when I said later I meant. . .

I meant in two days I'll get on a real keyboard and elaborate.  It's a wonder I'm not trying to type all this with my thumbs, and also a wonder how quickly we adapted to utilizing our unique little assets on the edges of our hands to typing. . .wonders abound.

Not to leave out the wonder of all that is happening now.  Well, I've driven the bus downtown two days in a row to get paneling - the first was much too flimsy.  It was a nice little story and example of having what we need with some faith and trust - and then realizing when we got back and Matthew begin cutting it with a jigsaw, and the crap smelled like a pizza box and fell apart with a saw. . .well, it was a good little check for Matthew and a good check for my guilty ego who felt unable to provide anything worth working with. . .Both of us recovered and after a day of work and a full day of rain, Matthew got to work on the panels (the better, much more expensive ones that we went back for Saturday) this afternoon while Mercury and I made a craft run and I found some awesome Sharpie oil-based paint pens. . .oh yeah, if the right people show up Friday for our sendoff party, we'll get some pleasant details on the bus done. . .

There seems to be a theme in what comes up weekly in my everyday conversations with people, everybody - concerning the trip.  Also, I dislike calling it a trip.  We're not falling, we're not taking a vacation - it's just the next year for us. . .so I'll start referring to it as that - the next year.  Ok, so - the theme as of the last few days has been once again funding, and I cannot scientifically explain or logically persuade anyone to believe me, but somehow it just always works out.  And that's why I'm not banging my head against the wall or losing my cool when the ibook died, or when I get a 5% tip on a table at work. . .I trust, believe, and certainly don't stand idle, but I don't panic either, and hey - I think of all those folks out there that don't have kids because they can't afford them, but I have three and literally make less then anyone I know, single, married, or with kids!  My kids enjoy grand lives.  It doesn't add up, but actually, yes it does. . .

We have re-defined the good things in life, the necessity, the prizes, the goals.  Well, I have, and then I teach them rather - and sometimes it's the other way around, yes, that's true.  It's about to get much more nitty gritty on the road, but we all talk about it - you don't take anything with you to your grave, right?  Store your treasure up in heaven, right?  Sell your things and follow me (Christ), right?  Let go or be dragged, right?  Boy, if we can't see where that happiness is when we are with our loved ones, standing there with them, in the rain, in the sun, in the car, across the table - man, we all need to check ourselves. 

Being a server at a lakeside restaurant, I see many people come in from the lake, already a bit warmed up from the sun and some beer, socially lubricated from either or both, happy for whatever it counts.  Then there are people, couples even, who look as if it's a pain to have to go out to eat.  It's a chore to sit with familiar people to them, be served food, it's all so difficult.  How we've lost touch!  And they have to complain and take their antidepressants and sit sadly silent or quietly abrasive, then they leave a poor tip and depart in a car far newer and quieter and nicer smelling then mine has ever been, with a scowl on their faces.  I don't think life should be this way.  I think back to some good movies - Office Space and Shawn of the Dead - people are zombies - they work droning and deadening jobs for things that aren't necessity, but dont' have the time or energy to break out of the cycle long enough to realize it's not necessity! 

So!  How will I pay for the next year?  I don't know.  I mean, I have some ideas - a funding website, I am still getting foodstamps plenty enough until December, when I re-apply (a touchy subject for many, most of whom are very hard-working middle class who have never been on welfare and can't understand anyone needing it unless they are lazy.  For many, welfare indicates laziness.  I hope you don't think that, now. . .), applying for grants, the veggie oil will help out in actual locomotion, getting a small portable printer and taking some portraits from my iphone and printing them out on the spot for a few bucks, and child support (hahahaha).  Also seeing if I can get a little gig in Philly for a couple of weeks for some cash while I'm there.  It's not as if I have nothing to go on. . .if you could see the plans I had (or didn't) to survive the last 2 winters alone, you wouldn't be shaking your head right now.  Sponsors are always welcome, and once we're on the road, hanging our heads and hands out in the northern winds and spreading our goofiness and innocent trust around a lot more people, well, I have an idea we'll catch someone's eye.  After all that has been given to us in way of food, shelter, friends, health, and love - well, there's not much more that you have a taste for after that good stuff.  Who wants fillers if you've had a quality meal?  Things and Blings are fillers.  Love is the perfect food.  And trust is the utensil that brings it to our mouths.  HA!

Just fine

Here's the low down. I'm typing with my thumbs first of all. That's right thank God for refurbished iPhones. My logic board bit the dust so I have no laptop. No biggie. The last 4 days have been a test in patience for a quest to get the bunks and paneling in. Purchased all the liner for the bunks thanks to selling our stuff in 2 yard sales. Then after the insulation ( more later on that experience) we saw that the paneling really should be don for simplicity before the bunks and loft...so with the $74 I had from work I drove the bus to the local close out supply store for the cheapest panel available. No problem right? Well, lessons come easy, answers take more time.
Needless to say, the paneling was complete crap. Even more the crap - crap would' e held up better. Matthew was fed up and I was feeling inadequate to not be able to provide suitable material for the job...ended with a plan b for tomorrow and the hope of a free fuel system and the reassurance that materials are there. Just not here. There's so much more but too much more for my thumbs. I'll get on a full keyboard tomorrow and elaborate. Everything is beautiful. Nothing hurts. Remember that now

Massive progress

After much panic over funds, a yardsale and some hard work on my part paid off. God knows what I need, no need to fret if I'm on the right track. Got $200 of lumber for the bunks, roofing tar. Computer in repair shop, beer (oops), steel for back window, half a tank of diesel, radiO going in today(thanks brother), bills paid, insulation in, good times to come.

Keep running into folks who know about my journey, helping put. How I could do it without God well, I just couldn't. Not to get religious here, but holy cow this is a seemingly impossible journey. Soon enough I'll be able to post from my newly repaired Mac. This phone is killing me.

Thanks for all the time you spend reading this, and know you're a part of something bigger then all of us. Us.

The tide is out

Such a small planet with such big people.  With big brains.  And all we seem to want to do is make it smaller and more comfortable.  Boy this is a nice house.  It's 50% cleaned out, with 80% more moving to do.  The yard sale wasn't quite a bust but wasn't quite enough for me either.  Not much traffic, but I sold some big things.  The downside of the upside is that I got a good deal of donations from family and friends in way of items to sell, so my front porch and laundry room and garage are a bazaar of garage sale things.  Per usual, I'm behind on things - I didn't want to consider all our 'stuff' after the 4th or 5th, but que sera.  So I'll be having yet another yardsale this Saturday, when there aren't festivals going on. . .this time complete with a manned lemonade stand. . .last week the kids were gone for half of it camping.  No one really wanted to buy lemonade from a grown woman (though I made fresh squeezed). The fun part is that Mercury is at camp this week and the boys went to NJ with their dad for 2 weeks, so I have been single - truly single - since Sunday.  It's a good thing I have to go back to work today - I could get used to the lake and random trips. . .

I did do some research on child restraint seats after the issue has been brought up by a couple people.  There are some great seats made for motorhomes and buses, and I'm waiting to hear back from the company.  Good thing I didn't get a chance to bolt in the oak school desks that have been made into chairs - that was originally going to be the couch.  Child restraints are a good thing.  I figure I want to keep the kids (hah).

Last week I took the bus over to a secret location and an un-named couple of angels put on some like-new (really like new) tires and changed the filters and oil.  I was even supplied with extra oil and I have a left-over new air filter for the future.  I drove the bus home Monday by myself, realizing I need to get a radio in there.  And a CB.  There are only so many songs I can sing loud enough and long enough over the engine's roar.  John made a few comments concerning my attitude lately - a masculine-type confidence.  I chock it up to drivin a big ol' white bus with mosaic windows.  Not a school bus, not an RV, not a state corrections bus, not a hippie bus - but my bus.  Our bus, let's be fair. 

I also keep talking to people, even friends, who admit their envy over my journey.  More and more, I'm wondering if they really know what will be happening.  Heck, I don't know.  But I do know this, it will be alot of work, homeschooling alone - and sweaty driving and breaking down and eating beans from a can, or sprouted under a bed, imminent whining and perhaps even some bitter moments when the kids remember their nice warm (or cool) house with the fenced in yard and private showers. . .oh boy. . .but you can't put any price or value on the year ahead, the lessons and the friends we have yet to meet, and hopefully the point I'm trying to make - that this Life is about Life, about People, Mankind for cryin' out loud.  A year on the road is typically seen as a fun trip and sight seeing pettiness, a bit of romance - this is a given, an irreproachable obvious, but!  we have work to do and much to learn, and still searching for that balance wherein my family gives back.  If my children can grasp the importance of community and family and a simple life, then the world will be a better place, I promise.

We Do what we can

Typing on my phone. . . Update - thanks again to both Tina and Barry Worley, we have tires and national parks pass for the year. Against all winds, we push on.