Loving your family out loud

As anyone who knows me KNOWS, I lived with my parents (yes really) until I was 27 years old and walked straight into my husbands arms...amazing right? I didn't have any failed college dorms/apartment experimentation's that forced me back home. I never moved out, ran out of money and came running home to the comfort of a full refrigerator and 2 sets of laundry machines...(which now, looking back is priceless, seriously)

I thought about moving out on several occasions, but alas, it never materialized. In hindsight, it was a blessing and the best possible choice. Yes, at times it was slightly juvenile to admit to co-workers, post-college, that I STILL lived with my parents, even thought I had a degree, a full-time job and no car payment...haha (which I inevitable followed up with "suckers" under my breath). It was funny, but more often than not, the response was, "wow, how do you do it? I could NEVER live with my parents still. We would KILL each other."

Truth is, I get along amazingly well with my parents. They are such great people we just don't really fight. There is no reason to. If we disagree, we figure it out without the yelling/shouting and door slamming that was so prevalent among my friends and their parents growing up. They made it easy for me to live there as an adult and have freedom and not feel restricted, but let me know that they still loved me, cared about me and were there for me when I needed them.

It is funny to think that after living with them for 27 years, that I would miss them after only being out of the house for 2 months. Honestly, the last several months I lived there, I hardly saw them at ALL. Our schedules were so different and I wasn't home during the day much...but those times when we could catch up were priceless. It is in that mind-set that I try and set a time every few days to give them a call (either by catching them at home together or calling each of their cell phones) and just checking in. It doesn't have to be a LONG conversation, but enough to give them an update and to get an update.

I care what is going on in my family and I know they are interested in what Derek and I are doing. In that same vein, we also try and schedule time to spend with them, dinners, games, whatever it may be so that we don't let too much time go by without seeing each other. I love my family and I want to be near them, be with them and love them out loud. I don't ever want to look back and wonder how I let them go, how we lost touch. I am confident that this will ever be the case in my family...we see the value in our time together, in being involved in each others lives...

Don't lose your family...find a way to love them out loud...