Our Radical Sabbatical – Chapter One

Imagine biking away from school on June 28th knowing that you would not be returning to that industrial looking school building and schedule for over a year?  Imagine being able to design your learning, travel the world and live at a ski hill with the foundational goal of skiing every single day of the ski season? Imagine moving into a nine hundred square foot home with five people and no dishwasher nor in suite laundry?

Imagine.

What would your radical sabbatical look like?

This imagining above is the reality we are creating and that I will be writing about during our radical sabbatical. Our family of five is riding our bikes away from grades two, four and six and walking into grades three, five and seven as homeschoolers living in a two room condominium, overlooking the ski hill.  With the addition of two trips, one month long trip to Europe and one two week vacation in the spring, you now have the big picture of what is going to unfold over the next twelve months and corresponding chapters of this book about our life yet to be written.   

Could you imagine?  

Would you ever step out, take a time out and shake up your reality to press pause on life? 

Stopping all activities except skiing and gymnastics.

Withdrawing from all volunteer positions on boards and activities in our community.Renting out our main house and only bringing the bare essentials into our small living space.

Inspired by the gift of grief given to us by my beautiful mama over five years ago.

Fanned by the gift of grief given to us this year by Sexy Neck’s mama, grandma, grandpa, my aunt and our Labrador, Summer.

Walked out first and foremost, by Joanne Kraft when her family took a year off from activities outside of school. Her book, “Just Too Busy: Taking your Family on a Radical Sabbatical”,  jumped off the library shelf last winter and cemented this idea in my mind.

Watered and lovingly supported by our friends who live our freedom and growth lifestyle.

Practically supported by our teacher friends and the school that we will work with to educate our boys over the next twelve months.

Divinely inspired by our Father in heaven who knows our hearts and allowed everything to seamlessly and truly effortlessly unfold.

Now, we create space for us to live in a nine hundred square feet condominium.

Building a learning space for three creative and hardworking eight, ten and twelve year old boys.

Building a triple bunk bed so that we have more space to play.

A radical sabbatical.

Twelve months to pause and change our routine.

New rhythm.

New schedule.

New space.

Finding our rhythm.

Our schedule.

Our space.

So, I sit here and ask again: What would a radical sabbatical look like for you? It doesn’t have to be as extreme as what we have done, but maybe it’s something as simple as eating dinner together every night or what Joanne Kraft did and taking a break from extracurricular activities. Whatever speaks to you as you share our journey with us, may it be meaningful to you and light up your life!

These are exciting times my friends. Truly exciting!

xoxo Joanna

#befree

#momofboys

#isalife

<Note: Joanna is currently seeking a publisher to partner with to publish her book as she helps people be free on their own journey as she shares her radical sabbatical with others.>