My husband, Kelly, and I live differently than most folks we know. We value our time over money and our goal is to spend our lives growing spiritually, enjoying nature and sharing life with loved-ones. Instead of running the rat-race and climbing the corporate ladder, we opted to slow down and simplify. We are meticulously frugal about most things, but each of us has our areas where we occasionally splurge.

We want to pass our days learning and sharing what we are passionate about. He likes building and I like butterflies. We are happily frugal, and quite happily free.

Although we once worked full-time jobs (and moonlighted too), we retired from them at 38. That was two years ago. Our vision has always been to spend part of the year in sunny Florida (where I'm from) and the other part in the misty mountains of the Northwest (he's an Oregon boy). Today, we live off of odd jobs related to what we enjoy doing and our savings.

Butterflies are fascinating to me. I live to share their story with others because I believe there is hope in it. I also believe it is one of my life assignments. We can transform into what we are created to be (a.k.a. those lingering and hidden dreams you have always had) as we partner with the loving Being who made us.

Many people can relate to our values and inquire about how we have managed to organize our lives around them. The answer is that through gratitude, wisdom, strategy, and God's grace we have adjusted our lives again and again (and we continue to do so) to make them align to our vision.

Finances aren't everything, but learning to manage them well has been the driving force behind our wild freedoms. We have been married for almost 6 years and in that time we have payed off our mortgage, simplified our lifestyle, saved, retired from full-time work, pursued our individual passions and visited more friends and family than we had in the decades before.

Kelly has built an awesome tiny house for us (Tiny House on a Dime) and we recently purchased land in Oregon to move it to. The property comes with a travel trailer that I plan to completely remodel into our guest house. Our adventures, life-hacks and struggles will be shared on this blog for anyone who is interested.

Until then, what do you dream about? What's your crazy passion (it can't be any less believable than butterflies)

-Jessica