Moving On to Wisconsin

"Many hands make light work," is a phrase we use often at our house.  And we saw it in action last night. Everyone pitched in to pack up and in about one hour the entire campsite and trailer were packed and ready to go!  Today we are moving back into Central time, to south eastern Wisconsin, about 60 miles north of Chicago. Some of the us like moving frequently and some like staying put longer.  

I saw this beautiful pillow in a shop in Nashville, IN (which was very much like Old Town Spring). This store had artwork that was simply inspiring! I loved it.  I took lots of pics, but the butterfly "Embrace Change" pillow was my favorite.  I almost bought it.  Seriously.  



In New Carlisle we did end up enjoying the second half of our week at this campsite a little more than we first expected.  The first few days we had a creepy neighbor that really made us uncomfortable after he left, we seemed to relax and enjoy "Mini Mountain" for what it is. This was our first experience of feeling that red flag and caution about someone we met on the road.  For the most part we have had such a great time meeting sweet families and making new friends. 

The parks up north here have limited hook ups with electricity being the only thing available on most campsites.  So we use our on board water for necessities, buy drinking water, and use the campground showers and sinks.  It's not most convenient, but it works for a week at a time.  We will be at our next site until Friday when a high school friend who lives near Chicago will take me to the airport where I will fly a world away for nine days. 

God is going to do a good work in us all  while I am gone, I am certain.  I am praying for spiritual renewal, new vision, perspective, and his will to be accomplished.  Please pray for my family as they endure and grow, and for goodness sake, even have some fun while I am gone!  And pray for me that I may spread the good news, hug some tiny souls, and hear clearly what God has in store. 

Have a blessed Sunday, enjoy fellowshipping with the saints, and LOVE those people God outs in your path today!

BEACH FUN!

Yesterday we spent the day at Indiana Dunes State Park.  We decided that the name of Lake Michigan should actually be The Michigan Sea.  

IT'S GINORMOUS!

We were on the southeastern side of the beach and could see the Chicago skyline faintly in the distance.

After they got used to the clear, cold water, the kids splashed and played all day.  

Caleb mostly ate sand and watermelon

The water Lily Anne is standing in, is from a creek that flows down from the oak forest above the beach.  The oak trees drop acorns, branches and leaves which have tannins in them which make the water the orangy color you see in this pic.  The lake water was very blue and clean. 

Sarah got cold, so we buried her in the sand with a monkey floatie for a pillow... if only we had some peeled grapes to feed her!

Abbie being too cool for this floatie!

My Biggest Boy and my Baby Boy 

We left for home sleepy, sandy, sunburned, and happy. 

Love, love, love the beach.

p.s. there are ALOT of rules at this beach. For the amount of time and man power spent enforcing these rules they could have had enough life guards to open the other parts of the beach and let people use whatever floaties they want.  I kept feeling like, You have got to be kidding me!  This is a BEACH, PEOPLE! Lighten up!

Learning Curve

We went to Walmart this afternoon and met the nicest family, we nicknamed them "the Blondies" because they all had blonde hair.  With five children, older teens down to babies, we saw them first at Chick fil A then at Walmart, I told them we were stalking them ;-).  They were vacationing at the State Park which made me wish we would have stayed there.

Part of the learning curve of living on the road is finding our style, what we like, what we don't; what we can afford, what we can't and figuring out what makes one place feel like home and another feel like yeah-lets-get-outta-here-asap!  Since we scheduled a mailing here we have to stay, but I think we are going to leave as soon as it arrives.  The state parks have bigger spaces, more families, and a fun feel to them and the current park feels like we are living in someone else's yard.

In other news, I bought a couple of the important things I need for my trip. 

And...

So now that my priorities are straight I can go :-)

Thank you all so much for your prayers.  I truly have felt a release of the fear and have begun to try to focus on the heart on why I'm going.  

God needs to sell our house and provide us a new one so we can fill it up with whoever he has for us.  

I think I'm going on a fact finding mission.  

Death March...

I took the kids on a death march short hike, through the woods today.  

We figured out that the half mile label must really be as the bird flies, and the bird they used must have flown over the cuckoos nest because this was more like two miles. Uphill. Both ways.  Not to say it wasn't lovely, we were just a tad unprepared for a long hike.  

Hannah carried someone (and for a little bit two someones) for the entire hike.  She was a trooper!

Emily took care of Lily Anne for much of the journey, encouraging, helping, and carrying her when necessary.  

See, it really was a pretty hike.

Sarah, my five year old, brought water, so she was the most prepared.  I forgot to eat breakfast and was about ready to start eating leaves and bark by the end.  Thank goodness I had a Luna bar in the van or we may still be sitting there.  

Reflections on Tennessee

Tennessee definitely had a rough start for us. 

Arriving at 8:30pm after a 650 mile drive with sickness on the horizon, we should have known it was going to be rough.  I won't rehearse it but you can read about it here.  

We started out on the road Monday morning in Hot Springs, Arkansas and we drove… and drove… and drove… 650 miles from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Lebanon, Tennessee.  It was too far.  

(But at least we got some good car pics!)

We made a stop in Memphis to see some Elvis history and unfortunately it’s all tourist trappy (there’s a reason that rhymes with crappy…) 

But we did see Sun Records. 

The most memorable thing about that was being honked at by a punk-looking girl as we were crossing the street to the studio only to realize the girl was an employee returning from a break.  Welcome to Memphis.  Memphis was dirty and unfriendly.  We only drove through it but didn’t see anything that made us want to go back. 

We arrived at our campsite an hour east of Nashville at about 8:30pm and were in bed by 10:30pm.  Getting all settled in, we found good laundry facilities, rustic bathrooms, a spacious playground, and NO INTERNET OR CELL SERVICE.  It cramped our style, but we survived!

I have to say our experience at Show Hope was the turning point completely redeeming our time in Tennessee.  

Several of us rode horses.  (You'll have to ASK DOUG to post his video...maybe if he gets enough requests...)

I took the kids to the State Capitol and Tennessee State History Museum while Doug was in Houston puking his guts out.  We saw some amazing architecture and enjoyed reading all the Memorials in the courtyard.

All in all I'd say our time in Tennessee has been a "win".  It's time to move from Nashville to Knoxville today.  We are looking forward to seeing more history in Davy Crockett Park and touring God's handiwork in the Great Smoky Mountains.  

Hope you're enjoying touring with us.  We are missing our friends so leave a note if you can, we'd LOVE to hear from you!

Arkansas, Lake Catherine State Park

I am playing catch up a little bit today as I realized I never posted a thing about our stay in Arkansas.  Maybe  because it was sandwiched between utter exhaustion and violent illness.  I'm not sure.  However, it was the BEAUTY in the middle of our CHAOS.  After our short stay in Glen Rose, TX we camped for several days at Lake Catherine State Park in Arkansas.  We found the people in Arkansas to be very friendly and the state to be much more beautiful than we expected and kind of wish we would have stayed longer.  

In retrospect I would stay at Crater of Diamonds State Park, which we visited to dig for diamonds because of the unique features of that park.  It has a VERY COOL water park which opens Memorial Day weekend (we missed it by a week) and of course, the diamond fields.  

While driving to the Crater of Diamonds State Park where we were going to dig for diamonds, we saw a poor turtle stranded in the middle of the road.  Concerned for his safety, we sent Abigail, our turtle rescue ambassador, out after him.  Once in the car, we decided he needed a name.  After batting around several ideas we decided to call him FLASH! 

 
The turtle stayed closed in his shell until we stopped at a Sonic and put him down on the concrete.  And then he took off, living up to his name, he was pretty speedy for a turtle. 

He went with us to the diamond fields digging in the dirt and swimming in the mud.  We smuggled him in and out of the gift shop and generally enjoyed watching him.  Just before we left in the morning, we set Flash free to enjoy the State Park as much as we did.  Pleasantly surprised by the friendly people and beautiful scenery, we would definitely go back to Arkansas.

Day 2 - Dino Pics! WOW!

After a slow morning on Day 2 we took the kids down to the river to locate some dinosaur prints in the riverbed.  And boy did we find them! It was amazing to think that we were standing where Dinosaurs roamed.  Inclined to believe that they ran through this area trying to escape the rising floodwaters of Noah's day, history doesn't seem so far away when  standing with one's foot dwarfed by a dinosaur footprint.

About half of us slipped on the rocks and ended up wet.  My cellphone was in my back left pocket, fortunately I fell to the right and crisis was averted.  (Note to self: Don't take your cellphone in the river).  We saw a water moccasin swimming along the bank opposite of where we were in the water.  He stayed a good distance away and I'm sure he was alone. 

We enjoyed exploring and hanging out.  Caleb ate some mud and found a stick to play with.  Lily Anne enjoyed sitting on a big rock.  Travis struck out ahead and found the "Mother Lode" of dino tracks. 

The date on the camera was set wrong so I cropped it out of most of the pics, I couldn't crop it out of all of them.  It really was 05/14/2013.

Doug worked all day except when he was at the river with us, taking several conference calls, emails, and projects.  It was a productive day for him. I still need to unpack, clean and organize in the RV, but that will come. 

Our evening was spent in sweet fellowship over a delicious dinner on a family farm with our friends The Millers who have left the suburbs and gone country!  What a wonderful way to begin our Great Adventure!

Keeping Close to my Lily Anne

Travis with the Mother Lode!

Kid's Exploring (Em falling!)

Abbie's Hand

How cool is this?!

Wow... Just Wow.