It has been far too long since I have posted on here and I would like to give a very quick update on our current life.
1.) We fixed up our house, sold it, and paid off ALL debt! We are DEBT FREE!🎉🎊 Now we are on a journey of building our savings into a nice nest egg. 💰
2.) We have moved back into our RV and are homeschooling our boys again. The RV is great. The homeschooling is not going so smoothly, if I am being honest. I do feel a lot of kids are struggling since the start of Covid restrictions. 🤷♀️ All we can do is our best.
3.) We have some big career choices to make in the next upcoming months. I am looking forward to see where this leads us in life. I feel we have a big move ahead of us again but only time will tell.
4.) I started a new blog, Embracing New Boundaries. It is more of an introspective blog about personal growth and “embracing” who we are collectively as humans and individuals. I plan to still post here about our family life and adventures.
So it turns out that we will be sending our kids to school this year to let me get a break and take on a part time job. I look forward to blogging more.
For the past couple months I have been planning for next school year. I know that summer time should be a vacation, even for Mom, but it is not this year. We took a vacation in May. When we returned, I was refreshed and ready to work on teaching our youngest to read.
I have bought nearly all the things we need for our 6 year olds 1st grade year. We are doing a mostly gameschooling approach and supplementing with library books, some videos, and some written work scattered throughout the year. I had to start working with him over the summer due to my oldest needing a lot of assistance during his school year.
He is really excited about his games and he is learning so much through play!
For our oldest, we are buying his workbooks, textbooks, typing CDs, Math curriculum, and other supplies slowly throughout the first couple months of school. He gets overwhelmed easily and needs to ease into his workload. It is also easy on our pocketbook since he is due to get new glasses this week. The local Eyemart Express has a sale so he is getting two different color frames. He is pretty excited!
I am looking forward to my oldest son’s workbooks coming in so we can settle on a good schedule for him. I am looking forward to a productive year with my boys. How about your family?
Because we have been in Texas for all of 2020, our outings have been limited. On Sunday, we were able to enjoy a day at a local park. It felt amazing to feel…normal? There were a couple people wearing masks but everything else felt pre-Covid. The birds were loudly chattering, young kids were running, climbing, playing tag; friends were hanging out, teens were dribbling some basketballs, parents were pushing kids on swings, and people were walking the track enjoying the great outdoors. It felt AMAZING!
Lucas enjoyed climbing the playground boulder.Evan enjoyed going up and down the slide.We all enjoyed swinging at one point.My boys were both able to play at this playground.
I sometimes feel like 2020 has robbed everybody…especially those quarantined most of the year. It has been a tough year but I have hope that we won’t be stuck with this normal forever. We didn’t plan to be quarantined all year in an RV, we had plans to vacation in San Diego and go see the Grand Canyon. We will eventually get to go see the ocean and travel again. Maybe some day…until then, I will keep finding Joy in the simple things…like taking my boys to a park that is open!
Have you been able to find Joy in the little things this year? I’d love to hear how you are holding up this year.
It has been nearly 3 years and I am finally ready to get back to Blogging. We are back in an RV and (mostly) enjoying the life. Covid 19 surely makes RVing difficult but I am trying to find Joy in the Journey. Enjoy the video update and hopefully I will be back on soon to blog again.
Enjoying some quiet time after a tough week.Our current RV site.Our boys surely have grown! Lucas is 12 and Evan is 5.My husband and I all dolled up at the military ball last year.
April 22 2017, while driving in Michigan at 11pm (about to call it a night), we came to an intersection with a blinking yellow light. We had the right of way. A car on the intersecting road decided to go. I slammed on the SUV brakes, Caleb slammed on the truck brakes, and the RV brakes didn’t work right (and they worked fine up until this point). The RV kept going, ripped the hitch in the truck bed almost completely out, slammed into the cab and back tail light area, and the truck slammed into our SUV.
We were able to coast into a local grocery store in White Lake, about an hour east of Lansing. Everyone was fine. The truck and RV were totalled by the insurance companies. The SUV probably would have been but we only had liability on it. It is still drivable. We also ended up getting another truck already (although now it needs an EGR delete). We couldn’t finance another RV until the insurance paid for the other one. They wouldn’t pay until we moved out. I had took pictures and videos on my smart phone but then the screen broke and I am back to a flip phone.
We visited the local Baptist Church the day after the wreck and have fell in love with the people. Everyone has been so helpful and welcoming. A loving family has welcomed us into their home while we wait on the bank to finance us. All our stuff was in a 5×10 ft storage unit until a few days ago when we moved it to the pastor’s garage. We have enjoyed helping out at the church when we can and now call it home.
Caleb has had a job since April 25th but got injured on the job after two weeks of working there. While cutting down a tree with a chainsaw, the tree fell quicker than planned (his boss didn’t have the trunk held tight), branches hit the chainsaw which swung back and hit Caleb’s knee. He got 12 stitches. He was still working but was overdoing it a lot so missed about 10 days of work (spread out, not all in a row). It was at a bad spot and kept splitting open. It looks way better now.
When he first got the stitches
Also at the end of May, my family had another gut wrenching blow. My younger brother overdosed (not Herion) and was in the hospital for four days before he passed. He was my step dad’s only child. My stepdad had passed in January from esophagal cancer. My family is all deeply grieved and will never be the same. We are still very much in shock because no one expected my always-smiling, 22 year old brother to die. The day before he spent making future plans with his girlfriend. It still just feels like a dream that we wish we could wake up from!
We miss you two so much!
As far as my family (the four of us) goes, we plan to get a new RV soon, Lord willing. Also my husband is probably switching jobs soon to something more permanent. I will update more as the Lord reveals His plans for our lives. He has done tons of pruning on us and we keep our faith and hope on His future plans for us. We are loving where He is leading us and just need to give things time to fall into place! Rest in Peace
Dakota (Cody)
December 30, 1994 -May 30, 2017
Always smiling!
My little brother will be missed so much!
I could always depend on him to be a great Uncle “Cookie” to m boys. Lucas gave him the nick name when he was younger.
A lot happens in 365 days. Babies are born, people pass away, and life keeps changing. Nothing stays the same. Some changes might seem insignificant but everything is always changing.
April last year we bought our first RV: Harvey. We downsized from a 2 bedroom rental house with a basement and back yard to an RV and the world as our backyard. A lot has changed. Some changes were huge like changing to a newer RV, moving to different states, and what we did for income. Other minor changes impacted us significantly and caused lots of personal growth in our lives.
1. Our Faith has Grown
Living life on the road, as believers, we have changed from traditional church goers to more Christ followers. We used to help out at the local Baptist church every now and again but mostly were pew sitters. Since going fulltime, we have helped many churches in different capacities. In Elkhart, Indiana we gave advice on how to reach our generation. A church in Bushnell, Florida we helped with repairing their bus and with demolition on a room and hallway they transformed into a beautiful lobby. In Lake Wales, Florida we helped with an outreach ministry, some visitation, and song leading (my husband). In Dothan, Alabama we helped a pastor with repairing his trucks and work on his farm. We just help our fellow man in any way we feel God lead us.
2. The Type of People We Know has Grown
With all our moving, we have met people from many walks of life. We have met many types of Christians, other RVers, and a variety of others. We enjoyed conversations with many. We shared meals with fellow RVers, friends, and family. My son and I signed with a deaf couple at an RV park and I translated for a deaf man attending our Alabama church. We recently shared our truck and RV with a man named Jake and his sweet puppy Sage, who were looking for a ride from Florida to Michigan. People are amazing and should all be loved and respected for who God made them, regardless if they are different.
3. Our Hope in Humanity has Grown
We have not always been on the giving end this year, we have had many people bless us! Family and friends have opened their homes, couches, and driveways up to us. Two different churches have let us hook up for free in their parking lot. We have been blessed with gifts of money, food, clothes, or even toys for our boys. Other RVers have gave us free advice and helped us with our vehicles and/or rigs. We shared Thanksgiving with a sweet pastor and his wife. We had an RV park manager let us stay a few weeks for free when we had no work. RVers of two seperate parks gave us Christmas cards filled with money when we couldn’t find work. People really do still look out for their fellow man!
4. Our Relationships with Family and Friends have Grown
It seems almost against logic but we feel closer to others when we can travel. We are able to uproot easily, to visit people we miss, or help others in need. I was able to be with my family when my stepdad died. I also stayed with my mom for 8 days to help her pack up some of her house and just keep her company. We stayed with friends when traveling through Knoxville, TN and traveled to PA last year to visit cousins. We parked the RV at an Aunt and Uncle’s farm in Pensacola, Florida. This year has been filled with many growing relationships.
If you click on this picture, it will link you to Amazon. Any shopping you do under that internet page will help us out financially. We are part of the Amazon Affiliate program. We make a percentage off your purchase for sending traffic to Amazon. Your bill will not increase to pay us, it is Amazon’s way of paying those that send them customers. Thank you for supporting our journey
How has a life of RVing and/or minimalism impacted your social life?
There is something about actively deciding to downsize that makes you want to continue to downsize. We just spent about 10 days back and forth between Ohio and Florida (my husband) and staying at our parents’ houses in Ohio with the RV left in Florida. We really didn’t miss most our stuff. Yes, there are some things we want and others we need long term but most the stuff we own we just don’t need.
About a year ago, we bought our first RV and so began a major downsizing spree. We moved into our 38 ft Class A motorhome with boxes on the couch and the floor and stuff crammed everywhere! After a couple weeks in the rig, I had downsized and organized so we didn’t have things in the way anymore. We ended up moving into our current fifth wheel when the engine blew in the motorhome. We have still been downsizing.
We are realizing more every day what we like and what we want out of life. We love people, adventure, good food, and travel. We enjoy our bikes, good kitchen items, and a variety of books, games, and movies. But we would rather visit family and friends and see new sights.
Life is so much simplier with less items to lug around. We are just wanting to continue to downsize our items so we can live simple lives we enjoy. We have even contemplated selling our car because it is more hassle than a benefit. We are just trying to find what works for us.
Do you live a simplified life? Don’t forget to follow my blog to keep up our journey.
RVing is an amazing thing to do with those you love, whether family or friends, but you need to learn how to be a defensive driver. People will cut you off all the time! You have to be ready to be a defensive driver. You will have to relearn how to handle strong winds, to slow down around curves, how much space you need to come to a complete stop, and even learn how to change lanes.
On our current trip from Florida to Ohio, people cut us off so much that I decided to make the following video. Please be safe on the roads and have fun traveling!
If you click on this picture, it will link you to Amazon. Any shopping you do under that internet page will help us out financially. We are part of the Amazon Affiliate program. We make a percentage off your purchase for sending traffic to Amazon. Your bill will not increase to pay us, it is Amazon’s way of paying those that send them customers. Thank you for supporting our journey!
Don’t forget to follow our blog to keep up with our journey. I would love to hear your thoughts on Defensive Driving! Leave your comments below.
small home, close family 