What we've learned

Things we've learned in the year we've stepped away from normal life in the US:

spending more time together, less busy schedules keeping everyone coming and going

spend more money on experiences, less money on possessions

spend less time cooking, more time eating leftovers

spend more time stepping outside your comfort zone, less normal routine

Busy is a choice. Not-busy is a choice. I've had to safe-guard my time because I can easily just duplicate my same ridiculous busy life here. Didn't move halfway across the world just to do the same thing here! And then spend all my time saying, "Oh, we should go see the Great Ocean Road, but there's never anytime time..." or "wish we could find a day to go see downtown Melbourne." Nope. I'm here for one year and one year only. All those time fillers and expectations from other people are not that important.

And there are people here that are a lot busier and complain a lot less about it. They work 12-14 hours a day and it's normal. They smile when you're together and "ugh, I'm so busy" isn't the first thing they say when you ask how they're "going."

Karly says she's learned so much more from this than she expected. "I think it's good to miss things. To see the world, not in a touristy way."

Our kids have learned to be together, without bickering. They still have their moments, but for the most part I think they've learned to see each other as peers instead of pests.