Traveling fools?

Sometimes the adventure isn't visible until you are well on it....I guess you would call this life right?!

It is no secret that our life as a W is not "normal." Whatever normal is....ours is a bit different. Yesterday, a friend asked me a very simple question...."where do you live?" Simple enough right but not really. My family and I live all over the place. We have a place that we call "home" but in truth we are rarely there. For the past almost 10 years my husband and I have been traveling all over the country. Working, sight-seeing, traveling and just living our life....Then we had these 2 little boys and everyone told us that our life would have to slow down. The truth is our life has never been faster than RIGHT NOW!

With all of our traveling there are a few things that I have learned.....One I often times fight the simplicity that is traveling. Yup I said simplicity...Even with kids, travel is not that hard. What do you really need to bring with you? Basics....Clothing, snacks (for kids), shoes, toiletries and a few other things that you use on a day to day basis. Keeping it simple is harder at first but then you realize you use the things you pack. It is easy to tell yourself that you need 1 more pair of shoes, pants, a blanket, a book etc. but do you really need to? Are you really going to wear it? Probably not. So keeping things simple and basic is the easy thing to do.

The flip side of this is that I have learned that we have way too much stuff...Not when we travel, no...I actually think I should teach a class about how to travel for a family of 4 in 1 suitcase and 1 backpack....Seriously though there is too much of everything! My kiddos don't need seven million toys...They like boxes, spoons, nature and empty rolls of whatever. When I say "stuff" I mean it all....We are constantly being shown images of sales, clothing, shoes, house-wares, etc.....STUFF that just fills the spaces in our homes. With us moving all the time and constantly on the go the accumulation of stuff is pretty easy to happen. Then when we are "home" for a few weeks I get overwhelmed with everything and start purging my closets and cupboards.

Two, another thing I have learned with this lifestyle is this, when someone doesn't agree with it they often aren't supportive of you. What I mean by this is that we get ALOT of "advice" on what "we" would do if someone else was in our shoes. There are tons of "what-ifs" in this world and this life but we aren't going to live our life in fear of the "what-ifs." We don't have all the answers but we do know this...Our children have seen the ocean, have been on the west and east coasts already, they have seen all four seasons in multiple different states, they have friends all over the country and all the while they are learning about the world as we go. It isn't perfect but it is working well and they are happy.

Three, home really is where your heart is. As cliche as that is it is the reality. My home, our home is with our family. Wherever we go we make it just like home. the boys have their space and Andy and I have ours. We settle in quickly and move on to whatever else needs to be done.

Currently we are trying to figure out our next move. Our next plan is unknown. It seems strange to be able to pick wherever you want to live and then not actually be able to make a decision. Most people pick a "home" because of a job or family....we are in the process of deciding where we want to live and call home....A choice that is very daunting and difficult.

This life is the life we know. It is what we have lived from day one. My husband has a very successful consulting firm. I run a very successful small business from wherever I am, and try and teach others how to do the same. Yes, there are hard times and difficult parts to this life. I believe that to be true of anyone's life. At the end of the day I would truly say "I'm living the dream."
#travel
#howthewsdoit
#thisisit
#myofficetravelswithme