How?

      I realize this is not a "Why?" question, but it's one of the main questions people have asked about (or wondered about).

    How (time-wise) is that we have flexibility with Lucas working remotely and with us homeschooling.

    How (money-wise) is that we have been living frugally and saving for years.  We were able to pay off our mortgage early, so we don't have that weighing us down.  Lucas has also been working hard on several book projects the past years above and beyond his regular magazine.  When the books arrive at our doorstep, there are all-hands-on-deck weeks of packaging and shipping thousands of books to fulfill pre-orders.  

    We also try to travel frugally. We won't eat out every meal (most of our road trips in the U.S. are PBN-driven. That's peanut butter and nutella!).  We're doing a monthly rental on AirBNB which is way cheaper than the nightly rate.  We opted not to select specific rooms on the cruise, which saved us $2000 (although we may end up at opposite corners of the ship!).  We won't do all the tourist-y, hyped-up experiences. We spend more of our vacation time at free park playgrounds than expensive museums.

    I'm hoping to dive into "travel hacking" where people use credit card points and miles to snag free flights and hotels. That's all a little overwhelming to me now, though. Maybe something to check out in the future if we want to continue traveling.

    Ultimately, travel is a priority for us, so we make it happen.  I know that it is not feasible time-wise or money-wise for everyone to travel. I do realize I am blessed to be able to do this. But I also know that we have saved and made sacrifices to make this possible.  I regret not doing study abroad in college, so we have worked hard to live with few regrets in these fleeting years we have with all our children under one roof.

Why...? series