksgiving and ten inches of snow.

Christmas was kayaks and life vests, sleeping bags from grandma, stuff sacks hand made by auntie, fishing gear, and such.

This summer was camping trips, getting a driveway put it (and the nightmares of bureaucracy and expense) that come with it, building fire-pits, then enlarging them, exploring on foot and kayak, meeting the neighbors. It found Mouse researching primitive skills - he loves electronics so this was a mix of both worlds. It saw me starting a knitted quilt for the cabin we dream of building and a knitted welcome mat for same, working on these while we travel up and around the campfire.  It saw plans to learn to backpack and go on longer trips. Butterfly and Badger made sand castles and when visited by cousins spent hours building forts in the woods. We saw the most beautiful skies day and night, and even had to hide in the tent during a hailstorm. It saw us living the way we hoped and dreamed.

This dream was a stretch, we are still, and likely will for a long while, feeling a terrible pinch in money for this dream - I mentioned driveways were expensive right ?! But the dream is worth the work. Find your dream, work your dream, then live it.

~Julia