> > how <
we are moving to mexico for 2 1/2 months. how are we doing it?
ian and i work from our own studios.
this gives us each the flexibility to come and go when we need or want to. after 4 years of raising babies while meeting work deadlines all within the confines of our property, we feel the desire to step far away, allowing the perspective shift to inspire current and future work.
we've gotten help along the way.
for the last several years, if anyone asks what we want for a birthday or holiday, we say "travel money". loving gifts from our family over the years bought airfare for all of us.
we've saved when we could.
we don't usually have extra money to put into a travel fund each month, but any surprise income - insurance reimbursements, escrow overpayments, excess money saved for taxes, etc. - has gone towards the fund.
while we are gone we rent out our house nightly through airbnb.
this is key for us. we have a good location in austin, so we can rent out our casa for big events like sxsw and acl festivals to help cover the cost of our mortgage. (to rent nightly we obtained a short term rental license through the city of austin and we pay hotel occupancy taxes on the rental income.)
i happen to really dig airbnb. we found our casa in sayulita through airbnb as well so i have had both the host and guest experience. here's why i like it:
-there is no startup or yearly fee to use it.
-they sent out a professional photographer to take pics of our casa.
-their aesthetic is pleasing and their site makes sense to me.
-they encourage communication between hosts and guests and you can rate each other after your stay. it kind of has the feel of a social media site.
we have someone staying elsewhere on our property while we're gone and someone managing the rentals.
now to see if all of this actually works while we're out of the country for so long....
hearts open, fingers crossed.
> > why <
on october 1st my family is headed to sayulita, mexico for 2 1/2 months. when i tell people this, the news is usually met with excitement, encouragement, and the questions "why?" and "how?".
i'll attempt "why" in this post. "how" is to come.
WHY LEAVE? (IT'S SO GOOD HERE.)
living in a foreign land grows me. it forces me to wake up, to notice my surroundings, to ask questions, to make new friends, to learn new ways of communication, to be humble, to be uncomfortable, to stretch my perception of myself and the world around me.
i think it is important for koruna and mars to see me and ian this way - to discover that it's okay to not know everything, to recognize the value of flexibility, to watch us work through challenges, to see how we act when we don't understand or when we're not understood. i want them to see that we are all learning together.
i want to remember that our world is not the world. i recall the culture shock i felt after returning to america from a year in prague. life here is jaw-dropping if you leave for a good long while. i want to return from mexico with an appreciation for what life here has to offer as well as a resolve to drop the parts of this life that aren't really working for our family.
WHY MEXICO?
we love it. we want our kids to learn spanish. sayulita is close - if we need to come home, we can do it relatively easily and cheaply. we figure that this is a good way to dip our toes into foreign family travel.
WHY 2 1/2 MONTHS?
we want time to settle into a different place, a different pace. we want time to know the rhythms of a different life.
i moved to prague 11 years ago to see who i was without my friends, my family, my familiar. i discovered during my year there that living in a foreign land seemed to sort of burn me clean. it required me to strip away all of the old that was not serving me to make room for the new that would. i met ian in prague. our love was planted and took root in that distant land where we got to create new rules, new rituals, new friendships. ian and i decided long ago that we wanted to shape a life that made room for that kind of experience. this is our attempt at that life.
i expect this fall to be really fun, but i don't expect it to be easy. raising kids is a bold endeavor in itself. taking our children to a country where they have no friends and no language skills will inevitably have its challenges.
we'll learn a lot. i don't know exactly what we'll learn. i just feel ready to not know.
> > adios, herndon heald <
big changes around here, y'all. in addition to our family picking up and moving to mexico for the fall, my friends/business partners and i have decided to say goodbye to our jewelry company, herndon heald. we've been growing it, loving it, working at it for almost 7 years now and we've all decided we're ready for different adventures. my adventure begins in sayulita, mexico....
i'll keep you posted. literally.
