No one saw this one coming. Despite our well thought out plan - complete with checklists, goals, and financial planning – we failed to execute our brilliance.
It’s coming up on a year since I last wrote, and I’m not sure where I need to start. Do I pick up where I left off last March? Or do I ignore the reality that I couldn’t bring myself to sit at a keyboard for 11 months and simply write about our last week of news? Either starting point brings a lot of excitement for my family of five.
Perhaps a very quick (probably won’t be that quick and this will turn into a blabber session) recap on life…
August 2020, Jason and I committed to a lofty dream of selling everything, quitting our jobs, and moving our family of five (three sons: 13yo, 8yo, 7yo) onto a liveaboard sailing catamaran for 2-5 years. Adjusting the timeline based on the enjoyment of the lifestyle. This meant selling the dream house we built on 10-acres of property just eight years earlier and selling or gifting most everything inside and out of that beautiful home. We also worked diligently to pay off any debts so we would be financially free when it came time to set sail.
After working through our finances, paring down our “stuff”, cutting it back again and again until what remained at the time of moving out of our 4,000sq ft home in July of 2021 would all fit into a 30-foot Class-C motorhome.
We said our heart-aching goodbyes to family and friends, not knowing when we’ll be back to see them, and hit the road in search of our new home on a sailing catamaran. Following the sun through the south, and landing in Florida for several months, we scoured the websites, walked on numerous boats, and found a great boat broker. By February 2022, we found what we thought would be our future on the tiny French island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea. While Jason flew down for the inspections, sea trials, and negotiations with the owner, our three boys and I stayed in Florida waiting for word from Jason through each step. We were ready to pull the trigger – all the boxes were checked, and this was it, we’re going to buy a boat and sail the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean! Then I received a call from home. My mom was sick, and fading fast. We, quite literally, abandoned ship. Jason flew back to us in Florida, and the next day we were racing towards home in Oregon. Jason carried us home from central Florida back to Oregon in four days. We slept in Walmart parking lots. Jason was driving long after the boys were in bed and long before they woke up every morning.
Once home, our priority became my parents. The battle Mom fought over the next six months was nothing short of an Iron Man triathlon followed by a boxing match all being held under water with a 50-lb weighted vest. Mom is incredible. Although she continues to fight for her health and find a new balance in life, Mom has achieved medical miracles one after another. I am in awe as I watch her continue to endure.
I have never been good at sitting still. Days off are project days. I have five minutes before we need to be in the car, you say? Say no more. I can get a load of laundry folded, the counters cleaned, and the carpets vacuumed before the boys are done tying their shoes. And Lord help my husband when he’s out of town for a couple of days because I’m about to get neck deep in a grand scheme I have no prayer of getting accomplished before he returns. So when we came back home, focusing on our family’s well-being and stability, we needed something to occupy our worried minds and idle hands. So, we bought a house! June 2022, we “won” a vacant house at our local sheriff's auction. Unfortunately, it has been nothing more than a massive disaster of a purchase. The house had to be demolished, and two and half years later, it’s a beautiful 1-acre, waterfront, ready-to-build piece of land waiting for a buyer to come build their dream home on it.
Then we bought another house. Because who doesn’t buy one house that turns into a dumpster fire and then turn around three months later to buy another one?! In September 2022, Jason and I bought another project house. This time, we moved in while we renovated. We were in the home almost a year as we flipped the home to be sold in July 2023.
After selling our first successfully flipped property, we were homeless and back in an RV. Taking advantage of our mobility, we again said our goodbyes to friends and family and hit the road on a tour of the U.S. This trip, our goal was to hit the east coast and fully nerd out on our nation’s historical landmarks scattered throughout the original 13 colonies. That trip was cut short at Missouri (where we will always cherish our family that lives there and took us in for a week) before we headed down south to avoid the snow and find the warmth again. We circled back around the southern states, saw more family and friends in Arizona and California, before getting back into Oregon for the 2023 end-of-the-year holidays.
We have been home in Oregon, for the most part, since end of 2023. In the last 14 months, our family has taken full advantage of our proximity to family, the freedom of no jobs, and the flexibility that comes with making our own schedules. Our two youngest went back in the public school system – which has certainly come with growing pains for kids and parents alike. Our oldest, a senior in high school this year, decided he wanted to finish out with a homeschool curriculum. We have taken glorious, sun-filled vacations with my family and Jason’s, we have celebrated birthdays, and we have been fully open to any opportunity that presents itself.
One opportunity that came in April 2024, was another flip house! This time around, we bought, renovated, and sold in under eight months. Record time, but boy, that house turned out beautiful. What started out as a house left vacant for too long with too much access for squatters that cared very little the damage they were causing to a house with no running water or electricity, ended with a top-to-bottom overhaul complete with an extra bathroom, bedroom, and no square inch left untouched. All five of us were quite proud of ourselves for the labor put in, and the gloriousness that shined out in the end.
For our latest flip house, we didn’t move in, which means we’ve been living in a 33’ motorhome, hooked up behind the barn of Jason’s parents’ house for over a year now. Jason’s parents are beyond generous to allow us full RV privacy and hook-ups on their 10-acre property - not to mention complete access to their home at any time for laundry, stretching out, full-sized ovens, and hot water that lasts longer than four minutes. Unfortunately, the view from some of our windows looks right across an empty field to our old house. The once pristine 4,000 sq ft house that we excitedly sold just 4½ years ago now taunts us with all its space and underground plumbing.
The RV is feeling small these days. REAL small. And cold. This snow is not doing our poor RV any favors in its attempt to keep a steady temperature. The beds that once fit the boys are shrinking and poor Ryan (an inch away from 6’ tall) is sleeping diagonally to fit. We’re ready to spread out again. We want space, flowing water that doesn’t come from a hose, toilets that flush things we don’t have to deal with a second time, countertops that fit a full-sized dinner plate, an oven that fits a frozen pizza, beds that don’t shake every time someone else rolls over, doors that have doorknobs, a bathtub! We want a house.
That brings us up to a couple months ago. We had an accepted offer on our latest house renovation, and we were in the market - for us this time. Something we can move into without scraping asbestos off the ceilings or poop off the floor. A place we can call home for the foreseeable future. A home where we can welcome family and friends for dinners, parties, and BBQ’s. And we found it! I won’t pretend that there aren’t projects I’m already listing out for our soon-to-be home (fresh paint inside and out being top of the list!), but we can move in straight away and I can slowly work and modify to my heart’s content without a ticking clock hurrying it along. We get the keys in three days, and I can hardly stand the wait. The temperature dips into single digits the first night we have the keys. You better believe we’ll at least have pillows and blankets moved in before nightfall. Who am I kidding – almost everything we own fits in an RV, we’ll be fully moved in by midnight.
Because our family likes to go big or go home, we’re also dipping our toes back into the workforce. Jason’s getting a job! Since we haven’t had, let’s say, a “conventional” lifestyle for over four years now, why dive back into a career that puts him right back into the rat race of a typical 9-to-5 job? (Sing it, Dolly!) Starting February 18, 2025, Jason becomes our church’s youth pastor. Almost no one saw that one coming. When Ryan was entering 6th grade, Jason started helping with the youth program, and any time we weren’t traveling, Jason plugged right back into the church to volunteer. He’s going to be great. He has the heart for God, the management experience with people, the willingness to learn what he knows he doesn’t know yet, and the 12-year-old-going-on-48 year old’s sense of humor that’s premium gold in a room full of middle and high schoolers.
I’m nervous about the judgment, the outside-looking-in comments, and the magnifying glass our family has the likelihood of being under. I’m also beside myself with excitement for what’s to come. Youth outings, parties, gatherings, and so much growth for our own boys. In all honesty, we pulled the kids from school and traveled in an RV for over four years. We’ve already experienced judgment and ridicule over our choices, and found that what you seek, you will find. Looking for disapproval and dread? You’ll find it. Seeking adventure, core memories, and strength? You’ll find it. With Jason’s new position at the church, we all have the opportunity to reach out, spend time, and invest in what’s most important to each of us (all from the stupendous comfort of a stick-built home!). And for that, I’m grateful. Perhaps our adventure doesn’t lead to a sunset in the Caribbean Sea. Perhaps it leads to a sunset on our back porch in Hermiston, Oregon. Or, perhaps there’s still a sunset out there we need to chase and capture from a spot we haven’t yet dreamed of.
So here’s to getting caught up, to hosting dinners at a full-sized table, and to keeping it unconventional.
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