We were living the American dream. Or the dream that has been as touted as truth for the longest time. Finally found a great town in Northern California to raise our boys and create some roots. My husband had a successful Home Inspection business. I was doing his scheduling and books as well as taking care of our 2 boys- ages 7 and 10.
There is that whole thing about what society thinks is ‘acceptable or good’, what makes you a successful human. Like we moved the boys from a public school in Santa Cruz to a public school, North a few miles in Scotts Valley. It was said to be the ‘best’ school in Santa Cruz County. And what exactly makes the ‘best’ schools these days? Testing high, apparently. Okay, I could get way off topic with that.
We also had a pretty fun group of friends where you have moms, dads, and kids that all get along!! That’s kind of a rarity these days. So, we did fun things on the weekends, dinner parties, travel together, and impromptu dinners out during the week. There was crossover with the kid activities, the mom activities, even the dad activities. It was kind of awesome. Now that said, lots of the gathering and parent activities had alcohol involved. And Jon and I were on the older side of the group dynamic, so we were light weights with that. Non the less, there was a lot of fun had all around.
We felt like we had it all. We had finally bought our first home, in a great community, boys happy in school, and business going well. What more could we ask for?? But when you feel like you have it all on paper but still feel like something is missing, what do you do?? I’d say most people just keep doing what they are doing. And what is it that is missing really? It is balance. That word, that we, as an American society, find illusive. We are all about excess with little moderation. And as a result, we have a nation full of obese, sick folks, who eat poorly, stare at their devices and work too much. I guess we just were not willing to keep doing the same thing and hope for different results. In February of this year, we decided to pull our boys out of school and begin to home school. Time to get out of the good ole comfort zone. Everything really moved quite fast. Our house sold immediately, we bought an RV trailer and closed our company June 2017. Our intention was to travel through the year and hopefully find a new place to settle that was more affordable to live.
We traveled through the Southern United States visiting friends and family and taking our boys to places they had never been like the Grand Canyon and the beach we got married on in Sarasota, FL. It was a great journey and Im so glad we did it. Our boys will remember that experience forever.
We ended up settling in Boone, NC which is where my mom lives and runs a BnB. We are all living under the same roof and attempting the multigenerational way of life. I am starting my acupuncture and wellness practice, Jon is figuring out what makes his heart sing and we are still homeschooling the boys. It has not been easy and continues to stretch us all. But if you aren’t growing and stretching, what is the point?? Our goal is to live simple in a communal way with little overhead and work together to create in the kitchen, to create art, to create in the yard and learn from eachother and grow as a multigenerational unit.
