Decision to Start Blogging
We have decided to start blogging for a number of reasons. As a family we all really enjoy helping others and sharing experiences with them. We feel very blessed in life as we have many things in life to be thankful for. We have been blessed with our family, our friends, and our health.
This journey really started years ago and will likely be discussed in detail through future posts, however for this first post I will summarize the steps.
#1 – One of the biggest steps we took was to live life self employed.
This was a huge risk for us, we put all of our savings on the line. We were very young and had 2 young children when we started our first major business. It was far from a simple process, we had to work very hard and often times were not able to see each other very much. Eventually over the years it got easier and started to provide the flexibility we were looking for. We could not live the life we do if we punched a clock each day at an office. This does not mean we never work, in fact we work very hard even to this day. It just means that we have a fantastic team of people that help us do the things that need to be done, and we are not doing everything ourselves.
#2 – Another big decision we made to help fit our core values was Homeshooling our children.
This again is major decision, as it is not status quo. We had some tough conversations about pros and cons to homeschooling. Eventually we decided it was the right move for our family. It was a great decision! Some of our concerns would be the social aspect our kids get in school, having friends and socializing with other children. This was not an issue at all for our kids, they are active in coops, sports, and activities where they still have plenty of interaction with friends and other children. It also gives us the flexibility to teach to each one of their individual interests, which makes learning more fun and much easier. If you are in a position to do so, we strongly encourage you to homeschool.
#3 – We sold our house and almost everything in it.
We decided the most important things in our house were actually not things at all. It was the people that occupied the house that we cared about. Our hobbies and interests didn’t have anything to do with our physical house, in fact the house restricted us from some of the things we wanted to do. For years we have discussed spending winters down south to avoid the bitter winters of Minnesota. We already spent quite a bit of time traveling, only to also pay all costs associated with owning a home while we weren’t in it. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it is a bad idea to own a home. In fact we will likely be building a new home at the end of our road trip around the country. I am just saying live your life today, you never know what will happen tomorrow.
#4 – We loaded our travel trailer and our pickup and hit the road.
To us it was the easiest part of the steps we discussed. It was the point that the hard work we have put in the previous 12 years paid a dividend. Some people tell us “It must be rough to take an 8 month vacation?”. The truth is, we don’t view it as a vacation at all. This is our life now. Our family views it as a chance to spend the most quality time together than we ever have. We are not waking up at different times, to go different directions every morning. We do not each have individual plans or tasks each morning. Instead we wake up and spend all day together. We do everything as a family!
This is why named our story “Blessed without Boundaries”.
We are extremely blessed! We have so many things to be thankful for other than just our family, friends, and health.
- We have 30+ employees in 3 different businesses that help us keep things running like a fine tuned machine.
- We have the financial resources (which without a mortgage isn’t much different than living at home).
- We have faith that keeps us going when the days get long.
- And the list goes on and on….
The “without Boundaries” portion is about living outside the box. We take pride in living an unconventional life, doing unconventional things. We don’t want to be just like everyone else, we want to be the Schroeders!
