We’re officially 6 weeks out from our year-long global sabbatical!
I have two more weeks of work before I’m off at the beginning of August. Then we’re away for our annual cottage week, and before we know it, we’ll be boarding a plane at the end of the month.
The hope was that taking August off would give me plenty of time to tie up all the loose ends, but if I’m being honest, I’m starting to worry it won’t be enough. Between summer camps, volunteer commitments, appointments, and all the normal day-to-day stuff, the calendar is filling up fast.
So we’re trying to make as much progress as we can each week.
Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been working on lately.
House
We’ve found house sitters and have a contract signed, so that piece of the puzzle is finally in place.
The plan is for us to leave, have a cleaner come in for a day of deep cleaning, and then our house sitters will move in a few days later. One of the biggest advantages of having house sitters is that a good chunk of our belongings can stay where they are. At a minimum, we want to empty the bedrooms and closets they’ll be using and tidy up the common areas—living room, kitchen, entryway, and so on.
Technically, we could leave everything else exactly as it is, but we’re trying to see this as an opportunity to declutter and reset a little. We moved into our current house nearly six years ago. It was during COVID, I was pregnant, and we hired packers to box up everything we owned. While that was absolutely the right call at the time, it also meant we didn’t spend much time deciding what was actually worth keeping. Fast forward six years and, we have even more stuff.
All this to say that I spent six hours last Saturday sorting through craft supplies and winter gear, trying to pare everything down to what actually makes sense.
Progress? Yes.
Finished? Not even close.
Cars
The Minivan (2014)
The air conditioning in our van died a few weeks ago, which was less-than-ideal timing during the hottest part of summer. Unfortunately, the repair cost is pretty much more than the van is worth at this point, so we’ve decided to tough it out for the next six weeks.
Normally it wouldn’t be a huge deal, except we have an eight-hour road trip coming up in August.
When we leave, the van will be stored in the garage for the year, and we’ll decide what to do with it when we get back. Which means we need to add “clean out the garage enough to fit an extra vehicle” to the ever-growing pre-sabbatical to-do list.
International Driver’s Permit
Justin is definitely the driver in our family, and he recently got his International Driving Permit for the year. For Canadians, it’s a simple process through CAA and costs about $30. Some countries and rental agencies require one, so we figured it was better to have it. We currently have rental cars booked in France, the UAE, New Zealand, and Australia, so it’s likely going to come in handy.
School
We officially filed the paperwork to remove the girls from the school system and register as homeschoolers for the upcoming year. We also withdrew them from our before-and-after school care program.
For anyone familiar with childcare in our area, you’ll understand why this feels like such a big step.
We put Isabel on the waitlist for Before and After school care before she even turned one.
We spent years waiting and then three years gratefully enjoying the program. Given the size of the waitlist, we know now that we’ve left, there is no chance we’ll be able to get back in when we return.
When we’re home again, we’ll be starting from scratch and figuring out a new plan.
It’s strange to say that after spending tens of thousands of dollars on flights, accommodations, and even a safari—much of it non-refundable—this was one of the scariest and most real parts of the entire sabbatical prep process.
Worldschooling
On a more exciting note, I’m getting really excited about the worldschooling side of things.
I couldn’t help myself last week, and before we’d even officially started, the girls and I were already watching videos about Paris and the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame.
It was awesome.
I’ll write more about that in another post because we’ve already learned some really cool things.
Our first official unit study will focus on Egypt, and I’ve already started putting together lesson plans and activities. I think we’ll kick things off once we’re back from our cottage trip in August.
Stay tuned for that.
Health Appointments
We finished all of our travel immunizations last week! Poor Izzy ended up getting eight different shots spread across three appointments.
The first appointment was rough.
The second was better.
By the third appointment? Not a single tear.
At this point, we’ve accumulated a fairly impressive collection of medications and supplies that we’ll need to take with us on the trip, so one of our next tasks is figuring out how much space all of that is going to require. The good news is that the longer we travel, the more we’ll use up and the more space we’ll eventually get back.
Packing
We haven’t made as much progress here as I would like.
I think we’ve gathered everything we absolutely want to bring, and we now have a growing pile of items categorized as: “It would be nice to have… if it fits.” The next step is a full packing test where we load everything into our luggage and see how it all shakes out. I suspect reality is about to make some decisions for us.
Flights & Accommodation Planning
Except for our final stay in British Columbia and our flights home afterward, every flight and accommodation for the year is now booked.
That still feels surreal to write.
Now that most of the planning is done, I couldn’t resist looking at the numbers: average length of stay, average accommodation cost per night, number of flights, and all the other travel statistics.
Some of the results genuinely surprised me.
I’ll share those in an upcoming post.
Final Thoughts
I am so ready to do this.
This trip has been more than four years in the making, and I’m ready to move from planning to execution.
I have almost daily dreams about the places we’ll visit and the experiences we’ll have. Some of those dreams are inspiring. Some are slightly terrifying.
But all of them remind me just how much we’ve been looking forward to this adventure.
For years, this trip has existed in spreadsheets, notebooks, planning documents, and conversations around the dinner table.
In just six weeks, it becomes real.
And honestly?
I can’t wait.