Core Truths

Of all the stories I have ever shared through blogging, there is one story I have not yet told—the story of how the blog came to be in the first place. Brandon and I have been sharing our stories of faith, family, and values through Unbinded Life, but before that, was Core Truths. I started the Core Truths blog in 2018 as a way for me to connect and share stories with other women and moms. But the dream to share through blogging began years earlier. In fact, I still remember exactly when and where I was when I said out loud for the first time, “I want to start a blog.” The year was 2016, and I was a full-time stay-at-home mom. The kids ranged in ages from 2 to 15 years old. I had resigned from teaching one year earlier, and I had a peace within me that I would not return to the classroom, but I had not yet landed on what I was going to do next. I was happy staying home with the kids, and I had realized that’s what I had always yearned to be able to do. But even with the satisfaction of...

Recently, Brandon and I decided to take a last-minute trip—just the two of us. Seriously, it was on a Wednesday he told me he would really like for us to go out of town sometime soon. We looked at each other, looked at our calendars, and said, “How about we leave on Friday?” While the trip was totally spontaneous, it was also very intentional. Let me explain. When Brandon and I first got married, we set a goal that every year we would take a trip, just the two of us, each year for our anniversary. Taking those trips in the early years showed us how important time alone and away can be for our marriage. On those trips, we had the time to visit, to laugh, to reconnect, and to dream. We looked forward to choosing new destinations and seeing new places. I would like to tell you that we continued to take an anniversary trip every year since we first got married, but we haven’t. By the time we had three kids and were knee-deep in careers and calendars, we skipped a year. And then another yea...

Growing up in Southwest Louisiana, Opal and I were immersed in a culture of not only amazing food and music but also an abundance of festivals. Attending local fairs, festivals, and parades was just a way of life. It’s among the most special memories I have as a kid and something that I have carried with me my entire life, sort of like it was just a part of the fiber of my being. Our careers in public education took us to some great places, and we were able to meet some of the most amazing people along the way. But there were some things written on our hearts—things we imagined in a place we’d call home—that we longed to find. Things like having the financial and time freedom to travel often, owning “a historic home on a street with a sidewalk,” and calling a place home that was reminiscent of our childhoods—a place whose local culture is the heartbeat of the community. Two years ago, when we got crystal clear on our values, rediscovered our dreams that had been tucked away for a coupl...

  This week we are in Colorado for spring break. We have declared it, Vacation Unbinded. What makes this vacation different from the others? We have slowed down and have let go. Let me explain. Brandon and I both are very, very good at planning trips. We really enjoy choosing where we will go and then scouring the area for everything we should do while we are there. We ask our friends, we read travel blogs, we look for every article of “Things You Should Do In…” Once we gather all of our research, we plan our itineraries. When we travel, we usually know where we will go, what we will do, and where we will eat on every given day of our trip. For the most part, this has served us well. But we realized, this abundance of planning came from a mindset of scarcity of time. We realized we were trying to squeeze in every possible thing we could in one week because it would be another 51 weeks before we would have the opportunity to travel again. With an entire year at stake, we felt every ...

We wanted to create a life we didn’t need a vacation from. Why? Because we really liked who we were on vacation. When we were on vacation, we were adventurous. We were focused on each other. We made sure everyone was doing things that made them happy. We stayed up late. We played games. We played loud music in the car. When we were on vacation, our main focus was to watch the kids, listen to the kids, play with the kids. Our evenings were relaxed and peaceful. Our mornings, even when rushed, were energetic and exciting. When we were on vacation, there were no meetings, no evening commitments, no swapping off of kids and handing-off of duties. We never dreaded a day, not even a Monday, when we were on vacation. 
We wanted that life—a life we could live like we were on vacation. We decided to take what we loved most about that time, about who we were, and to design a life as close to that as we possibly could. We realized, it’s not doing the dishes or paying bills or answering calls or c...

It’s no secret that our family is made up of a bunch of National Park Geeks, and it was on our first visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a couple years ago that our lives were changed forever. It was Summer 2018, and we completely fell in love with those peaceful smoky mountains and their stunning blue ridges. We knew it was love at first sight when we first entered the National Park, but it was one afternoon driving the Blue Ridge Parkway through the majestic mountains of western North Carolina that Opal and I looked at one another at a scenic overlook and said we have to live here. We must live here. We will live here someday. The rest of that week, my and Opal’s conversations centered much around real estate in the area, the job market, and, probably most importantly, how could we possibly do this before retirement someday. Of course, our three older kids wanted no part of any relocation conversation at that time, but Lucia and Maximilian were 100% on board! Lucia was a...

  There was a time I avoided talking with my husband. Like seriously avoided. Let me explain. For several years, I did everything I could to not be caught off guard with the opportunity to talk deeply and uninterrupted with Brandon. Not about the day-to-day stuff, that was fine. It was the quiet talk of sharing from our hearts that I tried desperately to avoid. Now, you have to know, I love Brandon, with all my heart, but I did not want to talk with him. See, I knew we were both unhappy and I knew if we were given the chance to talk, he was going to tell me exactly what he wanted. And I was fearful that what he wanted just wasn’t possible—I believed the future he dreamed of us living didn’t even exist. This was at a time it seemed we had achieved everything we could in life. He had a good job, I was a stay-at-home mom, all of the kids were in school and involved in things, and the youngest was still home with me. We had a few cars, we were putting in a pool, we took summer vacation...

  For years, we dreamed we could one day live in an area with four distinct seasons. We always dreamed of owning a historic home and spending time on the expansive front porch. We aspired to simplify our life and embrace the beauty that making memories at a slower pace would bring. This evening, we sat in the front porch rockers with friends watching the snow fall as the sun set behind the mountains. The kids played with neighbors in the snow, sledding and building snowmen. To us, today was picture perfect and everything we had imagined life could be. Today, we count our blessings that we decided to put a stake in the ground, give ourselves permission to seek a life of freedom, and relentlessly pursue all we had ever dreamed of. Tonight, we are grateful for this Unbinded Life.

  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...