Tag: boat life

She’s Ours!

I know I’m behind on posting once again, but a lot has happened in the past month!

Firstly, Conor was gone for 3 weeks in California. Hence, my lack of time/motivation/energy to write anything while juggling home life. BUT it brings me to my second point—

Nana and Papa came to visit! We were lucky enough to have them here while Conor was away to help out with the kids. They recently transitioned to living in their renovated van (I’ll write a separate post about that soon!) and are enjoying the mobile life. I can’t wait to show you pictures of their sweet setup. The kids loved having their grandparents up in the parking lot and I loved having the extra hands. They will be popping in and out over the next few months as they travel extensively around the east coast. If you want to check them out, their website is opentoabundance.com and Instagram @opentoabundance.

Thirdly, WE PAID OFF THE BOAT! Yep, SV Story Time is OURS. We celebrated with champagne on the bow and poured some out for Neptune’s blessing. It was a pretty surreal milestone that we have been dreaming about for four years. A big part of this was putting our housing allowance toward the boat while living in Camp Lejeune. Now that there is no longer a lien on the boat, we have complete freedom to sail anywhere, which brings me to my last announcement—

WE HAVE A TIMELINE. Get ready, folks. Life is about to get a lot more interesting in 2022. I’ll lay it all out for you soon once we have ironed the details out, but it looks like we will no longer be in the U.S. by November 2022.

Anyone else feel like change always happens in rapid fire? Day by day it is mostly the same, then all at once, life gets overhauled. After months of not a whole lot happening, we are excited to delve into planning mode!

Love,

Taylor, Conor, W, and R

Libations to Neptune as SV Story Time is finally and officially ours!

Are You ‘Tidying Up’?

“Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” on Netflix has everybody talking. Thrift stores nation wide have seen a huge surge in donations since January 1st, which I find kind of ironic, considering the madness that is Black Friday in November and the huge push for gift-giving during the December holiday season. BUT I am excited that people are starting to embrace the idea that less is more and stuff doesn’t equal happiness!

So to go along with this theme, we are doing a little throwback post in honor of Throwback Thursday! I’ll take you back to the very beginning of this blog and show you how we downsized from a 3-bedroom house to a 38-ft boat.

Here is where I talk about embracing minimalism.

Here is about our downsizing process.

Here is how we organized our never-ending lists and processes.

Here is when we were living in an almost-empty house!

Here is all about packing tips and being comfortable with the uncomfortable.

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Throwback pic to our first night on a sailboat, via AirBNB. This is when the planning started…

How have you simplified your life lately? How does it make you feel?

Love,

Taylor, Conor, and W

Writer Life

While we are still quite a ways off from our cruising dreams, I feel like the next 18 months are going to fly by. We need to start thinking ahead and planning for the future, especially for our financial future. Active duty military life has been a safety net for us, but soon we will be out in the “real” world. So guess what I did? I got a job.

Well, two jobs really. Freelance writing and contracting gigs that I can do from the boat while W is asleep. I am a content creator for an athleisure wear company called DYI and write things like mailers, product description, and ad campaigns. My other job is working for a company called Elite Editing. I’m just doing some of their blog posts right now, but eventually will be editing manuscripts for people looking to self-publish novels and writing the accompanying blurbs/taglines.

Don’t get me wrong, writing novels is still my #1 passion. Actually, I couldn’t have gotten these other jobs without having “Traditionally published author” on my resume. The opportunities came up thanks to some wonderful friends who thought I would be a good fit and encouraged me to apply. Plus, the hours and schedule flexibility were just too good to pass up! As W gets older and more independent, I can increase my workload. Right now, it is great to squirrel away extra money for our cruising kitty.

I feel like I finally have my feet under me with regards to parenting and boat life, and it is time to slowly ease back into the workforce. My book, Cloaked, is still going strong and I have another book on the way (more to come on that soon!). Between writing novels, book promo, two freelance jobs, keeping up this blog, and raising a baby, my brain is always going 100 mph!

Writing, writing, writing, all day long. I never thought I would be able to write for a living, and now that dream is coming true. We will see how it all balances out, especially with the craziness of Marine Corps schedules, but for now I’m staying on top of it all. If anyone has any organizational tips, send them my way!

Love,

Taylor, Conor, and W