It’s not settling for less, it’s learning to love the life you have

If all goes well over the next 20 days, Tom and I will have sold our first home, and close on our second home about 2o days later.  We will officially be homeowners in Naples, FL!  It’s an exciting time in our lives. Busy and hectic, but still very exciting. While I’ve made it pretty clear to my readers, friends, and family that this home buying process has been stressful on me, I’m starting to have a change of heart.  The Naples scenery helped make the home buying process a little bit easier.  I took these pictures when we first moved here.  Looking through them today reminded me how lucky I am to live here.

I recently told a friend about the offer we put in on our potential new home (I say potential because it won’t feel real until we sign closing paperwork).  My friend asked if I felt like I was settling. She knows me well enough to know that I’m not sold on the subdivision, the design of the house, the the layout, or even our current city. However, for the first time since we started the home buying process, I didn’t feel like I was settling.

It’s hard to consider this move as “settling” when I factor in my family. Our home buying decision isn’t about me. It never was. It’s about my kids. It’s about where we are as a family and what is best for all of us. If I lived in my dream world I’d have small Key West style house in a cute little walking town. Probably somewhere like Seaside, or if I were really adventurous, somewhere in another country.

But that’s not my life. My life is babies and toddlers, play dates and pre-school decisions. My life is coffee and the occasional mommy happy hour. I’m not settling for less, instead I’m learning to embrace the life that I’m living. To say I’m settling would be declaring I’m not happy in my current situation, which is far from the truth. I can’t imagine my life without my two little boys, the occasional sleepless night, and the hectic play dates that come with being a mom. I’m actually happy. I was never happy in any of my previous jobs. I always hated going to work, no matter what I was doing. For the first time in my life, I actually like getting up and “going to work”, even if my job doesn’t mean leaving the house or earning a paycheck.

So, no, I’m not settling. I’m taking the next step in our journey as a family. We are moving to what I have recently described as suburblandia. Yes, I still find it to be incredibly bland. I still find that the boring architecture and the lack of curb appeal leave much to be desired. But I’m lucky. I’m so incredibly lucky. I’m lucky to have a husband who works hard to afford a house in a nice neighborhood. I’m lucky that my kids will be zoned for the top schools in the city. And I’m lucky that I’m moving into a neighborhood with a ton of young families.

I’m still disappointed that our money can’t buy as much as we’d like. Tom and I are both from the Deep South where million dollar homes are mansions. Here, a million dollar home is usually a modest home. Even though I know there are parts of the country where our money could go further, I’m reminded by many of my friends who have moved from Chicago, NYC and California, that Naples is pretty affordable when compared to their hometowns. It’s all relative, right?

So, that’s that. I’m officially going to stop my whining. I’ve got a new attitude. There are so many awful things going on in the world: parents lose kids to cancer, famine stricken children live in poverty, natural disasters destroy homes. We have nothing but good going on in our little corner of the world so it’s about time I grow up and realize that settling for less is nothing more than learning to love the life you have.

[bctt tweet=”Settling for less is nothing more than learning to love the life you have”]

Wish me luck as we wrap up the selling of our St. Pete house and prepare to buy our next home here in Naples. I’m excited to put down roots in this city and finally embrace all the good that Naples has to offer.