We sold our house of 15 years and bought a ranch in the Carson Valley, Nevada. Steve retires in less than 3 years and then we’ll be living on the ranch full time. Until that time we are living in a rental in the city of San Juan Capistrano, in Orange County, Ca. Steve still works full time and Emma is in a homeschool program here in California.

We’re traveling back and forth between the two homes. I am keeping two house holds and homeschooling Emma. Seems easy enough, but let me tell you, I’m in a little over my head. Between planning and remodeling the ranch, and then living a regular life here I’m starting to get a little confused. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, and I totally knew what we were getting into. It’s just a lot. Needless to say, blogging takes a back seat to everything else. I don’t want it to but sometimes somethings gotta give.

My goal is to be able to adapt to my new lifestyle and get a schedule going so I can manage both places well. Then, there’s this thing called life that just keeps getting in my way. Still, I’m determined to make it all work.

The weirdest part is feeling like I’m living in two parallel realities. I’m here in the city, driving in traffic and running errands, like Emma’s school and getting her to aerial arts. I run off a budget that is tight and I’m not always able to get everything we need, but it’s working well enough. Our home is small and our stuff is packed in here. We don’t always know where our stuff is, but we just don’t really care.

Then, I go out to the country where we have a coyote family that lives behind us. We work really hard when we’re there and are physically tired at the end of every day. We live off a completely different budget and do different activities. Instead of getting up and popping a k-cup in the Keurig, we heat water in a camping teapot and make instant coffee. The morning is slower there and the sunsets are the time of day everything stops and we go out to watch it.

It wasn’t until last month when Steve’s best friend Kurt, and my best friend Kim, came up to the property, that we felt the first cross over of our two realities. It was weird and great. Some people we knew showed up in our other life and then it became more real for us. We felt like somehow, the two lives were really just our one life. Thank goodness, because it was really getting weird.

I feel like in the middle of all this craziness, I’ve found a couple of things that are keeping me grounded. First of all, I’ve started going to a women’s group with our church. I know the women from my group before so it’s nice to reconnect with them. Sometimes I can’t even get to church, but I show up to our group anyway. I just want to be with them and listen to the discussion and laugh really hard. Second, I have little moments in my life at both places where I stop and listen and enjoy the moment. Like watching the sunset over the Sierras. Sometimes I lay in bed at the apartment and listen to the crows in the backyard, or the whistle of the train. My favorite thing is just hearing the church bells ringing from the mission down the street. Each place has bits and pieces to them that I love, and I try to hold on to those so I can stay grounded. The last thing is realizing the importance of these little family people I live with. My husband makes both places my reality, and having Emma there and here makes my life real. I love seeing my big girls in California and when they cross over it’ll be perfect! We even bought a second cage for the guinea pigs so they can live at either place.

This part of our journey is pretty exciting, maybe too exciting, but I’m going to do my best to make it work.