How we broke up with the American Dream…

My husband, Cole, and I were high school sweethearts on a mission to conquer THE "American Dream." I was working part time as a Physical Therapist and staying home with our son the rest of the time. Coles job is in construction and he was working ALL the overtime hours. He was often away from home for a week or two at a time. Our son was enrolled in the top local school district and I was pregnant with our second..

We scored a 1/3 acre parcel of land in a desirable neighborhood in our hometown. We broke ground, on what we thought was our forever home, in late October of 2018. We literally poured blood, sweat and tears into this house. Countless hours, late nights, and 568,678,789 trips to Lowe's... kidding... kind of. Side note-Why does Lowe's not have a women's lounge area like the fancy department stores do for men?

We had it all... the house, the cars, the cookie cutter family of 4 (one boy, one girl), the careers...we were happy but we weren't content. We were tired of "keeping up with the Joneses!" We longed for more time as a family. We were in a constant state of chasing the next big thing. Once we get this done, THEN we will be able to relax. When we accomplish this, THEN we can settle down and spend evenings together. You get the idea...so many empty promises to ourselves, it was a perpetual cycle.

We thought we outgrew that 1/3 of an acre but what we actually outgrew was our lifestyle. We were exhausted from the hustle and bustle of life that society tells us is normal. We were never going to find contentment when we were looking in ALL the wrong places. Money, nice homes, new cars...none of it will ever fulfill you. True joy is a gift from above.

We felt the Lord nudging us to pursue a slower, more intentional life. So we bought 26 acres of land, which had a well, electric, pole building, and fenced in pasture for cattle. We sold our new home and all of its furnishings, and moved the essentials into our ,new to us, 5th wheel camper.

We spent some time in NW Ohio for my husbands work before moving our home on wheels back to what would soon become our multi-generational homestead.

Stay tuned for more of our journey!