{"id":967,"date":"2014-07-11T12:17:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T17:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iip-group.com\/hectic-dad\/?p=967"},"modified":"2015-06-12T16:20:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T21:20:25","slug":"to-the-four-winds-they-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/to-the-four-winds-they-go\/","title":{"rendered":"To the four winds they go"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"US
Image courtesy of Ohmega1982 \/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My kids never seem to sit still. They\u2019re always on the go, and I shouldn\u2019t act surprised. It\u2019s the way the Hectic Household has always been. We\u2019re always running around for sports, for school, for jobs. For whatever. It\u2019s a never ending cycle of getting on the road, going somewhere, and doing something.<\/p>\n

For a few short weeks, we had a pretty full house. My two recent college graduates were home. For a few days my high school graduate was home. Our college-aged daughter was here. The high school kids were here for the summer. Our elementary school-aged daughter was here. Only our oldest daughter wasn\u2019t home.<\/p>\n

Then the Bike Across Kansas started and I traveled across the state with one daughter. Another went to Kansas Girls State. My oldest son went to Basic Training. When we got back from BAK, things were a little quieter, but it was still Hectic.<\/p>\n

\"KansasWe\u2019ve entered the middle of the summer, and things are even quieter. One daughter is traveling across the Western part of the country on an adventure to see places like Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and the like. She\u2019s traveling with a very fluid plan that includes a lot of camping. Definitely a new adventure for her!<\/p>\n

Her sister just left to go collect the last of there things from Colorado, say some final goodbyes to friends, and squeeze in a volleyball tournament during the trip. She\u2019ll be back in a few days, but then I\u2019ll be leaving for New Jersey.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, another daughter will be heading to American University in Washington, D.C. for a ten day leadership conference. Then we\u2019ll meet her oldest sister in New Jersey for a few days together.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll follow that up with a relocation of at least two of the older girls, and possibly three. And the return to school in Maine of our Junior in college. We\u2019ll be driving across the country for that return, so it\u2019ll be an adventure unto itself.<\/p>\n

A few days later Basic Training graduation will occur for our oldest son, and then he\u2019ll ship to Texas for Advanced Individual Training.<\/p>\n

At that point we\u2019ll have one back in college, one in Texas for AIT, one in Minnesota, one in NJ, one still a bit up in the air as to exactly where she\u2019s going to be living, a high school Senior (who will start school in the midst of all the travel & Basic Training graduation), a high school sophomore, and a sixth grader.<\/p>\n

Yeah, pretty much par for the Hectic Family.<\/p>\n

But the point is, I wish I\u2019d done a better job taking advantage of the time while everybody was here. This opportunities are so infrequent now. We still try to eat together, but with school, jobs, and all the activities that we have it\u2019s even hard to do that. We have done a better job of sitting around the table after meals and just talking. The subject matter is pretty far-ranging in our household, and lots of visitors think we\u2019re totally crazy. They\u2019re right of course, but we don\u2019t mind being crazy. It makes for a more interesting life!<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also done a lot more working out together. It\u2019s not so much that we talk and such during our workouts, but we are spending more time together. And together in different combinations. When you have as many people in one household as we do, the intra-family dynamics are pretty fascinating.<\/p>\n

So, even as the kids are scattered around the country again, to congeal into a family unit for a few days, and then spread out once again, I\u2019m thinking about the times we\u2019ve had and the times ahead. While everybody is so far away, it makes me appreciate the times when we\u2019re together and makes me realize how precious those are.<\/p>\n

Give your kids a hug today if you can reach \u2018em, if you can\u2019t pick up the darned phone and call them. Talk to them. Tell \u2018em you love \u2018em.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My kids never seem to sit still. They\u2019re always on the go, and I shouldn\u2019t act surprised. It\u2019s the way the Hectic Household has always been. We\u2019re always running around for sports, for school, for jobs. For whatever. It\u2019s a never ending cycle of getting on the road, going somewhere, and doing something. For a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[24,29,31,50],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting","tag-driving","tag-family","tag-father","tag-kids"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nTo the four winds they go -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/to-the-four-winds-they-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To the four winds they go -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My kids never seem to sit still. 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