Core Truths

  December 18, 2020. Last year, it was the last day to ship packages so they would arrive in time for a Christmas delivery. Inside this tiny UPS Store, the line extended out the door with anxious customers holding armfuls of packages piled high above their faces. We stood there at the counter, pen in hand, somewhat in disbelief this day was finally here. We knew this was faith—faith at every unexpected turn. What led us into this UPS Store on this particular day started a couple months earlier. We had made that trip to North Carolina where we unexpectedly found our dream home. We had decided it was our time to do what we dreamed of doing. Making the decision to move took far less time than the actual logistics of making the move happen. In the beginning, we contacted our realtor, we worked tirelessly to get our house ready to sell, we listed it, and we were under contract. At the same time, we were working with a realtor in North Carolina, we made a first offer, then we made a more...

Long before we made our big move to North Carolina, there were literally years of long discussions, soul-searching, and making lists of wants and don’t-wants. We were pretty clear that living in the suburbs, a daily hour-long commute, and being buried in student loan debt was not what we wanted, but it did take time to become very clear on what it was that we did want. I very much remember telling Brandon that we could do anything he wanted to do, that we could go anywhere he wanted to go, that I would pick up and follow him to any place, he just had to tell me where that place is. Not long after that conversation, Brandon got to work on his vision of what and where he dreamed our life could be. And when I say he got to work, I’m talking about how he bought a trifold foam board and some fancy pens so that as he became clear on his vision he could actually draw it out. Days later he emerged with a finished product. He didn’t have a name of a city, but he was very clear on what he wanted...

Most of the leaves have already fallen, but the afternoon sun shining on the remaining color sure makes for a nice view from our home. What is your heart telling you to do? How worth it would you say it is to listen to that little voice inside you and take action to do what it says? For two entire decades as a married couple, we talked often about our dreams. But that’s just it. All we did was talk about them and simply “wish” things could be different. The funny thing is, over these years, our dreams and values really didn’t change all that much. What was missing, though, was a little bit of action and whole lot of faith. We’re so glad that we got really intentional last year about what we truly wanted in life. We were finally able to define what a simple life meant to us, and, once we did, we were able to relentlessly pursue a life of freedom with more courage and tenacity than we ever thought possible. As a result, we wake up to this view every single day. We’re experiencing four se...

Making the decision to move from Texas to western North Carolina was, for the most part, fun and exciting. We got to tap back into the things that mattered most, we got to revisit parts of our hearts that had laid dormant, and we got to move towards the unknown with a renewed passion and purpose. But, that’s not to say it didn’t come with obstacles and difficult moments. There were a great deal of things we needed to consider and we had many things to figure out. For the most part, it was all a welcomed challenge. But there was one part—one difficult part. A part that was so difficult, it was the one thing that would have made me change my mind. The one thing that would have made me stay right where I was. When we made the decision to move, we knew we were fulfilling a dream in the making. We had longed to simplify our lives in every way possible. We so badly wanted to be in a place where we could play outside all seasons of the year. We dreamed of living in a small community in an old...

  It’s the early part of leaf season here in western North Carolina. And while the leaves are just starting to change where we live, it is a much different story at higher elevations. Brandon showed me a picture of what it currently looks like up along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I told the fam, “We should go…like right now…like put on your shoes and I’ll meet you in the car!” Truth be told, right before saying that out loud, I had other thoughts. Like, “We should go, but I kind of don’t feel like making the 45-minute scenic drive to get there,” and another like, “If I just stay here, I can wash another load of laundry.” But then I thought back to last year when we were planning our fall trip up here to see the leaves. Every single day, Brandon would show me pictures posted to Smoky Mountain Facebook groups of the changing leaves at different elevations. He was so worried that we wouldn’t get our timing right to be here, and that we would miss peak season. The fall leaves are so be...

Don’t you just love asking a little kid what they want to be when they grow up? Kids can say pretty quickly they want to be a firefighter, doctor, astronaut, race car driver, or even all of those things at once! Not too long ago our six-year-old described the life he wants to have when he is a grown up—it entailed something like six dirt bikes, five dogs, living on a ranch, and having lots of kids. I think part of the magic of listening to kids describe their dreams is that, as adults, we don’t do anything to stop them. There’s no talk of education needed, annual salary, or, for the case of our six-year-old, how he will pay for the dirt bikes, the dogs, and the kids. I remember vividly the dream sharing Brandon and I were doing when we were first dating and engaged. Our “dates” typically started with a run to Dairy Queen for Blizzards, and then we would drive around the historic neighborhoods looking at the houses and describing our future together. Brandon especially loved the old hou...

It was four years ago, Sebastian had a JV Football game, and I was going to be there to watch him play. We have a rule in our family that our kids will never compete or perform and we’re not there to watch them. As a former high school principal, I would see my students pour their hearts out on the court or on the field and not have a parent there to support them. Ever. And it just broke my heart. As long as our kids have been involved in school extracurriculars, we have always been there to cheer them on. For this particular game, I was the one designated to be there to watch him play, as Opal had another commitment on the same day and time with one of our other kids. We knew I would be traveling to his game directly from the airport after having been gone for three days at a work event. I’ll save you all the details, but short story is, I was about 30 minutes late to his game. It was the second quarter by the time I arrived. It was during the first quarter, Sebastian scored his first...

This picture was taken nine years ago this week. On this day, I graduated with a Master’s degree from Texas A&M University. This is a time when our lives turned in a completely different direction—a direction we previously had not seen coming. When I started the program, Brandon and I were both working full-time, we had three young kids, and he was in the finishing stages of his dissertation for his PhD. We were both successful in our careers and we were looking forward to those careers continuing to grow. Not long after I started my Master’s program, we were very excited to learn we were pregnant. We had always hoped to “have a big family,” but, until this time, we had put off having more kids. We had been trying for several months to get pregnant and were so happy to know we were expecting. And then we had our first miscarriage. That devastating experience is by far one of the most difficult times we have ever faced. Not long after, we learned I was pregnant again. We were so exc...

For the past several months we have been sharing bits and pieces of our journey, but I can’t help but feel like the collective stories are incomplete. It may appear that we vacationed to the mountains, fell in love with the mountains, then moved to the mountains. End of story. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. To be honest, I believe this story began nearly ten years ago, long before we ever took the trip that seemed to have started it all. And there are many lessons we have learned along the way. Place Time Over Money Nine years ago Brandon and I began the shift in how we wanted to live our lives. We wanted to focus on having more time, even if that meant having less money. This led to me being able to resign from my career and begin staying home with our kids. At the end of that year, Brandon also made a drastic career move, leaving the path he had been on for the previous 14 years and ultimately changing his trajectory, and even his retirement plan (gasp). We had a tug o...

TAKE VACATIONS!! You can always earn more money, but you can never earn back the time. This week, as we’re on our twentieth vacation in 20 years, we’re reminded how invaluable this time is. Sure enough, we’ve made more than our fair share of bad decisions in life…racking up crippling student loan debt, financing new cars, being house poor, and allowing ourselves to be defined by our careers. But one thing we feel we got right from the very beginning was taking family vacations. No matter the circumstances, we’ve always managed to take an annual summer trip. As classroom teachers, and young parents who hadn’t quite figured out the concept of proper budgeting, it didn’t matter if it meant me working Saturday school or Opal teaching summer school to earn the extra money, we always prioritized taking a family summer vacation. Even in the days of getting a Ph.D., I would write papers in the middle of the night and complete doctoral coursework while our young kids took afternoon naps…all fro...