I’ve Been Feeling All The Feels Lately

Life on the road is pretty awesome, I can’t lie about that.  It’s left me feeling a little… guilty though.  I feel like we are getting more than our fair share of ‘awesome’ in the world.  I wonder if we are contributing to society, or the ‘greater good’ in a responsible way.

Yesterday we passed a dead dear on the road and a man was there cleaning up the poor thing.  And I felt a twinge of jealousy.

Let that sink in… I was jealous of the road kill picker upper.

He:

• was contributing to public safety.
• has an important job.
• helps people on a daily basis.
• Makes the world a better place.

I’m just over here having a selfishly great time and enjoying the beauty in the world… giving nothing back…

I used to have what I thought was an important job, drawing and designing safe buildings.  Now, I don’t know…  I guess I sort of miss it.  Or I want to feel helpful again in some ‘bigger’ way.  And if I am being honest, my last job wasn’t THAT important.  I was a part of a bigger machine but I still can’t pinpoint my importance.  Really.

I know I am important to these little suckers:

And even this goofy one:

But I am not feeling super important to the greater society and I would like to.  Contributing to my community is something I have always held dear and valued.  I’m not really sure what I am getting at here.  I just feel too lucky.  I should be enjoying that but somehow I feel a bit guilty over it.

In other news

In other updates, fall is beyond beautiful in Shenandoah National Park!  Our kids are very excited it’s almost Halloween.  Hazel has decided she want’s to be a Rainbow Sparkle Princess.  Miles is to be her ‘knight in shining armor’ because they are “in true love” (I think she watches too many Disney movies…).  Denver will be her rainbow unicorn.

We’re currently in Virginia, our 28th state (add Virginia, west Virginia and Rhode Island to the graphic below…).

Yesterday was officially 6 months on the road and I swear we are getting better and better at this thing [If you sign up at LearningTheLongWay.com we send out Daily Tips of things we’ve learned along the way].  We’ve passed 15,000 miles and are currently on our way to Charlotte, North Carolina to stop for a month or so.  I am beyond excited to hang out with my cousins there and see some family that likes me (and that I like)!

Family Update

Miles favorite phrases right now are “Wake Up Momma!” (which he says WAY too early!) and “I don’t want to!!!” (really loud and usually accompanied by some kind of dramatics like falling on the floor… screaches, whatever he can muster at the moment…)  He is definitely meeting all the requisites of a terrible two though he is adorable and so very cuddly so we let it slide…

Hazel is getting more and more into princess culture… I really have no idea where she gets it, she’s definitely unique in her lifestyle for her heritage ;-).  We are amused by it and even encouraging so long as we are on our way to Disney World this winter… it will make it that much more fun for us :).

Denver decided he loved his stay at the Winery through Harvest Hosts the best of all the places we have been.  He let loose and ran all night long!  (it was absolutely gorgeous)  In the last week we have removed 9(!!) ticks from him.  I feel so bad, I think he is going to be fine but we are currently watching for any signs (which are just as scary in dogs as they are for people!)  He’s really digging the adventure overall though.

And Us

James and I feel very lucky to get to be on this adventure.  I was pretty scared that being in even tighter quarters might have been too much for us but I should have known better.  I feel like we have grown a lot closer being in this together.  Not only do we know each others poop schedules but we’re still ok with each other ;-).  If that isn’t romance I don’t know what is!

I hope you are all doing amazing in this beautiful fall!

P.S.  If you want to see more pictures of our great adventure you can always find way too many updates at our Instagram Account (http://instagram.com/learningthelongway)