Thinking about traveling light.

Hellooooooo! Well we lost our web for three weeks due to bad weather but now I'm baaaack. I hope you missed me. At least a little ;)

In the meanwhile I've had my head in the clouds - travel planning. We even outsourced the kids (read: sleepovers with the grandparents and play-dates with friends) last weekend, borrowed pretty much every book in the library and moved some mountains.

There is a lot to think about when you are taking your entire family around the world for 6 months!

Can you possibly guess where we are going?! Lol. 

I've also been thinking a lot about what we will need to take (and the whole houseful of things that we won't). It's really important to me that we pack light, but that we also have everything covered. I'll write more about my travel "kit" ideas soon.

When I think about conscious packing my mind keeps wandering back to Bea at Zero Waste Home. Now, here is a lady who knows how to keep things minimal without discarding her need for style. And this week I have been most-inspired by her post on wearing a mens shirt 50 ways. She went to France for 2 months and basically only took the shirt and a pair of leggings. Amaaaaaaazing!!

I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that quite YET but I am motivated to get creative and really push the boundaries of how multipurpose our clothes can be.

Here's me trialing one of her looks :) What do you think? x

Manly!

That last post left things on a bit of a downer didn't it! 

I actually had a great weekend. Which is, I'm sure, the reason for this mornings glum-fest.

Wanna see some of my photos?

I was met at the airport by my bff and we headed out for lunch straight away.
Destination: Manly. 

I haven't spent much time there since I was a child so it was kind of like rediscovering it for me. I liked it.

Celebrating the end of my 7 day detox with a glass of champagne. Eeeek!

And lots of WATER.

Stormy skies but ever so pretty.

 We moved inside when it got too windy outside. Loving this cushion collection.

My best friend C.

I love her to bits. And she - she loves her phone. Lol. But then, *cough* so do I . 

We are a good match :) #iphonejunkiesunite

 I had the roast beetroot and goats cheese salad.

AND I managed the willpower to abstain from eating C's chips with her. Phew. 

 Manly harbour. 

Coffee at Max Brenner. My first caffeine / chocolate / dairy hit in 7 days. 

Oh! And this is the reason for my trip >> tickets for Ed Sheeran. Most exciting.

The concert was AMAZING by the way! Have you seen him perform??!

Days like this

It's days like this when I wonder if homeschooling is really for us.

I spent the weekend, away, with my best friend and her family. Away from my family. I missed them very much but I also cherished the opportunity for time to myself and time to reflect. 

Now that I'm home and it's Monday morning I am feeling a bit unsettled. Sorry for myself even (the city was fun!) but maybe even more sorry for my boys.  While I was away I helped to collect my friend's kids from school. And I guess I saw the 'shiny/good/fun side' of school. You know, the big gaggle of kids mucking around together and having a laugh. Don't even get me started on the resources.

And here we are. 

Just the 3 of us. 

And maybe I can't really remember how we ended up here or, more to the point, WHY.

It also doesn't help that I'm tired and trying to - post detox and then a big weekend - continue to cut out most of my regular go-to crutches: caffeine, sugar, carbs.  Sigh.

These days are HARD.

I know it's true that these days pass. But they are still hard while they're here.

So, why are we on this path? 

Am I okay with what I perceive they might be missing? And what exactly is it? Freedom, autonomy, lots of friends...? I think I am scared that this isn't enough. That I'm not enough.

The reality is that we are homeschooling.

And I know that won't change in the next year. The reality is that I made a huge commitment and that I do have to work out how to get through these feelings. That I did choose this life. That it's true that I'm not enough but that I already knew that. And that I know I would find it hard to walk away from what we have.

It's time for a new plans I guess. A bit of a rethink. 

Do you ever feel this way? x

Getting out of the house

It's been raining here for weeks.

We needed to shake things up. To get out of the house today.

So we headed to the beach.

It was unusually dark for a Summer morning, threatening to rain, but so beautiful. 

 I love seeing my boys run free. Like the wind.

And then Mother Nature came good on her threats and the heavens opened.

So we retreated to the new local library. 

Lovely had already visited but it was the first time for Hug and I. This local library has been a local community dream for as long as we have lived in the area, which is now 13 years! It's thrilling to finally be able to walk inside.

I was immediately struck by the beautiful view at the end of the room.

Stunning.

We did a little schoolwork. The boys were more distracted that I would have hoped and it gave me great food for thought for our future travels. I will definitely need to flex our regular routines and style when we are living and learning on the road. These thoughts will be discussed and meditated on and grappled with here ad nauseum I am sure. Lol. I am a work in progress.

Regardless, we were  thrilled to be surrounded by books. We are all crazy for books. Libraries and bookstores thrill us so we were muchos happy. 

The boys were excited to point out a copy of one of our current read-alouds, The Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky, sitting on the shelf.

What did you do today?

Travel planning with kids and coffee.

Last year I mentioned my wanderlust.

We were dreaming of a big trip. Penciled to be Europe 13-14.
It seemed all pie in the sky back then, silly even.
So far away and - really - could we? Should we?... Would we?

So we bit the bullet and did the only sensible thing. We bought tickets.
One way tickets at that.

Oh my. We. Were. Booked!!

Now we are in serious planning mode. Ahhhhhh, how I do love travel planning ;)

But our days and weeks are busy. And to-be-completely-honest we are tired at night. 

Or working and tired.

So we have carved out Saturday mornings as dedicated family travel planning time. With coffee of course. 'Cos life is too short to live without coffee ;) Okay. I'm on a detox at the moment so no coffee for me. Sob. But I'm feeling the coffee-love so stick with me.

Hug quizzing L about where this poster may have been from... any guesses?!

We want our boys to be involved. I have borrowed a few of Lonely Planet's Not For Parents books from the library for them to pour over and we bring them along.

It's nice if you choose a good cafe to do all of this heady work.

Eventually, the boys ask for time on their iPods. Their weekends-only treat. Or they return to their current reading book. Which gives us a little extra time. 

That's code for time when we can actually focus. Of course.

Have you traveled with your kids?
Do you have a dream destination or plans-in-the-midst?

Do share! x