Bravely and Fully Alive

 We left our RV in Orlando, FL and have traveled back to Oregon for the holidays. We made all of these plans before it was recommended not to travel during the holidays, so sorry about that state of Oregon. We had planned on driving back to Oregon but as we were spending time in Nashville, TN, we began to tire of driving and wanted to spend quality time in each location instead of having to hurry and rush everywhere we were. We also realized after traveling once across the U.S. that it is a long and taxing journey and we did not want to do it four times, so we flew back to Oregon. Here we are getting to see family and friends, mostly outside and making sure we are staying safe, and it just feels so strange to be in our hometown but it doesn't feel like "home". We don't have jobs, or school or church right now to attend, we are just visitors. We stop by and see our friends and surprise people, some who we haven't seen since July, and we just pop back into people...

So we are several months into our travels now, there is a fall chill in the air and we have driven through roughly 26 states, literally too many to count. It was 106 degrees when we left and now I'm having to layer on clothing and I even wore my winter jacket at the beach the other day. Our time has been full and rich and beautiful and hard and difficult and frustrating and confusing, but it has all been worth it. Last week we spent lots of time with some really good friends and this week we are with more good friends. It's reminding me how important relationships are to me. We have seen some amazing sights and visited some incredible cities, but the richest times from our travels have been around tables with friends and family and going on adventures with other friends and doing life together. This is something that I crave and that I long for, spending hours with people and in community and doing life together. Whenever I'm doing this, I forget to post on social media, I ...

Ok, so I have to share since I feel like my last post was about how hard everything felt, and especially with adding homeschooling. We are staying at an RV park in New Hampshire and we decided to stay about a week. This has been sooooo good for all of us! We finally feel like we have stability. We've even started to feel better about homeschooling our children. I realized that it felt like everything was new before and it was all out of our comfort zone. Having to think through where we were going to stay, where we would get water, electricity, gas, food, dump our tanks, and then how we were going to teach our kids for the first time on our own. It was all too much to figure out everyday. We are now in a good place where we have a routine, it's predictable and we get through our school work every morning, then we reward ourselves with going to the pool or the game room. Most of our day-to-day logistics are figured out since we have full hook ups and groceries already. Not havin...

We have made it across the country, staying outside of Portland, Maine. It took us about one month to drive across, with the biggest stint being nine days in a row of driving and staying for one night at each place. We decided when we were at Glacier National Park in Montana that we could drive 200 miles a day and make it to Maine in two weeks. We decided to take the plunge, knowing that it was a crazy idea, and probably a bad idea too but we also wanted to spend more time on the east coast than the midwest.  I would say that now looking back on it, it has taken its toll on us. We are pretty tired and both my husband and I feel old and sore. I don't think our bodies were made for sitting hours a day or driving our rig for hours a day. Our kids have done pretty well but we have also been experiencing some pretty intense behaviors from them as well. Several times I have wanted to throw in the towel and just finish our trip in December. I would say that about 25% of the time we feel t...

Here's the second post that I didn't publish from our trip, this was from our stay at a campground outside of Yellowstone. My paddle board's brand is "Serene Life" which I have chuckled at before, especially when I evaluate my life and would never use the word "Serene" to describe it. And yet, today I had a serene day. I had two incredible moments in my day, smashed into many other incredible moments, and during those really wonderful times, I felt such an immense amount of peace and serenity.  We decided to go for a bike ride with our kids in bear country. I thought it was fun to go off the beaten path and look for bear tracks in the mud, our kids thought otherwise. About two miles in they wanted to head back but I was just getting started! I was feeling the rush of excitement that I get when I am exploring and there is an element of danger involved and I wanted to keep going! So, they turned back and I headed out to the main dirt road that we had drive...

I wrote this post about a month ago and forgot to publish it, life on the road is hectic and complicated and my thoughts are jumbled, but I'm going to publish this now anyways because I want to remember what this journey has been like. I am going to try to be better about posting along the way, but here was my first post on the road: I can't quite explain the freedom that comes with living on the road. While we had spent months living in our RV, it wasn't until we hit the road and starting traveling that the reality of our new lifestyle really set in.  After traveling to see family and friends in Boise, we continued on, and it was so strange not to be turning around and heading back to our hometown in Oregon. It first felt like we were on a trip, like many we had taken for the weekend and soon we would be going back to our life at home. But instead, we headed east, and we kept on driving east, going places that I had never been and pulling into places for the night that I h...