Journal

stories, photos, and videos, oh my!

F A R E !

This is our F A R E chart. At the beginning of the year, we decided that we wanted to try school a little differently (I wrote a little bit about that in our last blog post). One of the things that has probably been the most helpful in motivating August to do his daily […]

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What School Looks Like Right Now

This kid (the one you can partially see at the bottom of the photo there) has worked hard on focusing and finishing some basics (math, grammar, writing) this week. We unschool for the most part, but to make sure he’s learning what he needs to, we require a little work for four days a week […]

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I love a good southern diner, but…

All right, I think that if anyone told me to prepare myself for reverse culture shock upon returning to the great state of Texas after a year on the road in the most not-southern states, I think that I would have laughed and rolled my eyes. And then a year later, I would have kicked […]

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The Making of a Family Portrait

We tried to take the nice family shot but it wasn’t working. Every shot we took just didn’t feel right. On the verge of giving up, and feeling a shift in the weather coming on, we thought it might be fun to try and get a shot of Sarah’s hair blowing in my face. A […]

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A Note (or five) from August

PREFACE: Lately, many of our conversations have centered around the launch of this site. August has been caught up in the excitement as well and decided to write a note, or five, of his own. He grabbed my (Mark) phone, opened Evernote and went to town. The following words, emojis and parenthetical are 100% his. […]

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From 3 Bedrooms to 4 Wheels: A Timeline

We have been asked by quite a few people, “How did you do it?,” “How can we do it?” And, if there is one thing that this website is supposed to do, it is to document our (The Sweetlanders) journey on and off the road. If there is one other thing it is supposed to […]

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Let us be brave in our wishes

It’s not an uncommon thing for August to fill silent gaps with song. Most of the lyrics are about things he sees around him – “the birds are flying… In the sky” “I’m sitting on the couch and looking at a book” stuff like that. Tonight though he got me with a pretty epic and […]

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A Note from the Summit

I’m writing this from the summit of Mount Washington. It’s Tuesday, October 13. Most of the world is at work. We’re on top of the tallest moutain on the east coast. Something seems right about this. Something seems right about everything. Maybe it’s the thin air talking. I have these moments of clarity in my […]

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The Sweetland

When we told people about our dream, we would  get the same response but in two different forms. There was the excited/supportive/enthusiastic- “Man that sounds awesome! Why are you guys doing that?!” and then there’s the less than excited/sarcastic/patronizing “Man…okay, that sounds awesome? So, why are you guys doing that??” It seems that when the […]

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9 Things We Learned Renovating our RV

Renovating a house on wheels is a HUGE undertaking. There’s probably more like a million thing we learned but here’s 9 things we learned renovating our RV. 1. Buy your supplies as you need In previous projects we hated getting half way through something only to find out we needed that one thing like glue, […]

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We are not on Vacation.

We have to constantly remind ourselves (and others) that “We are not on vacation.” We’re traveling full-time, always in a new city with new and interesting things to do, places to go, and yummy things to eat. We love new experiences and we love good food. We’re in trouble. At the time of this writing […]

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Downsizing Your Stuff

We lived in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a large front and backyard. We worked hard to find just the right pieces to fill it with. Sarah and I are both designers, so shopping at Rooms to Go was not an option and neither was filling every room with IKEA furnishings. We had many one-of-a-kind […]

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Downsizing the Dog

It pains me to write this. At the start of any great adventure you picture yourself summiting the mountain, completing your quest, or hiking to the edge and looking over. You picture yourself with the people you love, and the things you care about. I pictured us with Sullivan. Sullivan is our dog. I’m sure […]

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Couldn’t shake it.

So we made it through the holidays and couldn’t seem to shake this RV idea. It wasn’t just an RV, it was an adventure and like all great adventures, we knew it would transform us in ways we could never imagine. We also knew that it would come at a cost. Lots of work, lots […]

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Sno-Cones and Big Dreams

Back in 2012 we were living in Houston, TX. We drove across town to one of our favorite sno-cone places. On our way home, sno-cones in hand, Sarah and I reminded each other of a long-term dream we had to travel full-time in a well designed, renovated RV. We’d talked about it a few times […]

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