The cursory introductory post

 Hi and welcome, 

We should probably start with some basic introductions. My name is Joni, I am married to Evan, and we are the parents of Isaak and Charlotte. We are your pretty average family (including a dog and two cats). Our kids are 17 and 14, it can feel sometimes that our kids don't really need us anymore. Except for maybe a ride or some cash. Oh, can't forget a place to live, a personal chef, and a laundress.

Seeing as we are thisclose to being empty nesters Evan and I have started to plan for what's next. We started making a five year plan about a year ago in response to some hard times. In addition to the pandemic; over the past 14 months I lost my grandfather in June of 2020 and had to wait until this August to get home to bury him, we put our 14 year old lab down, and I was laid off. All of these events (and a few others) encouraged us to stop with the wishful thinking and start with the "now, how do we make this actually happen". 

I am a firm believer in writing things down. You have to get things out in the world for them to happen, and sometimes the things you want most in life have to be fought for. So, this blog is a part of that. I know that it will take a lot of hard work and maybe more creative thinking to find ways to make this happen.  

Please follow along with us as we try to get away from the rat race and into living a life more like the one I day dream about.

 Remember to be kind, 

Joni.

PS. I thought it might be fun to add a quote to every blog post that kind of summed up what I was on about. So the quote for this post is from Mark Twain - The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

PPS. This is our dog Lola, I thought maybe a cute picture might generate more interest.

Thanks for reading this far!

J.