I am Janice Joplin

It was July 2011 as Me and Bobby McGee came on the radio. Flying down the road in my (way cool) minivan, bandanna wearing, windows open, praying to God that what I was following would not fall off our rig and kill me. I was following our future: the very RV (henceforth referred to as Da Vinci, or DV) that would be carrying our family into the unknown. I was the watchdog for the 400 lb wheelchair lift that was strapped to DV, being transported down to my dad's, and magically, somehow, installed. It was a 3 hour journey down and within the first hour, tow straps had already broken twice. Was this even worth it. We were irritable. Neither the minivan or DV had a/c. It was 90 some degrees without heat index. What the crap were we thinking?

Faith does wonderful things. I knew if we got it down there, dad would work his magic and get it installed. We made it down safely, got to see the local museum (love small towns) and had a heart to heart with my sister. It was a nice time. We then headed back without DV, as this project was going to be more than a few days.

I think that most people think we are crazy. Good thing my mom taught me not to care what people think. It has served me well. So I'll just keep singing this crazy melody of traveling fulltime. 'Cause it's gonna happen. More to come...

Blog: revived!

Well, it's not going to be all fancy, but I wanted a place to record our travels. That's right, people, we will be traveling full time starting at the beginning of November. We are taking the kids to Disney World before they get too old, and we are very excited. I will be blogging about taking Da Vinci (our RV) down to dad's, getting the lift installed, and about DH's injury at the beginning of the year that threw us head first into this craziness. I'm also going to record some recipes I need, so I'm not travelling with paper/books on the road. Stay tuned...

Fall Update

So, according to my last post I stated that we'd have our debt paid off by mid-October. I WISH! We ran into some unexpected contractor fees at hubby's work, so we had to use $800 of our savings money toward these. That's ok though, as I know we will get that debt paid off again very soon. Although www.Ambleside.com is a great resource, we have been mainly using www.lessonpathways.com. It maps out the whole year for us! Heavenly! Football for oldest was added to our fall schedule, and can I just say thank God that is over? He enjoyed football, but 3 nights a week and Saturday games is a lot to handle. Our only consistent activity, besides scouts and Awana, is youngest's bowling league.

We dived into Halloween full force. For several of my married years, we had not celebrated this event. I feel that was a bit religious of us, but we were only doing what was expected of "good Christians." We do not live under the law, and dressing up and getting candy does not diminish our relationship with Jesus. That is the long and short of it. We do not celebrate the undertones of this holiday because, um, we don't worship satan. I have such great memories of Halloween as a child. I wanted to pass that on to my children and not have them live in fear of this holiday. Why should the devil make us hide away? Let's be a light to the world! Ethan was a clown, and Luke was a spiderman/knight (whatever he felt like at the time).

Well, youngest one is up, so I must head off!

Summer and Stuff

Has my last post really been that long ago? That's ok, no expectations here! Anyway, we have taken 2, count them, 2 trips to Texas this summer. (3 total for the year, counting the new year). We just love that state, but there were events going on in which we were a part: 1) my brother's wedding and Air Force graduation, and 2) my cousin's wedding. It was a crazy ride, literally, we drove both trips. No a/c. Texas in the summer. We went into debt for these excursions, but will have it paid off by mid-October.

We have finally (I hope) found our happy medium for homeschooling this year. I'm pretty excited about www.Ambleside.com, a website dedicated to Charlotte Mason-type teaching. It even has a reading list. I'm so excited to try this this year. I know my limitations, so we are doing a 2 week on, 1 week off schedule, with taking all of December off. We are also using a supervising teacher instead of testing--so much less stress!

Overall, I'm just happy to get to know the boys better this year even more than last. I've felt that our lives have been taken over a bit by electronics, and that will be very limited starting Sept. 13th. Our fave "real" game right now is the Monopoly card game. So fun! Ethan went to 4, one day military camps this summer, as well as a 4 day, 3 night trip to church camp. My little homebody, Luke, and I have spent quite a bit more time together, and it has been a joy. We are a lot alike, being pretty happy with calm activities, where Ethan is more of a rollerskate down the hill type of guy! I love them both. Time is fleeting at the age of 6 (almost 7) and 9.

Moving into the fall will put us heavily involved in Scouts and Awana, so we are looking forward to that. It's nice to pare down to mainly those activities as we move into fall. We still have the Labor Day telethon coming up, so you locals may see us on tv that day!

Things I have learned this summer, more deeply: that church is not necessarily in a building, but made up of the people. Also, that we are not to follow man, but the very voice of God. He guides and directs our steps, and has great plans for us. Thank you, Lord!

When Leaving is the Right Thing to do...

How do I start this post without offending? Hmmm. It's my blog, my "diary", so let's just say screw it. I barely update this anyway! My big guy, his name is Ethan, by the way, got a dose of the real world today. In retrospect, it wasn't a huge deal; I knew that things were escalating, violence, sticks, so many boys playing together without supervision (my fault). Ethan had hurt someone, apologized, and all was fine. The little bro of the person that was hurt retaliated once (in front of me). Understood, good brothers always do! It was after that that the laying into happened. This said little bro started hitting Ethan. Ethan actually cried. If you know E, you know it takes a lot of pain to make him cry. The long and short of it, that's when we left. I am so thankful this happened in my view instead of a random playground at a school somewhere, unwitnessed. All in all, it did open my eyes to how my children act after this regular Thurs meet-up. I ignored it because I was selfish! The moms are great people! But I have to get back to the reason we are doing this (homeschooling): to bring up boys of character, and have a closer relationship with them. If anything gets in the way of that, then it has to go.

It's been an unusually quiet day, but I think my bubbly Ethan is back, at 10pm no less! God granted us boys with sensitive hearts, especially E. And just so this post ends on a positive note, with the nice weather, we've had the neighbors over more. I can tell that we haven't had people over in a while when Luke (my youngest) goes around to the guests and asks if they want drinks, would they like to play legos, wii, outside etc. So funny, we have a little host on our hands!

I Need My Mom

It's one of those days...do you have a moment? My wheelchair has been broken for 10 1/2 days now. I am thankfully borrowing a chair, but it's definitely not the same! Even though my beloved chair does not move forward, I can still sit in it to get comfortable, to lean back, etc. This is the longest I've ever been without it. Praise the Lord that it's getting fixed today, but that means it's not at my house to rescue me; one whole day without the hope of real comfort. It's a little scary. My birthday is tomorrow and I've got so much to do outside the home, it's ridiculous. We haven't had actual groceries for days. Just random food purchased here and there.

Did I mention that my youngest son woke up and promptly threw up all over the floor and couch? Mom, this is a time I need you. These are always the times. Maybe that's selfish, but she always knew how to save the day. I will miss you on my birthday tomorrow. 32 years ago, my 9 lb 9 oz body was taken by cesarean. 'With a due date of January 16th, it's no wonder I got so big! Well, look down on me today and give me strength. Love you.

Teeth!

So I forgot that around the age of 6, they start losing teeth! Youngest son wanted to do something special, so he lost two teeth in two days! Dec. 8th marks the loss of his first front bottom tooth. Dec. 9th was the day for it's neighbor to go. I'd had a headache Dec. 8th, so I couldn't get to sleep. It's a good thing, as I hear a gasp, then "my tooth," then "Mommy!" All but dad got up for the momentous occasion. We immediately started working on the neighboring tooth, as it was just hanging by a thread. Oldest son tried to watch, squirming and covering his eyes. How exciting! So my little bugger earned $2 in two nights sleep.

On another note, Facebook.com kind of sucks up my blogs. It's so much easier and shorter. I'll try to be better, maybe stopping in for an important event. Maybe I'll post my updates here! We'll see. We've been home for three days straight, since the big Dec. 8th blizzard. It was fun at first, but now it's getting old, and we're running out of food. I'm counting the days until our house is paid off and we can leave for the winter. It's not only for me anymore, as hubby has already had pneumonia this winter. Life is too short. We'd like to be warm. So glad I married someone like-minded.