Planning some fun for 2018

Starting with a new purchase:

Apparently we really are tiny home people. 

A nice interior update to the 80s vintage of the trailer.  Just needs some fresh paint and a few minor things and this baby is ready for adventure.

Look! 4 bunks, each with its own window! This was probably what sold me on this particular trailer--each kid gets his or her own bed, which will probably be a blessing for the long adventure we are currently dreaming up.

Yes, that is extra sleeping space up above the dinette. This trailer can sleep 8 people! We will mostly use that for extra storage while on the road, but this means we could also take a set of grandparents or a couple of friends along for bit of fun. 

These are all the seller's original photos--but I will update with my own photos after we make a few improvements!  

So that's it for now--just wanted to share a bit of excitement as it unfolds. : )

Sweet (New) Home, Alabama

Rebecca, me and Mother, after a lovely girls' lunch out

I was quiet for a week there for a great reason--I got to fly to Alabama to help my parents move into their new home there!  My parents were loathe to leave their house in Illinois, which they loved (as did their girls!), but various factors made it the wise choice, so now they are settling in to a lovely house in Tuscaloosa, where my elder sister and her family also live.

They closed on the house last Weds. and I arrived that night, so I could be there to help start moving things in on Thursday morning.  I was so glad I could be there, for many reasons. First of all, it was so nice to see my parents again, and visit my sister Rebecca and her family--distance being what it is, my last time visiting Alabama was about nine years ago.  My niece Emily has just graduated from high school, and her younger sister Sarah will follow in another year, and that just proves how quickly the time is passing. So I am very glad I got to spend some time with them before those girls are completely grown up and moved away!  I also really enjoyed seeing how my sister and her family live, where they work, etc--all those little details of life that never get conveyed through phone calls or blog comments.  I have always found it fascinating that my parent's three daughters all grew up and evolved into very different kinds of cooks--our family definitely being the most unusual!--and I really liked getting to sit down and share meals that are a reflection of my sister's family's tastes and their living in the South.  Like hominy grits for breakfast and eating them the traditional Southern way with butter and pepper.  Yum!  (And I am definitely making that mashed potato dish for my kids, Rebecca. And I want to try Chris's fire station green bean dish too--picante sauce and onion flakes, right?)  One highlight was going out to a restaurant on the river and trying fried catfish, fried pickles, hoppin' john (basically black eyed peas and rice) and mustard greens.  All tasty! The last two I mixed together--probably something only a Yank would do--and added a little chopped fresh tomato from my salad and YUM.  I might try that at home too! 

So, the briefly living life with loved ones part was one of best things about the trip.  Then too, Rebecca managed to arrange errands so that we could do "drive by" sightseeing, and I enjoyed those glimpses of history in their town.  Esp. meaningful after our year studying the Civil War still so fresh in my mind.

The Gorgas House, one of the few buildings on the campus that survived burning during the Civil War.  My new fantasy house.

Me and my niece Emily, at Capitol Park, seeing the ruins of the original capitol building, burned during the Civil War.  So so cool!

Finally, it sounds kinda weird to say that actually, the whole helping my parents do some unpacking and settling some things into place into their new home was also one of the highlights of the trip.  But it was--I enjoyed every single minute. As I tried to tell someone afterwards what made helping them so rewarding, I realized a few things:

--One of my spiritual gifts is service, explained at this site: "This gift is a practical gift. Those with the gift of service enjoy doing routine tasks around the church regardless of how they effect others. Those with this gift enjoy menial tasks and do them cheerfully."  It's funny, but the older I get the more I enjoy being behind the scenes, and really enjoy seeing the little things that need doing and just being the one to do it.  (Doing the dishes for our SoulKitchen "Conversations" is a good example.)  So how cool is that, to be using a spiritual gift to help my parents?  No wonder it felt so good.

--One of my love languages is Loving Acts of Service.  It's pretty logical that we naturally show love to others in the ways we would most naturally receive it ourselves, so that means by unpacking boxes and helping furniture find homes in the new spaces I was unconsciously Doing Love.  Now, that may not be one of the love languages of my parents, so I can't assume they were feeling all the same warm fuzzies I was, but it just means *I* was feeling all those warm fuzzies while I worked.  I was infused with Love the whole time.  No wonder it felt good.

(I really enjoyed reading the Love Languages book years ago, and have continued to form my own extrapolations from it over the years--one I'm thinking is pretty clear is a correlation between our love languages and our spiritual gifts.  That would make so much sense, and is true for me!  When we serve = we love. Isn't that just how God would plan it?)

--I think humans are all given the urge to bring chaos into order--part of God's mandate to people in Genesis, and a result of the Fall too, that we are always seeking to "conquer" disorder, and that our hearts long for it.  (Sure, some people don't seem to have that urge--part of the Fall too!)  So it felt so satisfying to be working and see such wonderful and immediate fruits to our labors.  Empty dining room feels a little sad and foreign?  A couple hours later, with long-loved furniture in place and familiar dishes and table linens being stowed in their usual places, ta da!  Room that now starts to feel more welcoming and at peace.

Of course, I work to try to reclaim some semblance of order around this tiny house constantly, but it is always even then still in the process of falling into disorder around me--and it's not nearly as fun to have to do the same habitat restoration over and over and over and over.  So it was fun to put something away and see it stay there!  To make something pretty and have it still be pretty two days later!  No wonder it felt good.

--I think I actually am pretty good at finding appropriate and logical "homes" for things around the house.  Keep in mind I have myself downsized twice, and now live in a home where I am constantly having to make choices about where things should be, and changing the order frequently as the way we live shifts over time and seasons.  So it feels easy to think about such things in general, and to have a big empty house with so many cupboards--a dream come true!  Seriously--we would be in the kitchen trying to figure out where to put something big and then more than once would realize there was a whole cupboard we had forgotten about that was clean and ready to receive things--ah, the ecstasy!  No wonder it felt good.

(Mom and Dad, of course you rearrange things where you want, after you have lived in the house a bit and know what you want.  My goal was to make things logical and easy to use and neat and attractive for the moment, while you are in the transition, so you could easily find things and not mind how something looked until you knew what you really wanted to do with it.)

--I joke sometimes about having mild "OCD" tendencies, but it is a wee bit true.  So organizing things, making things neat, matching things, finding logical homes for things--all make me feel happy inside.  I am not joking.  The moment when I realized I could rearrange two high large cupboards in the kitchen so that I could neatly fit all the big Tupperware pieces in one cupboard over the fridge and the "things that cook or warm food that aren't used more than once a year" in one cupboard over the stove (you see--the cooking things all together in the cupboard over the appliance that cooks?!)  I literally was giddy with joy.  You are welcome to laugh at me.  But it felt REALLY good.

(Parents, you are welcome to move anything in the kitchen to where it best suits you.  But if you go mixing up those two cupboards, just don't tell me. ; )

So, there you have it.  A trip most rewarding in so many ways.  I am so thankful that my Dear Husband let me go and be with my parents and sister's family and help out for a few days. 

Were you wondering what I did with my family during that time?  Well,  my dear Becky hosted my kids for a two-day homeschool "camp" the first couple of days I was gone. . .

Smiley keeping Becky's husband Dan company while he works on that Sunday's sermon  

. . . and then DH worked from home a couple of days, so he could get me to and from the airport.  Before I left I cooked up a whole fridge of food, so they would never be in want, and I don't think they actually missed me. 

But the kids did almost knock me over with their beaming faces and running hugs when they saw me get off the escalator by the baggage claim at the airport.  So, even if I was not missed, they were happy to see me again. : )

All in all, a great week. 

AWOB

That's Away With Out Blogging.

Wow, I think I just reached a new high of non-Lenten non-blogging.  I feel guilty, like I'm being a poor hostess with quests waiting to be served--but I had good reason.  Well, at least for the first week of it. . . .

Funny, 'cause when I last posted, I had just told you all my goal would be to write one positive post a day for a whole week.  Then my husband reminded me that we were going to Disneyland.  Oh.  Right.

We had wanted to do this trip last Fall, but ended up going to Colorado to see our newborn preemie niece instead, and having a really good time staying with really good friends.  So when my cousin down in the LA area announced she was getting married this Fall, I was so excited that now we had the excuse to make the trip.  The best part about homeschooling is getting to travel whenever you feel like it.  Disneyland has got to be one of the best places to go when you have such flexibility--off-season, in the middle of the work-week, in the middle of the school-day, the lines to ANY ride in the park are at most 15 minutes.  Some you wait only 5 minutes. The temperatures are so much more pleasant (mild and often overcast but not rainy) too.  And Disneyland also re-decorates according to the seasons; while I am not crazy about all the Halloween decorations, the more harvest/Fall decorations were simply gorgeous, and the park has set up really beautiful displays all over the park for impromptu photo backdrops (we're talking huge, real carved pumpkins displaying Disney scenes, for example--really unique). 

Did I get any pics of such things?  Of course not.  We were too busy running ALL over Disneyland (and a little at the California Adventure too) having a great time.   In fact, I don't have that many great pics at all--but I have enough to bring back the pleasurable memories:

The new Nemo submarine ride.  DH and I loved the "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" ride when we were kids, so it was fun to see it reincarnated.  Some parts were done really well--oh, to be able to see it through my kids' eyes, and really imagine being deep in the sea!

(Those red T-shirts left over from this past summer's vacation Bible school came in handy.  Two days in a row.) 

While we did a lot of rides, we also really made the most of the hands-on, interactive areas.  The Tarzan treehouse play area is really fun--the Disney "Imagineers" did a great job on it.  You can bang on pots and pans to make music, pump bellows to stoke the "fire" and make pots rattle on the "stove," crank a wheel to run a slideshow, pull on a rope to make wild animal sounds, and more things to spur the imagination. What is so fascinating are how many kids and parents just walk on through, not thinking to touch or try things--and so missing out on all the fun.

The Mark Twain Riverboat.  I can never get tired of watching its giant paddle.

For some reason, I love Disney's two ships, and we were fortunate enough to ride both.  Here is the Columbia, which had so much fun things to see on and below deck.  Historical replicas?  Yes, please!  (School for the day, check. ; ) 

 

Complete with working cannon!

And nobody came to scold when the kids all wanted a turn ringing the bell as we were coming back into port. . . .

(Seriously, I had never analyzed quite how kid-friendly Disney is until this trip.  There are so many ways for kids to get to let off steam in safe and fun ways, esp. when they have been good about walking for miles and patiently standing around all day.  Even when ride operators had to warn kids of safety behavior, they usually did it with patience and humor appropriate to that particular ride.)

The big ball fountain.  Another feature most people never notice that kept me and Smiley entertained for at least 20 minutes while DH took the girls on Space Mountain.

Actually, Smiley and I hung out a lot together this trip, as this was the first time the three girls were old enough to do the "big kid" rides, and so I sent DH and them off to enjoy.  (The older I get the more sensitive I am to motion sickness--at this exact moment I am getting dizzy just trying to type as Smiley is excitedly waving his fingers in front of the screen while reliving the carousel ride. ; )  I did go on a few fast, such as the Matterhorn, which was my own first roller coaster, as I recall.  That one was the first we took the girls on too, and it did boast a classic moment:  I had been instructing them on how to sit and what to expect from the movement of the ride, etc., when just as we were entering the "cave," I remembered to warn them, "Oh, and there might be snow monsters, so look out!"  Thus they began their first roller-coaster ride shrieking in anticipation, which is as it should be.

DH with some kids blasting things on the Buzz Lightyear ride.  This is actually one of my favorite rides, just because it is so cleverly done and engages the kids so completely.  And you get to email photos to yourself at the end, for free!  Too cool.

Smiley got to drive. (Really!  The cars even turn from side to side with a switch.)

 My favorite part of the park this time:  Tom Sawyer's Island.  I do not remember visiting this when I was a kid--probably because when I was old enough to remember I was to busy trying to fit in as many roller-coasters and "cool" rides as possible.  But this island is so fun, with so much "scope for the imagination," as Anne of Green Gables would say.  Such a great place to let kids be kids!

.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .   

We drove to LA Tuesday, arrived in time to stop by and get our passes and do a couple of things at the California Adventure, went to the home of my Aunt Sharyn (one of my dad's sisters) and Uncle Don, who were so gracious to host us for the week (and who are only about 20 minutes from Disney too!), and crashed.  Weds and Thurs we did Disney again, staying until it closed at 8:00 p.m.  Friday DH hung out at the house with all the kids and our cousin Joey while I helped my aunt and uncle and others prepare the church gym for the following day's reception, and Fri. evening we got to hang out with my Aunt Lisa (another of my dad's sisters) and Uncle Rob, who had come to town for the festivities.  Saturday was the wedding, and a lovely one it was.

My lovely cousin Stacia and her new husband, Adam. 

Seeing some of my extended family again was one of the best parts of the trip, and definitely worth the drive.  But a week of family fun, esp. at a place so nostalgic for DH and me--the icing on the cake. 

So much so that we could not resist stopping by Disneyland again Sunday, on our way home. . .

and arriving back home very late at night, contentedly exhausted.


(And the VERY best part?  That we get to go back in the Spring!  Yes, homeschooling + living a half day's drive from Disneyland + hospitable relations close by = annual passes for the year!  Whoo-hoo!)

time with family, time with friends

After the first time we got to spend time with baby Sweetness in the NICU, I told DH that if we had to turn around and drive home right then, it would all have been worth it.  He agreed.  So pretty much everything else in the trip was icing on the cake!

I'd have to say, though, that while meeting Sweetness was the highlight of the trip, the next best part was our accommodations there in the Springs.  We got to stay with my dear Susan, and the time with her and her family was just truly wonderful.  They welcomed us even though half of their family was recovering from illness.  They made us feel completely at home. Our children played so well together that I did not hear ONE FIGHT the whole WEEK we were there.  I mean, every now and then a child got overwhelmed or tired and was not at his/her best, and there was the occassional misunderstanding easily cleared up--but no squabbling over toys, no temper tantrums, no exclusionary games, etc.  Just sweet friendship and fun, which seriously meant so much to me.  It is not every family that would take in a family of six for a week without batting an eye, and little things like kids continually squabbling would have easily turned us into the proverbial three-day-old fish.  (I made sure to tell the girls on the way home how proud I was of them, and when we got home they each got to put one straw in the manger for every day of the trip, since they did so great!)

I loved having so much time with Susan, one of my oldest and dearest friends.  Someone asked me later if we had good conversation, and I had to think.  No, actually, I don't think we did!  That is, not the deep soul-sharing stuff I love. But we just hung out together, which is a true girlfriend luxury.  (And Luke indulged me with a friendly, borderline-intellectual--on my part--political discussion, which I confess made me feel refreshingly adult.) And Susan totally encouraged me in the whole bread-making thing, showing me her method and effortlessly baking up fresh loaves of gorgeous, delicious bread almost daily.  We even got to join Susan and Luke in their weekly dinner with two other families, with whom we were close when we lived in CS and who are delightful people.  It was such a great week.

The only downside at all to the visit was that my family did, eventually, come down with whatever stomach bug was circling the Springs, but even that worked out well, because while DH got a fever for a day or two, he fought it off without other symptoms, and managed to time it well between our visits with his sister and brother-in-law.  Then Merry and Smiley were next, but they graciously waited until the day before we were going to leave anyway, and so we just left one day early (which turned out to be perfect for the turn-around here at home before heading up to spend Christmas with DH's grandma and family up in Chico).  And nobody threw up in the car or had diarrhea, and Susan gave Smiley a couple of toy cars for the road (his current favorite) and the girls some Disney princess coloring pages and so all the kids were happily occupied for the two days home.

(Really, my kids are fantastic road-trippers, but to spend two whole days contentedly coloring?  Priceless.)

If there was one disappointment in our trip for me it would be that we did not get to spend much quality time with DH's sister and her husband.  Because of their daily hospital "cares" schedule, and because we were trying to be careful about when and how we saw them, so we did not pass along any illness to them (illness which might make them unable to tend to their precious baby in the NICU!), it was surprisingly hard to get together with them and our kids, but we managed quite a few meals together, and one lovely time hanging out and chatting in Susan's living room, with all the kids nicely occupied elsewhere.  That was really the only time we got to really talk with them as adults--when you are eating with four young kids, it is sometimes hard to get a word (or a bite!) in edgewise.  But I'll be thankful for what time we had, and just look forward to the next time, whenever it is. 

I can't believe I did not get a good pic of the kids with their Auntie N. : (  But we were trying to keep the kids away from close physical contact with N and S, to keep them from catching sick germs, and we planned on getting pics when we celebrated our early Christmas together that last day, which we then had to cancel because of sick kids.  In this pic, Uncle S is, against my chiding, allowing the little germ-breeders to climb all over him while we were out to dinner. 

It snowed just enough to get to bundle up the kids and send them out for the rare experience of real winter.

Just enough to have fun in

Thank you, dear friends, for the lovely time.

the La Posada Hotel

Just want to make a short post about the marvelous hotel we discovered in Winslow, AZ, which is just about half-way between our home and Colorado Springs, and which will now be our favorite stopping place:

One corner of the ballroom at the La Posada hotel

I won't go into the history or details here, since you can read more about it here.  But it is truly unique, and fun, and beautiful, and friendly, and if I have to pay someone to give me a bed for the night, I would much rather pay a family of artists and peace-mongers than whoever owns the Quality Inn.  And as the La Posada website tells you, it has been "rated as one of the best places in the world to stay by Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler," and "rated as #3 in the entire U.S. for bargain hotels by Trip Advisor."

The fireplace in the same room.

More importantly to me, they did not make a listing on the National Bed Bug Registry.

It was reasonable for us because the kids are just small enough that they all fit on one queen-sized bed--lined up long-ways. : )  DH and I took the other bed and had a good, comfortable, quiet, night's sleep. 

There are trains to watch, and art to admire, and table games to play, and local hand-made treasures in the gift shop, and outside gardens that are just the right size for kids to explore safely with minimal supervsion.

So, consider this post a travel FYI, in case you happen to ever need a hotel near Flagstaff!

a month of special Christmas blessings: the wrap-up begins

Hoping all of you had a very Merry Christmas!

I have not written much recently because we have had a whirlwind month.  It feels like our Christmas started three weeks ago--when DH's two week vacation began and we headed out on a roadtrip to Colorado--and is still going strong today--thanks to new toys and the leftover gingerbread boys we brought back with us from Great-Grandma's last night and the Christmas specials we have not yet had time to watch! It has been a wonderful couple of weeks, full of family and good friends and special moments and focusing our hearts and minds on Jesus--all the best parts of Christmas.

So I will give a few updates in the next couple of days, just to share some of the good times with you all.  Even though I have not been writing, I have stayed current with the blogs I read, and so if you are a blog friend and have not yet done YOUR post-Christmas summary, just letting you know I'll be looking forward to it! : )

Tonight I'll start with the reason for our trip to Colorado in the first place:

Yes, we drove out to meet our new little niece, baby S, whom I wrote about before and whom I've decided to nickname for this blog.  So, baby Sweetness is really doing well overall, but is still struggling with issues from being such an early preemie (born at 27 weeks gestation, now at 34 wks) and with such low birth-weight (she is finally up to 2 lbs 10 oz!  whoo-hoo!).  Her lungs are the greatest concern, as they are having trouble developing and are being scarred by the high oxygen content and pressure they have to keep her on most of the time. She is really precious, and I was in awe the first time I got to be present during her  "cares" (when they change her diaper, tubing, etc.).  I did not cry, though--until I saw her little hands and realized they were exactly like her mommy's, except in miniscule proportion.  She has her mommy's hands!  And her mommy's jawline, although you can't see it in this photo.

I also took this video that same night:

The image quality is poor because the light was so low there in the NICU, to protect little eyes--and my camera sometimes decides to auto-focus while I am recording.  But it is good enough to see the sweet, tiny girl a little.  She does not look very small in the video--until you see her mommy's hands over her, and realize one of her mommy's fingers is almost the same size as each of her arms.  And her mommy has smaller hands than me!  Sweetness is so tiny, but just a perfect little baby.  Those of you who have been praying for her, thank you.  It means so much to us.

More of our trip to come!

UPDATE: anyone having trouble viewing the video uploaded above can go watch it here.

Summer Snippet #1

Last week was one of recovery; you know, the usual unpacking, laundry, cleaning and reconnecting with the kids. I can't believe it was just one week ago yesterday that DH and I arrived back from IL and my reunion--already it feels like a month ago! And I think my brain took the slow train home, because I just have not had the mental energy to write. But that's ok, since my main goal was to get re-etablished with my kids and my home and my husband, and resume life in even better ways than I left it, and in that way it was a very good week. Lots of mental processing, and not much urge to form ideas into words--although I did finally corner my husband Friday night and talk his ear off--i.e. "blog" at him--for almost an hour, which made me think it was time to dust off the keyboard and jump back in.

And yet, another part of why I think I have not been blogging this week is because there is almost too much to say! I have been blogging in my head for the past two weeks about all kinds of things--and even started writing The Mother Of All Blog Posts while I was still at my parents' house--but I am getting easily overwhelmed at the thought of all the work it would take to assemble these ideas with coherence and lucidity. (Although correctly using the words "coherence" and "lucidity" just now--not without checking their definitions first--made me feel a little more confident.)

But I really must get some of this stuff out of my brain, where the ideas linger on, in half-life, like ghosts with unfinished business, moaning for release. So, I'm going to make things easy for myself and anyone interested: snippets and pics!

It seems only fitting to start where I left off: Mina and Susan!

All dressed up for the Saturday evening dinner event. Susan and Mina were GORGEOUS.

Blurry--wah!--but still awesome. Out in my parents' driveway before the casual Friday evening event. Also notable as the last recorded sighting of my breasts.

The famous bench in front of our high school, upon which the three of us first met, brought together by shared Walkmans and a love of Norwegian music:

Okay, maybe it wasn't just the music.

(Oooooh, and Susan, I just found this little youtube gem. I don't think Morten has ever looked or sounded better!)

But I regress digress.

Two of my favorite homegirls

a-ha pic courtesy of the offical a-ha website.