Where we are

Someone asked if I would update my blog so here it goes...
I can't say our life is at all what I expected at this point. We got as far as gutting our old RV, painting the interior and planning out what we wanted to put back in. Then we were offered jobs in the city we had been living in that we didn't feel we could turn down. So we stayed in the city and changed jobs. It worked out amazing for Paul! He has a job that he could only dream about. I guess not even that since he didn't know it was even a real job. After 15 in soul sucking sales, he is living a dream. He loves getting up to go to work. He supports a cause that he really believes in and he gets to play with planes. Even though he had no experience doing anything except sales, through tenacity and perserverence he was able to obtain a wonderful job. Not only does he love what he does but he gets paid really well to do it. He is very lucky.
You probably noticed I didn't mention my change was all sunshine and rainbows. Did you know that being efficient and wanting to work hard is a bad thing? Well evidently it is. I've spent the last 1.5 years being told to slow down and look busy. Not exactly what I expected. Maybe I am not destined to be happy in a job, maybe I am just a really miserable person. Yup, I'm going through a really rough time. I don't know what I want to do but I'm thinking finance isn't it. I've loved parts of my previous jobs, I love training adults and helping people achieve their goals. I love a challenge and I love being insanely busy. I don't do well in an environment where I'm not expected to do anything or that is unfair. I know I've talked about fairness in the past. I'm not realistic in my desires of everyone being treated the same. But can we at least not be blatant about favoritism? I digress. I really really hate feeling like I'm on welfare since I get paid to sit and do literally nothing most days. I've tried to take on duties no one wants, I've tried to streamline processs, I've asked for more work. In all attempts I've been told to stop. At this point you have probably figured out where I work...
We are working on getting our finances in order so we can start building a tiny house. That is still on our list of things to do. We are renting a really awesome place outside of the city we work in. We have our horses and dogs here and have really great landlords. The neighbors aren't bad, a few are pretty nice, one isn't so great but we just stay away from her.
This is our last official year of homeschooling our youngest. It's bittersweet but at the same time welcome. Our oldest is still living off grid on our property an hour from here, running her small store. It's been a series of ups and downs but ultimately she has learned a lot just running the business. Neither kid knows exactly what they want out of life but that's ok. We have made the unpopular decision to dissuade them from going to college right now. I know what a financial burden my school loans have been our entire married life and I do not want that for them. If they decide they know what they want in life and that includes getting a degree, then great! If not then I want them to experience the world and try different things. That doesn't mean you stop learning it just means you don't have school loans.
I'm still singing in Sweet Adeline's with Lorna. We have changed choruses a couple of times and currently drive almost 2 hours to our current chorus but it's enjoyable most of the time. It's been about 8 years since we joined. I've learned a lot about myself and about the art of Barbershop. It's not just about the singing though, it has been about me growing as a person. I've learned that I'm not as bad with people as I thought. It showed me I needed to learn to communicate better, so I took classes to help with that. It showed me that I'm a constant project :)
I'm going to try to update this page more often but no guarantees. I'm going to try to stay upbeat but no guarantees there either.

Small Living

As we research the idea of building a tiny house it dawned on me that we already live in one! We are planning on building a house on a trailer but in the meantime we are planning on gutting and fixing up the old RV we own. We figure it will be good practice! I'm really excited about getting the RV redone. I think it'll make living there so much nicer to make the space our own. I think I've nailed down our ultimate goal, freedom. I want to obtain more financial freedom so we can find work that is more fulfilling.

I'm Back!

I can't believe it's been 2 years since my last post. I have allowed life to get in the way of living. It's amazing as I look back at everything we have accomplished and how many steps back we have taken. I'm still at the job I was so excited about 3 years ago. I have gotten 2 promotions since the last post and I can't say they have made me happy. One of the things I have noticed is that it is easy for me to get drawn into problems around me. Work becomes my identity. I have let it overtake everything I am. I am unhappy with anything that I see that seems unfair. Both of the promotions I took were in a city 60 miles from home, the same city Paul works in. The hour long commute and carpooling with different schedules were taking a toll on us. We decided to rent a place in the city. Paul embraced the move, he loves the extra space and readily available internet. I embraced it as well, at first. I realized we weren't happy. We spend most of the time we are actually at the rental exhausted and complaining about work. We've lost sight of "less is more". These feelings of frustration and unhappiness caused me to try to lose myself online looking up ways to get back to whatever it is we want to do. I found tiny houses! One of the things Paul likes about the rental is the couch. He likes having a place to sit when he comes home from work. He likes the internet, having easy access to his favorite web comics and reddit and he likes electric lights. I like having a full sized shower and I also like the internet. I think a tiny home will fit the bill. It will allow me to keep the off-grid lifestyle I cherish as well as allow us to live in a real home. We've spent the last 3 years in an RV. It's not comfortable in a lot of ways. It's old, dark, and drafty. It was never supposed to be a permanent solution. So we are starting a new adventure! We are giving up our rental, moving back to our property and working towards more freedom in life through smaller living. To catch you up with the kids... Lorna started a business almost 2 years ago. She put together a business plan, found a store front to rent and opened a bead & yarn shop. Although it's just starting to break even I think it's been a tremendous success. Lorna turned 18 last November. This was a huge undertaking for an adult, it was even more so for a teenager who couldn't even drive when she started out! The store has been a huge learning opportunity for all of us. We moved into the rental right as Lorna was turning 18, because of the store and her horses she stayed at our property while we moved 60 miles away. Malachi moved with us but spends time at the property with Lorna. He spends time keeping the rental running and keeps the property humming along. He really makes it possible for the 3 of us to work. Yes we still homeschool. Lorna is finishing up her senior year of high school while also enrolled in the local community college. Malachi is in high school. Due to our schedule and our long hours we really have gone full force into unschooling. We allow the kids to dictate where their education goes while making sure they still get all the required subjects. I don't know why I ever doubted that this would work but I believe it now. So that's about it for our life right now. I plan on posting about our new adventure as we go along. Stay tuned for our tiny house build!

Overwhelmed!!!

I'm still trying to keep my head above water, working and homeschooling. It's not going very smoothly. Lorna is working, riding, hanging with friends and still getting school done. Malachi is, as always, my steady easy one. He takes everything in stride and asks for nothing. It makes it really easy to ignore him which isn't fair.
I feel like all I do is work, I go home and mostly sleep. I'm just so mentally exhausted each evening.
We haven't gotten any further with the property, there is no time for that. Our weekends are filled with all the things that don't get done during the week.

Homeschooling and full time work for both parents is not to be undertaken lightly! The only reason we are even getting anything done is because of the foundation we laid before I had to return to the workforce. I can't imagine what my relationship would be like with the kids if we hadn't been home together as long as we were. Lorna cooks and Malachi cleans and both keep up with my laundry so I can work.

I am so blessed to have wonderful kids!!!!

Update

Wow,so much has happened since the last time I wrote here.

I got a new job, I received a promotion, Paul lost all of his jobs, he got a really good new job, he wrecked his car while going 5 mph (not his fault) which ended up being a really good thing,and we've lost and gained a number of animals.

That's the short version...

My new employer shall remain nameless but I get to use my degree working there. That's a nice change since I'm still paying off the loans. Not only that but my promotion came with better pay and paid time off which I haven't seen since reentering the work force a little over a year ago. I took some risks in originally accepting the position but the risks have more than paid off.

Paul went through a period of time where the 2-3 jobs he had laid him off. He was on unemployment for a few months but he has recently started a new job. Luckily he was in the right place at the right time and the job, while having long hours (12-14 hour days), is really good. The company is solid and seems to take care of it's employees.

We've lost 2 dogs, gained 2 dogs,and added 2 goats to the mix. The goats are fun and low maintenance. The kids are doing well. Lorna lost her riding job but continues to make custom tack and jewelry. Malachi is growing like a weed and continuing to mature.

Lorna and I are in the middle of transitioning to another chorus. We love to sing together so we decided to change choruses rather than just quit when we ran into obstacles within the chorus we were in.

I think that is all the major things. We are super busy but all doing well.

Flooding and Mud

Many of you have heard of the flooding in California.

Our little valley is about an hour outside of a relatively large city. There are 4 ways into the valley. The main way is a canyon road that goes directly into the city, there is a small mountain road that is open intermittently in the winter, a road that goes through another valley and then hits a major highway, and the last route goes through a pass out into the desert. This last week has seen all ways in and out closed for short periods of time. The canyon road has been closed since the first storm hit. Many of the people in this valley rely on that road into the city to get to work. For the last week and a half many of these people have been driving hours out of their way to get to work. Today all roads were again closed. I keep wondering how much longer employers are going to be understanding. Will they give up and hire people who are having fewer troubles getting to work?

I was really lucky, although I missed 2 days of work I was able to make them up. Paul has been suffering in that he can't get into the city to sell anything. Since his salary was revoked as of last month he isn't making any money. This is the last straw, bankruptcy is looming.

The road into our property was washed out in the first storm. Once the flood waters receded we were able to walk across the creek. The creek used to flow under a bridge which allowed access to the properties in the area and the BLM road that goes into the forest. Now the creek flows about 50 feet in front of the bridge. A neighbor was able to get our truck across using his bulldozer to get it through the mud.

For the last week we have been walking a half mile to the truck which is parked across the creek. Last night the latest storm dumped enough water into the creek that it came up to our knees in some spots. During the day the crossing isn't too bad but in the dark it's daunting. Getting food and small supplies in has been relatively easy. Unfortunately we are just about out of hay so we will have to carry 100 lb hay bales in one at a time. A load of hay consists of 36 bales, it's going to be a huge workout for all of us!

Quick Update

We've moved the animals and ourselves and are still working on our junk.

We are currently living in an RV and Fifth Wheel and only have solar power. We are still adjusting to our new way of life but the kids and I are certainly enjoying all the space to ride!

We've been blessed by an outpouring of offers of help from friends and acquaintances. It's amazing the support we've been offered!

Once we have the internet moved and the generator up and running I should be able to post more frequent updates.