Coffee Break #56 | Where We’re Living Now!

I promised this post last month, but I just couldn’t fit it in. But today’s the day, friends! I’m spilling the tea on where we live now, for how long, and how this move is (already) shaping up to be so different from all our others!

We’ve Moved To…

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me when I get private messages from fellow military spouses who know exactly where I am based on sharing a single photo. It’s a testament to the little spouse community we’ve built here; and to those of you who figured it out, I appreciate you giving me the time to “reveal” it in my own way.

This past summer, my family and I left Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (with so many tears and even fuller hearts) and executed move #10 to Carlisle, Pennsylvania…home of the US Army War College.

How This Move Is Different From All Our Others

This is a one year assignment for Greg, where he is stationed with the Army as a student. While you might think all of those things are usual for us, they are not. This is Greg’s third one-year assignment; his third time being assigned to a military school; and his third time being stationed with the Army.

So besides the fact that we are (finally!) in a brand new-to-us state (until now, we’ve been circling back to the same states over and over again), what makes this move so unusual?

We didn’t bring all of our stuff. In fact, we put about half of our belongings into long-term storage for the year (as in, we cannot access it).

Record screech. Say what?!?

Let me rewind a year or so…

This Isn’t My First 1 Year Rodeo

We have known for much of the last two years that Greg’s next assignment would be to a military school (it’s the “usual” follow-on step from his previous job). There are several different schools across the nation where he could be assigned, but almost all of them are one year long (less than that actually, as they are a school year).

We have done two other one-year assignments and are intimately familiar with both the opportunities and challenges that come with such a short-term experience. While we truly loved our time in Quantico, VA and Leavenworth, KS (both 1-year schools), this time around was feeling especially complicated, uncertain, and heavy.

Yes, packing/unpacking boxes and decorating/un-decorating our homes is exhausting. But moving is so much more than that. It’s leaving friends, comforts, routines, and familiarity. It’s finding new schools, new doctors, new dentists, new hair dressers. It brings tedious paperwork, copious research, hard goodbyes, and awkward introductions. All of it for 5 different people.

It’s a lot to take on for any duration…but the logistics, planning, and disruption was feeling especially burdensome for just one year. Because remember…we’d do it all this summer. And then do it all again next summer, when this assignment is over.

I am very rarely overwhelmed by the prospect of moving, but this time…I was. As such, we were seriously considering myself and the kids staying put in North Carolina while Greg went ahead to school, wherever he was ultimately assigned. We loved our house and our life in Camp Lejeune, and (more importantly) we saw this as a (relatively easy) way to eliminate one transition and provide stability for the kids.

Our “plan” was pretty much settled. And then Greg got assigned to Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

It was equal parts totally unexpected and incredibly thrilling. We’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the “experience” at Carlisle (IYKYK), and we’ve long been wanting to explore Pennsylvania more (it’s on our short list of forever home locations). Quite suddenly, splitting up the family didn’t feel like the right solution; but I had to figure out a way to cut through the suffocating overwhelm and make this move (and next summer’s) as easy as possible.

This entire “saga” was playing out a time when I was feeling especially burdened by our home…specifically the stuff in it and the projects I was doing to it. As I chat more about here, the novelty of doing (and then undoing) home after home was rapidly loosing its luster, and the amount of stuff we were accumulating in the name of doing said projects was stifling in its own right.

The only way I could wrap my brain around transitioning our entire lives for just a year was to drastically simplify the move itself. And that meant:

1. Not bringing all our stuff.
2. Not doing any projects.

It felt like a crazy idea at the time, but it was also the exact “break” I needed to be totally in on moving our family to Pennsylvania.

What Does This Mean for the Blog?

As I’ve said…this year will be unlike any other…both for my family in real life and here on the blog. We brought just over half of our belongings to Pennsylvania. A vast majority of our “decor” and pretty much all of my craft/DIY supplies were put into storage. And this was intentional. I do not plan to do any significant makeovers or projects in our current home. When I said I’ve been struggling with near total burnout, I meant it. And this is me giving myself a real, true break.

But a month ago, I told you “I’m back!” and I am. Just because I’m stepping off the perpetual project hamster wheel doesn’t mean I don’t still have lots of ideas to share with you.

• There are countless projects and spaces I still haven’t shown you from our North Carolina home, including how it all came apart…
• We did our first ever DITY (do it yourself) move here to Pennsylvania and have so many lessons learned…
• There are lots of (really) old posts that I need to update…
• And I (already) have so many reflections on this “living with less” sabbatical, including what we put into storage, why, how it’s going, what we miss, etc.

Oh…and despite telling myself I wasn’t going to do a single project all year, I’ve already hung wallpaper in two rooms and came up with some pretty clever curtain hacks…because I guess I can’t help myself, after all.

(I’ve already snuck a few photos of our current digs into some recent posts – who noticed?!?)

So while I have every intention to be here (perhaps more than ever), I feel compelled to say that moving forward, posts and projects will no longer be perfectly chronological. I’m going to share whatever ideas I think will help you love your home more, whether they are from my current home, 9 homes ago, or any one in between. I know this is a bit of a pivot that may take some time getting used to (for me too!) But as I said last month, I’m fairly certain these (subtle) changes will ultimately spell lots of good things here in the end!