With all the hoopla and importance of Danny’s high school graduation last week, I didn’t get the opportunity to think about the fact we’ve officially lived in Wisconsin for one entire year.

Fun fact: since Randy and I got married in 2003, the longest we have ever lived in one house is 3 years and 17 days (I know this because that’s exactly how long we lived in Okinawa, Japan for). We lived in the Colorado Springs area off and on from 2011 to 2019 with a brief but awful stint living in Southern California for 2.5 years. However, we lived in 3 different areas of Colorado Springs in 3 separate houses during that time, plus we also spent the better part of a scattered year camping in our RV while either waiting to move in or move out.

Then of course there was our 11 month stint in Georgia, where we left as fast as humanly possible. Georgia is a fantastic place to visit during the winter, but living there? Mmmm, not so much.

Our Nomadic Souls

Our friends tease us, mercilessly and rightfully so, that we have nomadic souls. Not sure if it’s because we’ve spent half our lives never living in the same place, or we learned not to get too attached to a single area because of Randy’s time in the Air Force. Either way: they’re right. We are definitely nomads and we always talk about where we’re going to move next.

It’s no secret that Randy and I have wanted to move to Texas for years. We actually wanted to move to the Austin area while Randy was in the Air Force – the whole reason he joined the military was so that be could become a cop for the Austin Police Department. We printed out photos of homes in Austin and stuck them on our front door so we could remember why Randy was going to work every day. Every time we go to Texas its like a breath of fresh air, and given how Texas has handled the last year? I can honestly say without hesitation that I regret not moving there when we planned to in 2019.

But, I digress – the road of life led us to Wisconsin and this past week we celebrated one year of living here.

After Living in Wisconsin For a Year: Here’s What I’ve Learned

I absolutely love Wisconsin and of all the places we’ve ever lived, the country and weather here have been my favorite. Living in Wisconsin has been the most unique situation we’ve ever encountered, mostly because of the pandemic.

1.) Wisconsin weather is incredible.

It has four true seasons, the snow is gorgeous, the summers are warm and exciting, the wildflowers of the spring are beautiful and it’s an autumnal dream in the fall. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single day here with the weather – from the snowy negatives to almost 100 degrees. If we were to ever move to Texas, I know for sure I’d miss the winter like a duck would miss the water.

2.) Wisconsin is a farmer’s paradise.

I’ve never felt so connected to the farming community as I do while living here, and seeing all of the barns and sprawling farms and small hobby farms brings me a lot of joy. It’s so nice to see people growing their own food and raising animals and passing down those vital lessons to their kids. It’s nice to be able to afford land here, to do it, too! And it’s even more nice to not have the government stepping in and trying to take away the right to do so.

3.) Wisconsin is the stereotypical small town America.

Every single small town is filled with a historic downtown, which all look very similar. And guess what? The local folks are super proud of their two hundred year old buildings, and their heritage. History is super important here, and I love that about Wisconsin. The only downside to the history here is that if you’re new to living in Wisconsin, like us, it’s hard to slide in; more about that in a minute.

4.) Wisconsin is all about good family and patriotic values.

I say this with the caveat that I’ve really only spent a good majority of my time in southeastern Wisconsin over the last year. But, I can without a doubt say that Wisconsin is all about good family values, supporting the police, supporting the country and patriotism. The only ever place I’ve seen that’s as vocally patriotic as Wisconsin is Texas – and that’s saying something. American flags fly everywhere, and I freaking love that.

5.) Wisconsin is clean.

There isn’t trash everywhere, and people actually give a shit about their homes and yards (for the most part). People take a lot of pride in Wisconsin, which I absolutely love. We actually have a guy that lives down the road from us who rides his bike every day during the warm weather and picks up any trash that he finds. There isn’t a ton of graffiti or homeless like how it was when we lived in Colorado or California and there isn’t trashy yards like there was when we lived in Georgia. It’s nice to see people taking pride in their area.

But with all this good, I’ve got to be honest: there’s things I don’t like, too.

6.) Wisconsin is a hard place to make deeply connected friends.

I’m not sure if it’s because of the small-town life because everyone grew up with each other and we’re transplants. Or it could be the fact there’s literally only 10,000 people in our town? Or maybe the fact we don’t live in a typical neighborhood? It could absolutely be because of the pandemic, too. But I’ve never, ever, gone this long without having a BBQ with friends and I’ll be quite honest: not being able to make great friends here has me wanting to leave. I am way too extroverted to not have people in my life.

Sadly, I’m not the only person in my family suffering from this; in fact, Sierra and Daniel are really the only ones who have made good friends. Katelyn spent the entire year sitting alone at lunch, which broke my heart in ways I can’t even begin to describe. We are actually switching the kids out of the local schools and open-enrolling them into the school district in Lake Geneva with the hopes they’ll have better luck making friends.

7.) Wisconsin doesn’t have great medical access all over the place.

With the lack of a large population, great doctors are few and far between. Our local hospital in town is absolutely horrendous, to the point that I was forced to file a formal complaint against the emergency room after our last visit. For me to see a decent doctor, I have to drive almost an hour north every single time. I love, love, love my medical team – but it really sucks I have to drive so far.

8.) Our local Wisconsin restaurants are not great.

I might get some flack for this: but the local restaurants here in our town is pretty terrible. So bad, in fact, that there have been a few occasions where we’ve left 80% of the plate behind because it tasted awful. Maybe it’s because we’ve lived all over and know what good Mexican food and a solid burger should taste like? Going out to eat here is really hard, because it’s just not good and it’s hard for me to want to spend $150 on a family dinner when I know I could make something better at home for a fraction of the cost.

I thought living in Wisconsin so close to Chicago would bring us some fantastic pizza, but nope. Not even close. And they cut the pizza into squares here, which in my opinion is sacrilegious. What in the world is with the square piece of pizza?! If we want a decent family meal, we have to drive an hour away and that kinda stinks.

9.) We can’t find a church to attend.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t put 100% effort into this over the last year because of the pandemic. I have zero desire to go to church where you aren’t ‘allowed’ to hug or sing and worship without having a mask on. This area is also largely Catholic, which we are not. It’s also hard to find a church, in general, that supports (or at least tolerates) the LGBTQ community and that’s something very important to our family. The closest one I can find from my research online is, you guessed it – about an hour away!

The church in Georgia that we attended was the absolute best part of being there. It brought me so much closer to my faith and since leaving there, it’s been very hard on me to not go to church. I know I could watch it online, but it’s just not the same for me; I need people in real life, right in front of me.

Will we stay living in Wisconsin forever? Who knows, but probably not.

As much as I love it here, I’m equally unhappy. I love the weather and the countryside and the small-town feel, but I miss people and good food and shopping like crazy. The cost of living is outstanding, but I can’t stand having to drive an hour to do anything.

I do know this though: unless something incredible or drastic happens (like Randy gets a promotion), I would like to stay here until Noah graduates high school in 2027. I want to give the kids some sort of stability, since they’ve never really known what it’s like to know you’re going to be sleeping in the same house a year from now. But if Randy gets a promotion and transfer to Texas, we will jump at the opportunity; but for now, we are here.

I’m hoping now that Wisconsin is getting back to “normal” we will see some improvement in some areas of our life here. I think if we could just make some deep connections here to a church and friend group, living in Wisconsin would be the best place in the world for us.