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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Colorado is fine, but New Mexico is much better if you’re going to haul yourself out that way. The mountains are incredible in the northern part of the state.
I almost live a bit *too* close to family. Two hours from mine, two hours from my boyfriend’s…we spend at least 1-2 weekends a month with one or both of our families. I like it, but sometimes I feel like we’re forever going to be overgrown kids home every weekend.
I live a 3 hour flight away from evvvvvvvvvery one in my family. Just me and my Boyfriend living up here. Plus an Aunt/Uncle/Cousin trio who live about 2hrs up north of me.
I miss home! I’m heading back next week, for the Canadian Thanksgiving.
First of all, those overnight oats look absolutely delicious! I wish I had thought to make some last night so that classes this morning would be slightly more bearable haha. As for living close to family, I currently do not as I go to college in Louisiana but I call Massachusetts home. Although it’s far away and it was a huge change, I wouldn’t go back and choose to go to college anywhere else because LSU is beyond amazing! Geaux Tigers!
I live close to all of my family. We’re all within like 30 minutes of each other in central Pennsylvania. My husband’s family is in Pittsburgh and Ohio, so about 5-6 hours to drive there. He has a grandmother north of Tampa that we try to visit as often as we can. I love being close to my family and I’d have a hard time moving away. I love having our Sunday dinners and having my parents and my grandfather over for lunch.
I live very close to my family. My immediate family live in the next development over from mine. I like living close to my family but I wouldn’t mind exploring other parts of the US. I’d love to live in Boston, or Florida. I wouldn’t mind working in Disney World 😉
I was fortunate enough to grow up close to nearly all my family, and go to every cousin’s/grandma’s/grandpa’s birthday celebrations throughout the year. I’ve thought about wanting to live somewhere else (specifically Virginia or NC) but I don’t think I could leave my family either. I love New England too…the four seasons, I need them or else I get bored!
I live across the country from my parents, but my in-laws live 15 minutes away. It’s tough, but we try to see my parents at least once a year (I’m going on Saturday!!!). If we could live anywhere, I’d choose California or somewhere where the seasons change, but it doesn’t get super cold in the winter 🙂
have fun with your family this weekend!!!
I live in Washington D.C. about 2.5 hours from my family but I live with my boyfriend. I always think about what it would of been like it I got a job in Philly (where I am from) instead of D.C. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be closer to them but then I realized that my relationship has become stronger with my parents and it is a much more adult relationship. Also, I grew up in Philly and wanted to experience a new area with new people and things to do, I have never regretted my decision and always give advice to recent grads who are thinking about moving away from home
Being from Rhode Island, it’s hard NOT to be close to family! You can drive the length of the state in an hour haha so I was lucky growing up to have all of my family literally within 20 minutes of me. The only exception are my grandparents on my mom’s side, who moved to Florida when I was around 5. It’s nice having everyone so close 🙂
Although my brother & sister don’t live in Mumbai, I have so much other family here and I love it…makes it feeel all the more like home!
I am from New Jersey, but I moved to Norway when I was 11. My Mom and my sister still live in Norway and I moved back to the states to go to college (WV) and I met my husband who is from here.
It’s REALLY tough to be that far away from my sister and my Mom. I get to see them once a year if I’m lucky:(
I know what you mean. I have a similar situation-I live within driving distance to my parents and one set of grandparents, but the rest of my family is scattered around the country. While it’s nice to have an excuse to travel and visit, it’s a totally different dynamic when you don’t get to see them often. It usually hits me around the holidays how much I’d love to have more family close by. But there are pros and cons to every situation, so I just try to remind myself of that and be thankful that I am at least close to some of my family!
my parents live in the same town as me and my aunt lives 30 mins away but everyone else is scattered. My dad’s family lives in upstate NY and my mom’s family lives in LA and Michigan! I wish my Grandma lived closer, she is the only grandparent I have left and hope she is around for a while! I am dying to live in San Francisco, Boston or Chicago!
My husband’s family is close by here in St Louis, but my family is all the way in florida. It is rough when you have kids and want to share them with your family!
My mom’s family all live around here.. some are upstate though (like only 4 hours away), my Dad’s family is in Florida lol I would honesly loveee to live in South Carolina though, it looks beautiful there!
If you love mountains, you need to get up to Seattle! Between the Cascades and the Olympics, you’ve got mountains for days…plus the Puget Sound and lakes in between! I’m originally from there (if you couldn’t guess), but now I live out in Washington, D.C. My mom’s side of the family all made it to Seattle eventually, but my whole dad’s side of the family lives in Egypt, so I only get to see them once every couple of years or so.
If I could live anywhere in the world, it would probably be somewhere in the Veneto region of Italy…my boyfriend’s extended family lives there and every time I visit, I fall in love all over again!
Two yrs ago my husband and i up and moved to colorado from az. we are apart from our family but we love it here!
The first day back from a great vacation is always a tough adjustment!
I grew up in TN, where my parents and all of my grandparents were born and raised, so we always had family close by and my mom has instilled in me the value of that short distance – we had a few babysitters, but have more fond memories of Saturday night sleepovers at our grandparents’ houses! We now live in North Carolina (I swear you’d love it here!) and are four hours from my parents in SC, which is doable. But if familial distance and jobs were no object, we’d move back to TN in a second because it’s the only place that truly feels like home 🙂
I live in Rhode Island and grew up with most of my extended family less than an hour away and loved it! My grandparents even picked me up from school once a week. Now my parents spend half the year here in Rhode Island and half the year in Vero beach Florida but the rest of my family is here in New England! I would love to live somewhere a little warmer but I do love the seasons and being near my family is so important to me!
Julie, I’m in the SAME boat! Will and I were talking the other day about how much we love the mountains and small-town feel, but don’t know if it’s practical with all of our family in South Florida!
Gosh, we’ve gotta get some manmade mountains and a cool breeze down here stat
no kidding!! my parents always talk about how they get “that feeling” at the beach, and i get “that feeling” in the mountains. so beautiful.
Funny you mention both NC and CO – those are the 2 places that we’ve been contemplating moving too for the past few years from FL since we try to visit both once a year. Our parents are here too (different cities) and both sets love being so close to the grandbabies. In addition to that, I’ve got a good job here (his is flexible like yours), the cost of living in FL is pretty reasonable, and we don’t need to worry about things like snow storms, shoveling snow, or super short days in winter since we are so close to the equator 🙂 When it comes down to it, we decided that its better that we get to travel with family rather than travel to see family. Also, living so close to family allows us to take off work for vacation with just me and the hubby or just us and the kids and to still have time to visit them over weekends.
I just talked about this (living close to fam) the other day!
I live sooo far from my family (my parents were visiting). They have their house in Alaska still and spend summers there and are in Belize in the winter. And then my sisters are in Alaska and Cali, and my boyfriends dad is in Alaska and his mom is in FL. so it is so spread out. Now that we have moved out of alaska and to NC I feel like we are much closer to everyone though (thankfully we are closer to FL since his mom got diagnosed with breast cancer last year!)
We moved to NC a little over a year ago and i LOVE it and this is exactly where i want to live!! 🙂
I also love Denver! It is sooo gorgeous. Would definitely move there if I could convince my family to follow 🙂 Right now we are all just a couple hours away by car. Any further would drive me nuts.
We live close to my family (some being a mile down the road, others within 20 minutes). If we could live anywhere it would be Kauai, which is our goal to be “part timers”, half here and half there. In the meantime we have a place on the Big Island.
I grew up within 15 minutes of my grandparents, and only an hour away from my aunt, uncle, and cousins. It was/is so nice to be close to everybody. However, since I’m in college, I’m now 3.5 hrs away, but thats still not too bad… 😉
If I could live anywhere, it would be east Tennessee. I’ve been to North Carolina as well, and the Smoky Mountains are absolutely beautiful! =)
My sister lives some 6 hours away, but everyone else is close. My parents are only 20 minutes from me, and I spend a ton of time with my mom.
If I could ANYWHERE, it’d be in the Teton Valley in Wyoming. I took a trip there a few years and fell in love. Some day.
My husband and I have this conversation almost weekly! We are “stuck” in FL for the time being because of his schooling, but if we could live anywhere I would opt for GA because both our families are there. He, on the otherhand, would love to move to California. Time will tell!
I just moved back to Texas where my family is. I was in New Hampshire for two years and it definitely sucks having to spend an entire day traveling just to see your family. It’s hard to limit yourself based on location though. Yall are lucky!
I’m lucky. I live only about an hour away from my family and half an hour away from my husband’s family. It’s great to have family so close. But then again, my husband is in Texas right now interviewing for a job so who knows, we might end up there!
We’ve always lived close to most of my mom’s family, and my dad’s parents. My dad’s sisters and their families live in Florida and Colorado, so we’d go YEARS without seeing them. Felt really strange. I loved being super close to my grandparents, though. Halloween was always the best (King sized candy bars!).
My husband and I will be moving to Colorado in May or June of 2013. It will take us far away from family (in Missouri) but other than that it seems like the perfect fit for us!
I went to college 1000 miles away from home. While it was absolutely amazing, I was so far from my parents! They came down like once a semester but I still missed them. Now I’m back home and wherever I settle, I need them nearby!
it is a 13 hour drive to see my parents and 2 brothers. It can be hard to be so far away but it has also been really good for us to get some independence! We are only 2 hours from my husbands parents which is great!
I live about 2 1/2 hours from my family right now, and sometimes it seems much further than that. I have absolutely loved Colorado since I was a little girl and that’s where I would move today if we could figure how to do it! Maybe retirement 🙂
I can’t imagine not being close to my family. My immediate family lives within an hour of us, but my husband’s family is much more spread out. My parents actually live one street over from us and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The key is to respect boundaries and we all do that very well! There’s nothing like grabbing a quick dinner with them or a movie without any planning. Although we can go a week without even running into each other when we are busy.
I hear ya on this one! I grew up in New York, and my grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins live in Florida, Texas, California, Colorado, Dubai, and Hong Kong! While I love having such an interesting family with members who have done and experienced so many exciting things around the world, I always wished we were closer and able to all crowd around the dinner table together.
My hubby and I are the same way. I enjoy Sunday dinners and being able to go there when I want so I’m not sure if I could live away.
I live SO far away from my family and I do really miss them. I would love to live in Vancouver, BC one day. That’s my dream city. Ireland is fun for now though!
I thought I had a great idea for overnight oats. I food processed a tasty but mushy peach and layered it with greek yogurt & oats then let it rest overnight. I figured the peach mush would absorb into the oats, nope! Still tasted good all stirred up, just a bit more texture to it.
We are actually in the process of trying to move back to where our family is… We moved out here to Utah for my husband’s job, and as we’re about to start a family, we are realizing how much we want to be near relatives. At times it’s a little stressful with the economy and such, but we’re just hoping and praying it’ll all work out how it’s supposed to!
I live in Jersey and almost all of my family is here. If they weren’t, I’d move to Orlando in a heartbeat. I am sick of snow and high taxes. I love Disney, I’ve been there 17 times and it’s absolutely my favorite place on Earth. The driving down there is also much easier.
I grew up in NY and mys sister and mom’s side of the family lies there. My dad’s side of the family is in Chicago. My fiance’s family is in Tampa, so we are at least a 10 hour drive from anyone in our families. I’ve always been envious of people who have close-knit local families!
Isn’t it great to be “home”?? Luckily I live close to family & when I travel for work, it’s always the best to get home! I vote for CO as well, having lived multiple states & countries; CO is always beautiful & love the outdoors!
I’m very lucky because I get to live in a beautiful place with most of family nearby (withint 20 miles!) If you ever decide to come back and visit Colorado, I teach snowboarding for Vail and would love to host a lesson for you! My absolute favorite thing to do is show off my state. I’m such a goober about it! I enjoy checking in on your blog, so thanks for the morning internet, coffee-drinking entertainment!
I just moved about 45 minutes away from my family – it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I used to live 5 minutes away from where my mom works so I used to see her all the time. It’s an odd adjustment!
We live about two hours from our family(parents) and I think that is the perfect distance. Far enough that you get space but close enough that it is easy to travel.
If I could live anywhere, I think I would pick San Fransisco!! There is just so much I love about that city!!!
I live in Colorado so I am a little biased but I think my state is pretty spectacular!! I do love warm weather and the beach though! People are very active and health conscious in CO which is nice:) I live 2 hrs from my rents and 20 mins from my in laws. It’s nice to have everyone close by. (most of the time lol)
I’ve lived away from my family for the last year, but now I’m further away than I ever have been. When I lived in Connecticut, I was still a car ride away (6 hours-yuck!) but now I’m a 16 hour car drive away, haha. I live with my boyfriend so that’s a plus, but we’ve talked about how we eventually want to be closer to our families back in Maryland! Or try to convince them all to move down here, ha!
I struggle with where I want to live in the future, too! I grew up in Northern Virgina, but currently live in Raleigh about 4 hours from my family. My husband and I are having a baby in December, so now being that far away seems like a big deal! In addition to that, he’s considering careers that could take us even farther away. Part of me is excited about the adventure of trying out new locations, but at the same time, it would be REALLY nice to be close to my parents once I have the baby. I’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds for us!