Well… I’m back baby! Its been a minute. Life’s been a roller coaster and lots has happened since my last post. But suffice to say, its a whole new world for The R&R Mom. The kids are big – I officially have a teen and a pre-teen now so this blog is less about their antics and more about mine so if you’re looking for breastfeeding tips, keep on googling. This is not the Mom Blog you’re looking for.

The R&R Mom took a step away from the Music Business in February 2020. I thought I was taking a break so we could finally fulfill our lifelong dream to travel for a year. And then Covid happened. So like every single other person in the world there was a change in plan. Fast forward to February 2022 and we are now packing up the kids and and all our home schooling accoutrement and we’re leaving for 7 months. We had to settle for a little less than a year, as again like everyone else, we were forced to change plans on the fly (Covid you saucy minx). But here we are, just over 24 hours from departure and it is interesting. There’s a to do list that seems to be growing rather than shrinking and I’m kinda freaking out. We are post Covid recovery, we picked it up on leg 1 of our trip to Hawaii and were forced to stay for two extra weeks (sounds like a super awesome situation but it was a tad hairy and stressful), so we’re feeling more optimistic taking our boosted selves abroad at last. It doesn’t change the fact that I am of course analyzing and re-analyzing the whole thing over and over hoping we’re doing the right thing. My feet are pretty fucking cold right about now. But we shall persevere.

Why are we running away from home you ask? Well, we need a change of scenery. Honestly, who the fuck doesn’t right now. We are grateful for that opportunity. But we also have been planning it for a while. We’re desperate to immerse ourselves in other countries and cultures. For me, I’m trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I’m hoping travel will help me figure that out.

Where are we headed? Again, Lady Rona has been the boss of us so we decided to try and keep it relatively condensed to Europe and parts of Africa. The shorter timeline (we want the kids to be back for school in the fall) and ever changing travel restrictions made us decide to keep it relatively geographically compact. Paris will be our home for the next 4 months and then we’ll adopt a more vagabond approach travelling around Europe and Africa more after that.

How are we doing it? Well, that’s a blog for another day. But the Mr and I have been manifesting this dream for years and are grateful we can finally do it. Luckily my years routing concert tours proved helpful in routing our grand tour too. Years of being on the road has been an invaluable tool in helping us decide where to go. We are also homeschooling our kids. Covid helped us prepare for that a little bit. Feel free to share any tips or ideas for us. We’re also open to any travel recommendations – bring ’em on!

Now as we get closer to departure day, its time for me to start packing the bags. Our house is a hot mess with piles collecting everywhere of things to not forget. The anxiety is in high gear as I try to warm up these feet and get ready to start our adventure. Wish us luck and we’ll keep you posted as we make our progress.