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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I live pretty close to the majority of my family. My parents are about 10 minutes down the road!
If I could pick anywhere in the world to live, I’d definitely pick California!
Me and all of my family live in Alabama. Most of them live in my city, and a few of them live about 1-2 hours away and we see them a few times a year, not a lot. But it is really nice having my family live in the same state.
But, personally I would love to live in Boston. My type of weather and surroundings.
I completely agree- when I moved to London I couldn’t help but love the experience but knew it couldn’t be home! After a year and a half we moved back home, where most of family live within running distance or a short drive.
I think you need to move to Australia!! I know it defeats the purpose of been close to family, but google Illawarra escarpment, Australia- we have the mountains and the sea 🙂
I grew up living 6+ hours away from ALL of my family. Then, I went to college 8 hours from home (but very close to my grandparents.) Right now my husband is in law school, and we live an hour and a half away from my parents! This is “close” to us and we love it! It’s so nice to be able to see my parents without all the hassle of travel.
Mmm those oats look good! My sister=best friend lives here in NYC with me, but my mom and brother are in KY and OH…wish I could see them more! Famous last words: “I want to be rich so I can just pick up and fly to see them whenever I want!” ha
I followed my family to MD from RI, not only because I was able to get an (incredible) job here, but because I wanted to be close to them. Now that I’m here, I cannot imagine being extremely distant from them. I love having Sunday dinners, catching up over coffee, etc. And, now that I’m starting to plan a wedding, I am beyond grateful that my dad is nearby to help with the planning!
i do live close to family! it is such a blessing and i am glad to be close!!! 🙂
if i could live anywhere, hmm that is hard so many places, Hawaii, Alaska, California, London!!! or even Germany! so many other good options! the list is endless! 🙂
I don’t live close to extended family, but my nuclear family never did, so it’s not that weird? It’s sad for me to live far from my parents though, since we’re really close.
With unlimited funds, I would live in Croatia or on the Albanian coast! So pretty and the food is great & people are friendly. More realistically, I’d live anywhere where winter doesn’t exist.
100% of my family lives in North Carolina or Virginia except my immediate family who lives in Florida.
That meant growing up we did not get to see family except a few times a year. Now that I am on my own I have moved to NC and it is so amazing/weird living close to family and being able to visit on a whim!
We live within about an hour of both of our parents and siblings. We’re planning to buy a house in the next 6 months or so and are planning to stay in the general area. I could never leave Southern California, and I love being close to family.
I’m pretty lucky that most of my family is within 2 and a half hours away- it’s still a fair drive though!
I go to University of Maryland and am from Maryland so I live very close to them! It’s hard to imagine myself living anywhere else, but hopefully I will be moving to France next year so it’s going to be a big change!
I am the type of person that when/if I move I want to bring my family with. Most of my family is spread out between back home I’m Chicago. Others are in New York, Ohio, and Tennessee. I am just as envious of those with family all around, as you are.
I don’t care where I live as long as I’m with the people I love. Family moving across the ocean really helped me realize that.
This is something I am struggling with right now. I live in Houston, TX and have never lived anywhere else, except for leaving for college for 4 years. My parents live 10 minutes away, my sisters live within 30 minutes, and I have aunts, uncles, and cousins all within the same vicinity. We even go to church together. My husband and I are thinking about starting a family and it’s really important to us to stay nearby. Lucky for us, Houston has a great job market so there isn’t really any reason to leave except for the horrific hot weather, much like Florida’s. If we could leave, it would be to Colorado Springs, CO. OMG it’s so awesome there!
Living near family seems so much more important once you have kids! My husband’s family lives in FL and I’m from CT. We started out in SC away from everybody. I had our first child and we moved to FL. I got pregnant with my second and my parents moved to FL too. We’re both only children, but I’ve seen quite a few of my friends pack up and move back home once they had kids to be near family. Grandparents make the BEST babysitters too!!!
Growing up, I had both sets of grandparents and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins nearby. I loved having everyone around to celebrate birthdays and holidays with!
Now that my husband is in the Army, I really realize just how lucky we were. We live in Alaska for now, and it’s nothing short of $600+ and an entire day of travel just to get home. I miss living nearby, and I will never take that time for granted again!
I grew up with all my family in the same town, but I moved from Germany to Toronto last year.. haven’t been back home yet but my parents and 2 good friends were here for my wedding. It’s hard, but it was my decision and I really like it here. I just wish the flights wouldn’t be sooo expensive :/
My husbands parents and siblings and their families live close by, so at least I’m still having family around.
I would move to California (maybe San Francisco) if I could move anywhere.. I love the sun and the beach/ocean and I don’t need the winter.
After I left for college, I lived FAR from family but now I’m back for the time being. My favorite place I’ve lived was Boston but I also have this weird draw to Colorado, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia (don’t ask me why?)
Aw I can completely relate to not being close to family. I always wish my closest family members were closer so that there were more get togethers than just the big ones like Thanksgiving and winter holidays.
Hey Julie,
First off, I love your blog! It’s so much fun to read, and I feel like we have a lot of similarities 🙂 Anyways, I am originally from California, but just moved to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to be with my boyfriend. We met here three years ago through work and after two years of long distance, I made the move out here. It is so beautiful and awesome living on the beach, but it is a reallllly small area with not much to do in the winter. He grew up here and his entire immediate fam lives 2 minutes away in either direction. My family lives in California and I miss them terribly. It’s really difficult to be away from family. We are going to chat after his annual review this year about living here and how both of our jobs are going. We have a weird fascination with Texas and I of course love California. We will see! I know my guy needs to be near water though…he’s a total surfer boy 🙂
My husband is in the marines, so unfotunately we live 1500 miles away from them 🙁 PLUS our parents live 4 hours away from each other so we have to split time even more so when we go home. I grew up with both of my grandmas aunts/uncles <5 minutes away and I want my son to have that, however I know my husband will never live within 2 hours from either family bc that is how he grew up. My ideal location would be the town outside of where my family live. It is a smaller town full of Germans and I love their food and close knit community. I ended up going my last 2 years of school there!! On the upside of being in a military lifestyle, we do get to live and meet some amazing people that I will never forget in my lifetime 🙂