"Just do it"?

[Freyja]

I know that for many people, living in the same house forever, having a steady 9-5 job, friends and family nearby, etc. is pure bliss.
I think that´s great. For them! It just doesn´t seem to work for me.

When I was a kid I lived in 3 countries with my parents and we travelled quite a bit. I never felt rootless. My parents always made sure that we kept in great contact with our families here in Iceland and that we knew our "heritage".

Now, I have a family of my own and I just can´t see myself "settling" in Iceland for the rest of my life. The first couple of years after DH and I got married and had the first 2 children we lived in Iceland. Then we moved to Denmark to study and work, where we lived for the next 6 years. 4 years ago we moved back to Iceland. By that time we had 4 kids and since then we´ve had one more.
We built a house, which we at that time kind of believed was a future home. My husband started a business which is going great and after staying home for the first 2 years with the kids I went back to work at a place I really, really like.
The kids are happy, have lots of friends, are enrolled in all sorts of hobbies and we have wonderful neighbors. My family lives close by and I enjoy spending more time with them than was possible when we lived in Denmark.

In many ways life is perfect.

However...it´s so dull!!! Hardly any excitement at all. I just can´t see myself living the same routine for the next many years to come.

We keep discussing whether we should move abroad again. As of now, we´re sure we will, we just don´t know when or where to.

We love travelling and have taken the kids to 20 countries, but that just doesn´t do it for me. I need the challenge!

Some days I just want to put the house up for sale/rent, pack up everything and move to some family friendly place where settling in would be "easy".

Other days, I want to take the unbeaten path. Go and teach somewhere in Africa. Volunteer in South America. Travel around the world for 1-2 years and homeschool the kids while doing it.

Did any of you ever "just do it"?

 

[raysnkaysmom]

This family did
http://www.thearktour.org/The_ARK_Tour/About_Us.html

and I think it's great...

Think about what would be best for your kids (not only their needs, but the overall happiness of the family)...

and, if you think it'll be great... "Just do it"


I personally want to 'just go to FL'...but I'm waiting til the kids are out of school!

 

[Freyja]

Very inspiring. I just took a sneak peak at the webpage and will read it properly tonight, once the kids are in bed

 

[NHdisneylover]

We did. My kids are 12 and 10. The 12 year old has lived in 5 U.S. states and as of January we live in Germany. The longest we have ever laster anywhere is 5 years. We love discovering a new place and making new friends. Everyone will tell you DD is closer to her grandmother than any of the other grandkids (all of them but my two live within an hours drive of the grandparents)--so it is very possible to maintain a good family relationship--jsut as you did as a child. Email, skype, etc. make it super easy there days I guess it would depend somewhat on the personalities of your children. Are they the tyoes to be crushed by having to start a new school and make new friends? How will they feel about being homeschooled (mine loved it, but it is not legal here so they will start German schools in two weeks)? Etc. If everyone has the same adventure loving personality as you and your DH it can be fantastic.

 

[Freyja]

We did. My kids are 12 and 10. The 23 year old has lived in 5 U.S. states and as of January we live in Germany. The longest we have ever laster anywhere is 5 years. We love discovering a new place and making new friends. Everyone will tell you DD is closer to her grandmother than any of the other grandkids (all of them but my two live within an hours drive of the grandparents)--so it is very possible to maintain a good family relationship--jsut as you did as a child. Email, skype, etc. make it super easy there days I guess it would depend somewhat on the personalities of your children. Are they the tyoes to be crushed by having to start a new school and make new friends? How will they feel about being homeschooled (mine loved it, but it is not legal here so they will start German schools in two weeks)? Etc. If everyone has the same adventure loving personality as you and your DH it can be fantastic.

Sounds wonderful. Where do you live in Germany? I lived in Obertshausen near Frankfurt for 5 years, when I was a teen.
I´m curious, do you have 2 or 3 kids? Where does the 23 year old come from?

 

[NHdisneylover]

Yikes--typo (now fixed)--my finger were over too far and I didn't notice It is my 12 year old who has lived in 5 states (the 10 year old has only lived in three).

We live near Heidleberg and just love it. My in laws are visiting from Colorado now and we spent all day at a aprty at a German relative's house. My DHs grandfather was born in Germany and immigrated to the US at 17. The families always stayed in touch--so when we moved here we had instant family wich was kind of cool.

BTW--we spent a week in Denmark two weeks ago and really enjoyed it. What part did you live in? We stayed on North Zealand near Hunstead and visited several areas on the northern half of hte island.

 

[Freyja]

Yikes--typo (now fixed)--my finger were over too far and I didn't notice It is my 12 year old who has lived in 5 states (the 10 year old has only lived in three).

We live near Heidleberg and just love it. My in laws are visiting from Colorado now and we spent all day at a aprty at a German relative's house. My DHs grandfather was born in Germany and immigrated to the US at 17. The families always stayed in touch--so when we moved here we had instant family wich was kind of cool.

BTW--we spent a week in Denmark two weeks ago and really enjoyed it. What part did you live in? We stayed on North Zealand near Hunstead and visited several areas on the northern half of hte island.

Ha, ha, that explains it I couldn´t figure the 23 yr old out

Heidelberg is beautiful. We used to drive there on weekends and always took our guests there.

We lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. Wonderful city with very friendly people and a great atmosphere. I miss it greatly

 

[NHdisneylover]

We spent two days in Copenhagen and enjoyed it very much. EVERYone we met in Denmark was so nice-- it is such a very friendly and outgoing culture. DH has decided that "Denmark is the best kept secret in Europe!" Then again, there is still plenty of Europe we have not seen (and I think Heidelberg is about the ideal place to live--yes it is great for visitors; we have a ton we can do within easy train rides of the house and no end of places to explore every weekend with the car). I have to say that we always miss palces when we move away (except Phoenix--I never did miss anything about it; just wasn't the place for me), but we are always happy to be finding new things and places and people to love.

What is Iceland like? Your home looks lovely

 

[Freyja]

You´re right. Denmark has a very friendly and outgoing culture. It was a great country to live and great place to bring up the kids.

Thanks for comment on our house Iceland is a wonderful place too. Definately a wonderful place for children. Very safe, very clean and most everything that has to do with kids has a very high standard. The winters are long and summer too short, but we enjoy every minute of our summers and the kids are out every night enjoying the midnight sun
Icelandic culture is a lot more stressful than the Danish one and Icelanders are a lot more interested in "keeping up with the Jones´s" than Danes are. I guess in many aspects Iceland is a lot more like the US than most other European countries are.

 

[npmommie]

I have a question for those of you that move frequently.
what type of work do you and/or your spouse do? do you find jobs before you move?

 

[Freyja]

I have a question for those of you that move frequently.
what type of work do you and/or your spouse do? do you find jobs before you move?

Well, I moved "frequently" (still never more than every 3-5 years) as a kid and my dad was a flight engineer.

DH and I have only moved twice. To Denmark and back from Denmark 6 years later. When we moved to Denmark we were both going to study at universities in Denmark and Sweden and by the time we moved back DH had started his own business which he could move with him. He runs his own marketing consultancy and specializes in online marketing so he is pretty flexible in terms of location. I teach marketing at highschool/college (our school system is different than in the US) and therefore I´m pretty bound at the moment unless I would give up my current job.