Dawn broke grey over our cottage on Cape Cod this morning.

We’ve been here just four days, long enough to unpack and for the children to each choose an “office” for their school work. My second cup of tea and a break between dictionary lessons for the nine year old and biology help for the thirteen year old has afforded a moment for reflection.

We’ve been traveling full time for over three and a half years now, quite by accident, on the one hand, and entirely intentionally on the other.

We thought we were taking a short year off and instead, began an epic chapter in our lives that is still unfolding.

When we left, we had goals:

• To cycle Europe and the fringes of Asia and Africa
• To make memories as a family
• To try new things.

When we decided to keep going we had more goals:

• To find a way to fund the adventure
• To give our kids a world class education through travel
• To touch their feet to each continent before they leave us

Each year we have specific goals. Last year those included:

• Spending half a year living in Guatemala
• Diving deeper into Guatemalan culture
• Developing literacy for the children in Spanish and increasing our own
• Developing our location independent careers and thus, our capacity for freedom.

It’s a satisfying feeling to meet those goals and to know that there are only as many accomplishments as we have dreams.

We’re in this little house as a respite between adventures.

A place to regroup, stage for the next big thing, and enjoy the best of what the east coast has to offer.

It will be fun to celebrate the holidays in our home culture with people we often miss this time of year.

So what does the coming year hold? What goals have we set for ourselves?

• To renew passports for some and sew more pages into others
• To choose a place to begin our Asian adventures, a place to live and work remotely from for a while
• To learn a new language or two (I’m thinking Mandarin might be a good place to start!)
• Soak our children in the people and thought, culture and practice of another hemisphere

It’s going to take me the few months we have here in this fishing cottage to get us off the ground and to the other side of the planet. There are a lot of logistical details to be sorted and research to be done. Family travel takes some planning!

It will be a pleasant way to spend part of the winter, snuggled underneath my portable rainbow of a Guatemalan blanket, remembering why we live this life, dream big dreams and keep reaching for the next goal.

If it is anything, it is worth it.

What are your goals for the year? Travel or otherwise?