It’s about living life, instead of life living us..it’s about living with intention

We all live busy lives. It seems that society applauds jam-packed schedules and frowns upon those that aren’t busy 24/7. I personally don’t like to be so busy that there is no time to chill with my family. We intentionally only allow our children to participate in one sport and one extra culinary activity at a time. This still keeps us running more than I’d like with double and even triple-booked days at time.

I received product to facilitate this post.

When I heard about the book, Notes from a Blue Bike, I was intrigued. It is about the Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World. It is about living more slowly. I requested a review copy and was ready to learn about how to slow down.

Then my son was diagnosed by Type 1 Diabetes and my world went from busy to a whirlwind. The little things that I thought were important before that took my time were now on the back burner. If you noticed, this Summer, I didn’t blog as much at all and relied on our other AkronOhioMoms.com writers a lot more. I had to re-prioritize everything, including meal prep, cooking, carb counting, insulin injections, and recording it all. We can’t just stop for ice cream or eat dinner out – unless we plan ahead and have the insulin with us – which requires a cooler when the weather is warm, etc. etc. Needless to say, I put this book review on the back burner. How could I live a slow life now? Seriously.

Now that we have a few months under our diabetes belt, we are living a new normal. It’s not a whirlwind anymore, although it still drains my energy to keep up with it all on a daily – and nightly 2am testing – schedule. And I’m not even the one who has to have 4 shots and 8 or 10 finger pricks a day. I don’t know how my son does it, he’s such a trooper. I’m so proud of him. This is our new ‘normal’ until there is a cure!

These past couple weeks, I’ve had some time to read Notes from a Blue Bike and haven’t been able to put it down.

The author, Tsh Oxenreider has words of wisdom that can help anyone to evaluate their lifestyle, to see if it is the pace and quality that they strive for.

This book is all about quality – not quantity, relationships, and being proactive in our decisions. Tsh draws upon life experiences of living in other countries and her travels with her family.

I enjoyed reading about how her family’s life experiences with traveling and exploring. She goes on to say and our experiences are the tools that sculpt us into the work of art that we each are. Of course we can make memories at home, but these experiences shape us and writes our unique stories. It bonds our families together because of the experiences we share as a family together.

I have felt the same in my life. When we experience new things – from recipes to vacations- together for the first time, it is an amazing, memory building experience. Tsh explains that you don’t have to travel abroad to have these intentional experiences, it could happen in the next town over, she encourages the reader to have family excursions to live life.

She writes, “It’s about living life, instead of life living us..it’s about living with intention.”