Life is not measured ....

Stormy waters

If reading our rambling journal usually provides a light hearted accompaniment to a coffee break … this one’s not for you. We have done some interesting stuff since our last update but I’ll put that in my next installment.

The last 15 days have been a pile of crap. From the amazing highs of Mt Cook, the lows have been difficult to bear. We are now coming out the other side, not completely unscathed but back to seeing the positives and able to laugh about the blindingly obvious choices that we made so much hard work of!

So where do we start? How about the following list:

The house we are in is big but grim.
Sharon working up in Auckland two days a week made sense financially but compromised the family.
Sharon drives change, Ben is laid back – normally a good combination but every once in a while causes things to fall apart a bit. Ben and I had a big row or two (even the kids got fed up with us).

Each of the above on their own, no major drama, put together made for a fairly unpleasant week. Combined with the ongoing balance of financial security versus family balance and the question about how long we stay always in the background.

Put another way, we just lost the plot and disappeared into a black hole for a few days.

The decisions are kind of obvious now – Sharon stops working, we find a different place to rent, remember to respect one another as individuals – we just made hard work of it.

Now that we are back on planet normal again, actually we’ve reminded ourselves how lucky we are to even have the choices, we’ve had some amazing experiences this year and have some great friends on both sides of the world. Josie and Gill in the UK, Rosie, Rebecca, Kim, Anne, Lou and Helen – you may never know exactly what you did this week but you saved us from spiraling into oblivion.

We have found another house to rent. It is not in Lyttelton but round the other side of the hill in Mt Pleasant. We love Lyttelton, the constant activity if the port and the quirkiness of the place, but houses (at least the ones for rent) are shoddy. When we moved in here, we compromised on the view and outside space. We are renting for goodness sake, we don’t need to make those compromises. Summer approaches and so we are bailing out and have found a house which can accommodate us and our visitors over the next few months, has views over the estuary and to the mountains in the background, a cottage type garden and balcony. We don’t need to move the kids from school, it’s a short car journey instead of a walk. It feels right so that’s good enough for me. We move in just over a week.

Sharon is now back to enjoying the time with the kids and walking the hills. Ben continues to enjoy his job. Louise and Daniel are happy that normality has been restored.

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 9:13 am