Before we dive into our story, allow me to introduce you to my little family and into this chaos we call our life! Our names are Keegan and Ashley Culver and together, we have 3 beautiful babies, ages 11, 5 and 3. I, Ashley, will be the primary conductor of this chaos train (punny! Stay tuned.) of a blog. We are both from (for the most part) the Oklahoma Panhandle (Yes, it’s called “No Man’s Land” but there are indeed, men, there **and not much else lol) and until **very** recently, raised our children just south of the Oklahoma Panhandle, the Texas panhandle (POH-tato, PAH-tato).

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

– Alan Watts

I’ll be honest, I can’t honestly remember what I had for dinner last Monday night, so to honestly tell you the exact date this conversation was had is impossible, so I’ll just tell you I’m positive it was the first week of 2022. The week of New Year’s resolution making, goal-oriented lists, gym membership making a killing and people overstocking their fridges with fruits and vegetables they will soon forget about until the end of the month. I believe wholeheartedly in the female intuition so I listen to mine in depth. I sat with my husband on our couch and after a few minutes, I randomly blurted out, “Babe. 2022. This is the year of change — I can feel it!!”

Now….I figured what my intuition was telling me was its time to change the paint on the wall (I do this to annoy my husband every few years, he loves it! LOL), or my hair color. Something minor and probably insignificant. My, did the Lord have something completely different up His sleeve. I was right to say it was a year of change but I was not expecting what was to come.

Fast forward to May, the month the winds shifted. My husband has worked for the same company for almost 12 years (with a brief hiatus to the oilfield **thankfully) so to say he was in his comfort zone was an understatement. Everyone has their peak of BS they handle on a daily basis before that ceiling shatters and they can’t take it anymore. Most people are not honest with themselves (or anyone else) when they hit their limit BUT THERE ARE SIGNS, and my husband had hit his limit. I won’t get into detail because it is irrelevant now, but those who keep the gears going and the money flowing for corporations don’t get to live the high life like those behind the desks of the higher ups of the same corporation and its quite unfair but hey, that’s corporate life for ya!

After seeing Keegan hit his limit of BS, I am the type who will ask the uncomfortable questions, so one night, I asked if he was happy, to which he replied “yes”. So I proceeded to ask, “Do you want to live the rest of your life here, raise our kids here, and retire with this company? And there is no wrong answer, just honest.”

The silence was deafening but yet so loud at the same time. At that point, I already knew the answer.

Now, I am a HUGE fan of mommy alone time and my baths are SACRED to me. LED candles (because actual candles are expensive and burn too quickly LOL), incense (dragons blood is my favvvvvvvvv), bath water next to boiling with a fan near my face to cool me down (balance LOL) and this conversation was happening while I was in the bath (you know it was a serious conversation if I was allowing it during my bath time LOL) and then…..my husband joined me in the bath (both of our legs hanging off the side because that’s the only way we could fit in our deep tub LMAO) still in silence.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”

– Helen Keller

After staring at the ceiling for what felt like forever, he finally was honest out loud, more to tell himself than it was to answer my question, I’m sure, and said “No. I don’t.” And that was the answer that changed our lives.

Now let me give you a few puzzle pieces that God had put into our lives within the previous years that only started coming together seamlessly after this decision was made in May (in my sacred bathtub).

• I’m sure everyone has forgotten by now but 2020 was the year the world stopped thanks to COVID-19 (this is not and will never be a political blog. My family and I have our beliefs together and that is that.) but thanks to COVID-19, I quit my job that was only paying for daycare for my youngest two and began to homeschool all 3 of our children in January of 2021. BEST DECISION EVER!
• We bought a bumper pull camper in 2018 or 2019 and we got our moneys worth out of it. We loved it. It was small but worth it. In July/Aug 2021, we had decided that in 2022, we would trade in our itty bitty camper for a bigger fifth wheel. In September of 2021, a deal for our Keystone Montana HighCountry fell into our laps and we couldn’t say no, even though that was NOT the plan.
• In 2022, a friend had briefly left his job at the railroad and worked for the company my husband was working for at the time, more importantly, WITH my husband. And there, he sparked the idea in my husband’s head that there is more to life (cue (There’s Gotta Be) More to Life by Stacie Orrico (yes, I’m showing my age and only the true millennials will know this song LOL)) that was is available in the Panhandle, whether in Oklahoma and Texas. It wasn’t long after our friend arrived at this job with my husband, that he left and went back to the railroad, without looking back. He changed our lives and he doesn’t even know he did, or how much.

In my eyes, every second of everyday was meant to happen for a reason. If you pay attention, eventually, you will know God’s reasoning. During our talk in the bath, the puzzle pieces came together and we knew this is what we were meant to do.

Fast forward to today, August 17, 2022. We have moved out of company owned housing in the Texas Panhandle, into our 43′ fifth wheel and we are about to live life to fullest, traveling to new areas every 1 to 2 months across the United States and we could not be more excited as Keegan has accepted a job with the railroad.

Are we scared? No. We know things will go wrong, it is inevitable but we are not naive. We are not sure what is to come exactly. What we know for sure is that as a family, we will travel, eat, explore, dream, admire, learn, live and love together.

I started this blog to encourage, inspire, but most of all, to document our happiness and challenges and to show you that you are not stuck and with one decision, your life can change for the better. The possibilities are endless if you believe they are, and we do! We put our faith in the Lord and we know He is in control.

“I can rest in the fact that God is in control. Which means I can face things that are out of my control and not act out of control.”

– Lysa TerKeurst

Keep up with Culver Family Adventures weekly (hopefully LOL) sharing adventures, experiences, recipes (I love to cook) and life ups and downs and maybe, we can inspire someone else to make a change for happiness!!

Everyday is a new day for happiness! Love – The Culver’s