Our New (Big-Crazy-Exciting-Scary) Adventure

This space has been quite for far too long…

I miss you!

I first decided to take some time off from posting here because I was doing some behind the scenes work to upload a new design and add an option to purchase my wall art, stationery, and learning materials straight from this site. While that plan is still going to happen, my work-on-the-blog time was suddenly nonexistent because of a decision Tim and I made.

Want to know what our new big-crazy-exciting-scary adventure is???

Of course you do, right???

Right???

Our family of 8 is selling (practically) everything and packing into a 31 foot travel trailer full-time.

Let’s, let that sink in for a moment…

That’s right, we will be living full-time in an RV and doing some traveling as we enjoy time together as a family and refocus on what matters most.

The last year, and especially the last few months have been extremely stressful and we’ve allowed life’s circumstances to get our focus completely out of whack. Now we’re making a drastic change to set things right!

I’m not sure exactly when this idea started to take root, but I think it was when I happened upon a blog post from a full-time RVing family while browsing Pinterest (yes, Pinterest made me do it!).

I randomly mentioned to Tim about this family who saw huge benefits when they went on the road. We decided it was a crazy idea and couldn’t justify the cost when we had a house to rent, Tim had a job, and we were surrounded by extended family.

For a few weeks I didn’t think a whole lot more about it.

Then last month, we closed the second location of our pizza shop and we realized that without opening another location, Tim would very soon be out of a job. After praying about what to do we knew the business (and the partners) weren’t in the position to open another shop so we seriously considered another job path for Tim.

A lot happened in those next few weeks, but to make a long story at least a little shorter, we finally decided to sell off our portion of the pizza shop to our partner. The freedom (and extra money in the bank account) gave us the opportunity to make this radical shift in our life.

And yes, we are having to move away from our extended family (at least for a time), but as much as we love them, they can’t pay our bills and the stress of finding another home to rent in our current area, and finding a job for Tim that will pay the bills right off the bat would definitely not encourage the family time and refocusing we know our family needs.

Tim will still be working while we’re living in the RV. We’re definitely not independently wealthy! But because we were able to purchase the RV with cash, out monthly bills will be lower than we could have made them while living in a rental home in our current area.

Tim’s next job starts in Tennessee on the 17th of this month. That job will last until early fall when we hope to have another job lined up in Florida (again not as big of a deal what it is because our expenses are lower). We’re becoming snowbirds as I really couldn’t imagine keeping all six kids cooped up for days on end due to cold weather and the know-how for RV living in cold weather is beyond what our newbie minds can handle.

I already have plans to tell you how it’s scary to let go of some secondary desires in order to focus on things of first importance and how I’m (not-always-so) silently screaming on the inside as I post almost all of our possessions for sale on local Facebook groups and plan an epic yard sale. (I keep singing Let It Go from Frozen when I have a hard time dealing with just how much we’re actually getting rid of.)

I also want to give you a tour of our new home (and finally justify my obsession with plastic bins) but that means I need to finish going through ALL THIS STUFF we’ve collected over the years, which means I need to get off the computer :).

So, what about you? Have you ever secretly (or not-so-secretly) dreamed of living in an RV? or of making some other drastic change in your life? Do you think we’re crazy for even attempting this? (Don’t worry, you won’t hurt my feelings, I think we’re a little crazy, too.)