Eating overnight oats for breakfast in front of the computer isn’t quite as fun as sipping hot coffee with my grandma while scones bake in the oven.
It’s back to reality today!
I awoke with my to do list running through my head and, after a quick walk around the neighborhood with Ryan and Sadie, I sat down at the computer and dug into my overnight oats while responding to a few important emails.
I topped my overnight oats with roasted pistachios and really liked the added crunch. I’m all about the texture!
Living Close to Family
The day after I return from a trip, I always feel a little frazzled. My inbox is out of control and my to do list is long, but it’s good to be back home.
I am usually able to get some work done when I’m on the road, but I stayed far away from my computer (except for popping in to write blog posts) when I was in Gettysburg in favor of spending every moment I could with my family. I don’t get to see my grandma or aunt very often, so it was a special trip!
Though my parents and sister live in Florida, my grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins live all across the country. I envy people who grew up with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins nearby.
As Ryan and I dream about the future, we flip flop a lot when we talk about where we’d like to live long term. While we both love the mountains and changing seasons, we really enjoy the ability to hop in the car and drive two hours to see our parents. Family is very important to us and when I think about the future and our desire to start a family in a few years, having family close by seems even more important.
I also realize that moves are often dictated by jobs (like our current move to Ocala!), so who knows where we’ll end up. Since my job is flexible and Ryan is enjoying his job here, Florida is working out just fine for us at the moment!
Questions of the Morning
- Do you live close to your family?
- If you could live anywhere where would you want to live?
I get the best feeling when I’m in the mountains and absolutely love North Carolina. I love changing seasons and also fell in love with Colorado when I visited my friend Michaela in Denver back in February. Gorgeous!
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This is the first time I’ve lived far from my family and it’s been so tough! I’m in Boston and they’re ALL in Florida. Even when I went to college at FSU, I could still hop in the car and see them for a weekend if I wanted. Now it’s all about the planning. There are no spur of the moment trips home, I have to request off work – book a flight – and then get there! It’s exhausting half the time and I miss the days where I could decide to go home for a week and just drive a few hours. I guess that’s a part of growing up!
I live in London UK….my family (ALL my family) live in Australia. 24 hours away by plane!! It’s pretty much as far apart as you can get! *Mega sad pouty face*
It can be very hard being so far away, especially around birthdays and holiday. Thank goodness for skype!
I live in Zurich (Switzerland) and most of my family is in Frankfurt (Germany) which is a 4 hour drive and already too far for my liking. BUT, part of my family lives all the way out in California, which is a 12 hour flight from here… 🙁
I grew up with my entire family (except my dad’s sister) within a 3 mile radius of my house. I really appreciated that, it was great to be able to see every one all the time. It also makes visiting family easy because everyone but my older cousins still live there. I am actually trying to decide where to live after Chicago, and I have to decide by February so I can sign up for the correct Bar exam… I love Denver and am considering that, but wouldn’t mind staying in Chicago… but I’d rather try somewhere else. I’ve also thought about Seattle or Nashville, although I’ve never actually been to either place…
I live close to my mom and sister now. About 20 minutes away. Until last year I lived 8 and hours away though. While I did okay, I pretty much hated it. I think the worst part was I lived alone and worked 6 days a week. Plus my work hours started at 4:45 AM. If it wasn’t for my coworkers I would’ve never stated there 4 and half years!
Now I’m married and close to a lot of my family and my husband’s family. I love it! I can’t imagine moving away now but I also love Denver. Chicago is up there too but the traffic would kill me.
I love living in NC (we’d love to have you ;)) because of the changing seasons and being able to get to the beach or mountains within hours.
I hate not being close to family, even more so now that we have Hailey. We’re 4 hours from my parents now and that’s tough enough, so despite being OBSESSED with Colorado, I doubt we’ll ever live there.
We might move to Charleston in the future, though, when we buy a sailboat to take around the world! Kidding… kinda. 🙂
We just relocated from one family to another. It wasn’t a “job” that brought us here. We wanted more of a lifestyle and that is what we got. We were very fortunate that my job doesn’t matter where I live and my husband found a job as soon as we got here.
The Kidless Kronicles
Funny you mentioned NC and CO…my boyfriend and I met in North Carolina as he grew up there and I went to college there. I absolutely adore the Charlotte, NC area 🙂 Now we live in Colorado because we moved here a few years ago for grad school- it’s amazing to wake up in the morning, look out our window, and see a breath-taking view of the Rockies. Plus it seems like everyone in Colorado had a dog (as do we)! Unfortunately, both sets of our parents are back on the east coast…but I think the distance makes our visits with them that much more precious!
My parents, granparents, and first cousins all live in the same town as me. It is REALLY convenient now that we have a baby. He is three months old and stays with family while I’m at work. Ryne and I want to move to Miami or Charlotte (his field has tons of jobs both places) at some point, but we can’t justify taking the baby away from family!
I’m really lucky–my mom’s side of the family all lives within 20 minutes of each other, so I get to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on a regular basis. We even have a big extended family dinner every Sunday night. My dad’s family is more spread out, so it’s always a super nice treat to see them.
My boyfriend and I live very close to our families. Our extended family are mostly ~2 hours away. My parents live 35 mins away, which is also close to a lot of our friends, so we make it there often. His parents live 5 minutes away and it’s great! They don’t drop by unannounced or anything… we get together with them once every 2 weeks for dinner and they’ll come let the dog out when we’re in a pinch. Sometimes I think about moving somewhere else, but I don’t think I could EVER move super far from my family.
I really, really, really want to live in Colorado!!! It’s basically my goal in life. I’ll get there someday, but for now I just visit once a year for vacation. 🙂
I am from California, but have lived in Ireland for the past 5 years. I loved living here at first, but this past year has been really hard! I miss my family like crazy. I see them twice a year, but it’s not enough. I’m planning on moving back with my boyfriend (from here) in June, which I am super excited about, but I feel bad that he’ll then be the one away from his family! It’s funny, because I never considered myself a homebird, but after living abroad for so long and traveling around the globe, I can say that California is 100 percent where I want to live out of anywhere on Earth!
We live very close to our families. My in-laws are half a mile away and my Mom is about 35 minutes away. We see my in-laws about every other day and my Mom about twice a week – we love it! I didn’t realize how important it was to live close by until we had kids – its so wonderful that they get to have their grandparents as part of their daily lives.
As far as where to live, I would say the central CA coast. Were in Orange County, CA and it seems like every time we have a weekend to go somewhere we end up driving up there. It is so beautiful and everyone is so relaxed and friendly.
All of my family live within 15 minutes of my house (with the exception of my aunt, uncle and cousins in Italy). I absolutely love this and could not picture it any other way! My family is so important to me, so having them nearby is reassuring and also fun. I could not picture my children (when I have children) living far from their grandparents etc…I guess it all depends on how you were brought up though. If a child is brought up only visiting their grandparents, cousins etc on holidays, then that is the norm for them, and there is nothing wrong with that.
I LOVE Boston, but I guess I am a little biased because I have lived here my whole life. I do wish that sometimes the summer was longer, and that the winter wasn’t as brutal, but everywhere has it’s ups and down’s. I’ve hear that San Francisco is like Boston with great weather so I bet that’d be an awesome place to live!
I agree, family is important! I used to want to live somewhere like Colorado since I love the outdoors so much, but now that I’m getting ready to settle down I realize that I would rather be close to my family. I can always travel to beautiful places 🙂
That’s something we struggle with fairly consistently… we live ‘close enough’ but not ‘close’. Everyone is still within a drives distance. And that’s the way I like it. I like my space!
I was offered a job in Texas… it was a fantastic offer, but I ended up turning it down, which surprised even me. As much as I like to think I’m a travel person, I don’t need to be close to family constantly and I can just go visit when I really want them, I think that changed as soon as we had our daughter. I want her to have that close relationship with the rest of her family that I never really had with mine…
hehe had the same breakfast today! Minus the pistachios. Great question Julie! I’m currently at my in-laws’ house in kansas, and I live in Cali. I live less than an hour away from my own parents and Iove it that way. The older I get the more I realize just how much we have to seize the opportunity to tell them that we care about them and how awesome they are! I’ve never grown up with relatives around me so although I’d love to see them and all, it’s never been a “woww I miss them so much” thing since I don’t know them, hah! But I know that someday I’d love to visit as many of them as I can in Korea.
Hmm…I agree that I’d love to live in Colorado! Or even the east coast?
We are covered with my family here (which is good and bad). In fact, the people who live furthest away iare only three hours away (in two directions). However, we are nowhere near my husband’s family. We live in Missouri and they are in upstate New York (and his brother is in Florida). Luckily, his parents are moving to Tennessee next week so we will only be 10 hours away. Eventually, we hope to move to Tennessee as well, but I don’t know when that will happen. The Kansas City area has been my life for the last 18 years which is weird since my dad was military.
We live really close to our family! .. within 10 minutes from my hubby’s parents/brother/aunts/uncles and within 15 minute from my parents. As for my brothers, one is 1 hr away and the other is 3! 🙂
I most definitely do live close to my family – my mom, siblings and all my kids and grandkids live within a couple hours drive at the most. Growing up I also had my grandparents living NEXT DOOR (which was awesome!!) and tons of local cousins.
Recently my hubby visited his Mom in Alaska (keep in mind I’m in Southern California) and he declared that we were moving there – my first response was “only if the kids all agree to move to because there is NO way I’m going without them”. We are still in SoCal and have no plans to move so you can guess what happened there! LOL
I live half-way across the country from all of my family! I miss them all of the time, but I particularly miss them now that my brother is having his first child (my first and only niece). I am the only one in the family that doesn’t live within a one-hour radius. But, I go home frequently – it’s only a three-hour flight away – and it makes the time we are together more special when I am there!
I grew up in Coney Island and half of the neighborhood was made of my relatives. So I would just walk over… and there were always plenty of babysitters at hand. for my parents, that was awesome 🙂 Now we’ve moved to VA far from NY, but I wouldn’t live anywhere else. People here are like my family and I love it here SO much! Fredericksburg ROCKS 🙂
I grew up really close to my mom’s side of the family. Grandma and Grandpa and an aunt were 30 minutes away, while my other aunt and uncle and cousins were an hour. My dad, however, is originally from Washington, and all of his family lives out there to this day. Living in the Midwest, I didn’t see them more than once a year at the most. It would’ve been nice to be able to spend more time with my grandparents on my dad’s side, but having them live in Washington also gave us an excellent vacation destination. Most of my local peers have never been to Seattle, but I’ve been there probably more times than any other city aside from my hometown and Chicago. If I ever get married and have kids, I’d really like to be close to either my family or my husband’s family so that my kids can have the same grandparent/family support growing up that I had (and so I can have a supply of free and willing babysitters! 😉 )
my hubs and i moved from MI to SC a couple years ago for his job, and we absolutely love it!! we didn’t know a single person in all of sc (or the entire region!) which made it hard, but it was definitely an adventure to ‘find our way’ all on our own. everyone we know is back in mi and we miss out on a lot, but we are thankful for how well things worked out for us here, both with jobs and being so lucky to have such a scenic area with lots to do (we’re just a few minutes away from nc/mountains AND a few hours from the beach :)) we’ll move back to MI someday, but for now we’re soaking in the experiences and making the most of it. it also helps that our fam & friends are always willing to visit us!
I wish I lived closer to my parents, I’m super jealous that you live so close to your 🙂 I keep trying to convince mine to move by me, but no luck yet!
I totally know how you feel! It’s so hard to KNOW where you’ll end up & what exactly it is that you want.
I’m from StL, and my parents & yougner sibs are still there, but all my other siblings are all over the country (with 2 of ’em in CO). I think my parents will eventually move out west (we live in UT right now, and my husband’s family is near, which is nice). But then again, WE have no idea if we’ll stay here. After my husband is done w/school it just depends on what job offer he wants to take, ya know?! But I try and live it up wherever we live 🙂 And visit family as much as physically possible–b/c we’re all REAL close. 🙂
We live about 3.5 hours from our immediate families, just a little further than we’d prefer but we love the town we live in right now, so who knows what will happen later. I agree that when we starting having kids we’ll ideally want to be closer to family!
If I could pick up my family and move us all to California I’d do it in a heartbeat!
I grew up in Orlando and both my family and my in-laws still live there. Though I love Florida, Atlanta isn’t too far away. Plus, it’s been good for the hubby and I to start a life on our own since I’m an only child and he’s the oldest!
The first twenty four years of life I lived closeby to my family. While we have most of our family in Illinois, my Dad’s family is in Missouri, Virginia, and Florida (talk about scattered!)
I live in Seattle, WA, and moved here last January to be with my now-fiance and to do an internship for graduate school. Life is all about taking chances…and we took a chance on leaving and we LOVE it here! While we both get homesick, we have been able to travel home twice since leaving in January, and I’ll be headed home next month for a wedding, and again for Thanksgiving (fingers crossed!)
I never saw myself as someone who would live close to her family – I went to college in New York City (my family is in PA) and then law school in Virginia, with no intention of returning home. As life would have it though, my new husband and I ended up finding jobs in Philadelphia – just an hour away from my parents and grandparents! Since I grew up with my grandmother across the street, the proximity is rather exciting, although 18-year-old Courtney never would have thought that! It’s funny where life takes you, but it always leads back to family 🙂
We lived within a half hour of all our family until the past year. We decided we could handle the adventure of moving across the country for my husband’s job. For us, it didn’t work. We are moving back to the midwest about 2 hrs from home. My biggest advice on moving is to find a place where you have at least some family or a good friend. It’s not that you can’t meet new people, but it will make it easier. That was the hardest part for us…but, you never know until you try!
It’s so funny you mention North Carolina and Colorado… if I were to move those are the two places I would seriously consider!
I love living close to family. I married into a very tight-knit group and 3 of my husbands 4 sisters all live within 10 minutes of our house… We even live in the same neighborhood as his parents and my mom followed me here when I left for school! It’s nice to have that support nearby… but it would be fun to have some people to visit!
I moved away from my family around 8 years ago and struggled with it for a while… homesickness, guilt. Now that I’m getting married, my fiance and I are looking to move all the way to San Fran which means we’ll be even farther from my family – though still near some of our best friends. It’s tough with our parents getting older but we’ve decided we’ve got to live for ourselves while we can and if life brings us back home, then that’s what’s meant to be!
Also, I agree – having lived in NC now for 8 years, the mountains (around this time of year especially) are one of my favorite places!
Living close to my family is my number one priority. Well number two…number one is living in the same place as my fiancee! But really, i would follow my mother and sisters almost anywhere.
We live pretty close to family but hope to move to Colorado in a few years. My husband and I live the mountains and would love for our son to grow up with the mountains in our backyard. Part of me would feel guilty leaving our family in Florida. But what better place to come visit!
I’m a mountain girl all the way. I live in Florida too and love being close to the beach, but I feel so at peace in the mountains. Our moves are totally controlled by my husband’s job but I hope that one day we can make it to the mountains!
I’ve been working towards finding a job in California to be closer to my boyfriend who just moved there 2 years ago when we graduated from college. All my family is in Illinois, and the thought of leaving for a long period of time isn’t ideal for me. Sometimes I feel like you have to do what you want to do for yourself though. Me moving to California doesn’t mean I’ll be away from my family forever. If only all jobs were so convenient like your case with blogging!
I’m definately a mountain girl. I would probably live in Colorado if I could take my entire family with me. I live about an hour away from my parents. Even living one hour is sometimes hard. I can’t just stop by when I want or drop in for dinner whenever I want.
I live in north central Florida and I’ve lived in central PA. All of my family lives in the Atlanta area except 2 of my sisters. I wish I could move back to Atlanta this very second.
If I could live anywhere right now it would be Savannah, GA. My husband and I love that town and everything about it. I try to visit once a year. Some of my family is close by some far away. It’s hard when they are so far away. So good to visit with them. Have a great day. ^_^
I live in Richmond, VA (way too cold in the winter) and I am eager to move down south to be closer to my mom who is in Naples. She was around for my first two kids and moved before the third came along. It has been so hard without her! I grew up surrounded by my family and now it seems that we are scattered up and down the east coast. we definitly treasure the times that we get to be together.
I just started following your blog and I love it! Thanks for the great recipes!
Where is your placemat from?! So cute.. Reminds me of when I went to camp in Maine and did weaving on a big old fashioned loom!
If I could live in anywhere it would be FL! I currently live in NYC and don’t think I’d miss the season change despite living in New York/CT my whole life.
I live about 5 minutes from both my sisters and about 20 minutes from my parents 🙂 I feel so lucky! I live in Vancouver, BC and it honestly is the most gorgeous place to me so i’m exactly where I want to be
I feel like this is one of the hardest topics in a relationship! We are currently about an hour from most of my husbands family and 6-7 hours from my family. I am really hoping we can move in the next year or so to be closer to my family, but I have a lot of sadness I don’t think it will ever be possible for us to leave near both our families (though I know 7 hours isn’t so bad compared to how a lot of people have it). Luckily I love the area where my family lives (greater DC area). Even without them living there, I might pick it as my “want to live” area! I’d also consider parts of CA, but I think I might get tired of it. I’d move to Hawaii in a heartbeat if I could bring everyone I love with me.
I have moved 7 times in the last 14 years with 2 kids along for the ride. We don’t live close to family and I have always hated that for them. We try to visit as much as possible. One thing that I have discovered is that you can live anywhere as long as you have the love of your family. But my dream place would be somewhere with better weather than my current Chicago location! 🙂
Josh and I are struggling with this very thing. He’s going on the job market to be a professor in a few months and it’s likely we’ll have to leave the east coast and move out west away from all our family and friends. It will be really hard but as long as we have each other I know we can make the best of it! 🙂
I live in NW Ohio (same town I’ve lived in since I was born 30 years ago 😉 ). I am near almost all of my family, which is wonderful. However, I hate our winters & would love to move somewhere with much less snow. My mom is considering a move to N. Carolina for work & I’m contemplating going, too. I would also love to live in Seattle or Washington, DC. I definitely don’t feel like I want to live in Ohio for the rest of my life!
We live about 8 mintues from my in laws and about 4.5 hours from my family. All of my husbands brothers, sisters, cousins, grandmas, grandpa live in driving distance as well. My grandparents live in California and we see them usually 1-2 times a year! We love being close to all of them. I recently had surgery and my mom and sisters were able to be here for me and help my husband and my in laws were able to visit as well. We are all really close and its really great with family game nights, dinners, and we are always able to see our little sisters games, programs etc. It’s really great, and when we have kids they will be close to their grandparents!