Adventures with Sarah and Al

The Hustle vs. The Heart I love the holidays. I’m a sucker for a Hallmark movie and candy canes. If you invite me to carol, I’m in. A couple of years ago, my family was asked to be the Holy Family for a nativity re-enactment… sign us up! There’s so much magic in focusing on kindness, giving, and making the world a little better. Being a mom during the holidays is a surprisingly powerful position. You set the tone, the pace, and often the activities ( hopefully with your partner). And as Uncle Ben says, “With great power comes great responsibility.” As fluffy, bright, and beautiful as the holidays are, that responsibility can sometimes feel heavy. And it turns out, it’s not just me. In her book, " The Mental Load, " Emma captures the way mothers often carry the responsibility of setting the emotional tone in a family—among many other gendered discrepancies in households. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reports that “discrepancies in the time women spend on housekeepi...

Prepping for the Unexpected  One of the great tragedies of life is knowing how many people in the world are made to soar, paint, sing, or steer—except they never get the chance to find out (Sanderson, 2023).   Going on a family cruise was not the rest I was hoping for, but it was the adventure we all needed. We have been scrambling a bit extra this year, and it felt like it was time for a re-set. So, when my good friend sent me a link to this amazing deal for a 6-night cruise out of San Juan, I couldn't believe it. Then our luck got better... Even though the boat didn't come back to San Juan, it docked in Florida. As it turns out, we had family. So, not only did we get to go on a great adventure, but we got to visit family, too!  Surprise Adventure Planning Al and I decided that we weren't going to tell our kids. Totally worth it. For some reason our eldest grabbed a travel magazine and asked if we could go on one of them sometime. It felt serendipitous. He also figured o...

You don’t need a big paycheck to raise adventurous kids. Here’s how our family makes travel possible — even on a small budget.  I get it -- we've been there Someone once said to me, "I wish we could afford to travel like you." I smiled, but I also wanted to say, "You can -- just maybe not in the way you think." Al and I are still working on our careers and after some pretty big set backs and exploring career options in Puerto Rico, haven't had full time jobs for a year. We don't have extra money sitting around. We budget, scrimp, and plan -- sometimes for months -- to make it happen.  We make sure that in the mundane, we remember what our financial priorities are. Coming together to create those and stick to them has helped us to ensure that we can reach our goal of traveling to a new country every single year with our family.  Redefining What "Adventure" Means (even on a budget) Something that I am trying to adopt more completely to help me be...