One Week to Go...

days to go!

Well, we have one week to go until the big adventure begins! We've been living with a card table and four chairs as our only furniture since November 11th, when we put everything into storage. We were sleeping on mattresses on the floor until November 18th, when Salvation Army picked them up (Salvation Army doesn't pick up during the week of Thanksgiving, so we had to let them go sooner). The hubby and I managed one night on a pallet on the floor, before we went and retrieved the blow-up bed from storage! The kids don't seem to mind sleeping on the floor, but our old bodies didn't care much for it! Thanks goodness we only have four more nights on the blow-up bed! We'll be in a hotel the last weekend here, so I can clean our apartment before we turn in the keys. The kids get to go to their grandparent's house tomorrow night, so they get a real bed (not to mention TV and internet) before we do ;p

Storage, and the donation pick-up, happened with zero issues. So we've been sitting around finishing up schoolwork before Thanksgiving break. We're taking almost three weeks off for the move to Florida, and a week in Orlando to enjoy Universal Studios as a mini vacation. I've started cleaning already, but there is only so much I can clean until the kids get out of here (or I just have to clean it again). We are looking forward to getting to Saturday, to the hotel, so we have TV, internet, and beds again for a little while.

We've already been in touch with a boat broker. He has a few catamarans lined up for us to see on our way to Florida, and of course a whole bunch more when we get there. With any luck, we will have a boat lined up by mid-January, with plenty of time to head south before hurricane season. It has been really nice to be able to focus more on boat related stuff, and less on the stuff here. 

The hubby only has a day and a half of work left. Everyday he gets home, he throws away a pair of pants and a shirt that he will never have to wear again! We are getting very excited as everything falls into place as planned. We sit around our card table talking for hours about boat stuff. It's turned cold here, so we watch the Florida weather (where it's twenty degrees warmer) to make ourselves feel better! We can't wait to roll out of here in a week! If you see a black Durango hauling a tiny U-Haul trailer east out of Dallas next Tuesday morning early, it might be us! If you hear a squalling cat coming from the back of the Durango, it will definitely be us! Wish us luck, 'cause it's too late to turn back now!!!

Laundry...

 Sundays are typically laundry days at our place. There's just one little problem with this particular Sunday: I have no washing machine and dryer (they went to their new home last week), and I have no vehicle (we sold our second car, and the hubby has our only vehicle at work). So, what to do? Well, I loaded the week's worth of laundry into a large laundry sack. Then I grabbed my phone, keys, water bottle, and a roll of quarters. Then....we walk. When I got the laundry sack load onto my back (backpack style), my son said I looked like I had a bag similar to what he imagined Santa would lug around!

A week's worth of laundry is a lot heavier than one imagines, especially when trekking a ways with it. The good part: You get quite the workout, and all of your laundry is done in about an hour and a half (instead of the all day laundry we're used to). Fortunately the laundry room was deserted on a Sunday morning, and I was able to use as many machines as I needed. We left the apartment at 9:30am, and we were home with the clothes put away by noon! The bad part: You have to lug your dirty laundry there, and then your clean laundry back. It's also $1.00 for each wash, and $1.00 for each dry. That's $2.00 a load! I'm gonna have to stock up on quarters!!! We gotta get used to it though, because you don't have a washer and dryer on a boat ;p

Meet Tiger

Many of you, that have been reading this blog, know of the story of our precious Lily (of whom the boat will eventually be named after). You can read about her here: The Name

This story, however, is about another kitty. It begins for us in March 2011. It was a crisp cool day, and a daughter headed out to visit her recently widowed mother. The widow called prior to the departure requesting the daughter bring some kitten food with her, as a surprise had showed up on the front porch steps that morning...

There were always wild cats roaming around the widow's house, and she was constantly throwing out scraps to feed them. There was one wild cat among the rest that did not shy from people. She was a grey and white tabby colored cat that was always too skinny (even when she was pregnant, litter after litter). To my knowledge, she was never given a name, but could always be found hanging around the front porch looking for food or attention. The widow had not seen the cat for awhile, but had heard the mews of kittens under the house (indicating yet another litter had recently been born). But it had been a few weeks since she had heard any mews, or had seen the mother cat. As was common in the woods, predators often found their prey at their weakest, and nature is often cruel. She had assumed the mother and the kittens had fallen prey to some other animal, as she had lost chickens recently too. You can imagine the widow's surprise, as she left her empty porch that morning to get the mail, and returned to find a single kitten placed on the top step to the porch. The kitten did not shy away from the old widow, but instead stared at her with wide eyes. The kitten was only four to five weeks old, and could not have managed to climb the tall steps on it's own. The widow looked around for signs of the mother cat, but found nothing. It would seem the mother cat had left her kitten, this last lone kitten, upon the steps of the porch, trusting the widow would take care of it. We will never know why the mother cat abandoned her kitten, as she was never seen or heard from again. The old widow picked up the kitten, took it into the house, and placed it in a box with water and bedding. She then called her daughter and asked her to bring some canned kitten food with her, when she visited that day.

The daughter arrived with her husband and children a few hours later. Everyone loved the little kitten, and watched it get all messy while it ate the canned food. The children, of course, wanted to take the kitten home, but the daughter already had two older cats at home. She told the children it would be better to leave the kitten with the widow, as she could use something to take her mind off of her recent loss. So the kitten stayed with the old widow and learned to love her as it's new mother. The kitten was named Tiger. He was a brown and black tabby colored cat, with a shorter than average tale. He had a white chin, solid black on the bottoms of his feet, and a black tip on his tail. He adored his new mother, the old widow. He came when she called, he slept by her side in the bed, and followed her everywhere she went. He feared everyone except the old widow. When others would visit, he would hide and even sometimes hiss at them. Tiger would live with the old widow for a year and a half, before his life would change.

The old widow's health was declining, and it was unsafe for her to live alone anymore. So in September of 2012, the old widow decided to go live with her daughter and family. Tiger was loaded into a carrier, and driven to his new home, along with the widow and her possessions. Tiger spent all of his time in the two rooms that had been given to the old women for use (a bedroom, and her own living room). The poor scared cat never left to visit the rest of the two-thousand square foot home. When others would come into the area, Tiger would hide. Tiger was forced to meet two new cats, the older cats that belonged to the daughter. Tiger didn't like them very much, and made it clear they were not allowed into his area. He stayed loyal to his owner, the old widow. He stayed with her night and day, whether she was awake or asleep. Tiger spent eight long months, living in this new life, before events would change again.

In June of 2013, the old widow's health had deteriorated to the point that the daughter could no longer safely take care of her properly. So the old women loaded her possessions into the daughter's vehicle, and was driven to a nursing home. Tiger stood in the hallway and watched the old widow leave. The old widow never looked back, or even told him good-bye. From Tiger's point of view, for some unfathomable reason, his second mother had abandoned him. He was lost. After two long years of knowing nothing but the old widow, Tiger was alone. He cried day and night. The daughter would go and sit with him in the empty bedroom, and talk soothingly to him. After a time, he let the daughter pet him, and he slowly began to investigate the rest of the house. He learned where he fit with the other two cats in terms of hierarchy. He quit hissing at everyone, but stayed skittish. He would let the daughter sit next to him and pet him, but that was as close as he would allow. Then a very peculiar thing happened, Tiger found a friend.

The daughter had two children, a boy and a girl. The children loved their cats, and were constantly seen petting or holding them. Six months after the old widow went away, the second oldest cat  (Lily) suffered a stroke. So in December of 2013, after fourteen years as a member of the family, Lily passed away. The boy, who did not like the old widow (nor was he ever liked by the widow), had refused to tell Lily goodbye upon her passing, as he did not want her to go. In his grief, the boy's attention focused on someone else who understood his feelings, Tiger. This unlikely pair (one who adored the widow, and the other who loathed her) had formed an unspoken bond. Tiger would play with the boy, let the boy pet him, and even allow himself to be carried by the boy.

In the summer of 2014, the daughter and her family decided to move and set their life up to be able to travel. Prior to their move, their other older cat passed away. Tiger was now the only pet left. The daughter and her husband considered finding a new home for Tiger, as it would be considerably easier to move and travel without a pet. The boy would not hear of such a thing. He was adamant that Tiger must go. It was explained to the boy that taking a pet with them would be very expensive. The apartment they were moving into would be five-hundred dollars up front, with a pet rent every month (not to mention the costs of traveling). When the boy was asked if the cat was worth all of that, his immediate answer was "Yes." The daughter and her husband could not look into the eyes of their son, and take away someone that was so dear to him. So Tiger moved with the family, into a small apartment.

Tiger learned to live happily, with the daughter and her family, in a small apartment for a little over a year. He allowed everyone in the family to pet him. He was no longer skittish and afraid. There were even moments where Tiger would sit in the daughter's lap and purr. He spent is awake time playing  and his sleep time curled up wherever was comfortable. Tiger quit hiding, and lived as one of the family. Tiger was re-trained to use a litter box more suitable for traveling. The time to travel was about to begin, when the exorbitant costs of traveling with a pet surfaced. It was expensive with all of the vet fees, hotel fees, import fees, etc. Documents needed to travel to other countries were both expensive, and difficult to obtain. The thought of finding Tiger a new home surfaced again, but only briefly. The daughter (who, no doubt, was born with entirely too much empathy) could not abandoned Tiger. Tiger had been abandoned twice (one from each of his 'mothers'). The daughter could not stand the thought of Tiger being abandoned again. The circumstances, that placed Tiger where he was, were not his fault. He was merely a victim of events that he had no control over.  Tiger had survived those events, and was now a member of a new family.

So, when you think of us traveling the world with a cat, do not question our motives. Tiger will go where we go, and he will learn yet another new set of circumstances. Tiger will become a boat cat and travel the world with his family!

Meet Tiger:

This is how he sees himself ;)

Just 1 more month!!!

Time is seriously flying! We officially have only thirty days until we're out of here! The packing is going well. I managed to get the entire contents of the apartment (that are being permanently stored) into an area that is 9-1/2 feet by 7-1/2 feet. The trick is to stack things up high. The good part is that I'll have a few extra feet of storage if I need it. The majority of the stuff being donated is gone. We have a few boxes left that are being picked up (along with the last of the unkept furniture) in two weeks. Now I'm simply down to two piles: the boxes with contents that will not be needed until we have the boat (aka the 'boat boxes'), and the boxes with contents we will use in Florida between now and the boat (aka the 'Florida boxes'). Every week I find something else we can "do without for now" and box it up.

We have all ensured our vaccines are up to date, and gotten additional typhoid vaccines. Even our cat, Tiger, has his appointment set to get all his vaccines and health travel paperwork. We all have passports ready to go (including the cat - yes - a pet passport). My husband is counting down his rapidly dwindling work days (only 27 to go as of now). We are reaching the point that excitement is beginning to mount as the "getting ready" is winding down.

The Texas heat has broken, and fall has arrived (which for Texas means dreary rain and cloudy). This only makes us look more forward to heading East and then further South. People have begun asking the same questions as before. I direct them to my blog (I get kind of tired of repeating myself all the time). I've even taken the time to make what I call "pre-boat" cards. When we get the boat, we will have "boat" cards made to give to friends as we travel (and collect theirs at the same time). But, since we don't have a boat yet, I've made cards to give to people here, so that they can stay informed as time goes by. Here is what our "pre-boat" card looks like:

Some of you will remember the picture from when we went to the Abaco Islands over Spring Break ;)  We have purchased an inReach so that we can plot our location as we travel. Eventually the Facebook page and blog will have a map showing where we are (for anyone interested). I'll do my best to keep things updated as we move along (provided there's internet)! In the meantime, we took the kids out for their last "trick or treating" in the old neighbor last night. They made out like bandits, and we only have a month to eat all that candy ;p

60 Days to - "The Plan"

As of today, we officially have exactly sixty days until we head out to begin our adventure. We've given ourselves a timeline on when all of our stuff has to be either stored, packed for moving, or gotten rid of. Of course, we've already begun said timeline. Every weekend we pick a new room in the apartment to cull through and decide what we're doing with each item. We've decided, when things are sitting around in closets and cabinets, that they must use the dark quiet places to quickly breed additional useless items. We sold our house last year and "downsized" to half the living space. We literally got rid of a room full of boxes and furniture back then. Yet somehow, we still manage to take an average of six boxes/bags of useless crap out of the apartment EVERY week!!! Seriously, where is it all coming from??? Anyway, for now the focus is on permanent storage.

Storage will contain the furniture and boxes of things that we won't be actively using, but want to keep. The storage unit is a 10x10 (which means it's actually 9'6" x 9'6" - I know because I measured it). So somehow we have to cram all of the "kept" items into one room. Fortunately, our current unused dining room is exactly 9'6" x 9'6". So (being the OCD person that I am) I have begun filling "storage" into the dining room. So far I have crammed two twin beds, a queen bed (with bed slats), five bookcases, a dresser, three desks, a tv stand, a full size keyboard, two shoe holders, two suitcases, a christmas tree, three christmas ornament/decoration boxes, four barstools, a box full of the camping/fishing stuff, and a wardrobe box (containing the only clothes to be stored) into a 9'6" x 5'4" space. That not's bad considering I only have a TV stand, a TV, and several boxes to go. I should still have plenty of room to get it all in there. Working as a loader at UPS years ago, and all those hours of playing Tetris, are actually paying off:

Now many people (who have suddenly realized we are seriously leaving) have been asking the same question: So, what exactly is the plan? (I mean seriously, like we wouldn't actually have a plan. This is us after all - of course there's a plan. There's even a backup plan at each step - that I won't go into just now). Anyway, here's "The Plan":

• Move stuff into permanent storage two weeks before Thanksgiving.
• Have Salvation Army pick up the remaining large "get rid of" stuff one week before Thanksgiving (because they are closed the entire last week of November).
• Sleep on the floor, eat off of paper plates, and finish packing the week of Thanksgiving (we'll spend Thanksgiving outside the apartment at friends' or families' houses).
• Move into a hotel room the last Saturday of November for three nights while we pack the trailer, clean out the apartment, turn in keys, and drop off the last few boxes at storage/donation.
• Roll out of here (with us and the cat in the Durango - and the trailer in tow) on December 1st.
• Arrive and spend two nights and a day in New Orleans enjoying the French Quarter and eating beignets.
• Drive all day and spend one night in Tallahassee.
• Drive to Orlando, drop off the trailer, and put the contents of the trailer into a small storage space until needed (this will be the stuff we won't need until we're on the boat).
• Enjoy a week in a hotel, in Orlando, spending ample time at Universal Studios (we've already done Disney World, but have never been to Universal Studios).
• Drive on to Melbourne, Florida and arrive at a rented vacation home (furnished of course).
• Spend the rest of December, and most of January, finding and buying a catamaran.
• February and March will be used for any repairs or changes we want to make on the boat, and retrieving our stored stuff from Orlando.
• By the end of March, the Durango will be turned into the dealer (it's on a lease) and we will sail away South towards the Bahamas!
• Island hop south through the Caribbean to get to Granada before hurricane season starts. - Then the world is ours!!!

Now of course this sounds very simple when listed out like this, but keep in mind that the entire time we will have the cat with us, and the children have to continue with schoolwork. We've already devised a "portable" system for all of the school stuff. The cat will be visiting the vet prior to leaving to get all of his vaccines up to date, and I will obtain plenty of "kitty valium" while I'm there. Of course we have already made all of the hotel arrangements at all stops (including pet fees) and have the vacation home rented as well. We also have already obtained our new permanent address and phone number (through a mail handling place that caters to travelers) which will show us as Florida residents even when we aren't there. It will also serve to show we are not "homeless" ;p

As the time flies by, the excitement is building, the contents of the apartment are shrinking, the Texas heat is beginning to break, and the unavoidable stress is attempting to mount. We are already currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor and our clothing is stored on boxes. However, we are all hanging in there keeping the end goal in mind. We use a lot of sarcasm and humor to deflate tense moments and keep each other hanging on and moving forward. So far so good, and look out Florida, because here we come!!!

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been around six months since I've updated this blog. There's really no good excuse I can come up with for the absence, other than 'time flies'. Here's a quick summary of what we've been doing for the last six months:

Most of April was beginning to finish up one school year, while enrolling for this fall (high school for the boy, and middle school for the girl). The high school program is very different from the middle school program. There were lots of choices for him to consider, and lots of thought put into the amount of courses to take for eventual graduation. We also had to take into consideration courses that were more successful 'land based' and ones that would work whether or not we were on land. In the end he chose a very large load of courses in hopes of jump starting the necessary credits and making the later years easier at the same time.

May was the mad dash to finish the school year. Both children has massive end of year projects to complete. Between end of course exams and year end projects, everyone was kept fairly busy. We were more than ready for summer break when the month finally ended.

In June I had shoulder surgery. I sustained an injury a couple of years back that tore my shoulder and blew a disc in my neck. Last summer I had neck surgery to repair the damage to my neck. We had all hoped that the neck surgery and time would take care of the shoulder, but alas, that didn't happen. By the time I went in for the shoulder, the tear was bigger and I would never have been able to sail with it. With the shoulder being the most complicated joint in the body, the recovery is quite lengthy. I am currently still in physical therapy, but the shoulder is already impressively better than it was pre-surgery. With a couple of more months of strengthening, I'll be able to use it one hundred percent.

July was spent hiding indoors. Texas in July is an inferno. The daily temps exceeding one hundred degrees saps all energy from you. The children were brave enough to endure going to the water park, but I will admit I dropped them off and picked them up when they were done. I hid inside in my air conditioning dreaming of, this time next year, being somewhere that didn't exceed the upper eighties.

With August came the realization that we were four months from leaving this place, and would essentially be homeless. We spent most of the month planning our departure, finding temporary places to stay, working out the finances, and preparing for a new school year. I had the children begin their new school year a few weeks early (mid-August) so that we could take extra time off in December for the relocation (more details on that to come).

September the first arrived and I had a small panic attack as I realized I had only ninety days to somehow shrink the contents of our household to fit into a ten by ten storage room and a four by eight trailer. Currently the children are on their fourth week of school while I start culling out the contents of our apartment. We've decided the downsizing begins with five piles: throw away, donate, sell, permanently store, and pack to take with us. It's an odd feeling to be manic and stressed, but excited at the same time.

Our deadline is fast approaching, and I am determined that we will meet it. When we drive out of here on December 1st, we'll be towing a small trailer, listening to a yowling cat in the back of the SUV, waiting for the children to begin "are we there yet," and grinning from ear to ear that our adventure has finally begun!

-more details on the adventure will follow soon!

March Spring Break Vacation

Well, our spring break has come and gone (way too quickly I might add). As planned, we took a week and chartered a catamaran down in Great Abaco Island, Bahamas. This time we went on our own, no captain or classes, just the four of us testing the waters.

Day 1 was spent traveling by plane to Miami and then on to Marsh Harbour. We chartered the boat from Sunsail in the Marsh Harbour Marina. It was a lovely three year old 38 ft. Catamaran. We all immediately loved it. Everything was roomier and the bathrooms contained a separate shower stall. The kids enjoyed the marina pool while we got all of our chart briefings done and took our stuff on board. The first night was spent in Marsh Harbour with the plan of setting out the following morning. Lesson number one, plans change and that's okay.

Day 2 at 7:00am I awoke with a stomach ache. Thinking a bathroom trip was necessary (after all, several hours on a plane has it's effects), I went on to the head. While in there, the vomiting started. My first thought was motion sickness (seemed odd since we hadn't gone anywhere yet, but I had nothing else to go on). I forced myself up top to the cockpit figuring it would dissipate. That was where my husband found me still puking my guts out. An hour later the diarrhea started. Part of me was glad it wasn't motion sickness, but the other part just wanted someone to kill me and get it over with! Apparently I had picked up a stomach bug. Needless to say, with me prone in the cockpit, trash can at hand, we obviously weren't going anywhere. I made my husband take the kids for more fun in the pool and around the marina while I stayed shivering and puking in the cockpit. Fortunately, it was the 24 hour kind of bug and no one else caught it.

Day 3 at 8:00am I popped my head into my children's bunks and watched them light up at the news that mom was fine and we were preparing to head out! Our first destination was Fowl Cay Preserve to do some snorkeling and kayaking. We figured the kids needed immediate fun stuff to remove the bad taste from the day before. Lesson number two, sometimes you must improvise. At soon as we anchored, we set about lowering the dinghy on the davit to take it around to the reefs (too dangerous for the sailboat in that area). The davit's motor decided it didn't want to let us have said dinghy and decided to lock up. The groan from the kids were audible as we hailed Sunsail on the VHF. They perked up when we told them they didn't need to wait on the dinghy, just jump in and snorkel and take the kayak! We got instructions on how to get the dinghy down and told to 'tow' it for the remainder of our trip. From there, we went on to Hopetown in Elbow Cay. It's the second largest town in the Abacos, so we figured it was a good place to see. It also houses one of the few lighthouses in the world that still works on kerosene and is hand cranked! Lesson three, make sure our boat is reading the depth properly. Our boat drafted 3.5 ft. The water near low tide gets pretty low. We watched the depth finder as we got closer and were very worried when it said we were at 2.8 ft (yet we hadn't touched bottom). Our theory was their depth finder was a bit off. Even at low tide we didn't touch bottom, but it made us nervous anyway. The water had been pretty choppy for the trip to Hopetown (especially with a dinghy tied off the back blowing around), so we decided to stay anchored just outside Hopetown for the night. We dinghied in to Captain Jack's for dinner before the sunset.

Day 4 the winds and waves were still pretty high with rain predicted. We decided to stay put for another day and visit the shops in Hopetown. We also needed a few things from the store, and Hopetown had a decent size one. We didn't get as much shopping in as we would have liked due to Hopetown celebrating their 'Heritage Day'. It was fun to wander around and see the people all day. We liked that we had 'stumbled' into a celebration! Our favorite place in Hopetown was the 'Sugar Shack'. We visited there more than once for their ice cream!

Day 5 we were up bright and early, our destination was Treasure Cay. We had decided to pay for a slip when we got there so we didn't have to deal with towing the dinghy (since it would take several hours to get there). Lesson number 4, you don't have to be someone else's entertainment. Apparently the Treasure Cay Marina decided to put the Sunsail charter's slip right up front for everyone on the dock and in the pool to see. At first we thought it would be awesome until they informed us we would need to parallel park our 38 ft catamaran into the dock. What??? Apparently it's quite amusing for them to watch the charter boats have to try again and again to get into place. My husband parked it like a pro even though it had been his first time 'backing' up. I guess we disappointed them, but we were pretty proud of the accomplishment ourselves.  Treasure Cay was by far our favorite place. It has a three mile long beach with white sand that feels as if it's been sifted. Treasure Cay is classified as one of the world's most beautiful places, and we pretty much had it to ourselves. The kids spent lots of time body surfing, building sand castles, and throwing water and sand at each other. It could not have been more perfect. We spent the night in the slip knowing it was our last night on the boat.

Day 6 we headed back to Marsh Harbour to turn in the boat. We all wished the trip could have been longer. It didn't take long to get to Marsh Harbour, so we spent a large part of the day finishing our shopping for t-shirts and souvenirs. We had a fantastic dinner at Wally's and crashed in a hotel room to leave early the next morning back to Texas.

We absolutely loved the vacation and are so looking forward to living our lives that way. We made improvements to our bucket list for our own boat. We got lots of practice with docking both the sailboat and the dinghy (dinghy docking it's called). We learned that while we are new to this, we can already do some things better than most, which helps us feel reassured we'll be able to handle the things we can't yet do so well. Everywhere we went, and everyone we met was friendly. We helped people when we saw they needed it, and others did the same for us. Everything was so laid back and easy. It would seem 'no stress' just comes natural down there. The whole trip gave us much needed hope in humanity (that's gone away now that we're back, but we know it exists out there). We have every intention of going back with our own boat next year. There was so much we didn't get to see, and next time we'll have no time constraint!

One year in, one year to go - the halftime report

This time last year, we were only beginning to realize what we wanted to do. Now we have been planning and taking the steps to get ready for a full year. Where do we stand?

If we look only at the concrete accomplishments, there are two major ones. We have finished the first semester of homeschooling both of our children, and no one has perished. They seem to be adjusted to the new routine. It is a lot of work to do it right, but it is something that we can do. Also, we have moved into an apartment after selling our house. The apartment is a good halfway stop or the downsizing road, since it is much smaller that the house, but still larger than the biggest boat will be. We have all settled in to the smaller space without any major problems.

Most of our other accomplishments are less tangible. We know we want a catamaran. Now we have a short list of five or six models that we will look for. We know now what amenities we want to have on the boat. We have a list of the suppliers for those things as well. We know now that we would prefer to find a boat in the U.S., since the adjustment period will be easier without adding moving offshore to it. We also know what it will mean if we cannot do this, and we know we can live with that, too. We know we want to start by cruising between the East Coast and the Caribbean. That will allow us to take 'baby steps' as we get used to living on a boat and sailing full time.

We also know that we are still excited at the prospect. We are really looking forward to going to the Bahamas for a week in March to 'refresh' ourselves.

The next year will be full of many more tangible accomplishments. Life will get very busy, especially after March, as we continue to simplify. Next summer we have to set up our new residency and get the banking situation worked out. We have ideas for that; it just needs to wait until then to set things up. Next fall we have to make a connection with a broker to start the search for our boat. We have a short list of brokers to select from. My last day at work is November 27, 2015.

Random Breakout!!!

One of the many benefits of learning at home is that any one of us is subject to random breakout dancing:

We tend to listen to music when doing math or projects of any kind.  Laughter by far is the best part of the day!

Distance Learning

It's been awhile since I've been able to write anything. That's because my week sort of looks like this:

Our week is Wednesday thru Saturday instead of Monday thru Friday (to match my husband's work schedule), but that frazzling feeling is definitely there at the end of our week. I will admit, that anyone thinking of educating their children at home (even with the curriculum and backup of your chosen school's educators), it's a LOT more work than I thought it would be. My children are doing WAY more work than their peers in the same grade. We've just finished 12 weeks, and each of my children have four 2" binders completely full of their turned in work. I'm contemplating how to 'archive' all this work to keep from buying yet more binders!

I came across an article the other day that helped me remember one of the many reasons I frazzle myself out every week:

Valedictorian Gives Graduation Speech Against the US Education System:

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen?...... 
Read full article at: http://expandedconsciousness.com/2014/05/18/valedictorian-gives-graduation-speech-against-the-us-education-system/

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Here are a few of her comments that really resonated with me:

"I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him."

"We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt."

"To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of "critical thinking?" Is there really such a thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?"

"Here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change."

"We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation?"

"We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still."

"I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition."
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After reading the article, I reminded myself of the infinite number of reasons we are doing this. We can and will show our children many of the other places in this world that are so vastly different from our own. Our children can and will be human beings that are thinkers and adventurers - not workers. Our new life goals will constantly require the use of 'critical thinking'. One of the many reasons for this is so that our children WILL NOT mindlessly accept others opinions as truth (including the opinions of their parents). We WILL runaway and give our children an education that enlightens. That education will be only a small part in the vast world's lessons and insights obtained. Yes, for us, the change will be well worth the weekly frazzle! 

where we are now

Now that we are settled into an apartment, I have noticed a change in my perspective. That move made the whole thing real. Before that, we could just punt on the whole thing and laugh about it. Now we are going. Things that bothered me about living and working here just don't get to me anymore. The traffic is just as bad as before, but I don't care. My boss is a pain, but I don't care. None of this matters anymore. It is very liberating. Don't get me wrong, I still get worked up over some things. They are just different things. My focus has changed.

Unplugging from our current life is a lot of work. I have a list of things that need to be done, but most of them cannot be done too far in advance. Many of them cannot be done until we own a boat. That is a year away. In the interim I do research and accomplish things as I can. One by one we go through our list of things and check them off or find a solution. We still need to downsize our closets. We have WAY too many clothes for living on a boat, but there is no hurry. We have a year to get there. We have to decide which furniture we are going to keep and store, and which we are going to give away. We have a car and an SUV that we have to get rid of. The list goes on, but most of the big things are getting done or at least decided.

Then there are the new things. All of us need to take first aid classes. There are immunizations that you need if you are travelling to many of the places we want to go. I'm not even sure my current shots are up to date. The kids' passports need to be renewed. We have decided to take our cat with us, so we need to become educated on what we need to have or do to travel with an animal.

We are going to the Bahamas next March for a week, just to remind ourselves of what we are going to do. There is some planning for that, but nothing out of the ordinary for a vacation. Most of our time now is being spent in thought. How do we want to do things? What do we want to do? So do not fear, while there may not be a lot of action over the next few months, as we decide things, we will let you know.

The Name

Many people name their cars and/or give them a gender. We've never been the type to do such a thing. Boats are unique in that way though. For some reason (I'm sure my husband would know exactly why), boats are always 'female' in gender. Every boat must have a name, because that's how it is identified. Much like your house has a specific address, your boat must have a specific name. So, we've been thinking of names for the boat. I know it seems way too early to do such a thing, but much like parents planning for a child, it seems like a logical thing to do, for us. Now I will tell you that we have picked a name, and all four of us undoubtedly agree on it. However, I should give you a background story so you'll understand why we will use that name:

It was September of 1998 and we were living in Colorado. We were just arriving home to our apartment complex after having been visiting with friends. It was late, and cold. That night was predicted to be the first heavy snow of the season, and judging from the air temperature, it seemed they were predicting it correctly. We were supposed to get around a foot of snow, and it was predicted that it would stay for awhile (if not all winter). Since it was late, there were no parking spots close by our stairwell (of course - the joys of apartment living), so we parked a little way down and began our brisk walk to the door. 

I heard her before I saw her. It was a kitten and she was crying. I immediately began looking around for the sound, and following the cry (I always did have a soft heart when it came to animals). Then I saw her. She was just inside the fence near the building, and she and I both froze upon seeing each other. I remember my breath hitching as I noticed her right paw seemed to look wrong. It seemed like it was mangled or disfigured (from what I could judge in the dark, at a distance). I began to slowly walk towards her talking softly to her. I expected her to immediately run, but she didn't. She just sat there watching me. I got to the fence and realized she wasn't hurt at all. She was a polydactyl (a condition where the cat has additional toes on their paw). She was filthy, but beautiful to me all the same. She was black and white with the appearance of a normal American breed cat, except for her paws, which were exceptional. She had large green eyes that stayed on me while I stood and talked to her. I asked her why she was out all alone, and where she lived. Of course I got no answer from her, I only got her eyes boring into me. I fell in love with her immediately and exclaimed to my husband that she was a polydactyl. I was worried about the oncoming storm. It was supposed to be really bad and I feared for her safety. But, we already had two cats waiting for us upstairs. We had both agreed, after the second of those two, we would have no more. I begrudgingly sighed, wished her a safe evening, and trudged up to the apartment. As soon as I turned my back on her, I saw her sprint under the row of cars in front of the apartment. I hoped she would be okay.

As soon as we got upstairs and in the door (we lived on the second floor of three), I began voicing my fears to my husband. The poor little thing was clearly alone. It was supposed to be so cold (well below freezing), with so much snow. How would the little thing survive? I wondered how long it had been since she'd eaten, she was clearly filthy and had been out awhile. My husband (never being the one to be able to say no to me) sighed heavily and said fine. If I went back out there and the cat came to me, then we could bring her in for the night and feed her. He said he didn't want me prowling the complex looking for her (she was probably gone anyway), but I could step out the door and call for her and see if she would come. So I did just that. I stepped outside onto the breezeway and stood at the top of the stairs looking down on the row of cars that I had seen her run under. I called for her, just a fews kitty kitties. She came running out from under a dark green jeep, bolting up the stairs, and straight into my arms. I took her inside and straight to the spare bedroom, where we then closed her in away from the other cats. She immediately hid under the futon we had in there, and I left her to get her some food and water. I spent the next several hours closed in there with her. I sat talking softly to her and coaxing her out from under the futon. She eventually edged her way to the front, where I could get a good look at her. She was even more beautiful up close. Her coloring was as I had described, except her paws were all completely white. She had extra toes, but more to my surprise, her front legs looked liked she had actually tried to grow a second paw each. She had seven toes on each front foot, with one extra claw on each rear foot. I immediately named her. I told her I would call her Lily for her lily white paws. I also knew that unless I could find a previous owner, she was mine.

I spent the next few days looking for her owners. No one had heard of anyone looking for a cat. There were no missing cat reports that matched her description. She seemed alone. We took her to the vet to have her looked over. She was healthy, about a year and a half old (though she had the appearance of looking much younger) and had already been spayed. My other two cats had been declawed, but I feared doing such a thing to her. I felt she needed her claws for protection (especially since, at full grown, she was half the size of my oldest cat - who was as mean as they come). I was also afraid that declawing her would cripple her, considering how unique her paws were (a fear my vet agreed with). So we brought her home and introduced her to her two new brothers. She was clearly trained on where and when to use her claws, and not to get onto counters or tables. She had obviously been an inside cat before. She also had a extreme fear of dogs. A dog's bark from outside would send her cowering under the bed till I coaxed her out. I wondered if her previous owners had a dog that perhaps wasn't very nice to her. She had a knack for getting out. On more than one occasion she would slip out the door when we went to leave, only to be carried back into the house. We figured she must have slipped out while her previous owners were moving, and they either couldn't find her, or simply chose to leave her. I knew that I had saved her that night, and that she had picked me at the same time.

That would not be the first occasion that I would save her. Over the course of her life, I saved her countless times. My oldest cat loved to use her as a chew toy, which I did not tolerate. I'm not sure how many times I saved her from being trapped by him (under the bed, behind the toilet, behind furniture, etc). After the kids were around, Lily seemed to constantly get shut into a room or closet by one of them (purely by accident, but traumatic none the less). She never seemed worried when I found her. She knew she only had to cry, and I would come. One time I heard her crying from downstairs, and went running upstairs. My daughter (who was only a toddler at the time) had tied Lily to her bed because she didn't want Lily to leave her room. I untied the poor thing and had a talk with my daughter on how dangerous such a thing was for the kitty. I chuckled at Lily, it was like her crying was 'tattling' on my daughter.

Lily got out on several occasions as well, and was usually immediately caught and put back inside. However their were a few times that she didn't get caught and we thought we had lost her. One such time was on the night we brought my son home from the hospital. My parents had come down to visit and see their grandchild. They got in late, and we told them to unpack the next morning since it was dark out. After we went to bed, they decided to unpack anyway and accidentally let my Lily out. We were frantic at her absence the next morning. We roamed the neighborhood calling her, and we put up fliers everywhere. It was three days until we got a call from a neighbor, three doors down, saying she had seen our little one hiding under her porch. My husband went down to personally thank the women and look at the place she had seen our cat. Surprisingly, Lily was still there, too afraid to come out. She had probably been there the whole time.

One time I went outside onto the back patio, only to have Lily run up to me from under a bush. She had gotten out (one of the kids had probably not been paying attention) and was ready to come back in. The very last time she got out, her absence wasn't noticed until she didn't arrive for breakfast. I ransacked the house looking for her before I realized she had probably gotten out when the door had stood open for the delivery guy the night before. I went out with the flashlight and called for her. I was frantic. She was an old lady at this point, where would she go? I remember stopping and looking at the house and thinking "which way would she go?". I knew that she would have stayed under cover and in the shadows. I followed the bushes around. I began following the house, fence, and flower beds of each house. I didn't care that I looked like a creepy stalker with a flashlight up at people's houses. I had to find her. I did find her four houses down. I heard her calling for me, as I was calling for her. She had been so afraid that she had wedged herself deep into a bush. I couldn't even see how she could have gotten in there, let alone how to get her out. She had been so scared that she had urinated on herself and just laid there. I finally, out of desperation, reached into that bush with my hand. I grabbed ahold of her by the nap of her neck, and just lifted her through the bush. I cradled her all the way home telling her how she was safe and going home.

Last December, Lily finally went to a place I couldn't save her. She was around 17 years old. She had a mini-stroke that compromised her badly. She had trouble walking, and I would carry her to her food, water, litter box, the bed, and the couch. The second mini-stroke another week later took her from me. She laid on my arm, while I whispered I loved her, as she parted from my life.

I can't begin to describe to you how important a part of my life Lily became. She I and were the best of friends. She was always in my lap, or sleeping under the covers with me. She was my own personal 'live' stuffed animal. Whenever I was sad or depressed, she was always there to give me comfort. I cried for several months after I lost her, and writing this causes me to tear up again. Everyone who ever met my Lily fell in love with her. I was fortunate she chose to spend her life with me.

The whole house felt her loss. As we continued our discussions about the boat, it was without hesitation as to what we would name it. It will be christened 'The Liliana' after my beloved, departed, friend. She will live on in our hearts and memories, forever.