Wallpaper Wednesday | 12 | Free, Downloadable Backgrounds

With summer time often comes lots of holidays, weekends spent away at the cottage, days spent at the beach or in the park picnicking…at least, that’s what I associate summer with. Not because that’s what my summers usually look like, but those are just the ideas that TV shows, movies and social media have implanted. I don’t necessarily think these are bad ideas, but I think they can breed dissatisfaction with reality. Let’s be honest, we all can’t go jet setting to the beaches in the Maldives. A lot of us have jobs to work at, children who may need more of a routine and mundane life obligations to attend to.

In our first year of marriage, we lived in Germany where travel was so inexpensive and we were literally in a different city/country every few weeks. We went to Santorini, and headed to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. We hiked through one of the Azorean islands in the middle of the Atlantic, wandered through markets in the south of France, biked from one Dutch town to another….the list and the wonderful memories honestly go on for much longer.

I like to call our first year an extended honeymoon. When we moved back to Canada, we had to quickly adapt to life with much less travel. Being content with our current life stage is often something I struggle with. Hubby and I both can’t just pick up and leave for a few weeks at a time anymore. Not only that, but air fare is way more expensive in Canada than it was in Europe. My point is that our summer is filled with zero passport stamps. And I think that’s ok.

I was feeling pretty down with summer approaching this year and reminiscing on all the adventures we have had. But I know that I was just choosing to feel that way instead of choosing to see the many pros to our current life stage. This is the most stable our living situation has been. We actually be able to live in the same place for more than a year. My husband (who is still in teachers college) has the opportunity to become a better teacher by getting actual experience outside of his placements by teaching a high school summer course this year. So yes, life is different, but we can always choose what we do with what we have and what we can do.

We can still take day trips to small Southern Ontario towns. Relaxing by taking long walks in our neighbourhood park is still something we can do every night. We can still make use of the many beaches that are less than an hour’s drive away (a bonus to living so close to two great Lakes). Adventure is what you define it to mean to you!

Make this your background to remind yourself that “adventure is out there!” (I hope you read that in Ellie’s voice from Up)

Let me know what you’ve been up to this summer! Would love to hear all about it.

For your desktop…

For your phone…

Check out more Wallpaper Wednesday freebies for more inspirational backgrounds for your phone or computer. Or if you’re looking for prints to hang around your home that inspire, head to the Bon Paper House Shop.

Please note that these designs are for personal use only and are not meant for commercial use. All copyright of these images is retained by Bon Paper House.