Big News!! Changes on our Horizon

We have news!! After many years of nagging the hubs, he’s finally giving in to my crazy idea of leaving Toronto! Don’t worry though, we’re only going away for six months. We have discovered that we really do love this city of ours and truth be told, we’re struggling to find comparable cities where we would want to live. He agreed to the idea over the summer, but we really didn’t do much about it and now we’re hustling to make it happen. We definitely want to come back in time for Little Monkey to enter Grade 1 and Baby Boy to embark on his scholastic journey. If he’s anything like Little Monkey, he’s going to HATE his first year of JK, and I’d much rather he hate it along with the other kids who are attending school for the first time.

We honestly don’t have much of an agenda at this stage and are packing up our place to see if we can rent it fully furnished. Next week, we’re putting our personal items into boxes and the movers are coming on Friday to take our items to my parent’s basement. Everything hinges on being able to rent our downtown Toronto condo fully furnished for six months and until that’s done we won’t buy our airplane tickets. Because you know… that thing called money!

I think the eye opener for us was our recent Mexico trip. That vacation taught us how happy the kids are when we’re travelling, and it was very relaxing (mind you, our recent Sri Lanka visit wasn’t so easy). It really ignited my itch to “live elsewhere” for a while. I have never set roots anywhere as long as I have in Toronto (coming in on 12 years!!) and just spending a few months outside of North America will hopefully do my mind and body good.

I’d much rather travel now than wait on our retirement and this window opened so we’re jumping through!

When we told a few friends about our idea, here are the questions they asked (and the answers we gave!)

What about Little Monkey’s School? 

We took her out for the month of December as we travelled through Sri Lanka, and her teacher graciously gave us advance homework so that she could keep up with her classmates. I hope he’ll do the same for the four months we’ll miss. While she’ll learn a fair bit during our travels, we also want her to keep up with her reading, writing and math. Reading is taken care of thanks to the amazing Ooka Island program, and the hubs does a great job with the kids on that front too. I’m hoping to find another app for math and her school’s writing book will also be helpful. She’s only in SK and so we’re not overly concerned.

What will you do for money?

Now that’s the hard one. While this blog brings in a bit of money, I’m walking away from my corporate job. I’ve been lucky to work at the same company since I graduated from university with my MBA, and my coworkers completely understand why I need to do this. Hopefully on my return, the company have a few open positions! The hubs and I also have a consulting business specializing in social media and digital marketing, and we’re hoping to pick up a new client or two, especially since we lost our biggest client just last week (feel free to refer us!! We’re great at content curation!). This is why we need to rent our place to ensure that our mortgage is covered, and hopefully we’ll have a bit leftover for cheap accommodations during our travels. I’m sure the hubs will eventually share his crazy spreadsheet with you so you can see the full breakdown of what this is “costing” us!

Where will you go?

Ah! That’s the one we need to figure out. First we said Argentina and now we’re saying Spain. However, due to visa regulations, we may have to split our time between Spain and Cyprus or Morocco. We promise to keep you updated once we figure it all out! If it’s up to Little Monkey, we’ll go live on a beach. I personally wouldn’t mind that either!

Part of the excitement for me really is not knowing what we’re doing. We’ve been playing it so safe all these years that I’m excited to throw caution to the wind (as much as the hubs will allow that is!! He’s the practical one!). It’s six months for us to live out of a suitcase and experience a new culture. I’m ready for some slow travels and the chance to learn a new language. Plus, I’m super excited to purge and downsize some of our “stuff” because I feel like we all have way more than we need.

My biggest fear is being with our kids 24-7. While we hope to have friends and family visit, for the most part we’re going to be alone. Just the 4 of us. All the time. Everyday. No more date nights. No more going to work where I can pee in peace.

Are we crazy for doing this? Most likely. Will we regret it? I hope not. Will it be fun? Hellz ya!

Stay tuned to hear more about adventures and misadventures!