Decision.

We started kicking around this idea in late 2013. I threw it out as a wild idea and we chuckled, "there's no flipping way, don't be stupid". And like a rabid dog with a bone, I kept making the joke. It turned into "no way". We're making progress here. Instead, we decided that we would back off on the plan and simply do a summer away and see how it goes.

For the summer of 2014, we packed up our camper and closed up our house and headed to Florida,  continued from there to Alabama, north to Indiana, and finally returned home (MD). All told we were gone for 7 weeks or so. Once we got home, we reevaluated how it went:

• Overall, mostly ok but there were challenges
• The biggest challenge, my working situation was very slapped together (hard folding chair and a TV tray table for a desk)
• The next challenge was the livability of the camper, each move required a lot of shuffling in and out of stuff; we had too much stuff; you name it (one big space sucker was the smallest of the family- my then 2 year old still slept in a pack and play)
• None of the above were reason enough to not do it.

However, we got home and quickly realized/decided that there were details of the year long project that were just "too big" (selling/packing the house (the idea was I wanted to move anyway), figuring out home/online school and costs associated with it, travel plans, etc.). We both let it go.

And then, the weekend of March 6-8, my wife (Mandie) went on a scrapbooking weekend with friends in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, you can do public online/cyber schooling for free. Mandie got talking with one of her friends who does it and how great it worked for their family. She had the epiphany that our daughter was getting older and if we ever wanted to do something like this as a family- it was Now or Never. Unbeknownst to me, I was thinking the same sort of thing- our daughter was getting older, if we really ever had a hope of doing this- it was Now or Never.

At dinner on March 8, my very ferklempt wife recounted her experiences over the weekend. Much to her surprise, I told her I had the same thoughts. While I'm not a man of faith- I can't help but see it as a sign. We swore our daughter to secrecy and the planning to a "go/no go" decision began. The problem was, we have 3 months and 10 days to get everything in order.