Family Gap Year Post #12: T-Minute 35 Days

How is it that we are starting our Family Gap Year in basically a month? I’m not quite sure how that happened!

A couple of things are stressful right now: We still haven’t found a renter for our house. Also, we haven’t decided where Henry will go to school when we return. But we are taking actions to check off both items! We are continuing to show the house to prospective renters, and we are touring a variety of schools for Henry.

Oh, we also haven’t finished securing housing for our entire trip. We made a slight change with regard to New Zealand. Originally we were going to spend four months in Wellington (which is arguably the windiest place on Earth). Now we are going to spend three months in Nelson (the sunniest place in New Zealand) and one month in Wellington. The problem is that now that the New Zealand borders are opening for the first time in years, there’s a lot of competition for housing.

When we first get to New Zealand, we are going to take a road trip around the South Island. I felt way less stressed once I booked where we will be staying for Christmas and New Year’s, since those are such popular times. Surprisingly, we were able to find really affordable places. I can’t wait to ring in the new year at a laid-back, Steampunk town with a penguin colony!

I’m truly grateful for the “book now, pay later” feature on short-term rental sites. We are making partial payments now and will pay the rest later (around when it’s time to pay our monthly rent). Since renters will be paying our actual mortgages (fingers crossed!), then our rent money can go toward AirBnBs.

Other things pinging around in my mind:

• I’m going to have way less free time once this trip starts, since we will become a 24/7 family. So I’ve decided that I’m going to reduce my blogging frequency from once a week to once a month. However, if you still want a weekly dose of Feeding the Soil, you can subscribe to my newsletter! I will still write my newsletter each week because it’s such a powerful mechanism for reflecting on how my life is going and identifying where I want to make adjustments. I will definitely need this kind of mechanism once everything we know about our life is turned on its head.
• I will try to share the daily update from my 5-year journal on Instagram. You can find me here if you’re interested: @saracotner.
• I want to get our trip nearly 100% planned so that I can truly relax into life once it starts. I know it sounds a bit weird to think that I can plan everything. But if I can secure every bit of lodging and have a list of things to do at each place, I will be able to lean into the experience in a more spontaneous and fun-loving way. As much as I love planning, I don’t want to spend our trip planning the next part of our trip, if that makes sense.