Howefitz Blog

Calli and I at her first war protest in 2007. This was in Columbia, MO. We lived not too far away in Jamestown, MO at the time. We were mentioned in an article about the rally in the Columbia Missourian. Calli was only 7 months old.

I woke up this morning to blog, and for the life of me, I didn’t know what I’d blog about. So, I turned, as I often do, to one of my favorite blogs, dadomatic.com. The front page entry hit me square between the eyes. In a post called ‘Don’t be afraid of Change’, Jeff Turner talks about his ‘adventure days’, where he packs the family into his truck and just drives! He starts by telling of car-pooling the other day with a handful of kids:

This morning, as I approached the corner where we make our usual left-hand turn into the drop-off line, the cars were backed up more than normal. In the moment, I decided to take a different route to try and circumvent the delay. My three sons said nothing, but one of the neighbor kids screamed out, “what are you doing? You can’t go this way!”Dad-o-Matic, Feb 2009

I suggest that you read the entire article, but he goes on to tell how he feels that these ‘Adventure Days’ helps keep his kids ready for this ever changing world. I couldn’t agree more.

Right to Left: Kat, Calli, and I at the tree lighting ceremony at Beaver Creek. We lived in Edwards, CO at the time.

Since I’ve been married with a family, it seems that our average of staying in any given place has been roughly two years. My wife and I both came from families that stayed in the same home the entire time we were growing up. We feel that there is so much more that this country and this world has to offer than that. We want our kids to experience as much as possible. You can’t get to know a place on a vacation. You really have to live there.

So far, so good. It has had no adverse effects. Our fifteen year old makes friends quickly and in this modern world has no trouble keeping tracks of the friends she’s made in previous places. Our two year old is probably still too young to know any better, but she seems to genuinely relish each new place. (She’s actually lived in four different homes since she’s been born!) If it seemed that this lifestyle had any negative repercussions, of course I would do what I could to make life seem more stable.

Kat and Calli playing at the park just last week. We now live in Gypsum, CO.

In the meantime, however, married life for me will be anything but ‘settling down’ We are going to see how much of this great country we can explore. And, perhaps one day, we’ll go beyond that!

What do you think? Am I crazy? Are we ruining our kids or making them stronger and more willing to embrace diversity?

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