2021 january

Well here's to a new year. 

  It started with continuing uncertainty from the fall election. I still feel  it was all unfair and trump won but nothing we can do about. There was some unrest at the capitol over it all but Mr. Biden is now in office and well just hang on to our pants n keep chugging

through no matter what America will become in the next 4 years.

   We had a nice little break from school over Christmas n new years, Derek was home so loved having some great family time. I am so blessed with a great hubby n dad to our children. He def helps keep things in line when I just get overrun by everything. God I put us together for a reason.

  He was gone on a 2 week work trip to Ohio over the inauguration time but I wasn't really worried about stuff. 

  We met halfway  last wknd so that was fun to get out for a short 3hr trip. Kids loved the hotel stay. 

   We finally got a good amount of snow so kids n I sure enjoyed that for a few days. Did not have any sledding last winter. 

   It rained the last 2 days , now its all gone . Indiana weather. 

2020

Well 2020 was quite the year. Started off with me trying to get a passport so Greyson so I could fly to Alberta to spend our 49th birthday with my twin brother there. 

   That was a total fail and I did not get tickets bought for March, disappointment was how my year started.

     Then cover showed up in March so my trip would probably not have worked anyway.

    Had hopes of going to Canada so i could see my family n friends again. I was pregnant with Greyson last time we were up. Borders never fully opened and with quarantine in place it was just not feasible.

   We did have a good but busy summer at home .  Got laying hens, had a vegetable garden, raised meat birds and raised 2 sheep for meat. So a self sustaining summer. 

     In the fall we joined a local homeschooling coop we have every Wed from 8 to 12 so that has been fun but busy. Getting out and making new friends. 

  Greyson is a busy go-getter that gets into everything and keeps me on my toes. He got hung up in our garden fence numerous times  , runs outside with no jacket when its freezing outside and messes w the chickens. See if I can add pics to this later but thats a tiny peek in our 2020 year. 

    

Christmas 2019. We had a quiet Christmas day. greyson had a rough night so Derek n I slept in till 10 while the others were patiently playing quietly in the living room. they are growing up . Austin had read them the last story in Donkey in the Living room. I made pancakes n bacon ( never mind my intentions of getting up early to make cinnamon rolls or doughnuts) .life w a baby who gets up multiple X's a night. Derek wrapped the gifts while I cleaned up and then at noon they finally got to open up there presents. it was w beautiful day outside ,we went looking at deer tracks down by the edge of our woods and then went to Don's for the rest of the afternoon.

Jacksonville FL 2016

We are in Jacksonville florida. Been here going on 3 weeks. Feels so good to settle in somewhere this long.
It has been nice, a little cool some days in the 60s but this week we are seeing 70s.
We are at a lovely state park. We have a 5 minute drive to the ocean and a lake 2 minute walk from our site. We are nestled in palm trees.
They have 3 playgrounds here so its a race to finish school work so we can go play.

Love my kiddos.

Home,visitors and canning

Another week has come and gone .
Tyson had a few better nights where he was up 2 to 3 times but last night was pretty bad again. I tried putting him in a diff room on a bigger bed than his crib mattress, hopefully when he gets used to it it will help. I wasn't quite so tired or just dealt with it better this week. Am still doing green beans tomatoes and peaches.
Weather has been nice hot some days and rain every few days.
Kids conversations
They have been playing ( going to school a) a lot. Austin "you've been late for school so your punishment is you have to eat this hot pepper at lunch" Arianna plays right along till he really does stick a play pepper in her mouth. Then she cries.
We had made icecream.
They had a few bites while I was cooking supper. Austin had put it away as I had told him. She says.
"My belly wants more icecream"
He says your belly caint talk"
She pipes right back with hands on her hips
"My mouth wants some and my mouth can talk!!!"
The teasing has begun .
My sister Susie and abe came Thurs to sat. Was so good to have them here. Took the boat out Friday and grilled on the lake. Was fun to just take the day off and have some r+r.
Tyson plays better now that he can get around but he can also come crawling to mom when he gets fussy. He has hardly been eating any food this week. Spits everything out. Fruit and meat and yogurt is all he ate this week. No bread ,crackers, potatoes or anything like that. Maybe he's teething I don't know what's up.
Derek worked local this week. We brought him lunch 1 day and I took the kids to the playground after. This is becoming a weekly ritual.
Today we had homemade pizza, fresh corn from our garden, fresh tomato soup and to top it all off homemade icecream. Tyson ate like a champ today. Yay for homemade from scratch real food. We are all about no processed or ready made foods here.

Children

This is a week of new things for the children. Tyson started crawling ,day 2 and he has already gotten into my laundry basket,chucked it all over. Tried to get into the kids paint,Arianna was finger painting. Pulled down my broom. Oh the oldest 2 will have to get used to this. Little brother getting into their stuff.
Arianna is really getting into her colours ,know them if I ask which is red etc but caint quite remember them all to say herself. Also knows counting items up to 3 and just guesses randomly from there.
Working on Austin this week with telling the truth. Never had any issues with it before but trying nip it before it gets too bad.
I canned peaches and picked and canned tomatoes today.

We were home this week. Derek had local construction work. We made pizza and brought him and the crew lunch wednesday.
Here we are 1 week later. This week in a few words. Exhausted, always feel like I'm 10 steps behind, no light at the end of the tunnel.
  Just being honest here. Life is catching up on me. Tyson has been up lots at night. Almost every hour some nights to nurse a bit and go right back to sleep . I love my kids but I am just plain wore out. Babies are a lot of work. I can deal with it on sleep but this is real life with no sleep.
 And I have been working so hard to keep the house picked up for hubby and my sanity but I had canning on top of it and trying to decide on what I need for Austin school. My mind never stops. I think I'm going with abeka math and the reading and phonics but not doing all the extras. Just trying to keep it simple.
  I want a simple tidy house so bad but getting there is a pull.  When do you have extra time on top of cooking ,taking care of the children ,laundry etc to go through everything in your house and organize and purge. Can you tell I am about ready to throw my hands up in the air and say I give up. But I really want a little stress free house. As I look at my over full closets ,pantry I can feel my stress level rising. You don't know how bad I want to get to the end result. I have made some progress, my kitchen counter tops are staying clean and I pick up and sweep the house every day if possible. But just to get to the behind the doors stuff and then to purge our storage building. Ahhh the list never stops.
   Canned salsa and picked greenbeans every other day.
   Well so this is a really sappy post. It's only gotta get better from here right? Fingers crossed.
  Hubs has been doing great helping with the children so I could have an occasional nap and helping sweep the floors etc. Love him so much for putting up with this mess of a girl right now. I always tell him he deserves better than me .

Minneapolis and Home

We came home from Minnesota on Wed night. Travelling 12 hrs with us all in a truck got a little old but everyone did quite well. Then the rest of the week was BUSY.
   Thurs emptied out the camper and brought it back to Brian's and then loaded up 2 truckloads and a trailer full of stuff to take to his parents where we all had a huge yards ale Friday and Saturday.
  I got up at 5 Friday to get some of my stuff marked and put out on totes. It ended up raining most of the morning . What a mess we had some tables outside under a tent and the tent about blew away. But by noon things cleared up and we had a good turn out after all.
 Sat I spent the day at home cleaning up and laundry and we had some friends over for the evening that we had been in Haiti with. It was so funless to be with Donna, Jill and their families.
Sunday today we had Derek's family over for lunch and the afternoon. And I am hoping for a little rest this week. Have greenbeans ,tomatoes and cucumbers to can from my garden.
   Hope you all have a blessed week.

Well we finished up 10 day project at the brand new us banks football stadium in Minneapolis. Derek installed the food carts.
We took the day off yesterday before we came home to go to the mall of america and Derek took us past the stadium.
We had been at the campground all week. Kids loved the playground, mini golf, basketball and just enjoying the outdoors. We were pretty much outside whenever Tyson was awake and I was done dishes and cooking. Felt so good to all be on the road again after 2 months at home with Derek leaving on short work trips.

Minneapolis

Well we are back in the road. Starting in Alabama. Had a snowy messy drive here. Feels so home to be back in the rv. Kids were super excited . Wed been home since mid Dec. Tyson is teething. Up at night often, eats all the time and grouchy. I haven't done school w Austin all last week. Hope to settle into routine this week. Today is Valentine's. Love Derek so much. He is my dream come true. Is amazing with the kids and loves me to pieces. I feel so blessed .

Tyson

Charlotte nc.

Good morning . It is 5 am and I am wide awake since 4. Tyson finally woke up to eat at 430. He had been sleeping since 9 last night. He has been doing really good nights. Sleeping 5 to 7 hrs for a few weeks now. But now hes starting 8 hr stretches and my body is still waking me up after 3 or 4 hrs . Youd think id just sleep as tired as I get being a busy mom of my 3 children. But I will get it down pat eventually. In the meantime heres another update thanks to me being awake.
   Ive sorted our laundry ready to go get washed. Have 4 loads and they have only 2 washers here so a few extra trips to the laundry room. We are a 5 minute walk from them here.
   Arianna is eating so much again. She must be on a growth spurt. Im making austin eat his real food more instead of getting by with peanut butter jelly sandwiches and snacks. He eats half what she does. If I have anything with lettuce on it or veggies in it she comes running. And she loves her fruit. Austin likes fruit too but ive not done so well on his veggies. He likes meat and bread things.
    Tyson is doing really good. Hes quite content now that im off dairy for 2 weeks. Im getting ready to get me some yummy raw milk today and slowly start with that. Oatmeal with cinnamin and peaches just isnt what it is with milk.
   I feel like im slowly catching up on stuff and able to sanely have meals ready, keep stuff picked up etc. Seems till babies get 3 months old its just a challenge to keep up with normal duties. I have def enjoyed this newborn stage more than the other 2, but always ready for a less demanding schedule.  I just love my dear family so much.
    The guys had a horrible busy week. Since monday we counted up they did not get much more than 10 hrs sleep total. Driving an hour to the jobs, slow electricians that held us up, hard jobs, and loading challenges. Their dock was not set up for our trailer and so it took both of them to get it everytime.  Now we get 1 day off and have a job sunday night 2 hrs away. We had been only starting monday night so not sure why they did sunday this week. We like our sundays off.
    Well im getting kinda sleepy so I  etter get shuteye before my oldest 2 get up at 8. No sleeping in for this mama even if tyson sleeps in.
     Wish you Gods blessings. We are so blessed.
   

Charlotte sc/nc

South Carolina is nice this time of year.weather is rainy some days but we have some 70 degree sunny days too. Wed nov 18 Today we went to ikea and got our new couch / bed for the children to sleep on. And of course had to get a pack of their fresh cinnamon rolls. So now I have 2 couches in my living room till we go home on the wknd and leave the old one at home. My rv feels like a wreck with having moved some things to get it in. def need to pick up all the loose stuff laying around to travel Friday. We are going to ind for thanksgiving. They gave us the whole week off. Devins and us will travel home together in our motorhome. We have a 10 hr drive. Tyson was quite content today . he has been sleeping 5 to 7 hrs through at night and takes 1 3 to 4 hr nap during the day and catnaps the rest of the time. I have been trying to avoid dairy, specialy milk and he seems more content and less gassy. Though he wasn’t that fussy just seemed he could have been a little more content sometimes. He is def growning. He will be 2 months tomorrow . I just started him in 3 month sleepers and hes outgrowing sz 2 diapers. He really is starting to notice things around him and us walking around. He is now going to sleep by himself some times if we give him his paci. He loves to lay out on the couch undisturbed by his older siblings. They love to love on him but he would rather they give him his space and just talk to him instead from a distance. He takes his paci sometimes to go to sleep and when he goes down for his long stretches of sleep likes to make sure hes stocked up on milk to go to sleep. Thurs nov19 It rained last night off n on all night but the sun came out beautiful most of the day. It was warm out with long sleeves. Children played and explored down by the the creek bed. Throwing sticks in the shallow water and I was out with them while Tyson slept this am. This aft I got a few things cleaned up and took care of Tyson. Seemed I spent most of the day today sitting on the couch feeding him. By nap time I was so exhausted I laid down too with arianna and Tyson and poor derek just got a grilled cheese /lunchmeat sandwich before he left for work .tonight I got the laundry folded and meat fried for pizza for tomorrow and kids fed and taken care of but that’s about it. My day consisted pretty much of just taking care of my precious children. Friday nov20 the guys came back in good time ,by 8 am. They slept till noon while I picked up the rv and got things ready to travel home. Tyson again was eating a lot so I felt like I was moving at a snails pace. We left the campground around 1 and went to go park the truck and trailer and devins camper at a storage place just down the road. Paperwork took awhle but by mid afternoon we were finally on our way home to Indiana . we have next week off over thanksgiving. I still have a hard time feeling like thanksgiving so late. I love canadas thanksgiving in oct when crops are in etc. just seems more right. And then you have 2 months to get ready for Christmas. Seeing all the Christmas comercials and hearing Christmas music before thanksgiving just don’t feel right and if you wait till after thanksgiving its so short a time to enjoy all the Christmas music etc. I love the Christmas carols. In the youthgroup Christmas caroling was always a favourite of mine. We got home around 1 am . travelling went well. Parked our rv and went to sleep and sat we moved a few things into the house and got it warmed up. It was cold and rainy so when derek fired up the woodstove it felt pretty cozy. Coming into our house always feels overwhelming. All I see is the unfinished projects and the work of keeping up with such a big space. living in the rv is just so simple compared to a house.

My girl

Tyson

https://youtu.be/jtBAQ_ehgkE

Hi

Last taco bell install

Well tonight closes our taco bell era.  We are doing our last job tonight.  I have mixed feelings.  It's been a lot of sweat headache  and tired days  but also good memories , being able to live in and see the whole southwest usa.  Working alongside my hubby.  We loved being able to work together
.    But I am looking forward to getting a better routine with the kids and getting caught up on my work at home in the rv