Home

home

həʊm/

noun

1. 1.

   the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.

   "the floods forced many people to flee their homes"

   synonyms:

   place of residence, accommodation, property, a roof over one's head;

It has been a while since I wrote. Please allow me to explain:

In July, after returning from a lovely trip to the UK with my even more lovely husband, I thought we would settle into our routine again. For us, that meant continuing Home Schooling, enjoying our beautiful bit of forest, inviting friends to stay and enjoying the daily routine of Markus leaving for work in the morning and returning in the evening.

For a week, we did settle. And then the rumblings of imminent change started:

• Our chidren once again expressed their desire to attend a regular school. 
• We started investigating possible scenarios to make this happen. (After all, September was around the corner and the new school year could look different.)
• I discovered that a new International School had started in Krakow and they were willing to meet with me.
• At the meeting, we discussed our hopes for our children, our current situations and many possible scenarios that would allow them to attend the school on a part time basis.
• I checked again: the distance between Mielec and Krakow was still 140 km and drive time would still be no less than 2 hours.
• We were part of a wonderful Family Camp, run by King's Kids International in the Polish Lake District, which re-connected us to our YWAM heritage. 
• I took a windsurfer onto this very peaceful looking lake and had to be towed back to shore after 2 hours of battling the wind and my inner determination stubbornness.
• Realising that there are appropriate times to get help with something and that it need not be when we are too exhausted to continue, helped me look at the option of school in a different light.
• Experiencing our children in a different setting and seeing how they add value to different scenarios they find themselves in, made it even clearer that we needed to find ways to broaden their horizons again.

By mid August, we had worked out that we could enroll our children at the Embassy International School and they could attend Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays alternate weeks and Wednesdays and Fridays the weeks in between. We had also found several possible solutions for the commuting involved and one option was to spend every second weekend in Krakow to minimise the driving.

So we planned, bought lunch boxes and school uniforms and took a break from Home Schooling to enjoy the anticipation of this new season.

The school year started with a Reception on the 31st August, during which time we realised that we might need to re-think our carefully laid plans. And by the following afternoon, the smiling faces of our children confirmed this suspicion. A part time attendence at this incredible school would not be enough. As parents we needed to make the difficult decision to find a better solution that would mean even more disruption of our comfortable routine.

This is what we decided:

• We would rent a second house, two doors away from the school, and live here during the week.
• We would take the risky decision to discontinue all Home Schooling, even in the subject German and allow the International School to also teach this subject.
• Our children would have the opportunity to take part in after school clubs and attend all lessons during the week.

The implications for us are huge! We have a new level of financial commitment - International Schools are in a league of their own fee wise! - and some rather unusual challenges.
Markus continues needing to turn up at his office. His desire to lead his company with a very visible presence and availability requires him to either stay at our home near Mielec (which we have named The Enchanted Forest) or commute 2 hours either way to our Krakow home (The Magic Kingdom)
He also still needs to travel to customers and suppliers in a variety of European countries.
Because of the above, we might be able to lighten the burden of travel and also commute some of the time. The details are not yet clear.

But for this season of our lives, we have two Homes.
Two wonderful spaces that serve a very real purpose of sheltering us and enabling us to focus our energy on the tasks at hand.

I am very grateful for all that has taken place in the past 6 weeks to bring us to this place in our family life. And of course I am still reeling from the speed with which the decisions needed to be made, the adjustments, both physical and mental required and the many questions I have about how to practically create environments in both our Homes where we can all thrive.

Please be part of this incredibly exciting and extraordinary journey. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. And beware: There will be Photos, many of them, in the weeks to come as I explore city living.