One Year!

    *****December 22 made one year since we've lived in our camper! I totally meant to post this last Thursday  but I got distracted and.......here it is now!*****

 It's been a whole year since we loaded our camper with what mattered most to us and pulled away from the dream house and property that had been ours for just over 5 years. We've loved learning to take one day at a time and trusting God to open doors for us. I love to look back over the past year and see how different our path is now then we imagined when it started out!
 I'll summarize a bit:

     Around July and August 2015 we were confirmed several times over that we are to leave Arkansas. Buying another property before our current one sold wasn't even an option so we felt stuck. A simple life was very appealing to us so we began to dream about living in a camper until our house sold. But we quickly discovered that a lot of people thought we were totally crazy so we began to doubt ourselves. However, we became connected with a huge community of people who live in RV's because they want to and love traveling. Our passion was rekindled as we trolled Facebook pages and asked questions of these experienced travelers.

     The end of August we took the plunge and bought a 31 foot travel trailer with the plan to move near my parents in Texas and wait for our house to sell to buy property. Up until the week we left for Texas I fully expected God to work hard and fast and sell our house and prayed diligently about it. Instead he brought us a young couple who needed a house to rent. We were disappointed that it hadn't sold but knew it was time to move on so we officially moved December 22,2015. Our belongings had been sold or were put into the storage shed that Eldon built on dad's property.

     Now we had a new problem. Since our house hadn't sold, Eldon needed a job ASAP. However, he didn't want to start at a hospital because what if our house sells and we can't find a house in Texas near his new job? He does not like change at all so being a travel nurse with 13 week contracts looked like misery. But, he decided it was the best option at the time and signed up with a travel company. We wanted a job "close" to mom and dads. "Close" ended up being 3 hours away in Brownwood, Texas. Every other weekend we traveled back to dads for church and to do laundry. Also,we had to check out of the State Park every 14 days. It was exhausting!

     The end of April Eldon's contract was up and our house STILL hadn't sold! However, we now knew that we loved living in our camper. Nearly everything was more simple and our time with and for each other had tripled or more. Eldon also discovered that 13 week contracts weren't so bad after all. In fact, the idea was growing on us that just maybe we could be a traveling family after all!

    Since my family reunion was in Colorado in July 2016, he picked up a job in Cortez, Colorado. Our months there confirmed to us that yes, we absolutely love traveling and this lifestyle.Our house finally sold. But now we've decided that instead of going into debt we're going to SAVE money before we buy property. Is it just another excuse to stay on the road? Maybe so?! We're not sure. But, we do feel like this is exactly where God wants us for now. It's so freeing to not have a plan in place for the next 15 years! Currently we're spending 8 weeks at my parents taking care of their chicken barn while my dad recovers from hernia surgery. We couldn't do this if we had a "normal" life! We also have no idea where our next job will take us and I find it rather exhilarating :).

     So please, don't feel sorry for us or our children. Nope, we don't have predicable life,see the same friends each week, or worship with the same believers every Sunday. Those are the things we miss the most. But the things we love the most is, being spontaneous, meeting new friends,sharing the bond of worshiping God with Christians we haven't met before, the ability to pick up our house and go visit friends, and the awesome country God has placed us in!

     We do consider Texas our home base and spend a fair amount of time here when it works into our route. We've lived 8+ hours away from any family all our married life so being in my parents back yard feels like a slice of heaven! It's always so hard to leave them and my little sisters when we pull out but we comfort ourselves with the fact that we will be back, Lord Willing! Our children love that we were able to spend time at each one of their cousins homes this past summer and since that's a gift I never had, I love it too!

     As of right now, we have no solid idea where we are going next. Eldon's recruiter is looking for a job pretty much anywhere within 8 hours of here, as long as it's farther South :). Until then, Eldon is happily satisfying his farmer's itch and we're all getting fat fatter from the amazing food my mom is continually sending us! Ethan is just loving his Grandma and Grandpa this time around instead of being scared of them:). The 3 oldest are thrilled to bits that they can play with their Aunts (14 and 9) nearly every day.

A weekend with family

This past weekend we were in Tennessee with Eldon's sister and family. They have 4 children (4,3,3,8 months) so with our 4 added to the mix it was a happy buzz all the time. The children played for hours, with plenty of squabbles thrown in but all in all, they had a blast. Ethan quickly discovered that all he had to do was tug on Lynette or Lanea's dress and they would holler and fuss so he did so at every opportunity!

They live on a farm with 2 chicken barns so Eldon was able to help clean-out the barns since they are between flocks right now. We also cleaned out the garden and the MANY flower beds and Eldon gave the huge yard a last mowing for the year. He also tilled the garden. I mostly supervised children but did manage to do some extra cleaning and took care of all the children so Dorcas could go shopping alone one morning. It was really fun to be so useful after "being on vacation" the last few weeks.

So many places!

So many places, so many friends. The last few weeks we've been reminded how incredibly blessed we are as we've been traveling ALOT and visiting family and friends. We've also zoomed by a lot too and feel bad about that but maybe next time! I've finally got our scrapbook pages done for the time since we left Pa. so I'll post those and that pretty much sums up the basics. Pictures can in no way capture the love we and thankfulness we have for these dear friends in our hearts. The older we get the more important family is to us and Eldon and I are so grateful that our children are learning to know some of our Aunts and Uncles as well as spend time with their cousins. 

Our 3 weeks in Pa

Our 3 weeks in Bellville, Pa went incredibly fast! We had a lovely time and made many memories with family. Eldon's parents and 2 brothers live there plus I have a brother in the area. Eldon helped his brother and dad on a lot of little projects around the farm but we did a fair amount of fun things too.

Picnic at Uncle Lavern's

Roasting marshmallows over our new pellet fire pit.

Eldon chopping hay!

The children loved to ride along

Ethan loved Grandma's car roller

And Gator rides too :) 

Cows, lots and lots of cows. The leaves were beautiful though!

The farm Eldon grew up on. His grandma planted that big tree in the yard a very long time ago.

The barn and silos

The sign that you see as you drive out the lane. 

Eldon's dad built this waterwheel to pump water down to the barn for the cows. Eldon spent a lot of time fine-tuning it and messing with it so it worked better. It's quite impressive!

Exploring the woods!

Eldon's initials carved into a tree

Eldon used to drive this go-cart and now he's taught Makayla how much fun it is.

Stories, we always try to take time for stories

Makayla and her sweet little cousin Laura

Arlin and Ethan are a year apart. Once they got the pecking order figured out they got along very well but until then it was a little rocky!

Every Tuesday Mom and her sister Ruth spend the forenoon with their dad and make and eat lunch with him. We always enjoy going along when we are there. The Tinker Toys were a big hit this time.

Spending time with my brother and family.....Dallas and Michael love to tear around even though there is 8 years difference in their age!

We loved spending an evening with Phil and Gina Peachey. This is our 2 youngest who are only days apart. 

We hiked to the mountain behind the farm and looked over the valley. Beautiful!

One Saturday we managed to get the whole family together and took a little hike. It was so fun to be out hiking again!

Our 4 sunbeams!

Eldon's sister Judith is currently living in Va but she came home for a weekend when we were there. The children had so much fun with her, especially Makayla.

Grandma has such good snacks-like moon pies!

3 of Eldon's single Aunts invited us down one evening and he pulled out this little tractor that he used to play with.

Arlin and Ethan raking leaves

My niece Genea has a goat she milked and the children loved to go with her!

They were planting a garden......in hunting clothes :)

Raking leaves for Grandma-again!

Eating my Aunt Twila's famous whoopie pies!

I helped my sister-in-law make applesauce one day. Then another day we made apple butter for both of us. And she made apple pie :).

Eldon's Aunt Ruth got us started making kombucha. We're so excited about it!

And that, my friends, pretty much sums up our time in Pa. We did lots of normal things like laundry and dishes as well as consuming massive amounts of his moms amazing cooking but I don't have pictures of all that :). 

The Ark and Creation Museum

Our decision to change our route and include these two places was last minute and made us feel like major tourist considering the amount of money we spent but we're so glad we did! We purchased the combo tickets which gave us 1 day at the Ark and 2 at the Creation Museum. 

We chose to visit the Ark on the first day. We didn't know what to expect but we did thoroughly enjoy our day even though it did cost a bundle, we nearly walked our legs off, and there was so many people that everywhere we went was a slow moving line. There was lots and lots of reading but enough pictures and statues to hold the children's interest well. History has always been a love of mine (Monica) and with being to so many National Parks this summer, it was especially fascinating to learn about how canyons and mountains were formed. Even though we've heard the story of Noah's Ark all our lives, there was multiple things that were new to us:

-It was much bigger then imagination. Noah had no problem getting over 6000 animals on board.

- The animals looked a lot different then now.

- Only 1650 years after creation, the world was so evil that God destroyed it all except one family. 

- Dinosaurs were a lot smaller then typically depicted. 

- Noah and his family were almost certain to be vegetarian. 

- How intelligent Noah and his sons must have been. No cavemen could have built that massive ark.

- How many animals have gone extinct.

- OUR GOD IS EVEN MORE POWERFUL AND AWESOME THEN WE REALIZED.

The next 2 days we went to the Creation Museum. Again, a huge highlight for Eldon and I was getting so many childhood questions answered with a solid, Biblical answer. There was indeed dinosaurs, an ice age, and a reason why so many animals went extinct. We're feeling as though our brains may explode as we continue to process all the information we received and make sense of it all. We've come to see that today there is evolution taught everywhere and our children WILL be exposed to it even by visiting zoos and natural places so it's very important that we make an active effort to teach the truth and give them answers to their questions. 

We got through most of the Museum on the first day but the crowds were so bad that the children couldn't see much after the first hour. We spent a lot of time outside walking in the gorgeous Botanical Garden and playing in the petting zoo. Ethan giggled and giggled while he fed the goats and sheep! The older three were tickled pink to have a camel ride. The littlest man was pretty mad when he realized he wasn't getting a ride! We made sure to get in on the Dino-mite story time at 2:00 for the children. After this Ethan was an exhausted mess so we headed home.

The second day we were there a few min after 9. With a little wiggling we were soon ahead of anyone else and walked through all but the first exhibit alone! It was so enjoyable and we were able to explain and talk to the children so much better. It felt so real to walk through the peaceful Garden of Eden, the fall, and then see the very vivid effects of sin. It continued on with exhibits about life after the fall, the flood, life after the flood, and God's plan for our redemption. 

People keep asking if it's worth the money and I've got to say, it depends what it's worth to YOU. For us, yes. We would do it again in a heartbeat, and probably will in a few years. 

We'd recommend getting there early though, and beating the crowds if possible. We got in the lunch line at 11:30 and waited only a few min but 30 minutes later the line was literally 20 times longer. By the second day we knew a few shortcuts and had an awesome day since we could avoid a lot of crowds and lines!

Also, I'm going to link the blog post of a friend who visited last week and did a fabulous job of writing a review. Definitely read it if you plan to visit!

Heather's take on the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum

How we do school

     I've never pictured myself a teacher. I have always loved children but when I was a teenager I substituted one Sunday for the preschool teacher. I followed a very noisy passel of 4 and 5 year old's down the steps covered in hideous orange and black carpet to the basement of our church. I can close my eyes and smell the damp concrete like it was yesterday. They shuffled wildly around and finally all found a chair around the half-circle table painted white with brightly colored hand prints and the first verse of Jesus Loves the Little Children in red words.I don't remember what all happened but I can still remember the feeling of being totally out of control the whole time. I wasn't expecting to be interrupted every 30 seconds or so to be told an important piece of news like Johnny got a new dog then of course Susie had to outdo that story with one about her new kitten. I decided then and there to stay as far away from teaching children as possible :). 

     Fast forward 10 years and I've got a 4 year old just begging to read. Eldon said, "O, just teach her." So I purchased the Learning to Read curriculum from clp.org and jumped in. Watching the light dawn in my daughter's eyes as she began to put words together and hearing her read her first words have been one of my greatest blessings. Somewhere along the lines I've changed to where I can now say that I absolutely love teaching our children and have no intentions of letting anyone else have that joy. 

     We've tried several different curriculum and what-not but I do believe we are finally getting a feel for what works for us. Although, along with our lifestyle, our teaching style has become much more relaxed and our priorities have shifted so only God knows what the future holds!

     One thing that works well for us and our traveling family is schooling year round. That does not mean that we sit down at 8:00 each day and do the 8 subjects most students are required to do. Quite the opposite,actually. We have workbooks, mostly from CLE that we do when there is not something more exciting to do. Playing with cousins, exploring Indian Ruins, hiking to a mountain lake, going to the Ark and Creation Museum,observing and identifying birds, visiting the Grand Canyon, and completing the Junior Ranger Program at National Parks (and some state parks) are all included in our learning process. I'm frequently asking Google questions like:

-How many countries is there in the world?

-How big is the biggest ant?

-Where does a shark's poop come out?

-How many miles away is the moon?

-How much does it cost to go to Mars?

-Who thought of making speed bikes?

     Since we've backed off the hours and hours of workbook time, I feel like I actually have time to dive into their interests and help them answer their questions instead of saying, "I don't know, just do your Math." Basically, we are always learning. But we never put the books away. We may take a few weeks off if we are at Grandpa's but for the most part a few lessons are completed each week. If you'll notice the grade level each child is at, this actually put us several years ahead instead of behind. It's simply amazing how much better a child can work when they want to learn instead of having to learn :) .

These pictures were taken this Fall in Colorado where we had The Best Summer Ever. We've changed a few things up since then though.

     Since I do so enjoy hearing what other families use I suppose I should share too. Don't be appalled how light our book load is :).

Reading:

     I've taught both our children to read using CLE's Learning to Read program. It works well for us. I've started them both around 4.5-5 and take it slow, usually close to a year to complete the 10 books. It's given them an excellent start.

    Michael is just ready to start 108 and he moans and groans about it but he does love to read already so I'd say it's working! Writing is not his thing at all so I sometimes fill in his blanks because he IS young and he IS smart as a whip. He usually tells me the answers faster then I can write!

     This year I also purchased CLE's third grade Reading for Makayla, mostly for fun. It consists of a reader and 10 light-units. A lot of the questions have to do with reading comprehension and the lessons are short and easy so as long as she enjoys it I'll likely keep getting it.

     As for other reading, we don't lack for it all! I keep our books in the camper to a bare minimum but we visit a local library where ever we are once or twice a week. My pet peeve is when they have a limit of 20-25 books! So we have to go back often to keep new material in the house. We listen to a lot of audio books too, via librivox or CD's from the library. 

Math:

     I have Makayla back in CLE Math and will switch Michael once he is done with first grade Abeka. I do like Abeka in some ways but in my opinion it is not very home school friendly. It requires A LOT of teacher time and moves at a high rate of speed. We tried the video program but that meant hours of the children staring at a screen, lots of $$$$ and then I still had to figure out how they teach concepts unless I watched with them! CLE uses a very gently spiral method and also promotes independent working at a young age so it's perfect for a busy mom. It's also friendly to the wallet AND each subject has 10 light-units so I don't need to lug around a huge book, but only the few we'll need.

     And of course there is lots of mental math that happens here. 

     -"If I washed dishes 2 times and Makayla only 1 then that's not fair because I did it one more time then her!"

     -"Moooom, you only gave me 14 chocolate chips and Ethan has 200. He has more!"

Language Arts:

     Again, CLE. I love it, the kids love it. They were smart enough to combine it with Spelling and Writing which makes this minimalist mommy happy, happy, happy.

Science:

     Nothing official. But we've visited more Zoos, Nature Centers, and Museums in the last year then I did my entire life. We also watch things like Kratt's Creatures, Wild Kratt's, and other cool animal and weather shows and DVD's. And read tons of books. Nope, they are definitely not lacking in this area!

Geography, History, Music, Art, Bible, and Poetry

     Again, nothing official. Since this is the "fun stuff" I tend to leave it until last........and it never happens. We do get lots of first hand experiences at National Parks and Museums for Geography and History. But, in order to round it off, we've started something else this year and now I have a post up about Morning Time and how and why we do it! 

Click here to read the post about Morning Time!

Our last week in Colorado

Our last week in Colorado flew past. We were able to do a lot of fun things with my brother and sister and their families as well as some of my friends. 

The pumpkin patch we went to was a huge hit for the children. We were there for several hours and they would have been happy there longer! They had creepy little plastic rats laying all over and they just loved scaring each other with them!Then of course the huge slides made from pipes and tire swing from a big tractor tire was fun too.There was also a hay bale maze, hayride, and corn sandbox that we all loved.

Another fun thing was our first visit to a trampoline park. Imagine a whole floor made of trampolines! Eldon and I had as much fun as the children but we did wear out a lot faster! And as always, we had a campfire and picnic at Brian's pond several times. We had promised Emily a trip to Heavenly's Delight for frozen yogurt if she can stay dry for 3 nights and she did it! This place appeals to her since you get your yogurt then pick from a ton of toppings!

And then, we left Colorado! Eldon and I agree that this summer was probably our best yet. Many precious memories were made and our lives will never be the same , thanks to all we experienced!

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Our weekend in Kansas was amazing as well. We're just sad it's over already!

Just a note on Graham Cave State Park-it worked fine for us and our 31 foot travel trailer but most pads are smallish and there is a lot of trees so it's not real big rig friendly.