Book a Trip. Use your china.

One day a few weeks ago, I asked myself this random question:  "If I was told I had to get all of my traveling done in one year, where would I go?"  After mentally making my list of places to visit, I thought to myself, "why do we put off traveling?"  The reasons in my household are usually the following:

Time.  I have all the time in the world, but my husband only gets 2 weeks vacation and on top of that, he can usually only take those 2 weeks during a certain time of year when he isn't busy at work.

Kids.  Most of the trips we want to take, do not involve the kids.  This means finding a baby-sitter, and most of them work, so they have to use vacation time from their jobs too.  And then there's the issue of leaving my kids...is the trip going to be worth it?

Money.  It's so expensive to travel and there seems to always be something else we would rather spend our money on. 

I got to thinking about our trip to Disney World that we plan to take someday.  Rylee and I really want to go....soon.  I've never been there.  But knowing how expensive of a trip this will be, we decided to wait until the kids are old enough to remember it.  BUT, the more I've been thinking about it, I can't accept "because it's expensive and for the money we should wait until they will remember it" as a reason to put it off.  Because, if there was a terrible turn of events and either Rylee or I couldn't travel anymore, I would regret not having taken the trip when we wanted to.

 

Also, even though Rylee might not remember the trip, it will be so very memorable to me to see her get excited about her favorite characters, the parade, fire works, etc. 

 

Remember when I wrote the post a couple weeks ago about how much I love listening to live music and that Nashville is at the top of my bucket list??  Well, after he read that, James said to me, "I didn't realize that was such a high priority for you....let's get it booked!"  I was so excited!!  And to top it off, that same day an old friend who currently lives in Nashville sent me a friend request on Facebook, so I was able to ask him for some advice on visiting Nashville.  Our trip has been booked and baby-sitters confirmed!

 

So my point is....as the picture above states...don't put things off that you really want to do, as you never know if you really will have time for them later.  Travel in particular.  There is so much we can learn when we travel.  And traveling seems to do something wonderful for the soul; at least mine anyway.

 

 

 

On a similar note...do you have fancy china, crystal or real silverware that you never use because you don't want to ruin it??  As I declutter my way to minimalism (my type of minimalism), I keep returning to all the crystal we received when we got married.  Five and half years later, we have never used any of it.  I want to get rid of it, at least some of it, but my husband keeps telling me, "we might use it later".  Normally I loathe that remark...if you haven't used something, you are never going to.  But for some reason I do really like the crystal (that's why I registered for it).  Ironically, a few days after debating whether or not to keep it, I saw on Facebook where someone had asked others what they do with their fine china, crystal and real silverware.  There were hundreds of comments and lots of people said they use it regularly, because what is a more important event than life?  I loved this!!  And it's so true.  Every meal you eat at the table with those you love is special.  Why should we wait for that "right" moment to use our fancy items?  Plus, if you are planning to pass it along to your kids, wouldn't it be nice if they could attach some memories to the item..."I remember Mom used these for every Sunday night supper", etc...

 

I'm going to keep a few pieces of crystal and use it whenever I feel like it.  If it breaks, oh well, at least it got used. 

 

My favorite crystal bowl and the only one I didn't actually register for. 
Thanks to my SIL's great sense of beautiful crystal :)

 

I also received my Great Grandmother's silverware last year, and while I normally am not too into heirlooms, this was just too beautiful to pass up.  And why is it sitting in the box in a cupboard when I could be admiring it's beauty at every meal??

 

 

  Go book your trip and serve tonight's meal with your finest items :)