Yep, I'm alive.  And so is this blog, although I'll admit that it's had a heck of a long nap.  It's about to get more active, though -- and in a slightly different way.  We've decided to make some changes in our lives, and this blog needs to reflect that.  Let me explain.

I have always loved to travel, and often wished I could do more of it.  I love exploring new places, just walking around and getting the feel of a town, a city, a country.  Ron & I have taken some vacations in Europe, but never for longer than a week or so.  When we've traveled, we've often said,"You know, we really should find a way to bring the kids on a long trip somewhere -- for a month, at least! -- to really soak in the culture."  But that's hard to do with a regular 9-to-5 job, and a regular September-to-June school year.

Well, Ron has left the corporate world, and has been doing a lot of consulting work, some speaking engagements, and other projects and investments that don't require him to be in one geographic location.  It's given us both a chance to think about what we want for ourselves and our children.  As much as we love living in Simsbury, there's a great big world out there, and we feel that we need to expose our kids to it.  And so, we've decided to pull them out of school, and travel around the world for a year or so.  We'll stay in one place for a month or so, then make side trips from there.  So, for example, we'll rent an apartment in Vienna for a few months, but take trips (ranging from a day to a week) to Berlin, Prague, Krakow, etc.  We'll plan a route, but not too thoroughly.  Some days, we'll be out & about, visiting museums & sights; some days, we'll be laying low, just studying or relaxing.  We'll do our best to be living among the locals -- visiting local markets & churches, and (hopefully) making some friends.    

To my mild surprise, there are lots of families who do this.  It's known as road-schooling, or world-schooling.  Think of what you know about homeschooling, and multiply it by 30 or 40.  That's how valuable this experience could be.  Honestly, there are so many resources out there for educating your kids on your own, and nowadays, it's all available digitally. 

The over-arching theme of our travel is Searching For the Universal Catholic Church.  In America, we've become very tightly focused on what it means to practice our faith *here.*  We rarely think about what being a Catholic means in a place like China, or Egypt, or Cambodia.  We hope to make contact with as many 'local' Catholics as we can, and get to know them a little.  We want to hear what their faith means to them, and how they live it on a day-to-day basis.  We want to learn what they love about being Catholic, and what they really don't like about it.  From their answers, I hope we'll be able to distill some sense of the Universality of the faith.      

So, that's the brief version.  Right now, the first step is selling our house.  Know of anyone who's in the market for a really nice place?