First blog in a while and I have felt like I have been busy with the settling in process/transition process. I have put this blog on the back burner but am absolutely pumped to be getting some time to write this as I have been thinking about it for ages and I love writing.
Lots has happened in the last few months, we first started living in our caravan out the front of our house while we sold all our furniture/belongings and set our house up to be rented out. We tested this and called it the ‘teething process’ that many talked about in other travel groups. So far this has worked wonders for us…..We had so much stuff that we ended up just giving it away as we had decided that we didn’t want to put anything in storage. We kept our memorabilia items like baby blankets and of course Dan’s Sydney Swans frames. Other than that we were leaving fresh and starting fresh wherever that may be. We felt revived having this mentality so we rolled with it.
Our house was empty, and we were holding off putting it on the market for so long but then last minute, Dan and our real estate agent decided to go for it and within just 3 days of it being on the market it was rented out!!! So our rentals actually kicked us out lol…..but lucky for us we got to meet our new tenants and these guys had just travelled from Victoria in their own caravan…a family of 5 from Victoria…the irony is IRONIC!!
It has been 8 weeks living in our caravan full time and 4 weeks at our first caravan park- Woodman Point Discovery Park Perth. This has been our families FIRST stay at a caravan park- I know, I know, it’s been a complete change of scenery for all of us. As you all know we have just changed location of our house and instead of “doing life in the suburbs” we are “doing life on the road or world” and living out of our 22 foot caravan. This always sounds strange as we explain to people that we meet and that we are living location independent but to us this makes so much sense. We travel, we work, we home school and to us we have it all. We feel like we are living the dream. Although for us this is all new, we have never met another family that is living life the way we are. We are just taking one day at a time and living fearlessly towards our dreams and our dream lifestyle……because why not???
“If you can dream it, then it is possible”
Working and Travelling
Yes we are both still working- Dan has a full time job and me, I usually work about 30 hours per week including working both businesses, blogging and home-schooling ) I work on the lap top every single day (where I have internet). I NEED INTERNET, this is an absolute MUST!!!! We didn’t win the lottery and we are not on holidays. I own my own brick and mortar gym in Canningvale, Perth called The HIIT Factory. I have a team of 5 including a manager and I run the backend stuff from my laptop, I do all the marketing and mostly everything that can be done away from the gym. I did give up instructing my gym classes which I miss the most but am looking forward to incorporating those into my everyday living, which will be a bonus for The HIIT Factory Gym as internet is a gateway to keeping in touch with everyone. Plus I run an online fitness platform so other travellers can connect and keep fit with a personal trainer while travelling. I am the sort of person that has to be challenged otherwise I go insane. Dan is working away FIFO- this wasn’t something that was on the cards but our dreams are much larger than just in Australia and we are sticking with it for one year and then Dan will retire from FIFO so he can then stop work altogether and work on our travel brand which we are currently building between us both. For the short term he will do 2 weeks on and 1 week off. For now, this works for us. We have dreams just like you and are working hard day and night to achieve them.
Homeschooling
We had the option of Distance Education or home-schooling. We chose home-schooling as it gave us more flexibility in the way we wanted to raise and teach our children (more on this later). This has been the biggest adjustment for our family. I went from having a babysitter (school) 5 days a week 6 hours a day to then having everyone home 24/7 and Dan FIFO. Trust me- there was a loooooooong adjustment period…{insert an emoji of me going insane}. I as a Mum really had to work on my patience and understanding of each children’s emotions (and my own) We have had some real shit days, days where I felt like I had lost my sanity and felt like I wanted to crawl into the foetal position and rock but with consistent book reading and conversations with Dan we got through those tough days. BUT trust me they are still there lurking around waiting to scare me. We have started with WA home-schooling, we are registered but have recently found out that as soon as we leave the state of WA and cannot attend our yearly meeting then we will be unregistered automatically. Our next meeting will be coming up in March 2020- we will not be in WA. So what do we do???? We are looking at enrolling state by state as we enter or even unenrolling completely and unschooling our children- although this does raise eyebrows from different parents……are you one of those eyebrow raising parents???? Don’t stress guys….We may look into enrolling into Queensland home-schooling as this is all done online and has no physical meet ups, which suits our current living situation best. Although we will cross that bridge when it comes. We personally like wild schooling our children…… yes wildschooling!!!!!
The Plan
I have a chuckle when people ask us what our plan is….. it’s simple- we don’t have one! I sit back and I love that we don’t have a travel plan, we are just going with the flow……I mean we have business plans within our businesses but a travel plan….well…. It was only just a few months ago and we were meant to be travelling down the South Coast of Western Australia and then realised how cold it was going to be and suddenly decided to go North and chase the warm weather. When it comes to destinations, we don’t have a mapped out plan. We believe it is all part of the fun and adventure that we are chasing or it’s not something that really phases us. We have no time frame, we have no check list, we are just us fearlessly living and living differently……..
The Kids
My biggest fear was the kids not seeing enough children to build a real social connection, well just 2 weeks in my thoughts were blown out of the water. My 3 children have come out of their shell so much that I cannot believe it!!!! So far everything has been really cool- no issues. We have been staying at Woodman Point Caravan Park WA for 4 weeks and will migrate North in another 10 days. The kids have been having a bliss time as it was school holidays for 2 weeks of those 4 weeks and there have been hundreds of kids playing till dark, riding bikes, playing chasy and just being kids so they have been in their element. I have even made some friends, short term friends of course but it has been a little insight of what is about to come, and I am loving it. So not once have I ever felt like I have been a fish out of water- I am looking forward to those free/off-grid camps and to be away from the caravan parks to just find ourselves.
So far, living life inside a 22 foot caravan, having Dan away 2 weeks away 1 week home has most certainly been an adjustment. Running a brick and mortar business, plus building/part-time running an online business has worked fine. I am a true believer of your thoughts create your destiny and that anything in life is possible. Both Dan and myself both believe in this and that has helped with us both coming together and creating a life that is well outside the norm box.
For us we will continue to break the norm. Break through our fears and live differently. Because Why Not????
Fearlessly Living Kylie x
