We have now moved 6 times in 3 months. The first move was by far the hardest. I loved the house that we had for the last 6 ½ years, and the memories it helped create; of my babies growing up, the garden growing each summer, sitting in the glow of twinkly lights in the winter, and so many, many dinners with friends and family. After saying goodbye to our wonderful home, we started our summer of “living in community”- an idea that had sounded appealing when we were young without kids, but that we didn’t really consider in this stage of life. It has gone surprisingly well, however. Hard, but better than I thought it would go. 

After staying with Paul’s parents for a week in Wisconsin, ended by a weekend with mine in Minnesota, we moved into the basement of our friends. They had graciously cleared out room and the plan was that we would stay for two weeks before flying to Spain. Then our visa was denied. Five weeks later, we finally left to another friend’s apartment who was traveling for a week. Then onto two other hospitable friends who made space in their basements and lives, then out to Minnesota to the home of friends and then my parents. Three more moves this fall to friends and family will complete our slow journey to Spain and England. I’m exhausted with anticipation and looking forward to the adventures.

Each place that we stay inspires me in some way. I keep writing down the great ideas from each family or house that I want to incorporate. For example:

• eat salad for every lunch- then you don’t have to meal plan
• let kids be free to fail
• write intentional goals down and make them visible in your home
• seed new grass- not sod
• pack a meal for date night instead of going to a restaurant
• have music playing in the mornings
• make Sunday evening rest time
• pray blessings over kids each morning
• feed the birds
• catch monarch caterpillars and watch them transform
• good friends are essential for living

I have loved seeing the varied ways that each family and home functions. All different in ways, but so similar in others.

As we continue this nomad lifestyle, I find that I am continually refining how our family functions. Finding what doesn’t matter is becoming easier and easier with each move, because I’m realizing that some items really aren’t worth unpacking and re-packing 27 times, or that a simpler routine is needed if I actually expect to be able to continue it in every place we go. And the fact that I will be teaching the kids from wherever we are (I’m calling it “world-school” this year), means that I really have to figure out the curriculum and routines that I’m willing to haul around with us. 

I’m sure I’ll continue to learn and refine with each new bend in the journey; it will be interesting to see where this road leads!

We booked the tickets. ALL of them! As in five flights, four airbnbs, one hostel, and one rental car. We will buy train tickets when we arrive, but the rest is set. Unless something else unforeseen happens, we are leaving for Europe on December 9th with a plan to return next June. And it will be beautiful! The place we originally had in Spain was a lovely family home in Granada that would have worked well for our family to settle for a year, but after our visas were repeatedly denied, our new plan limited us to only be in each country for three months at a time. When we started looking at new places, via airbnb, we found places that fit our price range, and are also a little dreamier than the first plan.

SPAIN: December through March.

The first home is less than an hour train ride to Barcelona, on the edge of the mediterranean, in a small town with a huge castle. Although it will be December, too cold for beach time, we will still enjoy the beauty of our “beach home”, explore the castle, and use some time to take in the touristy finds of Barcelona and the surrounding areas. 

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I dubbed the next place our “farm home”, though it could easily hold the title “paradise”. An hour south of Granada, set in the side of the Sierra Navada mountains, this farm home boasts 500 year old olive trees, as well as groves of oranges, lemons, avocados, nuts and other fruit. The views look spectacular and we will enjoy the seclusion after months of time with people. 

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ENGLAND: March through June.

After using up our 90-day stay in Europe, we will head to England, where we can stay for up to six months without a visa. Here we will stay in a small cottage in the quaint little town of Ludlow, close to Wales, in Shropshire (which is just fun to say). This town also boasts a beautiful castle right on the Teme river and seems like a pretty place to explore the area.

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I know that everything looks better in pictures, and that nothing is ever as easy as it seems, but I’m looking forward to continuing the adventure that we have already started, and enjoying the views along the way!

Today was our first official day of school. Natalie was beyond excited about her first day of Kindergarten. Her complaint at the end of the day was that we didn’t do school all day long. I reminded her that even kids that left for school had recess, lunch break and ended at 3pm. That made her feel a little bit better, that she wasn’t being jipped out of all of her learning possibilities.

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We started the day with our tradition of pancakes in the shape of their year- a big “K” for Natalie and a “2” for Noah. They got dressed in the cute outfits that they, ahem I, had picked, and we took pictures by the majestic pine trees outside the home we are staying in (with obligatory signs to show their grade). When we trooped inside, I explained the schedule we would try to repeat no matter where in the world we happened to be. It seems like a lot, but ended up being much simpler than I thought. 

Here’s my plan:

Do the morning routine: Bed, clothes, hair, Bible and Prayer. 

At Breakfast: Display a picture of a famous artwork by the artist we are studying on the table for the kids to look at while they eat, kind of like the half-glazed stare at a box of cereal, but more worthwhile. Also, a verse or piece of memory work displayed with the same purpose. While they eat and stare, I’ll have the song of a composer we are studying playing in the background. Pretty easy so far- just eat breakfast while staring and listening. 

After cleaning up, they will copy the displayed verse or memory work to practice handwriting and grammar, which will also help them memorize it.

We will then read a picture book that has something to do with what we are learning (science, history, geography, math, art, music, etc.). Today we read about birds because the place we are staying at is pretty much a bird sanctuary. Then we found each bird out the window and Natalie spontaneously made her own bird book with drawings and trees. Yeah, she rocked her first day at kindergarten. 

Math will follow with the most structure of any area- we use a curriculum called Right Start and though it is heavy on teacher instruction, it does a great job of building number fluency.

If we find ourselves to be at a place with a piano, I will have the kids learn and practice, but we won’t have one in Europe, so I’ll probably wait. 

All of this was done by 9:30am, so I told them to go outside and play. Which is also why Natalie was disappointed that there wasn’t more. I assured her there would be more after lunch. The kids explored the forested area, caught frogs, helped pick beans from the garden and watched a monarch hatch from a chrysalis, then let it go a few hours later. (I call that “sneaky school”, when the kids are learning more than I could ever instruct, but they don’t even know it!)

Papa joined us for a fresh garden lunch, then helped listen to reading. Each child took 10 minutes to practice reading out loud, then I read a chapter book out loud to them. It was good for me to assess just how well Noah could read, as well as make him slow down and not skip words. Natalie was also doing much better than I thought she could, and it was fun to hear her put together all the sounds to read simple word books. 

We ended our time with writing- Noah chose to start a story about our time at one family’s house this summer, with hopes to publish it on this blog. Natalie wrote a pretty card for Nana and Papa and decorated it. 

Then I laid on the couch and they went out to play. First day, done.

For months, Abigail and I have been talking about starting a blog – someplace where we can collect our family’s stories and share them with friends and extended family. And I’m finally writing our first post.

Progress!

I’m not sure exactly how/where to start with our most recent family developments, so I’m just going to jump in. About nine months ago, Abigail and I decided to try something a little crazy. We decided to sell our house, put our things in storage, and move to Spain for a year. Our plan was to move in July, put our kids in a Spanish school in September, learn the language, learn about the culture, and take a year just to focus on experiencing something new together as a family.

Things didn’t quite go as planned. After spending months of preparation (and more money than I am comfortable disclosing), our Spanish visa wasn’t approved. Without a visa, we wouldn’t be able to stay in Spain for longer than three months. We wrote to the Spanish consulate and appealed the decision. Our appeal was denied too.

This was a big setback for us, both logistically and emotionally. Abigail had put a ton of time and effort into the visa application (we may share more about that process in a future post, because it’s all a very interesting process). And it was tough to stomach the possibility of spending even more time, money, and energy into another application without any guarantee that we would we be accepted. Plus the time it would take to reapply would most likely put our arrival in Spain after the start of school.

Oh, and by the time we heard back about our visa status, we had already sold our house. So there’s that, too.

Let me say before continuing that we remain pretty positive about the whole experience thus far. By sharing this, I’m not complaining. I would rather it had gone differently, of course. At our core, though, Abigail and I still feel that applying for the visa and selling our house were the right thing for us. Things have changed now. And we’re excited for those changes.

So where does this leave us right now? We are still planning to travel to Spain for a shorter period of time, probably starting in late fall or early winter. In the meantime, we’re experiencing several smaller adventures with family and friends. And we want to share some of those adventures with you.

That’s it for now. We will share more details, pictures, stories, etc. later.