Catch Up

As you can see I have not posted for a very long time. There are a lot of reasons why: My Mom passed away, then we spent a year traveling the country in our RV, then my Dad passed away, and we decided to come back “home” to be close to Michael’s family and our oldest daughter. Being on the road reminded me how much I want my children to grow up around family. Have those grandparent memories that my husband cherishes, be close so the kids can see more of their sister and I can be near grand-kids when her and her husband decides to have kids (She just got married last month). When we came back to visit this past fall the kids wanted to stay. I will say traveling was fun and we still plan on taking camping trips and traveling but not as a full-time lifestyle. 

So Michael and I again looked at all our options and what direction we wanted to head. It wasn’t easy decisions though. All of them live in and around a small town in Kentucky. The closest big city is about 2 hours away and most of the jobs for my husband’s field (Linux Senior Network Admin/ Web Developer) are a lot further. He still works for the company he has been with for over 14 years but small businesses have taken a huge hit over the last several years, and theirs is no exception. Which for us translates to less money.

So the first big decision: Where do we want to set up roots again? To stay near family and take a high paying job we would still be at LEAST 2 hours away. We’ve been that distance before and it was hard on us with young triplets and the older people to make that trip often. So in that respect we still wouldn’t see family except once every few months. At that rate there isn’t much difference for us if it was 15 hours or 2 hours in the grand scheme of things. Staying within 30-45 mins would be the maximum distance from the grandparents in order to be able to give the children the kind of memories we want them to have.

So once again we were faced with the question: Which is more important, making more money and being very comfortable, or being close to family? This is a question we have struggled with several times before and it always ends the same way. Family. That means there are going to be some very tight times. It means that we have to be creative with our activities and watch our money closely. It means that there are going to be very stressful moments were money will take center stage. (The benefits of this to my readers is that  I will pass along all the ideas)

You might be asking why we would do this to ourselves? Why not sacrifice some family time in order to be completely financially set somewhere else?  The answer is simple, money is a temporary situation, family is for life. Money situations change all the time, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, but rest assured it is a temporary and fragile state that can change at any time. Family is there when the money is high and when it is low. Family is there through the struggles and the happy moments. Those memories you create during all of it, are what lasts forever. Those are what you carry with you through your whole life. My childhood and Michael;s was very different. He had a close family, lived close, and built lots of memories together that he cherishes to this day. My family was all spread out, I never had living grandparents or the kinds of memories he has,  Most of my family is dead now and there is so much that has been left unsaid and undone. My two oldest children grew up around some core family members the first 4-5 years of their life and have fond memories of those times even now, but we moved away at that point so they didn’t see them much. These are the reasons  why we chose family over money. Because those memories and the things they learn for their grandparents, their older siblings, their cousins, uncles and aunts, etc are forever. That is what will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Money, as I said, is a temporary state. Michael is working on some other avenues to make the tight budget more plentiful. I work on the home-front to save money wherever I can to lessen the burden. One thing we both know though, is that this is the right choice for us. It’s the right choice for our kids. Struggles and all.

We found a house about 20 mins away from the his parents house and our oldest daughter and her new husband got an apartment several blocks away. I will do a big blog with pictures of the house next week but I’ll give some generals here. We bought an all brick house that was built in 1929 (Tudor style). It hadn’t been lived in for over 5 years and was in really rough shape. Basically we bought a shell for $15000. We had to run all new electrical, floors, walls in some areas, heating system, and on and on (I’ll list all the details in the other blog post). We love old houses though, and this one had some great architectural features that we fell in love with. After several months of really hard work we got it to a livable state. There is still a lot of things we are still doing and planning but we are here and it is ours. 

The triplets love it here as well. They have a lot of room to run, and when we finish the upstairs they will have their own rooms when they are a little older. They also have a large playroom and classroom combination since we are stating some structured preschool now. We are still set on homeschooling the children for many many reasons, There are a lot of resources and online classes they can take as well, especially when they get older. 

It seems the last 2 years have just been so chaotic for me personally and I am ready for some calm. One thing I am really excited about being back in a sticks and bricks home: Constant internet and time to make this blog into what I want and post consistently.  I have so many pictures and videos from our travels that I will be getting up as quickly as possible, I have a lot of links to articles and blogs to add, and we are working on an android app that will be filled with a lot of stuff for parents and parents of multiples. So if you are a long time reader you will find a lot of changes going on here 🙂

One last change I’m making to my blogging… no fluff. Being a mom isn’t always pretty. Being a mom to triplets has both great and horrible moments (funny later, but horrible in the moment lol). I read so many blogs where it seems they are only staying on the light side, I’m going to just be me. You may not agree with everything I say and that’s great! That’s what makes people so wonderful is their own uniqueness. You will find things here you might think is a really great idea and some you will never try, and that’s great! I have gone through tons of trial and error being a parent, maybe you will learn things from my mistakes or come up with a better idea based on what you read here. After all isn’t that what this is really all about? Learning from each other, sharing ideas, showing off our kids, and letting it all go. 

So for those new or need caught up: My name is Lisa Barnett I’ve been with my husband Michael for over 10 years now, I have two older children, a son who is 21 and a daughter who is 19, our triplets are now 4 1/2 years old (born Jan 2010), and this is our crazy life!

 

If you have a blog that you would like added to our list, want to write a guest post, or publish an article here then just email me mom@thetripletlife.com