Well, we didn’t sell our house as we wanted.  We had it on the market for over 60 days and had less than a dozen showings.  We listed it as a rental and took a dozen or more calls each day from people asking about it.  Within two weeks we had a signed lease with tenants to move in during September.

So, we’ve rented our house, but don’t have a new house to move into yet.  We’ve moved in – or rather still in the process of – moving in with my in-laws!  I am extremely grateful that we have family willing to take us in while we figure our housing situation out.  This is a step we chose instead of being forced into like many other families.

Anything I may share from this experience will be done out of fun and tongue-in-cheek.  While I may share aspects of life with my in-laws I do so knowing up front how lucky and blessed we are to have them.  I do so knowing we made this choice willingly and not out of circumstances out of our control.

We chose this for the betterment of our family.  First and foremost we did this for out boys.  The move to our in-laws puts them within 10-minutes of their mother instead of 30-minutes it was since she moved to a new home years ago.  This move actually puts us closer, within minutes, to all family members (except mine who are all in Nebraska.)  It is so wonderful to have supportive family. 

The other large influence in moving was the education of our boys.  I won’t say anything bad about our former school district because each child learns differently.  They need more specialized educational plans than what was available.  One teacher has already contacted us with concern about their past education needs and how she is focused on creating a plan for each of them to help them succeed.  Since starting in the new school both boys have already made advances in areas they’ve struggled.  (Yeah! So proud!)

Another reason for the move was the commute.  My husband, Shawn, left the broadcast industry to focus on his teaching and to freelance.  He is an Adjunct Professor in Longmont.  The two hour commute between Aurora and Longmont just didn’t wear on us financially with the price of gas and wear and tear on the vehicles, but also wore on us as a family.  That’s a long time to go without daddy.  Now we’re both 20-miles from our offices and the time we have together as a family has increased.

That wraps up most of our “why we chose to move in with the in-laws.” 

Next up is “life with the in-laws.” 

What I’ve already discovered is that my MIL is so wonderful that she packs my lunch that leave my coworkers asking when she’s going to pack lunch for her as well.  She also has a glass of wine waiting for me at home every night after work. Marvelous!

The challenges of living with the in-laws:

  • Our boys sharing a room – the drama has increased as they no longer have private space.
  • House rules and discipline of the boys – as parent’s we’re going to naturally be stricter than grandparents. We’re walking the line of being in charge, yet still keeping Grandma’s and Grandpa’s a fun, special place for the boys.
  • My husband and I still share a room (much smaller room) with our baby girl.  We chose to share a room with Squeaks instead of having the boys move in together when she was born because we knew we’d be moving.  We just thought we would have moved into our own new home by now where we could move her into her own room.
  • Private time for me and my husband as well as private time for my in-laws is now difficult.  We each have our routines that we’re now trying to mesh together.  We need our own time and space to have private discussion.  We now need to be creative in finding those special, intimate moments which are so very important to us.

I’m grateful to have these challenges though.  We’ve done what we had to do for our family.  We chose this and working to be in our own house soon.