How I Escaped the City Life for Country Living

Hi, I’m Natassia, a mother of three children and a successful escapee of the urban rat race. Anyone in a bustling city knows what it’s like being stuck in the loop of living to work or working to live… whatever the saying is. Either way, it’s a miserable cycle, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.

After having my third child, my partner’s finances changed, and we quickly and unexpectedly became a penny-pinching family, with children to support. We were renting an apartment entirely too small to fit our family, costing us thousands of dollars a month in rent (welcome to the West Coast). No, we were not living in luxury, West Coast rental prices are exorbitant, no matter what financial bracket you’re in.

I was desperate to leave the city, but with how tight our budget was, saving enough to uproot everything we knew didn’t seem achievable. However, I never gave up seeking a better quality of life elsewhere. I knew we would leave for new territory, it was just a matter of when. After several months of diligently researching every inch of the Nation, I finally came across a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere: Oklahoma. As far as I was concerned, Oklahoma was foreign land I had never visited before, but somehow this little state checked all my boxes. The next thing I knew, we were selling our belongings and packing our bags. By the glorious grace of God, I secured a charming two-bedroom home sitting on an acre lot, a vast improvement from our 900 sq ft apartment we happily said goodbye to.

In the Summer of 2021, my family and I road-tripped from bustling California to a quaint and quiet little town in rural Oklahoma, sight unseen. Our days quickly went from cluttered concrete jungles to a peaceful country setting, with luscious rolling hills and wide-open skies. No longer do I prioritize convenience or materialism, but now I invest my time and energy into learning new skills, preserving classical traditions, practicing the art of homesteading and self-sufficiency (something I had only read about in books). Most importantly I am homeschooling my young children with God at the center of our everyday life.