Life Updates! We’re back!

We want to start by saying that we’re sorry we have been MIA a lot in the last couple of months. There have been many things going on lately and we want to take this time to get everybody caught up. We hope to get back to a normal posting schedule now.

Covid-19

Unfortunately, our entire family was sick with COVID-19 but we have since recovered. Thankfully, we all dealt with it very well and nobody had to be hospitalized. We did take a few trips to the respiratory clinic. Isabella (10) and I (Crystal) seemed to do the worst with it. We both ran fevers for a ridiculously long time. It was weird that all of us had slightly different symptoms but we all had the fever in common. Of course, we didn’t all get sick at the same time. I got sick first and then we fell like dominoes over the course of a couple of weeks.

Senior Class 2020

Our oldest, Ivy, graduated from high school this year. It has been an extremely weird senior year, to say the least. Her tassel, cap, and gown didn’t come in time to take her pictures for virtual graduation. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow a cap and gown from my sister. It’s sad missing out on so many things. Prom and graduation were canceled. I always thought that I would get to watch her walk for graduation and throw her cap in the air. I guess things don’t always go as planned. We did get to go to a park to take her graduation photos which turned out beautiful. She’s such an amazing person and has taken it all so well.

We had a small family celebration for her in our home. We watched her virtual graduation. Her tassel came in time to wear it during the ceremony and turn it after they announced her name. She tossed up her hat in our living room. It wasn’t the same at all but it was better than nothing. We had a great time and made the best of an unusual situation.

Our travel plans had to change a little.

As most of you know, our original plan was to put our house on the market at the end of June. As long as it sold in time, we planned to depart on September 14th. We have discussed our options at length since the Coronavirus quarantines began. Being sick has put us very far behind on our pre-trip to-do list. We have finally accepted that there is no way that we can possibly get everything done to get back on track with our original timeline without causing financial, physical, and mental distress.

There are also emotional factors to consider. This is something that we have worked so hard for and changing our timeline even a little was heartbreaking. We talked about waiting until next summer but the thought of putting it off for a year was just too much. Also, we don’t know what the housing market is going to do so we’re scared to wait too long.

We flirted with the idea of postponing our departure to between December 28th to January 4th. We love the idea of being home with family for Christmas. If we’re home for Christmas, should we wait until after New Year’s? However, we don’t love the idea of putting things off too long. This is something that we have wanted to do for a very long time. This is a major life change, not a short trip. We plan to travel for at least two years and we honestly don’t have an end date. Currently, our timeline is very fluid.

Is the universe trying to give us a push out the door?

We have been noticing signs that this chapter of our life has come to an end. It feels like the universe is pushing us to move forward even as people are telling us to stay put longer because of uncertainty in the world. It’s extremely hard to explain unless you have been there but there is this overall feeling that the time has come. An “It’s now or never” feeling that we just can’t shake. We basically are working our way down our very long to-do list as quickly as possible without completely losing our minds. It’s a lot and we’re trying not to run ourselves too hard. We are very hopeful that we can get everything finished and put the house on the market by the end of summer. As things progress, we will update you.

House Projects/Remodeling

We have been working on some projects around the house including a kitchen remodel. There are things that we want to get done before we put it on the market. We have been meaning to do some of these things for years and just never seemed to get around to them. Other things we don’t want to do but we know will help it sell better. The list of projects is ridiculously long and taking up the majority of our time right now. It will all be worth it in the end but it is a ton of work.

Decluttering

Along with the house projects, we have been heavily engrossed with the massive decluttering that comes along with this lifestyle change. We simply won’t have room for everything on the road. Traveling requires us to minimize everything we possibly can. We are constantly working on either a large project in the house like painting or going through more stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff our family of five has accumulated over the years.

We still have so much to do!

The thing that nobody seems to talk about when traveling is the amount of work that goes into it before leaving. It was shocking! I had this running to-do list going through my mind all day, every day. I decided to sit and write all of it down to finally get it out of my head. There is still a running to-do list but it’s more the stuff of the day now or what we need to get to next. I came across an idea about separating our to-do list into four sections: Important/Urgent, Important/Non-Urgent, Not Important/Urgent, and Not Important/Non-Urgent. I think I’m going to try this because our to-do list is scary long. Maybe it will help us focus on things that are more important and/or urgent first.

Do you have any tips for helping us get our to-do list better organized? Let us know in the comments.

We’re so happy to finally be back!