resource: Home School Aross America

A site about a girl and her Mom who spent six weeks "travelschooling" across the US. She has a list of all the places she stayed and why they choose that place and what they thought of it. Be sure to click on the link for the tap dancing across America, it's cute.

http://www.homeschoolacrossamerica.com/

resource: Families on the Road

This was passed on to me by a friend, who happened to come across the "Four Hour Work Week" right around the same time as I did. She forwarded this site on to me. It has links to blogs of families who are....you guessed it! On the road.

It's not fancy but it has some good inspiration.

http://www.familiesontheroad.com/

resource: Extended World Travel

Another resource that fell into my hands is a website by a family who travels extensively. It was after we had laid out our goals and plans and everybody was on board with them, well as on board as the younger bunch is going to be for the moment.

I had an odd morning and just felt out of sync for that day. It was our usual day of library, lunch, pick up two other archers, do archery, return the archers to their home, run errands, return to our home.

While at the library, I learned that the two archers would not be attending archery that day and so I had some extra time. I sat down with a homeschooling magazine that I love, but rarely take the time to read, due to riding herd on Max or getting my own books. I had enough books to read that day and Max was doing great.

I flipped to an article and it happened to be on traveling! I had just enough time to read it and write down the website and then the boys were all ready to go, right then! They were done and ready to move on! I feel like the out of sync feeling was to help me be aware of the moment and see what was right in front of me!

I think I looked it up on my BB, I didn't even wait to get home! It was complete synchronicity. I love the tips, the ideas, the reassurances and most of all that some one else out there has already done it and we can too!

Here is the website: http://www.extendedworldtravel.com/

resource: Four Hour Work Week

You may or may not know that I love to travel. I traveled several times a year when we had only two boys. Then I cut back and didn't travel for several years as I had numbers 3, 4, and 5. Then when they were ages 8yrs, 6yrs, 4yrs, 2yrs, and 6 mths I did a three month trip to the west coast via UT and back.

Then we bought the property and lived through the past four years......

Now once again we are traveling a bit more. Last year we made it to UT for the first time in four years. This year we're headed to the west coast again, via UT again. But only for two weeks or so. We also are heading to Michigan to visit Brent's brother and his family for a week. We have also traveled to the west side of the state many times since Courtney came back to WI!

Last fall I realized that if our plan to travel the US was going to happen, we needed to get on it! Than wasn't getting any younger! We have about 4 1/2 years left with him, then he's off on his mission and then who knows where! So I began plotting and planning!

Several resources have fallen into my hands, literally. One is a book called: Four Hour Work Week. I had dropped the older boys off at Scouts and had an hour or more to kill. I ended up at the library and by sheer chance, pulled this book off the shelf. I don't completely remember what I was looking for, maybe something to do with business starting, maybe something to do with cleaning.....it's just not coming back to me.

The book has some great practical info on traveling, but it's mostly focused on freeing you up to live the life you want to. It has some real eye openers and some real challenges, but we're so happy with the things we've implemented, or tried to implement!

Tim Ferris is the author and he talks about spending less time on email and on the phone and gives hands on strategies on how to do that. He also talks about applying the 80/20 rule to your life, across the board. I love it and the results that I've gotten.

So here is the website: http://fourhourworkweek.com/

An Adventure!!

So it has come to my attention that I haven't really said much to some of you about our plans for our next adventure. So here it is. I'm going to lay it all out for you. As you probably have guessed from the title, our next adventure does involve traveling.

Now, I want to start this with a caveat. If at any time we find that this is not what we should be focused on, or that really it's not a workable scenario, we will alter course. This is not a "come hell or high water" plan......really. But we ARE going to work our butts off to make it happen until it DOES happen, or we get redirected by life or by Heavenly Father.

So here are our goals/plans/focus for the next four years:

2010:

No surprise here for most of you, we want to be out of consumer debt by the end of this year for sure and we're aiming for this summer. How are we going to do that.......I have NO idea. It will take lots of blood, sweat and tears and some divine intervention. But one thing I do know is that if we work hard and focus on it, it will happen.

We are putting our 40 acres up for sale. Now it may or may not sell, but it will get listed this spring and we'll see what will happen. The money from the monthly payments on it could help significantly pay down debt!

The reward for hitting this goal is a Disney Cruise for the kids.....well ok, I 'm not kidding anyone here, for Brent and I too!!

So far since Jan. of 2007 we have paid off over $45,000 in debt and have aprox. $ 31,0000 to go. We really only got intense about it this year, so there is lots that can happen to pay it off still.

All through the next few years we will also be focusing on a way to generate income that does not tie us to one location or to an employer. Again I have NO idea how this will happen, but I know that if we focus and work hard, it will happen.....

The reward for hitting that goal is that Brent will join us full time!

2011:

Brent will work two, 60 day "outages" at work. For those who are unfamiliar with an outage, the majority of the plant works 12 hr days for six days a week and they get paid over time to do it. Because he went to salary last year, these are the only times he has a chance to earn extra at work right now. So these two will help tremendously. Right now the plan is that they will not work the entire 60 days at six days a week. They will work a few weeks, stop for a few weeks and then finish up the last few weeks at six days a week. We'll see, I'm not holding my breath.

Either way, it'll be nice for the bank account! That money will go towards our traveling funds.

2012:

Spring of 2012 we will embark on a two year trip around the world. We will spend one year traveling the US, spending time learning about our great country, past and present. We for sure plan to spend several months on the eastern seaboard learning about the roots of America.

We also know that we will travel the south in the winter and the north in the summer! I only want to see snow if I'm doing something fun on it, like skiing! We also will camp quite a bit of the year to keep costs down and camping in the north in the winter isn't something I'm ready to tackle!

2013:

We hope to head to Europe. Brent has family in Switzerland that we would like to visit and we'll see where we go from there. We will most likely end up at various archaeological sites for Collin to see and maybe participate in. He's really strongly focused on that for a career, so we'll see where that takes us. Brent and I would also like to see Australia and New Zealand.

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No we do not have any idea how we will travel, rv, bus, burb, car, train, bike, boat? Probably all of the above at some point!

We don't have a time line. We'll go and if it doesn't work, we'll come back.

Flexibility is the name of the game!

We are not planning on selling our farm house at the moment. Our younger boys are having a hard time looking forward to the trip and they really are unhappy with the thought of not having a "home" to come back to. So we are willing to bend on this to get their happy cooperation.

We'll see where we are in two years. But one solution is to find someone to live here and to take care of the various animals. We'll just have to see.

"We'll just have to see". Is probably the answer to any question you can think of at this point in regards to our traveling. A lot can happen in two years and "we'll just have to see," where we are when we get there.

Our two horses are currently 25, which is hitting senior citizenship for a horse, so they could be gone in two years. On the other hand they could live another ten years......who knows. Our two dogs will be hitting middle age in two years, not sure what will happen there. We have four cats and two snakes, they could be tricky to rehome. (not to mention Mom's two cats that also call this house home). The chickens and rabbits are probably the easiest to rehome or eat.....I'm just saying......

So for this blog, I'm hoping to keep people posted on our progress and plans. And to post resources that I've found and will find. And then of course in two years to blog about our travels!

For now "Happy Trails!"