i’m a reluctant southerner. truthfully, i don’t consider myself a southerner at all, though we just came up on three years in Georgia. with my California roots, i am and forever will be a west coast best coast-er.

but the south is growing on me. i might not be in love with living in the South, but i do love a chance to travel and get to know different parts of this country.

Charleston was such a pleasant surprise.

it was about a 6 hour drive (with stops) and we left at around 4am so the kids slept in the car most of the way.

our first stop was a really cute little vegetarian/vegan restaurant because after a long drive, the last thing I wanted was greasy fried southern food.

i ordered the mermaid acai bowl- we got a few breakfast sandwiches, and everyone was content with their meals! I also ordered a Golden Milk latte because my body was feeling so much inflammation from the drive and turmeric always helps with this for me almost immediately. Erik got some kind of banana cold brew and he didn’t like it lol

the real reason we were in Charleston (i can spill the beans now!) is because one of Erik’s best childhood friends was getting engaged!

Alvin planned their engagement beautifully. Laura’s family and ours secretly showed up in Charleston. we surprised her by showing up at their airbnb, and when she calmed down from the shock and surprise of seeing us all there, she turned around, and he was on his knee!

we stayed at the Home2 Suites Hilton hotel that Alvin generously put us up in for our trip. such a great guy, and we could not be more excited for them!

i know that airbnb’s are the hip thing to do on vacation. but the Cole family loves a good hotel with free breakfast. we love the room service, we love the prices, we love piling together in a couple of beds to make memories. the travel space on the internet makes it seem like to have a good vacation, you need an amazing, huge, stunning airbnb on the water- but a nice hotel does the trick just fine for our big family.

we only let our kids eat cereal when we are at a hotel and they take full advantage of that every single time.

seafood was obviously on the mind since we were by the ocean, so we hit up the happy hour at Hyman’s Seafood and it was so good we went back the next day at happy hour again! $4 well drinks and the best shrimp & homemade chips (Boom Boom Shrimp) that i still think about to this day. we also tried the hush puppies, and the shrimp & grits and a few other things from the happy hour menu that we snacked on.

we also got a bunch of oysters, and the Echo and Zinnia tried their first oyster! Zinnia spit hers back out and Echo swallowed his lol. proud of them for trying

the Happy Hour is technically for the bar only, and since we had kids with us, we weren’t allowed inside the bar. they let us order everything in to-go boxes, and we sipped our drinks and ate outside at the tables in front of the restaurant.

next time we go back, i definitely want to get a table inside and order from the full menu. But 10/10 recommend a Hyman’s Seafood meal if you’re in Charleston!

walking around downtown Charleston was such a delight. we had no real plans except to wander around and we were thrilled to stumble upon The Old South Carriage Tours. the tour felt like half charming southern history experience and half tourist trap, but we thoroughly enjoyed it!! even if we did look like annoying tourists. we went in the early evening (around 7pm). the sun was low and the heat wasn’t too unbearable at that time of day. the cost was $50 per person, pricey considering we are a family of 6, but it was absolutely worth experiencing at least once!

we walked down the pier at waterfront park and stumbled on some of the best ice cream i’ve ever had in my life.

our trip was short, and our time was limited, so we didn’t spend too much time at the beach. we did spend a few hours at the Isle of Palms. (a barista at the breakfast spot recommended it to us!) i hardly took any pictures because i wasn’t feeling very well (got my period just in time for the trip lol)
i will say it was extremely hot and would have preferred to go in the early evening if we had the option.

the best parts of our Charleston trip were unplanned. maybe there’s a time and place for rigorous travel itineraries, but more often than not, i think the best way to enjoy somewhere new is to let the place do the planning for you. travel slow. let the locals’ recommendations steer you.

i’m glad that the south is growing on me. i guess i’ll (reluctantly) let the south show me what it has to offer while the Good Lord has me here.

i guess what i’m saying is, let life surprise you.

besitos,
Kaylena

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Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are living in the American Southeast, for now.

I’m drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose. Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

it’s friday (as i’m writing this) and we just wrapped up our morning of core subjects to end our first week of the 26-27 homeschool year. jumping back into a new routine always feels a bit sticky.

trying to transition from late summer nights to a relatively “normal” bedtime schedule.
getting the kids used to sitting down to focus without squirreling away to some more important distraction.
and i’m getting used to more of my time being eaten up by a new school year rhythm and routine.

i try not to compare my family to families who have chosen a different type of education for their kids, but around this time each year, there is such a stark difference between our lifestyles. while most public school families are celebrating their extra child-free hours, i’m mentally prepping for more of my time to be consumed by the work of homeschooling.

i don’t resent it, but i do notice it. i tend to imagine what my life would look like with a break from my children. (i wrote more about this in my essay about being a highly sensitive person)

if it sounds like i’m complaining, i’m not. i’m adjusting.

unfortunately i had a week of migraines leading up to our first week of school, so a lot of the prep I was planning to do didn’t happen. instead of pushing off our start date, i decided we would just ease into the school year with a more laid back week.

my intentions were to purchase supplies for a cute “back to school” party, but it was Sunday before I remembered and Hobby Lobby was closed. so, I solicited my artistic husband to make us a First Day of School banner (ripped off from this design i’m so sorry)

erik accidentally misspelled "school," so we added an apostrophe and pretended it was intentional, like the cool homeschool parents we are.

we watercolored banners that i printed on cardstock (free template!) with plans to finish hot gluing them to yarn and hanging up around our dining table/homeschool room, but we ran out of glue sticks- adds to Hobby Lobby list.

we had our first Wild + Free meetup of the Fall! if you’re a homeschooler who is looking for a cool community of other nature-forward homeschoolers, check to see if there’s a group in your area! this is the only homeschool group that we are part of right now. we don’t do any other co-ops (the ones i’ve tried have not been a good fit for us). this is our third year with our wild + free group and i am so so thankful for our group leader and how much she puts into these kiddos.

happy school year to everyone! whether you’re sending your kids to school or you’re keeping them home, I pray for safety and fun for all your kiddos this year!

besitos,

Kaylena

ICYMI

Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are living in the American Southeast, for now.

I’m drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose. Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

I would love for you to like or comment on this newsletter so more Substack users can find it!

This post is public, so feel free to share it!

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on a good week, I’m planning out our dinners on Sundays and getting my shopping done for the week! here’s what I’ve got planned this week. steal my meal plan!

breakfasts:
yogurt & cottage cheese bowls with frozen fruit & honey (i use plain greek yogurt!)
dutch baby pancakes
breakfast tacos/burritos (eggs, cheese, meat; sausage, bacon, ham)
smoothies (frozen fruit, greek yogurt, chia seeds, frozen bananas to sweeten, protein powder (optional))

lunches:
this is where I struggle the most. we typically do quesadillas or grilled cheese sandwiches, a charcuterie board, or a simple sandwich.

dinners:
hawaiian chicken with coconut rice
sheet pan sausage + veggies
bahn mi sandwiches
slow cooker chuck roast tacos
sausage pasta in creamy tomato sauce

see you sunday for next week’s meal plan!

Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are living in the southeast US, for now.

I’m drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

Let’s Connect!

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

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did anybody else spend most of June and half of July completely absorbed by the World Cup? i did not grow up in a sports household. me and my siblings didn’t play team sports growing up; my dad never cared about watching sports, and when I married Erik, he didn’t either. So my newfound dedication and passion for the World Cup is totally new for me. we rooted for México (didn’t everyone??), then the USA, then Norway, saw them all get eliminated, then ultimately saw Spain take the championship over Argentina. it was emotional, thrilling, and the most fun i’ve had in a while.

we invited our friends from Echo’s soccer team over for a World Cup party to watch a game and eat. my friend Casey brought a classic southern banana pudding that I haven’t stopped thinking about since.

it was really fun for us to connect with our love of Mexico (many of the games were played in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, just a few miles from where we used to live). i love how it opened up convos about different countries and geography with the kids.

we are already looking forward to the next World Cup. Echo said, “i’ll already be 12 when the next World Cup happens,” and something about hearing him say that out loud made my mama heart ache.

we spent a sweet fourth of July with friends

we adopted two kittens! earlier this year we lost our sweet kitty Pickles. he ran away in the Spring - just a week before I had an appointment for him to get fixed. in a very ironic series of events, Pickles showed up in our neighborhood the day after we adopted the kittens. he won’t come near our house, but he will come to us in the street in front of our house. he turned into an independent outdoor cat and doesn’t seem to be interested in coming back home.

their names are strawberry bubblegum & blueberry lollipop (Justin Timberlake fans, where you at?)

this estate sale that I stumbled upon that felt like I stepped into a portal to a museum in China?? it was the most bizarre experience. I pulled up to this suburban cul-de-sac and walked into a garage full to the brim with 90s collectable toys. Then I walked into the house, and it was like I walked into a Chinese Museum. Like, not just a home decorated with Chinese decor. It was genuinely like this person made their home into a museum of different Asian collectables and furniture. i’m still processing this experience tbh

a trip to Chattanooga to hit up the zoo and Coolidge Park for a family day

things I ate in July:
we try to escape to Chattanooga as often as we can. if you’re ever in Chattanooga, you must check out Odd Story Brewing Co. their beer is great; I always hit up a hazy IPA, but even if you don’t drink, the food is sooooo great and very affordable. The Curry Fries are out of this world !!!!

this BBQ Salmon Bowls with Mango Avocado Salsa recipe!! if you’re a salmon fan, you MUST try this recipe (we doubled the mango avocado salsa. i used frozen mangos instead of fresh!)

pastries from our favorite local coffee shop. I always prefer to get a pastry + an unsweetened coffee (usually a whole milk latte) rather than a sweet coffee. don’t sleep on the plain coffee + treat combo

holy shitake pie from Mellow Mushroom

things I read in July:
i enjoyed this homeschool-related Substack about real-life experiences being equally as important to learning as excellent literature.

i’ve had The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo on my TBR for a while because I kept seeing it everywhere. it was available on Kindle Unlimited, and I finished it rather quickly, but I have to admit, it was not my favorite storyline. Without giving away too many spoilers, I just felt like there were too many really unrealistic love triangle situations. I didn’t love it, but at the same time, I get why it gets the hype.

I also started Theo of Golden, and I normally don’t share my readings until I’ve finished them, but I can already tell this is going to be such a good one. I’ll be sure to share a review in my August Scrapbook.

things I watched in July:

i’m probably the least tv/shows/movie watching person you’ve ever met. but this month, miraculously, i did watch a movie that i liked! I’m sure I’m probably the last person on earth to watch it, but Project Hail Mary was phenomenal. Erik read the book a couple years ago, and we were looking forward to watching it. It lived up to the hype for me.

this facial gua sha with hands tutorial
this cinematic iphone vlog tutorial
be the 2%
stop letting social media win
things i bought in July:
i’ve been planning our 26-27 school year. i splurged on a Spiral Coil Binding Machine because I’m always finding digital downloads of different homeschool curricula or unit studies that I want to bind. I’ve yet to successfully bind something, though lol

got this cute blue sofa and red love seat for $50 at an estate sale!

things i wore in July: i’ve been pretty uninspired by my wardrobe lately. July is a hard season to dress for in Georgia because it’s so dang hot and humid outside, but indoors it’s icy cold to keep the humidity out. i’ve been basically throwing on the same two pairs of loose barrel jeans with a button-up top or chillin in a workout set. i can tell when my wardrobe is uninspiring to me when i have a lack of fit checks in my camera roll lol
here’s a few of the fits i wore this month:

and that’s all for my digital scrapbook entry for July 2026!

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Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are living in the southeast US, for now.

I’m drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose. Here, I write about creating and carrying an intentional, beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

The Carried Home is where I document home and the life that surrounds it- motherhood, intentional living, wellness, slow living, travel, homeschool, and everything in between.

I’ve been homeschooling since Echo was a baby. I know most people don’t count homeschool years since birth, but I do. And before that, I was homeschooled all the way through high school. I don’t really know how to count how many years we have been at it, and I don’t feel like I ever really stopped being “homeschooled” myself. I see homeschooling more as a way of life than as separate grades. A lifestyle of learning. Echo is 8 this year, going on 9, and he’ll technically be in third grade. Zinnia is 2nd grade. Nova is Pre-K. And Pepper is a feral 3 year old.

Up until this point, I have taken a very relaxed approach to our homeschool. We have prioritized imaginative play, being outdoors, travel, and day to day togetherness. If I had to put a label on it, I’d say we followed the unschooling approach. And it felt good for us. We’ve lived through a lot of transitions during our first few years as a family. Moving to Mexico, living there for 3 years, then back to the US. Starting our lives over in Georgia. Unschooling felt like the right move that flowed with the chaos of our lives.

If you’re new to the homeschooling world (welcome!), unschooling is “a form of self-directed, interest-led education where children learn through everyday life experiences rather than a set curriculum.” Unschooling is a popular method many homeschoolers use. Still, after however many years it’s been of flying by the seat of our pants, I am craving more structure, discipline, and a deeper dive into learning.

I am very excited about making this change. I think it’s so important in our homeschooling (and in life) to remember that it’s ok to change our minds. It’s ok for something to work for a season and to pivot to something else in another. We are allowed to outgrow our old selves.

In the past, we have used The Good and The Beautiful for math and language, but didn’t follow any other curricula beyond that.

Here is everything I have planned for the 26-27 school year!!

my 26-27 curriculum plan

This year I’m basing our homeschool around Build Your Library (The Ancient World).
Build Your Library is a literature-based history curriculum that covers history, literature, mythology, poetry, science, and art! It also covers narration, copywork, map work, research skills, nature journaling, and memory work.

It’s literally what I’ve been looking for and didn’t know existed. I wanted a literature-based curriculum, one that covered most subjects and worked for all 4 of my kids at the same time. I researched many curricula for this year, and just didn’t find anything that felt like the right fit. I wanted something all-in-one, not split up by grades, that we could use family-style.

It’s technically a secular curriculum, which I assume is why it hasn’t come up in a lot of the homeschool circles I’m in, but I do not mind that it is secular at all! (We are Jesus followers, but I personally feel great about this curriculum, and I can easily pick and choose or substitute anything I want to).

the book list

The name says it all: Build Your Library helps you build an at-home library. Because it’s literature-based, you spend the majority of the time reading fiction and non- fiction books, then doing narrations and copywork from the readings. The curriculum comes with a book list that will take you through the Ancient World throughout the year. I skipped a few of the books (the mythology ones, the Charles Darwin book). I love that this curriculum makes it easy to swap or edit books to fit your preferences.

The book list has links to the curriculum author’s Amazon, but I tried to get as many books secondhand as I could. I found most of the books on the list used on World of Books, the rest I ordered from Amazon!

language and math

We will be continuing with The Good and the Beautiful for math and language. It’s such a great open-and-go curriculum for us.

Echo (3rd grade) will be using Math 3 and Level 3 Language Arts. We are also using Handwriting Without Tears.

Zinnia (2nd grade) will be using Math 1 and Level 1 Language Arts. She’ll also be using Handwriting without Tears. She is technically a year behind in math and language, but I am going at her pace and letting her follow her interests. I’m much less concerned at the pace in which my kids learn, and more concerned with whether or not they will still love to learn when they are older.

preschool

I’m going to start Nova (pre-k) on a pre-k workbook this year- i’m still undecided on which one. I didn’t start the older two on any workbooks at her age, but she sees her siblings doing them and wants to join in. We love the ABC, see, hear, do books for practicing letter sounds and I’ll be working through these with Nova this year. I got this Pencil Control workbook for her to practice. I purchased A Peaceful Preschool several years ago, and I love its premise; I just don’t know if it’s a good option for me with kids at multiple levels.

extracurriculars

Echo is playing soccer again this Fall. This is his third season, and he really enjoys it and we have all made cool soccer friends.
Zinnia will continue gymnastics. They've been trying to recruit her to the team, which means twice-a-week, 2-hour practices (vs. the one hour she does now), plus all the traveling and competitions. Something I really value in our homeschool lifestyle is living slowly, and I need to remind myself that busy isn't a badge of honor. it's okay to say no to what feels like too much.

my homeschool mama must haves

here’s a link my amazon storefront with some of my favorite homeschooling items!
fueling myself well as a homeschool mama has absolutely changed the game for how i show up for my kids. i’ve been drinking a coffee protein every morning and with greens and fizz in the afternoons. i’m not exaggerating when i say i truly am a different mother now that my body feels fueled. here’s a link to my fav Arbonne bundles: delete whatever you don’t want!

a note about AI.
i guess this is my official “statement” that AI will not be used to write this blog. i’m not against it completely, but my goal for this space is to actually connect human to human. i’m sure i’ll use AI for research purposes sometimes, but all the words here are mine.

Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are living in the Southeast US, for now.

I’m drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose. Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

the carried home is for the mothers who are building a legacy of home, wherever they find themselves in the world

being a mom is hard. being a homeschool mom, with very little breaks from my children is harder. being a highly sensitive homeschool mom whose body feels out of control with constant stimulation and rare decompression is the hardest thing i’ve ever done.

even now, as i write this, my kids are fighting over something in their bedroom. i feel my heartbeat racing. there is constant noise. the little girls just slammed the door as they went outside. the older ones are interupting me to ask if thier best friends can buy the house (that isn’t for sale) across the street. my son is chewing on a vitamin and shaking the vitamin container. my mind takes in every single ounce of noise. every movement. every potential danger. every “mama” reminds my brain that it cannot process the stimuli fast enough.

“hey mom, can you look up the missing cats in the neighborhood?”
“hey mom, can i please look up LEGO sets?”

can they not see that i’m trying to focus on something? they are sweet, and innocent and of course they have no idea, nor should they need to, that my mind feels like it’s moving at 500 miles per second.

it’s not their fault, or their responsibility, that I want to create things outside of their every demand. how could they know that their constant interruptions make me feel constantly on edge.

to my oldest, i explain to “i’m trying to be in a flow state right now”. i think he kind of understands what I means.

“hey mom, can we buy an Alexa?”
”no”
”why can’t we get an Alexa? Leon and Joelle have an Alexa. why can’t we have one?”
”because i don’t like having that much technology in the house”

“hey mom, where are my shoes?”

i don’t think i can do this anymore. i’ve said this for the past 5 years probably. in spite of that, here i am. still doing it. public school in the area we live in is not an option.

we looked up a two day a week hybrid school option that is 20 minutes away. it costs $300 per child, per month. i have four. as you can imagine, that’s also not an option for us right now.

gas is almost $5/ gallon.

some days i do a great job. i’m calm and my body feels regulated.
but if my body has any added stimuli (like a lack of sleep, or my period, or a migraine), it’s like i can’t handle both at the same time.

i yell at them, i pace, i declutter, i dissociate.

for the record,
i’m not the type of mother who generally complains about motherhood. i’ve made it my mission not to choose a victim mentality in motherhood.

last week i sat in a coffee shop next to a woman holding her sleeping daughter. she was around 5 or 6. i thought about how i missed my children, even though i had only been away from them for a few hours. the little girl’s arms had a few temporary tattoos and it made me think of my Pepper, whose limbs were covered in the same tattoos she got from her sister’s birthday party. i thought about how much i love children. i smiled at her as she slept, and i carried on with what i was doing.

when the mother stood up to leave, i smiled at her, and she said “don’t ever have kids.” that was the last thing i ever thought would come out of this mother’s mouth. after all the thoughts i sat their having about her sweet cuddles with her baby and missing mine.

i said “ i actually have four'“. she stood waiting for me to say something else. waited for me to say something terrible about them, i guess. i said “i was looking at the temporary tattoos on her legs. my kids love those. they’re covered in them”

as she walked away, i thought how sad it must be for a girl to grow up hearing her mother say things like “don’t have kids” in front of her.

that’s not the type of mother I am. my kids hear things like “i love being your mom”.

i hope you can see the internal struggle i have everyday. between adoring being a homeschool mother, truly believing that it is the best thing for my children, and it also being really really really hard for me as a highly sensitive person.

i’m only recently beginning to crack open this realization that i’m highly sensitive. i’m not even half way through the book.

right now i’m just being to feel seen. to see myself and have grace for myself. the next step, ideally, is to learn tools to manage my high sensitivity as a stay-at-home, homeschool mother.

are you a highly sensitive parent? how does this effect your parenting, and what tools have you picked up?

besitos,

kaylena

a note about AI.

i guess this is my official “statement” that AI will not be used to write this blog. i’m not against it completely, but my goal for this space is to actually connect human to human. i’m sure i’ll use AI for research purposes sometimes, but all the words here are mine.

Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico soon.

I’m drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose. Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

let’s connect on instagram!
or shoot me an email at kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

i got a gym membership last week.

i wouldn’t describe myself as a super athletic person.

i’m also not exercise-averse either. in college, i had a climbing gym membership, i trained for a half marathon (that i didn’t run cause i got my period that day and chickened out), and i went on hikes multiple times a week in the gorgeous foothills of San Luis Obispo, i played volleyball and ultimate frisbee if there was a pick up game.

i never played sports or worked out regularly in a gym.

i realized that my whole life i was “socially fit”. my fitness and exercise were largely dependent on the people around me. what they were doing and what they invited me to. and i happened to have really fit friends.

when i became a mom of 4, i started gaining a little more weight with each pregnacy. normal. but as my circle changed over the years, i realized that i stopped moving my body. it didn’t happen on purpose, but isn’t that how everything happens? when we don’t intentionally decide to make something part of our lives, it can just disappear.

it used to be that part of hanging out with my friends was doing something active like hiking or even a gym workout class.

now, my “circle of friends” that i spend the most time with are 4 small children.

the mental blocks

the biggest roadblocks to getting myself in shape again have been mental. here are some of them that have been on repeat in my head for probably 5+ years.

• the closest gym is 30 minutes away, how do i make that work?

• “but what will i wear?” - the grinch

• what do i do with my kids?

• i don’t have a strong enough support system

• i dont have workout shoes

• what if i buy the wrong kind of shoes

• what happens if i make other people in my life feel bad about themselves if i get into shape

• i dont know what to do at the gym

• the class schedule doesn’t work well for me with kids

• gyms are expensive

• humans are supposed to be in shape by hunting and gathering, the gym is so unnatural

• what if gym bros try to hit on me

• what if gym bros laugh at me

• cardio is bad for women

• i dont have enough energy

• what if i look stupid

i’ve worked out some of these in my head and recognized them as lame. but some of them still float through my mind.

i guess the only thing that really changed is that i got tired of my own excuses.

my goals

i know week one is the easiest. showing up at week 76 is a whole different game. so i guess my goal right now is that. constistecy. sure, i have a pinterest board of fit-spiration, but right now my goal is habit formation.

i want to get my discipline back. i want to prove to myself, and show my children that you don’t have to put yourself on the back burner as you become a parent. and even if you did, it’s never to late to change your mind.

the reason i share

i want to share this journey, partially because i’m a natural oversharer on the internet (it’s a gift) but mostly because it’s other women (moms) on the internet with similar circumstances, who didn’t let their excuses stop them, that inspired me to take action.

i don’t know if getting your sparkle back by working out is a goal of yours, but if i can inspire someone to say “if she can do it, i can do it” in any area of their lives, than i’ll have done my job sharing anything i do on the internet.

besitos,

Kaylena

Hola! I’m Kaylena, wife to Erik. Mama to Echo, Zinnia, Nova, and Pepper.

I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to Mexico soon.

I'm drawn to slow mornings, meaningful objects, and a life that was chosen on purpose. Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home and life, wherever you find yourself in the world.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email to collaborate - kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

the carried home is for the mothers who are building a legacy of home, wherever they find themselves in the world

hey dudes,

i have a little blog/ newsletter update that i’m so excited to share!

when i think about the future of this substack, i really want to create a place where i can write about everything. i started The Carried Home, to document our family’s move back to Mexico. almost immediately after i announced to the world, that we are moving to Mexico, my husband got a (really good!) job in Atlanta. which means God has us in the States for at least a few more years.

it doesn’t feel like public failure as much as it just feels confusing to try to explain to everyone who followed along to see the Mexico part of our story happen - that it’s not happening. (yet!)

i want to create a place where i can just blog. like old school, no niche, share it all kinda space. i don’t want to hold back at all. and I don’t want the people who followed me for Mexico content, to wonder why the heck they’re getting a mom fitness update or a list of ways I struggle as a homeschool mom or a slow sabbath saturday in their inbox.

i want Mexico (and our journey back) to be a portion of what I share about, not everything.

what i really want to create, if i’m honest, is a version of the “old school” blogs of the early 2000s.

blogging and writing is something i’ve wanted to do since college. i think if i hadn’t have decided to quit college and get on a plane to Mexico instead, i would have eventually studied english to become a writer.

i’ve created more websites and purcashed more domain names than i would care to admit, which always led to a dead end because i lack both the web development skills as well as the patience to write a blog that would never make it on the front page of google, and therefore, in front of any type of audience.

i’ve admired bloggers for years, consumed their writings, aspired to their lifestyles.

some of the “OG” bloggers i’ve followed for years are New Darlings, A Daily Something, Reading My Tea Leaves, Courtney Adomo, Mamalina, Hither and Thither, and many others.

i saw these women make an entire career out of blogging. i couldn’t imagine a more exciting career. it was the hidden desire of my heart for years. but i didn’t have the roadmap.

when i go back through my Chrome bookmark page of “ Blogs I LOVE”, most of the webpages redirect me to a 404 error page. many others have tranisitoned their blogs into a personal website that functions more like an online business card, and others have a farewell blog post that redirects their audiences to their new Substack pages.

blogging was the it girl of the early 2000s, followed by the social media empire, which led to the influencer era. now, as i watch my generation start to take back our attention, and wake up from the trance of over-consumption culture, we are collectively watching social media become less attractive. (do you agree??)

but what’s next? i don’t think that most of us will ever completely detach ourselves from the online space because we like connecting with the world online.

i have met so many people who i would genuinely call friends online. my husband, Erik, was BAFFLED when i ran into a friend that I met on instagram in a BBQ restaurant in Milwaukee. she had been following me for almost a decade and had we had exchanged so many messages and knew a ton about each other’s lives. she followed along when our oldest son Echo was born and when he was hospitalized as a baby, and followed our family’s adventures and struggles when we moved to Mexico.

i love the internet. but i’m also tired of it. specifically, short-form hamster wheel social media.

i don’t think i’ll ever completely unplug from the world wide web. i just think that we are entering a time where a lot of us are going to start really paying attention to what we consume and how it consumes us.

i’m not sure that the old school blogging will ever come back, but substack seems like a sort of coming home. a returning to a version of the internet that we (and our nervous systems) can be proud of. (here i must shoutout Youtube and all the creators who have never stopped with long-form video content.)

i’m not some kind of internet or brand expert. i’m just a mommy blogger at heart, who missed the first boat, but is willing to give it another shot. to connect with other women and mothers who give a damn about true connection online, and still have the attention spans (or want to get it back) to sit and read for 5 minutes.

and of course, i want to share about our return to and life in mexico, once the time is right.

i want to create a community on the internet where i can share broccoli salad recipes, motherhood musings, family travels, paint colors, pictures of every beverage i ever drink, good hair days, stories about my unhinged toddler, and what it’s like to be a mother in 2026.

i hope you’ll stick around! the best is yet to come.

besitos,

Kaylena

a note about AI.

i guess this is my official “statement” that AI will not be used to write this blog. i’m not against it completely, but my goal for this space is to actually connect human to human. i’m sure i’ll use AI for research purposes sometimes, but all the words here are mine.

lets connect on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

The Carried Home is where I document our family’s return to Mexico. I write about the life that surrounds it—motherhood, language learning, intentional living, and raising children between cultures.

many of us are sick of the fast paced, burn out culture of the american lifestyle and we picture a peaceful life abroad where the culture is slower, the food is fresher, and we can untangle our identities from years of efficiency and performance programming. this might be a hot take, but i don’t think moving to another country is going to reset a nervous system on edge.

mexico is loud, it’s chaotic, and for those of us who are new to the culture, some things downright will not make sense. but it’s not the flamboyant and loud (did I mention loud?) culture that would be the sole cause of your nervous system stress. in fact, despite it being noisy and busy, Mexico City felt slower than nearly anywhere I’ve been in the US.

here’s where the take gets hot.

some of us are running away to another country to fix the inner work we are avoiding. and Mexico, or anywhere else for that matter, is not going to fix you.

you are the common denominator

the doom-scrolling doesn't stop because you're now doing it from a different time zone. if you have a habit of spiraling about the news, that spiral is going to find you whether you're in ohio or oaxaca. your nervous system doesn't know it crossed a border — it just knows what you've been feeding it for the last decade.

if you are addicted to shopping and struggle with chronic overconsumption, if you say “yes” to everything and carry an overbooked schedule, - those aren't America problems, they're yours. and they will travel with you in your carry-on.

this isn’t meant to be discouraging. it’s meant to be freeing, actually. because if the problem were simply where you live, you’d be powerless. but if the problem is something you’re carrying — something you packed yourself — then you have a real shot at putting it down. you just have to be willing to look at it directly instead of relocating around it.

mexico will hand you plenty of opportunities to practice that. things will run late. plans will change. the fireworks outside your window at 1am on a tuesday will be inexplicable. and every single one of those moments is going to show you exactly what you brought with you.

the checklist mentality follows you too

here’s a tell. watch how you plan your move.

are you in seventeen facebook groups trying to find the best neighborhood, the best taco spot, the best expat community before you’ve even landed? that’s not research. that’s the same pattern with a new subject line.

we’re so good at optimizing. and when we decide to move abroad, a lot of us just redirect that energy straight into the relocation process. now we’re efficiency-maximizing our escape from efficiency culture. the irony is almost too much.

mexico is not going to cooperate with your optimized plan. some things here can’t be researched in advance — they have to be lived into slowly. and for a lot of us, learning to let that be enough is the actual work.

so what can a move do for you?

here’s what i don’t want you to take away from this: that moving abroad is pointless, or that you have to be fully healed before you’re allowed to go somewhere new. that’s not it at all.

a change of environment can genuinely interrupt old patterns. it can shake loose something that’s been stuck. when the context of your daily life shifts — the sounds, the food, the language, the rhythm of the street outside — you get a rare chance to see yourself a little more clearly. you’re no longer on autopilot.

mexico specifically offers something that’s hard to manufacture: a genuinely different relationship with time. meals are long. conversations meander. the day has a different shape there. and if you let it, that pace will start to work on you in quiet ways you didn’t expect.

but that word matters — let. none of it happens by accident. mexico will offer you the invitation, but you still have to walk through the door. you have to be willing to be changed by it, not just aesthetically, not just in the photos you post, but in the way you move through a day and what you decide actually matters.

before you book the flight

so before you start browsing apartments on facebook marketplace or calculating the cost of living difference, sit with this question for a minute: are you running toward something, or away from something?

both can be true at once, by the way. i don’t think it’s always as clean as one or the other. but it’s worth knowing which one is driving.

because the people i’ve seen thrive in Mexico. the ones who really settle in, really integrate into the culture, they came with openness more than they came with a plan. they were willing to be uncomfortable. willing to be confused. willing to let mexico be mexico instead of a cheaper, sunnier version of the life they left.

the question isn’t whether moving to Mexico will fix you. it won’t, not on its own. the question is whether you’re willing to be changed by it. whether you’re willing to do the inner work alongside the outer adventure, even when — especially when — it’s inconvenient.

Hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, wherever you find yourself in the world.

I always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

bienvenidos!

The Carried Home is where I document our family’s return to Mexico. I write about the life that surrounds it—motherhood, language learning, intentional living, and raising children between cultures.

i made a vision board last week that genuinely excites me every time i look at it. it also makes me nervous af. because my current life looks so different than my ideal one.

i envision a home somewhere that finally feels like us — whether that's in the cobblestone streets of Mexico, the coast of Spain, or somewhere we haven't even imagined yet. it fits our family and fills us all with awe and beauty.

my kids thriving in a school we chose intentionally, in a place we chose intentionally, not just wherever life defaulted us to.

a morning yoga class that belongs only to me (because I finally get some time away from my kids at said school). a business i run from an outdoor coffee shop or a beautiful home office — coaching women, building a team, making content from a place of genuine inspiration.

each day we eat good food — really good food, the colorful, nourishing kind — and nobody did math at the grocery store to make it happen. we book the anniversary trip, and we go. when we miss grandma and grandpa, we fly back. when the kids need an adventure, we say yes.

i don't know exactly where that life is located yet. but I know what it feels like. and I know it's not here.

here is where i actually am right now: six of us in a three bedroom home in a small (and very boring) town in north Georgia, homeschooling my kids, doing life on a tight budget that says no to the museum and yes to another Tuesday at home. shrinking our lifestyle a little more each month to not go into debt as inflation rises (again and again). it is not my dream life. but here is what i have decided — it can be my launchpad.

i’m starting to believe that maybe the distance between where i am and where i am going is not as far as it looks. maybe it’s only separated by one thing: a decision. the kind you make in your gut before your brain has all the answers.

i got brave and asked myself this question: what does a year from now look like if nothing changes? if i keep waiting for clarity, keep playing it safe, keep saying soon?

i heard a firm, unmistakable, not a chance.

that feeling was the most useful thing that has happened to me in a while.

on the other side of that question is the version of life i actually want. a year from now, my kids could be in that school. i am in that yoga class. my anniversary trip — the one I would spend in Spain if nothing was standing in the way — actually happens. my business is growing. i am coaching and creating and building from a place i love, in a life that finally matches the woman I know myself to be.

i am done with soon.

so here is what i want to leave you with: sit with your own “a year from now.” the one where you actually did the thing. where you bet on yourself, and it paid off. where you look back and think i am so glad I didn’t wait any longer.

how does that feel?

that’s your north star. that’s what you are building toward.

and if you are sitting in your own launchpad right now, wherever that is — know that the distance between here and there might be shorter than it looks.

Build Your Vision Board

if you don’t have a vision board yet, or yours feels vague and generic, try answering these. write them in your notes app, your journal, anywhere — just get them out of your head and somewhere you can see them. better yet- print out photos that represent this life and put them where you can see them.

• what does a tuesday morning look like in your dream life. walk through it hour by hour?

• what problem that exists in your life today simply no longer exists?

• what does your body feel like?

• who are you spending your time with and where?

• what are you building, creating, or contributing?

• who would you be if you had no restrictions at all?

• what would you be doing if you were completely fearless?

• how would achieving your goal help others around you?

• what will you have to give up in order to make room for your dream life?
  

it all starts with a decision. are you going to decide today to build that dream life?

besitos,
Kaylena

city of the week: san cristobal de las casas

a new addition to the newsletter where i share beautiful spaces from a dfferent mexican city each week!

hotel Sombra del Agua

this restaurant in San Cristobal looks to die for!

Hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

Here I write about the creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, where ever you find yourself in the world.

I always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

bienvenidos!

The Carried Home is where I document our family’s return to Mexico. I write about the life that surrounds it—motherhood, language learning, intentional living, and raising children between cultures.

¿ qué onda, amigos?

last week I shared how Mexico ruined food for me.

but food isn’t the only thing México ruined. it also changed bascially my entire outlook on life — particularly when it comes to beauty.

once you’ve lived somewhere that treats beauty as part of everyday life, you start to notice how easily it gets dismissed here.

in american culture, beauty is often an afterthought. and as american who grew up in the states, i never noticed this until i lived in mexico.

color and expression has drained out of wardrobes, homes, and cities. a clear example of this is Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2026 which is essentially a (very boring) shade of off-white.

community spaces are built for convenience, not for delight. suburbia stretches on in rows of identical houses. streets lack walkability and visual character. big box stores and strip malls are not exactly sources of creative inspiration. even the highways — built with impressive efficiency — are long stretches of concrete and glare. we’ve all seen the reels that show this stark difference for travelers returning to america.

american public life itself is largely designed around the car. vast parking lots swallow the land where plazas, gardens, or gathering places might otherwise exist.

most american schools are built like institutional facilities: cinderblock walls, fluorescent lighting. the design rarely considers how light, beauty, or color might shape a child’s creativity and learning.

food culture follows the same pattern. speed and turnover dominate. meals are often eaten quickly, sometimes while multitasking, rather than in environments meant for gathering or lingering conversation.

even our homes reflect this. builder-grade houses prioritize neutrality and resale value over personality or craftsmanship. endless shades of beige, gray floors, identical fixtures.

clothing culture isn’t much different — though I do think something may be starting to shift. style often leans toward neutral athleisure, at best. mickey mouse pajamas in public, at worst . dressing well could be a small way of honoring public life and expressing individual creativity.

children’s spaces follow the same logic. plastic playgrounds and standardized classrooms, environments designed primarily for durability and liability rather than imagination.

a culture that stops investing in beauty eventually forgets how to savor life.
i fear this is one of the reasons why many americans are depressed and uninspired.

this is the beige-ification of american life. not just neutral paint colors, but a broader cultural habit of choosing convenience and efficiency over beauty. and when beauty stops showing up in the ordinary places of life, we eventually forget to look for or create it at all.

maybe i’m too critical of the american lifestyle. but this is just another example of how mexico has ruined me.

and i wouldn’t have it any other way.

besitos,
kaylena

city of the week : puerto escondido

a new addition to the newsletter where i share beautiful spaces from a dfferent mexican city each week!

this puerto escondido vlog

this boutique hotel in puerto escondido

this restaurant: Glou Glou

Hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

Here I write about the creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, where ever you find yourself in the world.

I always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

bienvenidos!

The Carried Home is where I document our family’s return to Mexico. I write about the life that surrounds it—motherhood, language learning, intentional living, and raising children between cultures.

i didn’t have high expectations when my husband called this week and asked if i wanted to go on a date with him wednesday night.

“i got a gift card to Texas Roadhouse from the roofer.”

our roof was replaced last month, and it seemed to trigger a neighborhood reroofing domino effect. the company gave us a gift card to thank us for the referrals.

i love spending time with my husband, so that was not what made me think twice. i had never been to Texas Roadhouse, and the parking lot is always packed, but i just didn’t have a good feeling about the culinary experience we would have there.

but as parents of 4 kids, we don’t get much time to ourselves, so when my parent’s said they were available to watch the kids, i couldn’t pass it up. not to mention, eating out in the states has gotten really pricey (apparently regardless of the quality of the meal), so the gift card was helpful for us to justify a meal not cooked at home by us.

i’m here to talk about food, so i won’t even go into my cultural interpretation of (the people of) Texas Roadhouse in north Georgia. i’ll just have to save that for my therapy session. (just kidding, i can’t afford therapy in America LOL)

back to Texas Roadhouse.

we ordered the cactus onion. i got a burger with fries and Erik ordered chicken strips (you can’t go wrong with chicken strips, right?? wronnnng.) with mac and cheese. the total came out to over $60 with a tip. (paid for with said gift card, thank gawwwwd)

it was possibly the worst meal I have ever had from a restaurant, en mi puta vida.

now, comparing Texas Roadhouse to basically any food made in Mexico City is like comparing apples to… the bottom of a shoe. like comparing my son in his U10 parks and rec soccer to Ronaldo or Messi.

it’s not even the same league.

but after eating my way through Mexico City during the 5 years we lived there (and traveling to other states like Veracruz, Guanajuato, and Morelos), there have been veryyyyy few times that i’ve eaten anywhere in the US that hasn’t left me a little disappointed.

i’ve had good meals at restaurants since returning to the US, sure. but whether it’s the price, the quality of the meal, or the stomach ache i have by the time i get to my car, something always leaves me a little ticked off.

i didn’t know at the time that living in Mexico was turning me into a food snob. but when you can walk a few blocks and purchase fresh tortillas being made right in front of you, or pick up a platter of fresh pastries at the Panadería, you start to turn your nose up at the tortillas and bread in the US that hasn’t “gone bad” after 4 months in the back of your pantry.

my body is walking down the grocery aisle at the Super Walmart, doing my best to shop for nourishing ingredients to cook at home. but my head is ordering 2 liters of fresh squeezed jugo de naranja, guayaba, and piña for $3 in Mexico. and don’t even get me started on the mangos.

of course my standards are high.

we used to walk two blocks to our favorite restaurant, Maldita Fonda, which had a rotating chef’s menu.

each day the chef would create a three course meal with fresh, local produce from Xochimilco. every meal was decadent. crafted with care by the chef. flavors local to the region, with a fusion of creative liberty.

and it cost us less than $9 each, and that included a glass of wine.

so yes, maybe Texas Roadhouse never really had a chance.

when you’ve lived somewhere where food is treated like a craft instead of a transaction, it’s hard to go back. when your “normal” used to be fresh tortillas, street fruit dusted with chile and lime, and bakeries on every corner, a $60 burger and chicken strip dinner just hits a little different.

living in Mexico didn’t just change what i like to eat, it changed what i expect food to be.

something fresh. something local. something made by someone who actually cares about the quality and experience of the food they’re serving you.

so now i’m back in the grocery aisles and restaurant parking lots of the united states, doing my best to adjust.

but every once in a while, sitting in a booth at a place like Texas Roadhouse, i’m reminded of something i already know:

Mexico ruined me.

and honestly, i wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

Here I write about the creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, wherever you find yourself in the world.

I always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

The Carried Home is where i share practical guidance and honest reflections for families dreaming about life abroad — from choosing the right place to actually making the move work once you get there. along the way, i write about the lifestyle that comes with it: motherhood, language learning, slow living, and raising kids between cultures.

hola amigos,

so you’re thinking about moving to Latin America, and you want to learn Spanish. i’m going to be straight with you: learning a new language as an adult takes a certain level of obsession. a little delulu, if you will. i didn’t learn to speak Spanish fluently, to the point that i could actually live my life in my second language, by casually dipping my toes in.

i jumped in the water and let it consume me.

the moment I realized just how far I had come was after my husband and i navigated a major surgery and a week long hospital stay for our son in Mexico completely in Spanish. somewhere between talking with doctors, signing paperwork, and asking questions i never imagined i’d be able to ask in another language, it hit me that all those years of intentionally immersing myself (the awkward conversations, the endless listening, the years of lessons, the decision to keep choosing Spanish even when it was exhausting) had actually built the fluency i was hoping for.

if you want to reach a level of fluency where you can build deeper friendships, handle the realities of daily life, and advocate for yourself or your child, that kind of language ability doesn’t happen casually. It happens when you choose immersion and lean into the uncomfortable encounters that slowly push you toward real language acquisition.

if you’re serious about building fluency before your move, one of the best things you can do is start immersing yourself now.

instead of treating Spanish like a subject you study, try weaving it into the rhythms of your everyday life.

in this newsletter i’ve included some of the youtube channels, spotify playlists, and substacks I recommend across different interests to help you do exactly that.

Spotify Playlists

here are my favorite playlists on Spotify that I have had on repeat for literally the past 10 years and have helped tremendously with my comprehension of Spanish.
tip: print the lyrics out of a few songs you like and look up and study the words

• MY ULTIMATE SPANISH PLAYLIST

• christian worship Songs in Spanish

• Mexican Banda

SPANISH PLAYLISTS FOR KIDS

• Kid’s Spanish Christmas Playlist

• Kid’s Spanish DANCE PARTY mix

YouTube Channels

Slow Lifestyle Spanish

Wini Walbaum & Co
a gardening channel from a sweet mother in Chile

Finca La Maye
two sisters living on a farm in Spain, sharing their gardening and farm life

Sueños de Ruta
this channel features stories of immigrants from all over the world who are living a slow life in Mexico.

Karly Home
a sweet homemaker cooking and home videos in Chiapas, México

VLOG CHANNELS

Luz Carreiro
the cutest family vlogging about their life and travels. Luz also has an awesome podcast

Rachu Q’ Bolá

Hola, Soy Natasha
a bi-national couple from Mexico and Australia living as digital nomads and traveling the world

mex_alex
Swedish mama living and raising her family in Mexico

ALL ABOUT MEXICO (en español!)

Lápiz Tv Travel 🇲🇽

Luisito Comunica
Luisito’s channel features stories from all around the world, but focuses a ton on Mexico (his home country)!

En los zapatos de Mónica
a whole channel dedicated to exploring Mexico’s food and culture

Sin Postal
A sweet family of 4 exploring Mexico and sharing their travels!

Cocinando Corea
this is my daughter’s (age 6) favorite channel and she asks to watch it during our “spanish lesson” for homeschool

Israel Plata

SPANISH YOUTUBE FOR KIDS

Calicos Spanish

con c de cuentacuentos

a couple kid show we love in Spanish:
Pocoyo – Español Latino
Bluey - Español Canal Oficial

COOKING CHANNELS

two birds, one stone. learn spanish & how to cook Mexican food with these channels

Eleuteria Amézquita

De mi Rancho a Tu Cocina
quite possibly the best youtube channel on the entire internet!! so endearing, like spending time with your abuelita

Cocinando con Raquel

BEGINNER SPANISH CHANNELS

Spanish After Hours

Andrea La Mexicana
super beginner friendly Spanish practice- my kids love this channel!

Nuria's Lab
great tips for beginners

Español con Ali
my kids also really love this channel! (good for adults too, of course!)

Hola Spanish
more great beginner Spanish lessons!

BONUS CHANNELS

Ani Pocino - Hábitos, rutinas y motivación
Ani talks about some of my favorite topics: slow living, feminine energy, and habits

Arquitecta Fran 3.0
fran speaks about what distinguishes Mexico from the rest of the world. her videos have brought me to tears more than once! (she speaks very fast, though! i still don’t always catch everything she’s saying!)

Podcasts

For beginner adults

How to Spanish Podcast
also on Spotify

Easy Spanish

Intermediate/ Advanced Spanish

Cachorritas Podcast

Thee Anchor Babies
pee my pants laughing at this podcast, and i love how they flow between English and Spanish

Podcasts for Kids

Spanish Stories for Kids
Cuentos e historias infantiles

BOOKS AND SUBSTACKS

hija del internet (also on youtube): art, creativity, and culture
bonita semana: pop culture and lifestyle
leer donde sea: podcast, books, and art recommendations
art in Latin America (spanish at the bottom!)
cartas de odio: dramatic “hate” letters about life

building fluency doesn’t happen overnight. make it fun! immerse yourself, you’re not supposed to understand it all yet- that’s the point!

if you enjoyed this guide, comment below (or respond to this email) and let me know if I should do a part 2!

besitos,

Kaylena

Hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, where ever you find yourself in the world.

I always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram!
or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

since last year, we have done our best to make choices that align with our end goal to be back in Mexico. we have said no to job opportunities, and I closed my vintage reselling store. we started renovations on our home that will increase it’s resell value. i feel like we have even started a little bit of the grieving process that takes place when you make a big, life- changing move.

we got really clear on what we want our life to look like in Mexico, visualized it, planned it, researched it, and told the whole world about it (on an instagram post that went viral lol).

so when last week, my husband got an offer from a company that is #1 on Forbes Future 50™ 2025 List (aka a big fking deal), it threw us off guard a bit. the company is a sought-after place to work, and the position allows for growth that will support our family of 6, but it is NOT REMOTE. (skull and crossbones emoji!!!)

he accepted the offer, and we are stoked for the opportunity he has with this company. but this means, without stating the obvious, we will not be able to move to Mexico. at least, not in the timeline we hoped.

now, you’d think we’d be trippin - and it would be a lie if I said we weren’t a little disappointed that we won’t be moving back to Mexico this year, but here’s why it’s not (really) that big of a deal (in the grand scheme of life).

on the surface, this job might seem like a step away from our goal of moving back to Mexico. but it’s not a random pivot. the industry he’s entering creates long-term pathways toward remote work. the kind that could give us far more freedom once he’s established.

maybe it looks like changing industries. maybe it’s slowly building a freelance clientele. maybe it’s building your own company or business from scratch.

it’s easy to scroll past someone’s “we moved to Portugal in 3 months!” post and assume it happened overnight. what’s harder to see (and rarely documented) are the years of repositioning that made that move possible.

this is exactly why i’m documenting our journey back to Mexico on The Carried Home- to show the real process of moving abroad, and I would love for you to subscribe if you’re not already!

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the second reason that — even though it’s disappointing to push back our timeline — this doesn’t feel like the end of the world to us is because we’re anchored in what our family actually values. we’re not running to Mexico in search of a perfect life. we know that doesn’t exist anywhere.

what we’re after isn’t just a different country; it’s a different way of living. we want slower time together as a family, a peaceful and intentional home, and days that aren’t driven by constant urgency or performance. we’re building a rhythm that feels aligned with who we are and what we value, and the good news is that kind of life isn’t confined to one place on the map. it’s something we can begin practicing now, wherever we are.

This is literally what The Carried Home is all about.

this gives me hope, and direction, while we wait for the life we’re dreaming of in Mexico.

the last, and i think probably the most important reason that gives me peace in waiting longer to leave the US, is that we want this move to be sustainable for the long term.

we don’t just want to move for the thrill of it. we want a move that actually lasts. not something that feels romantic for six months and then stressful behind the scenes. we want it to work in real life- with jobs and school and community and all the ordinary Tuesday details. if we’re going to uproot our family, it needs to feel steady and sustainable, not rushed or reactive. we’re thinking long-term, not just “this would be so fun.”

a word of advice, if i may…

it might feel impossible to picture your move abroad from where you’re standing right now. maybe it’s going to take 18–24 months, or even longer than you originally planned. that can feel really discouraging in the moment. but zoom out for a sec. if extending the timeline is what allows you to build something stable, thoughtful, and truly sustainable for the long term, it will absolutely be worth it.

here’s the deal. it doesn’t do us any good to be so attached to a timeline that we forget to live our lives now. is it disappointing, for sure. but there is so much peace in letting go and preparing for a move that will actually hold you. one that’s built with intention, supported by the right work, the right timing, and the right foundation. a move that doesn’t just look beautiful in photos, but feels steady on an ordinary Tuesday, 10 years from now.

besos,
kaylena

hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. i’m originally from a small town in California, and i spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. we are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, wherever you find yourself in the world.

i always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

find me on instagram!
or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

life felt slower in Mexico City (a mega city of nearly 30 million people) than it does in a rural American town of 700.

i’ve spent a long time trying to put this feeling into words. i’ve mulled it over in my mind again and again. how is it possible that time feels tighter, more stretched thin, and somehow more wasted in a town where almost nothing “happens,” than it did in one of the largest, “fastest” cities in the world?

on paper, it doesn’t make sense. we tend to assume that a life with less to do, what most people imagine when they hear the phrase “slow living”, would naturally feel more meaningful. that fewer events and fewer obligations would somehow make time expand.

this hasn’t been my experience.

the best way I can explain it is this: slowness doesn’t actually have much to do with a lack of action. It has more to do with how fulfilling our time feels to us, and the pace at which we move through the things that matter to us.

Carl Honoré writes in In Praise of Slowness, “The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections — with people, with culture, with work, with nature, with our own bodies and minds.”

when I first read this, i figured out how to say that feeling that i’ve been trying to articulate.

maybe slowness isn’t the absence of something. maybe it’s the presence of depth, of attention, of meaningful connection.

here are some of the reasons i think we experienced life as slower in a huge city in Mexico than we do in the rural U.S.

Relational Culture

there are countless examples of how deeply relational Mexican culture is, but one memory stands out.

the very first meal I shared with my host family in Mexico City revealed how unaware i was of cultural cues outside my own context. my Mexican “mamá” had spent the afternoon preparing a homemade meal, fresh agua de sabor, and dessert.

i sat down together around the table with the family that would be hosting me for the next 8 weeks, and almost immediately, i felt the difference.

in my American context, the chief end of eating is to eat. it’s about efficiency. we “grab a quick bite.” we “down” a coffee. we rely on “grab and go.” even at home, meals can be transactional. fuel for whatever comes next.

but in Mexico, -and this isn’t every single meal every single time, but it is a strong cultural rhythm- the chief end of eating is to be with the people you are eating with.

in Mexico, we wait for the last person to sit before anyone begins eating, even if that means the food cools off. because the meal doesn’t revolve around the food, it revolves around the people.

and then we stayed around the table.

long after plates were cleared, we remained around the table, passing coffee and pan dulce back and forth, trying to communicate in my very beginner (at the time) Spanish. i remember feeling restless, a sense of wasted time. i could feel the itch to move on to the next thing on my mental to-do list.

at first, I assumed it was just because I was new, maybe it was a special, celebratory meal.

it didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t a fluke. it was a lifestyle, a practice called sobremesa: the lingering time after a meal spent in conversation. It doesn’t have a clean English equivalent, because we don’t really have a cultural parallel.

so much time is spent around tables as part of daily life in Mexico. not just on holidays or special occasions. in everyday life, relationships around the table are valued. meaningful connections are felt. not only on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but during most meals, every day of the year.

Walkability and Third Places

another thing that shaped how we experienced time in Mexico was something I didn’t even have language for at the time.

it was the walkability. the access to what are known as “third places” — spaces that aren’t home and aren’t work. Cafés, plazas, mercados, parks, churches. Places you can go just to be around other people.

in Mexico City, those spaces were part of daily life.

where I live now, it’s at least a 30-minute drive just to get to a grocery store. and when I finally get there, most of what surrounds me are stores. if I leave Target, my options are usually TJ Maxx or Ulta. everything feels designed around consumption. if i’m out of the house, it’s usually because I need to buy something.

in Mexico, i could step outside and walk a few blocks to the plaza. i could swing by the mercado for tortillas. i could sit on a bench and just watch people move through their day. Sometimes i’d buy an elote or a cafecito, but I didn’t have to. the point wasn’t shopping, the point was being there.

and that subtle difference changes something in you.

when you can leave your house and exist somewhere without an agenda, without a list, without a purchase, your nervous system relaxes differently. you’re not on a mission, you’re not trying to optimize your route, you’re just… present.

even in one of the biggest cities in the world, there were spaces built for lingering, for ease, for people to take up space without rushing.

that rhythm seeps into your days. it’s hard to explain, but when your environment makes presence possible, time stretches differently.

Visual Beauty in the Everyday

rural America is undeniably beautiful, the rolling hills, open skies, and cattle grazing in wide fields of Northern Georgia are a real kind of beauty, and I don’t want to overlook that.

but when it comes to the man-made spaces we actually move through every day: buildings, shopping centers, storefronts, there’s often very little intentional beauty woven into the design. Most of it feels built for efficiency first and experience second (if at all).

in Mexico, even ordinary buildings carry color and texture. flowers grow wild and relentless, but someone put them there, and someone maintains them for the sake of the beauty of the collective society. there were details in the tile, ironwork, and facades that made you feel like someone had thought about how it would feel to exist there. walking through the city feels sensory. modern marries ancient in a seamless, beautiful way.

over time, i’ve realized how much that shapes me.

if the spaces we inhabit every day are stripped down to their most functional forms, we begin to expect life itself to be functional, efficient, optimized, always moving. and environments built for speed quietly train us to move faster.

but when beauty is part of the everyday, when architecture invites you to look up, when color softens a street, you naturally slow down. you notice more. you remember more.

that attention stretches time. more meaningful connections.

Ease of Daily Life

there’s another layer to this that feels slightly uncomfortable to name, but it’s important.

in the U.S., the modern mother is often carrying most of the responsibility for maintaining a home and raising children largely on her own. the village has thinned in ways we don’t always notice until we’re exhausted. many of us live far from extended family, in car-dependent communities where daily life requires constant movement, and there’s a strong cultural expectation that you should be able to manage it all independently.

when we lived in Mexico, our daily structure looked different in very practical ways. we had a housekeeper who came twice a week, and we had a nanny who watched the kids while I worked from home. not only did this give us more margin, we also made meaningful connections with these people who shared an intimate space with us on a weekly basis.

that support didn’t take responsibility away from us; it reshaped how it was carried. the work of maintaining a home was still ours, but it wasn’t resting completely on my shoulders. and in that shift, something significant happened: there was more room in our days. i wasn’t constantly moving from one task to the next, mentally juggling work, childcare, laundry, dishes, and everything in between. i had more capacity to actually be where I was. on the same income, sustaining that kind of support in the U.S. is impossible for us, but within the economic structure there, it was possible and it was common.

with more margin came more meaningful connection. longer conversations at the table, more patience with our children, more energy to invite people in, more openness to the spontaneous interactions that make life feel rich. slowness, at least as i experienced it there, wasn’t just about doing fewer things. it was about having enough structural support that the things that mattered most weren’t constantly competing with survival-level tasks.

when the weight of every domestic detail isn’t resting on one person, you can direct your time and attention toward people instead of just productivity.

when I say life felt slower in Mexico City than it does in rural America, i don’t mean there was less happening. trust me, there was WAY more. more people, more noise (literally fireworks going off 24/7), more movement, more energy.

but alongside that activity, there was also more meaningful connection. more shared spaces woven into daily life. more beauty embedded into ordinary streets. more structural support for communal living. the movement didn’t cancel out the slowness; it coexisted with it.

that realization has reoriented my thinking. a new place, on its own, can’t create the rhythm we’re after. slowness isn’t discovered by moving; it’s formed through culture, nurtured by community, and sustained by the structures that shape ordinary days.

what I experienced in Mexico City wasn’t the absence of motion, it was the presence of depth.

hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. i’m originally from a small town in California, and i spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. we are currently living in the southeast US, but making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, wherever you find yourself in the world.

i always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram! or shoot me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

we started our family in a behemoth of a city. endless restaurants, parks, free events, plazas, an abundance of “third places”. truly anything you could want to do with a family at our fingertips.

we were fortunate enough (jk, i scoured every inch of rental websites from sunup to sundown) to find a house with a decently sized backyard- a rarity in Mexico City where apartments are the norm.

we spent everyday in that backyard. hosted birthday parties and thanksgiving gatherings. we attempted an overwhelmingly unsuccessful garden, but somehow, five or six of the most delicate firetruck-red poppies bloomed for us.

our small haven in a massive city sea. and still, I carried a low-grade restlessness I didn’t know how to name.

we eventually had to leave our house with the backyard (a crazy landlord story for another day) and moved into a smaller apartment with a small shared communal space that was 100% concrete. not the best playground for small kids and toddlers learning how to walk.

Mexico City is flavorful.

it’s colorful.
its busy.
it’s loud.
it’s bright.

there is an element of artistic chaos that lingers. i don’t yet have the abundance of words to name the marriage of slowness and velocity in the heartbeat of this city.

we loved our life in the city. but our family was growing—from three kids to four—and as a homeschool mother, I started craving space.

room for my children to roam.

in retrospect, what I needed was probably just a vacation to the countryside or the ocean, but this is when the American homeschool movement started to flicker in my mind.

if you’ve seen it, you know the aesthetic: the country farmhouse fantasy. barefoot kids with muddy hands, chickens, long linen dresses and slow mornings. low key little house on the prairie vibes.

i was particularly drawn to a homeschool movement called wild & free- which provided a community of inspiration for me, but being a highly aesthetic and overwhelmingly rural culture, it tempted me to take my eyes off of the city life that i loved.

the classic “grass is greener” trap. (the irony here is strong.) i stopped admiring that world, and started to believe it knew something i didn’t.

i was one of two homeschool mothers I knew in all of mexico city (my other homeschool mom friend lived about 2 hours away on the other side of the city). The voices shaping my homeschool experience weren’t city families, they were slow living- rural American moms online.

no one was writing blog posts about How to Teach Math on the Subway or Studying Graffiti and Street Art with Kids or Homeschooling Inside the Pulse of A City.

our family didn’t live on 10 acres in the Montana countryside- we ate street tacos and lingered in parks until late into the night. we stumbled on concerts in plazas, and pop up festivals outside our front door. we spoke our second language, and soaked up art, religion, and architecture by living and breathing it, not studying it in a textbook.

the blog posts I was reading were about collecting pinecones for crafts, taking nature walks, going apple picking, doing handicrafts, collecting local fauna and flora, sending snail mail letters to pen pals, and baking days in fully equipped American kitchens.

not everything in the Wild + Free realm was irrelevant to me, but a lot of it was, and yet, I was comparing my success as a homeschool mom to whether or not I made beeswax tea candles out of eggshells.

i felt it in the pit of my stomach every time I scrolled past another rural homeschooler instagram account. am I doing this wrong?

no wonder I felt the comparison trap. i was taking inspiration from a subculture that i didn’t have access to. and that made me feel like I was doing something wrong.

we left the city.

we moved to rural America in search of a “slower” childhood for our kids. we even bought a house, and built a chicken coop.

at first we liked the change of pace. but over time we instead found ourselves bored out of our minds.

we traded a life that was rich and alive for one that only looked peaceful from the outside. eventually, we had to admit something to ourselves: this isn’t our dream.

the rural American life, beige, peaceful, idyllic for many, is not the life that lights up our souls. the cost of living in the US has limited our exploration and travel to basically- our backyard, or my parent’s backyard.

i thought we needed a sprawling American countryside to be a good homeschool family. But the equality and richness of Mexico are a much better fit for our creative, artful family.

i thought the city failed me as a homeschool mom. now I know that I was comparing it to a life that I never truly wanted.

our kids are being shaped by this environment, too. and for my husband and i, it’s important to give our kids an atmosphere of culture, art, texture, color, and passion. one where they can become global citizens, and learn how to ebb and flow between languages and cultures.

people ask us if we are looking at our life Mexico with rose colored glasses. if perhaps we are living in the longing for the nostalgia of it all.

there may be some truth to it. we often reminisce our lives through the lens of good memories, which tends to smooth over the hard bits. but I know deep down to my bones, that not one day in rural north Georgia, USA has ever filled my cup the way my life did in Mexico.

This is why I’m sharing the story of our return to Mexico here on The Carried Home.

Hola! I’m Kaylena, the face behind The Carried Home. I’m originally from a small town in California, and I spent most of the past decade living and raising my children in Mexico. We are currently living in the southeast US, and making our way back to live in Mexico again this year.

Here I write about creating and carrying an intentional and beautiful home with you, wherever you find yourself in the world. I always find ways to chat about my personal style journey as a mom, and other bits and pieces of daily life.

come say hi on instagram! or send me an email kaylena@thecarriedhome.com

I would love for you to like or comment on this newsletter so more Substack users can find it!

This post is public, so feel free to share it!

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A YouTube video popped up in my feed today titled:
“LEAVE TOMORROW: 10 Countries Where Americans Can Move in 24 Hours (and stay long term).”

I didn’t click it. But it left me uneasy.

As someone who has immigrated before, I know what it actually takes to succeed as a family abroad. And most of it doesn’t have to do with logistics.

I recognize the fear, the urgency, the low-grade panic many Americans are carrying right now in this political and economic moment.

And I’m wary of anyone who feeds on that.

If you want to leave the U.S. and actually stay long term, there are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself.

here are 10 questions you can journal about if you’re considering a move abroad:

-What am I actually trying to leave — and what am I hoping to build instead?
(Those are not the same thing.)

-If this move stopped being “romantic” after six months, what would still make it worth staying?

-What does stability look like for my children in this season — and does this move increase or decrease it?

-Am I willing to be the outsider while I learn, linguistically, culturally, socially, for years, not weeks?

-What sacrifices am I not currently naming because I’m focused on escape?

-If no one else approved of this decision, would it still feel grounded, responsible, and aligned with our values?

-What needs to be emotionally true for me to feel safe again — regardless of geography?

-How much of my urgency is coming from fear of staying, rather than confidence in where I’m going?

-What support systems do I need in place before I cross a border, not after?

-If I trusted myself to make a grounded decision, what would change about the way I’m moving right now?

these things take time, love

If you’re someone who feels an urgency to leave the U.S. right now, there’s a good chance that urgency is being shaped by the current political and economic climate. Things feel uncertain, and you’re not alone in looking for a better quality of life in Mexico or elsewhere.

My hope is that you don’t plan your move from a place of escape, but from a place of intention, not running away from something, but moving toward something you want to build. Ignore the people preying on panic.

Taking the time to root your relocation in that kind of clarity and steadiness can be the difference between a move that drains you and one that actually sustains you for the long term.

Thanks for reading,

kaylena

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Before I share which cities are at the top of our list, here are some of the things that are important to us when we are looking for a place to call home in México.

If you are considering a move to México, too, i highly recommend you sit and actually make a list like this too. are you more of a city gal, or are small town vibes your thing? beach, mountains? lots of foreigners, or fewer foreigners? faster or slower paced?

MY CITY WISHLIST

#1. I would love to be in a mid sized city, not a pueblito chiquito, but not a mega city like CDMX. something in between, like a million people or less. I know, this doesn’t sound mid-sized, but coming from the 30 million of CDMX, one million is like a small town to us!

#2. No mosquitoes. This is a hard line for me, which automatically excludes gorgeous places like Mérida and Puerto Escondido, but I don’t care because mosquitoes ruin my life (they’re obsessed with me). I want to be in an arid, dry climate where I can sit outside 365 days a year (more or less) and have an indoor, outdoor living space, without getting bitten by a single mosquito.

#3. Costco. This isn’t a make it or break it for me, but i would love to at least be within driving distance to a Costco. i love shopping at local markets in Mexico for things like meat, fruits and veg, but when the homesickness gets tough, i just want to be able to buy American bacon and butter. i know it’s dumb, but i am who i am.

#4. also not a make it or break it, but it would be cool to be in driving distance to CDMX, because we love it and we have a lot of friends there. This one is negotiable for sure, though.

#5. safety. being in a city known for its safety is a high priority for us as foreigners with kids.

#6. good gastronomía scene (idk how to say gastronomía in english?) Mexico is known for its food, but there are some places that are known more than others. Oaxaca City and CDMX are two of the most well known.

#7. not the beach. i love the idea of living in Mexico and being able to visit the beaches for vacations, but i don’t have any interest in living by the beach. (see #2)

next, i’ll break down the cities that made our list, some of the stats that are important to me, and might be important to you.

the cities that made the cut

in no particular order

Guanajuato

Guanajuato was not on my original list, and I have no idea why it took me so long to learn about it. Guanajuato is a GORGEOUS and colorful city that is very pedestrian-friendly. It sits in the mountains, and from what I can see from photos, there are amazing views surrounding the city.

The weather checks all the boxes for me, with high season temps around 80 high and 50 low and cold season highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s.

There is not a costco in Guanajuato City, lol but there is one in Leon, about an hour away which is good enough for me! It it about 4.5 hours driving to CDMX, which is a bit far, but again, driving to CDMX is not a make it or break it for me.

synopsis: many people on instagram told me that Guanajuato City is a great city to vacation, but very sleepy and hard to get around in if you live there. a few recommended checking out Leon, Guanajuato instead!

Querétaro

Querétaro remains at the top recommended cities to move to in Mexico. On my Instagram, this city majorly outshone all the others on my list, being the #1 recommended. Safety was a big pro of this city, as well as its proximity to other amazing places like Guanajuato City, Peña de Bernal, and San Miguel de Allende.

Querétaro boasts being very family friendly, with lots of gated communities, and is known for it’s afforability. It also falls under the “perfect weather” category

The “cons” I see about this city are how modern it feels. If you’re looking for a charming colonial Mexican city, I don’t think QRO gives that vibe. It’s also more known for it’s shopping plazas and malls than it is for it’s food scene.

Synopsis: I could see this being a really great option for us as a home base. We would miss out on some of the classic Mexican charm, but the location allows for weekend trips to more magical cities.

Morelia, Michoacan

photo credit

Morelia, Michoacán a beautiful city surrounded by mountains, and the population of Morelia is around 1 million and yes, there is a Costco!
Michoacán, the state, is, unfortunately, known for high crime and violence, but Morélia seems to be known as a safe city based convos I’ve had with people who live there, as well as general info i’ve found online! the weather is amazing year- round.

Morelia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means it’s a historically rich city and also seems like it doesn’t have an overwhelming foreign presence.

Synopsis: Morelia seems like a really great city, but it doesn’t land on the top of my list, mainly because the state of Michoacán is known to be one of the most unsafe states in Mexico. I would love to be able to take daytrips in car to other cities, and I don’t know if Michoacan is the best state to do that. I would still love to visit Morelia to give it a chance! I love this blog post, which shares beautiful images of Morelia.

Puebla City, Puebla

photo credit

Puebla hits my list for cities close to CDMX, being only 2 hours from the city. With a population of around 2 million, it’s a little bit larger than I prefer, but with a bigger city, also comes a lot of culture and gastronomy (and a Costco!). The weather is perfect (for me) with warm season highs in the high 70s/low 80s and cold season lows in the 40s, very temperate all year round.

Puebla Centro is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is a positive thing for me, because that means that resources are always being poured into these cities to make them better and safer.

synopsis: I would say this is higher on my list of places to live. I would have to spend some time there to feel out if the city feels too large for what we are looking for.

Oaxaca City

photo credit

Oaxaca City is a world famous city for its food, arts, and culture. This is a HUGE draw for our family. The state of Oaxaca is boasted to be the best food in the entire country.

The population of Oaxaca City is around 400,000, which gives it a smaller feel, while still being lively. There is no Costco in Oaxaca, but I think I would be just fine without it if we lived where the food is as good as it is! The weather is pretty mild, with a distinct rainy and dry season.

A downside to Oaxaca, for us, is that it is on a major fault line and experiences earthquakes often. There is also a water crisis in Oaxaca that can mean that residents are without water for days.

synopsis: I would definitely love to visit Oaxaca to get a vibe check and see if it would be a good place for us to live. Undoubtedly, it’s a wonderful place to visit.

cities we have talked about but didn’t make the top list :

San Miguel de Allende
Tequiquiapan
Tepotztlan
Mérida (this would be in the top, if not for the extremely hot weather! I think we will visit regardless!)
Puerto Escondido
CDMX (even though we lived here before and are looking for a new city, there’s always a chance we end up back here!)

Conclusion:

Our goal for this year is to visit as many of these cities as possible before deciding where to plant ourselves. When we lived in Mexico prior, we lived in Mexico City, but didn’t get a lot of opportunities to travel around and see other parts of the country.

Comment below, What cities are on your list of places to live or visit in Mexico??

i had a reel so (semi) viral on a new instagram account that brought over 2K new followers in less than 48 hours. the topic of the reel: Leaving America.

when I started this IG account, I honestly didn’t expect it to gain traction so quickly. But based on the comments and the massive engagement I’ve had in my stories and DMs over the past 24 hours, it seems I’ve hit on a topic that people have been itching to talk about.

we are becoming disillusioned with the “American Dream” and how do we escape?

after spending roughly half of the past decade living in Mexico in different seasons of life - before kids, with babies, raising young children, and experiencing the richness, beauty, slowness, and humanity of Mexico and its people, it feels like the most natural thing in the world to talk about leaving the U.S. and moving to Mexico.

but what feels “natural” to us now didn’t always feel that way.

for families who have never lived anywhere else, the idea of uprooting your life can feel overwhelming, even impossible. How do you go from the American mortgage, the 9–5, the commutes, the constant hustle and grind… to building a life in a new country?

where are a lot of steps between here and there.

there are logistics and paperwork and visas and finances and schooling and language. There are doubts,. there are emotions you don’t expect to surface. there are fears about safety, stability, identity, and whether you’re being irresponsible or brave or both.

and then there’s the quiet grief of letting go of what’s familiar, even when you know it’s not fully working anymore.

what surprised me most about the response to that reel wasn’t the interest in Mexico itself. it was the relief. the “i thought i was the only one.” the “we’ve been talking about this for years” the “we feel crazy for wanting something different.”

you’re not crazy.

something is shifting. families are asking harder questions about time, margin, community, education, money, and what kind of legacy they want to build as a family

The Carried Home, exists for those of us on that journey.

the honest, human process of disentangling from a life that no longer fits, and slowly carrying home something truer in its place.

i don’t have all the answers. we’re still in the middle of it ourselves.

but if you’re standing at the edge of the question, Is there another way to live?, you’re in the right place.

And if you’re here because that reel cracked something open in you, welcome. I’m really glad you found your way here.

It’s hard to criticize striving toward the “American Dream” without comments from people determined to misunderstand or shame you.

”Then leave.”
”We don’t want you here anyway.”

Or perhaps even worse, and I’m guilty for spreading this narrative myself,

“Hustle harder”
“Success requires sacrifice.”
or, the unspoken “Your worth = your output.”

We were all raised on a story that sounds honorable (or, us Americans at least)

Go to school!
Work hard!
Push through!
Prove yourself!
Live your dreams…. later. After we have squeezed every drop of production out of you.

When we feel tired, disconnected, empty, or uninspired, we assume the problem is us.

Our family has lived abroad before. Maybe this is why I can so easily spot the holes in the narrative we have been fed.

Most of the people drawn to this conversation aren’t failing. We are not the kind of people who expect a handout from life. We have worked hard, we have the careers, we have followed “the plan”. And yet, life still feels tight.

We feel a tug toward something different.

And quietly, almost guiltily, a question starts to surface:
Is this really it?

Perhaps the hardest thing about toying with the idea of a different kind of lifestyle is that almost nobody in your life will understand. And you might feel crazy.

Why doesn’t anyone else feel what you feel?

Here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about enough:

The American Dream works exactly as designed.

It rewards productivity, output, and constant forward motion.
It’s excellent at generating growth.
It’s effective at producing measurable success.

But it often does so at the expense of presence, spaciousness, and sustainability. Especially for families who value creativity, slowness, cultural richness, and actual time together.

That doesn’t make you ungrateful.
It makes you misaligned.

If you’re anything like our family, the misalignment isn’t about money.

It’s the sense that life is always postponed, that the good parts come later, that rest is conditional, that joy has to justify itself.

This is usually the point where geography enters the conversation.

Mexico. Europe. Somewhere, anywhere.

But moving countries is rarely the root of the desire.

What families are actually searching for is margin, a nervous system that can finally exhale.

Mexico just happens to be one place where some families find it possible to recalibrate.

The Carried Home exists because we don’t believe the answer is blind escape or blind loyalty. We believe in intentional living, in naming tradeoffs honestly, and in choosing alignment over applause. We’re not chasing a fantasy version of life abroad, and we’re not pretending the American Dream is universally broken.

I’m grateful for my country. AND I don’t envision raising my kids here forever. Both can be true.

I’m opening a small, founding community for families who are seriously exploring what it means to build a different kind of life in Mexico without hype, hustle, or pretending we have it all figured out.

If you want to be part of the early conversations and hear first when the founding community opens, you can join the list here.