I just finished watching the documentary Surfwise.  It makes me think about choices.  The parents lived their ideal life, and the kids had no voice about their lifestyle.  The family was famous and documented all their lives because they were wandering surfers living in a 24-foot camper.  However, it is no different for most families living the 'normal' life.  Kids don't usually have choices about their housing, schooling, food, how they spend their time, etc.  ...not until they leave the family unit, anyway.

Are we living our ideal life?  Maybe.  Probably not.  At least, we have a hard time being intentional about it.  So what would we change?  And how can we accommodate the needs of our children, who are so different from each other and us?  We have the luxury to ponder things like this while I sit in my warm house, drinking coffee and making a bountiful breakfast.  I can talk about it all day with my husband, who is home from work for the weekend.

Last night I was wondering what it is that we as a family really want.  What are we dreaming and working toward?  I couldn't put my finger on it, maybe because we don't all want the same things, so it's harder to package.  This documentary is pushing me to think further along these lines, and try to consider the more distant future as well.  I could drag my kids to the middle of the Yukon because that's what I want (hypothetically), but as soon as they were old enough, they'd take off for civilization and I wouldn't see them again.  So really it's about balance, too.

And Karl is demonstrating the earth's magnetic field with one of the super bucky ball magnets.  It's pretty cool!