Category Archives: Our Adventures
The Great Tent Event
I think I’ve been annoying C.C. the last two days by going around saying “tent event” (try saying it out loud, it’s fun). Anyway, we purchased a tent recently with the idea of adding camping to our excursions. With being as money conscious as we need to be lately, we figured it is not a bad way to get out there and take some trips in a new way, but also save a little bit of money as well.
I have been camping before many times when I was younger, but C.C. has never done it. I’ve been naming off…
Pure Enjoyment
I find that a lot of times, whenever I try something new, I always jump forward and plan on it being a huge success. I can’t simply do something just because I enjoy it. It always has to be the next big thing—the idea that’s going to be the making of me. I guess a little optimism doesn’t hurt, but it kind of takes away some of the enjoyment when I’m always looking at things from the perspective of how successful will it be. There’s so much pressure to be successful that I get overwhelmed even before I start. I…
An Update on How Things are Going
I figured I would provide a small update on how our escape from the ordinary is going. Things are going pretty well right now, certainly much better then a few months ago. We’ve made a lot of changes to how we are approaching things and have been making steady progress.
So what have we changed?
Weekly Schedule
It may sound simple, but I think one of the best things we ended up doing was creating a weekly schedule.
I won’t get into the details now because I think we’ll make a post about it in the near…
Helping a Neighbor in Need
I’ve been on vacation from work this week. The weather has been absolutely perfect so far, which just makes me want to go out and be more productive. In fact, on Monday, Jay had the day off and we went to the park to throw the football around. It was a lot of fun, but I realized how out of shape I am, because as I was running after the ball, I got out of breath pretty quickly. We were only there for about half an hour, but it was nice to be out in the sunshine nonetheless.
As we…
Saving Money as a way to Escape the Ordinary
Part of our plan for escaping our ordinary lives has been to reprioritize the way we spend money (spending less on unnecessary expenses and more on travel/new experiences). This has been especially important right now because of our new job situations. This has meant cutting expenses because we’re not bringing in as much in as we once did.
Cutting expenses can actually be very rewarding and I’d like to write future posts about just that, but I’m going to discuss something that has been an unintended consequence; namely that it ties in perfectly with getting out more and experiencing new…
Baby Steps
So I haven’t posted much after I made that really optimistic and grand sounding post a few months ago. Part of the problem for me, like it is for Jay, is that I feel tremendous pressure to write something great, or at least interesting. Well, my life hasn’t really been interesting as of late, and so I can’t really draw inspiration from that. In fact, I’m pretty much in a rut. I haven’t done much to advance my goals, and have just settled back into a routine. I’m not very happy with this, and need to find a way to…
The Challenge to Get Out of this Rut
I recently had a short correspondence with Robyn over on her blog Nomad Needles. On her site, she details her journey to live a more free, unconventional, and creative life. She writes some very motivating entries, especially the ones dealing with her goal to live a cleaner, minimalist lifestyle.
I was seeking some advice and she issued me a challenge- Come up with five ideas stuck in my head and pick two to focus on right now.
Well, I am going to accept the challenge. Especially because it reminded me of some advice I once heard in the…
Escaping the Ordinary is Actually Pretty Hard
It’s not easy. As some say, nothing that is worth it ever is easy. But I have to admit, this journey so far has been a bit of a struggle. The goal of the Ordinary Escape has been to get out there more and experience life. However, one thing is very clear– old habits die hard.
This is a tough post to write and maybe that is why we haven’t updated the site in a bit. There really hasn’t been much progress to report on. I think that moving to part time at work was a huge step, but unfortunately…
I Quit my Job, the Journey Begins
After years of agonizing I finally did it. I quit my job without anything else lined up. Well, kind of. You see, I did not leave my job to move on to another 9-to-5 career. Some may think I’m crazy, but I’m trying to create my own path. There are just too many opportunities out there today for someone with determination and an internet connection.
Upon handing in my resignation, my company offered me the opportunity to move to part-time hours to help keep things running and also transition in a new person when they hire them. As tempting as…
