My Thoughts on a New Life and Blogging

I have so many thoughts racing through my mind about all the changes happening in my life right now, so I thought I’d sit down and share some of them.  First of all, thank you to everyone for your support with my news about quitting my job and moving back to Michigan.  My husband and I have been faced with a lot of big decisions in the last year and it’s always hard when you are trying to make the best choice for yourself and your family.  I definitely appreciate all your comments and support as we move on to the next step chapter of our lives.

This big change didn’t happen overnight.  It came with a lot of planning and a lot of decision-making.  For the last 3 years, I’ve been trying to balance having a full-time job, being a mom to Jack, a wife to Kevin and then I also have this little hobby of blogging that I love so much.  I’ve tried to handle all of it the best I can, but the truth is, I feel like I’ve only been just treading water to try to stay afloat.  At work, it’s been harder and harder to keep up with the demands of my job, but the hardest part for me is leaving it at work and not bringing the stress home with me.  I come home stressed and tired and I feel like I have little patience for my family.  It’s not the person I want to be.  My husband is always the kind of person who is always able to find a solution when a problem arises. That’s why we decided that the best thing for our family was for me to stay home.

We’ve known that I would be quitting my job for a while, but we weren’t sure when.  I wanted to work a little longer because it never hurts to have an extra income, but then the Grand Rapids base opened up.  I looked into working when we moved, but the jobs in my field pay much less in Michigan than they do out in Nevada, plus it would be the same story there.  So after making this decision months ago, we have had to wait for it all to come together. We needed to wait to find out when the base would open, when we would be moving and how.  Moving is stressful and it’s not cheap.  I’d rather just get it all over with and move now, but we can’t, so I’ve been in this limbo stage for the last 6 months.  Now we are just 2 weeks shy of moving out of our house, shipping all of our belongings to Michigan, and actually moving.

I’m excited about our move, to Michigan and being closer to family and friends, but I’m going to miss so many things about living in Las Vegas.  I’m going to miss my house a lot too!  Our neighborhood is so nice and I just have loved living here so much.  We moved into this house when Jack was 11 months old and so this is the only home he’s ever really known.  Our new house in Michigan is brand new and being built right now.  We are still renting because we want to get to know the area first and find out where we would really like to be, plus we want to make sure this move is long-term.  I’m excited to have a brand new house to live in, but since we are renting we didn’t get to pick out anything in the house and I haven’t even seen the actual house yet.  It will be a surprise when we move in.  I know I’m not going to have a beautiful courtyard, back yard, and pool like I have at this house, but I’m sure it will be nice in its own way.

One thing that I’m really excited about not working, is that I will have more time to put into blogging.  Blogging has been the best thing for me in the last couple of years.  I love writing and having a creative outlet.  I love that I’ve been able to connect with so many other people through it as well.  My goal is not to make a ton of money and have tons of followers.  However, I do enjoy earning a little bit of spending money from it.  It does help add to my shopping budget and the money I spend towards making my blog better, so it never hurts.  I’m hoping to have more time to write.  I’d love to share more beauty posts, mommy life, financial tips, and maybe a recipe post here and there.  And of course lots of affordable fashion!  On social media, I’m hoping to grow Instagram too at least 10k followers.  If you don’t know, 10k is the magic number on Instagram, because it means you get to have the swipe up feature for your followers to easily access your blog and other sites you share.  I feel like it’s unfair that they don’t offer that to everyone, but I guess you just need to work your way up to it.  Instagram has been a really slow process for me when it comes to growing, because it’s a lot of work and very time-consuming, but I’m hoping to have more time for that soon.  I’d also like to use my Facebook page more often.  I love my Facebook following because it’s small and I feel like they are the people actually reading my blog.  I also love Pinterest, so I will continue to pin away with that!  I’m excited about it all!

 I want to say THANK YOU to all of you who have been following me for so many years or if you just found me!  I appreciate all of your support and I hope you continue to stay with me as I go through life and things change.  I started my blog when I was 29, a somewhat newlywed who had just paid off my student loans and I didn’t have much money for spending on shopping.  I just wanted a place where I could show that you could still be stylish and live a happy fulfilling life on a budget.  I’m still on a budget, but my life has changed so much in 6 years.  Thanks for sticking with me and I hope I can continue to inspire you!