Day 24
So.....I have this neighbor. She is AWESOME....but very different from anyone I have ever met. I love her to pieces already, but I got to thinking about it tonight, and I realized that God gave me the perfect neighbor, for me. I know a lot of you may be surprised by this, but I am SHY, at first. Really. I have self esteem issues (what woman doesn't) and it is very hard for me to make the first move in friendships. And then there is the whole social protocol, which I am always wondering if I failing miserably. With neighbors the anxiety I feel increases two fold. Do I make the first move, or do they? Do I cross the imaginary boundary line between our properties, or do they? And then there's the generational gap, and the four very energetic children who will talk anybodies ear off, if I let them. And then there is the giant Elephant in the backyard- I am living in a camper, cooking, cleaning and showering outside in my back yard.
Of course, God knows all of this. He knows my weaknesses, and my insecurities. He could have given me a neighbor who was my age, and looked like she had her life all together (which is how I imagine all woman my age). He could have given me an elderly woman with a sour expression, and condemning eyes. But no. My merciful and all knowing God gave me Ms. P! The kids lover her, and I love her. She has brought me fresh bread from the oven, freshly picked raspberries, thimble berry jam, and lots of good advice. She laughs at everything, and finds my kids quite amusing. Tonight Abby had her arms around her neck, and was whispering something about how much she liked her. She always encourages the kids to help their "mama". She comes on over anytime she seems me in the backyard, and we chat. She is a wonderful blessing! I have never met anyone like her. She is definitely a Yooper (accent and all), and I can't wait to get to know her even more!
With all that I have going on, and how weird my life seems right now, it is so comforting to know that I don't have a neighbor who is sitting on the other side of the "boundary line" judging me, or thinking I am weird. HA!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
A Day In the Life of Little Dude
Day 23
Hi! My mom calls me little dude because I am so cute. I know I am cute, and I use this to my advantage. I also like to make friends with random people I see in restaurants and stores. I can say lots of big words, but for some reason I can't blow air out of my nose.
Today was like any other day. I woke up, dug through my duffel bag for some clothes, then slid down out of the bed. My toes can't touch the edge of the couch yet, but I point them really hard, and keep inching my way down, trusting they will hit the edge.
My mom asks me to help her a lot. I am a big boy, you know. I got to put my little sisters hat on her head. It didn't quite work right. I kept getting it in her eyes. My little sister was on my mom's back, in the backpack carrier, and my mom couldn't reach her to put her hat on, so I did it.
While I was helping mom make breakfast I made a really funny joke. Well, at least I thought it was hilarious. I asked mom if I could crack eggs. She said not until I was a little older. So I asked her if I could crack eggs when I was five. She said probably. Then I asked her if I could crack eggs when I was a grown up. She laughed at me and said of course. I ran off to tell my big brother and sister my clever joke. They ran from me, and ignored me. They do this a lot. I am not sure why. My mom thinks it is because I talk all the time.
I got to stir the scrambled eggs while they were cooking. I like to pretend I am a cook in a restaurant when I get to do this. I also like to tell stories. I make up all kinds of things. My mom says I have the craziest imagination. Today I told her about a dream I had about Batman and me. In my dream Batman gave me all of his cool stuff, and I got to fight the bad guys.
My big brother was trying to scary me again. He told me about a monster. But I said, "Monsters don't exist, remember?"
My mom found another piece of junk in the backyard. She always finds things. I don't know why she calls them junk though. I think they are awesome. This time she found a wrestling dude! I call him Popeye the Sailor Man.
I got a Captain America mask for my birthday from my Auntie and Uncle! I love it. I put it on today and showed my little sister. I told my mom that I thought she was saying (in a high pitched voice), "Ooooooo! Captain America!"
We have a wood deck with a ramp. It is kind of old, and my mom says it needs to be painted or stained or something. I like to slide down the ramp. My mom hates it when I do it. She says I will get splinters in my stomach, or my legs.
My big brother and sister are awesome. They play the coolest games, and I try to play too. Sometimes they are so nice, and let me. Other times they tell me I am being too silly. We also like to dance and wrestle. Sometimes we start off dancing and end up wrestling, with me on the ground.
Our new house is so cool. I keep asking if I can walk through it and look at everything. It is a mess right now. I am also a bit of a clutz, and I keep tripping on the step into the house. I also can't reach the door knob to the house, so when I have to go potty, and the door is closed I start crying and screaming for help. My big brother or sister usually come and save the day. I love them.
I get to help wash dishes too! My mom fills three square tub bucket things with water, and she puts bleach in the last one. Then she washes them, and my brother and sister and I get to rinse and then sanitize them, and then stack them in the dish drainer. We don't do this every day though, like we probably should. My mom hates doing, so she usually puts it off as long as possible. Then we have a huge pile of dishes to do. My dad felt bad for my mom, so he bought her some more paper plates. She hates using paper plates and bowls and stuff. I think it is because they blow away in the wind, but daddy thinks it is because she doesn't like to waste stuff.
Tonight my big brother and sister and I tried to sleep like lions in our bed up top. We piled on top of each other, and shut the curtain. Mom caught us, though. She made us sleep in our spots. Mommy knows best, I guess.
Hi! My mom calls me little dude because I am so cute. I know I am cute, and I use this to my advantage. I also like to make friends with random people I see in restaurants and stores. I can say lots of big words, but for some reason I can't blow air out of my nose.
Today was like any other day. I woke up, dug through my duffel bag for some clothes, then slid down out of the bed. My toes can't touch the edge of the couch yet, but I point them really hard, and keep inching my way down, trusting they will hit the edge.
My mom asks me to help her a lot. I am a big boy, you know. I got to put my little sisters hat on her head. It didn't quite work right. I kept getting it in her eyes. My little sister was on my mom's back, in the backpack carrier, and my mom couldn't reach her to put her hat on, so I did it.
While I was helping mom make breakfast I made a really funny joke. Well, at least I thought it was hilarious. I asked mom if I could crack eggs. She said not until I was a little older. So I asked her if I could crack eggs when I was five. She said probably. Then I asked her if I could crack eggs when I was a grown up. She laughed at me and said of course. I ran off to tell my big brother and sister my clever joke. They ran from me, and ignored me. They do this a lot. I am not sure why. My mom thinks it is because I talk all the time.
I got to stir the scrambled eggs while they were cooking. I like to pretend I am a cook in a restaurant when I get to do this. I also like to tell stories. I make up all kinds of things. My mom says I have the craziest imagination. Today I told her about a dream I had about Batman and me. In my dream Batman gave me all of his cool stuff, and I got to fight the bad guys.
My big brother was trying to scary me again. He told me about a monster. But I said, "Monsters don't exist, remember?"
My mom found another piece of junk in the backyard. She always finds things. I don't know why she calls them junk though. I think they are awesome. This time she found a wrestling dude! I call him Popeye the Sailor Man.
I got a Captain America mask for my birthday from my Auntie and Uncle! I love it. I put it on today and showed my little sister. I told my mom that I thought she was saying (in a high pitched voice), "Ooooooo! Captain America!"
We have a wood deck with a ramp. It is kind of old, and my mom says it needs to be painted or stained or something. I like to slide down the ramp. My mom hates it when I do it. She says I will get splinters in my stomach, or my legs.
My big brother and sister are awesome. They play the coolest games, and I try to play too. Sometimes they are so nice, and let me. Other times they tell me I am being too silly. We also like to dance and wrestle. Sometimes we start off dancing and end up wrestling, with me on the ground.
Our new house is so cool. I keep asking if I can walk through it and look at everything. It is a mess right now. I am also a bit of a clutz, and I keep tripping on the step into the house. I also can't reach the door knob to the house, so when I have to go potty, and the door is closed I start crying and screaming for help. My big brother or sister usually come and save the day. I love them.
I get to help wash dishes too! My mom fills three square tub bucket things with water, and she puts bleach in the last one. Then she washes them, and my brother and sister and I get to rinse and then sanitize them, and then stack them in the dish drainer. We don't do this every day though, like we probably should. My mom hates doing, so she usually puts it off as long as possible. Then we have a huge pile of dishes to do. My dad felt bad for my mom, so he bought her some more paper plates. She hates using paper plates and bowls and stuff. I think it is because they blow away in the wind, but daddy thinks it is because she doesn't like to waste stuff.
Tonight my big brother and sister and I tried to sleep like lions in our bed up top. We piled on top of each other, and shut the curtain. Mom caught us, though. She made us sleep in our spots. Mommy knows best, I guess.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Kitchen
Day 22
Imagine living in a house that had a kitchen that was 40 feet long and 20 feed wide. Sounds good, right? Well, maybe a bit big. But anyway...now imagine that in this kitchen the cabinets are on the west wall, the table is on the north wall, next to the stove, the trash can is in the south east corner, and the refrigerator is on the south wall. Now take away the walls, and you got my "kitchen" set up mapped out perfectly! HA! Oh, except the water....it depends on what I need the water for. I have three sources. The first source is the hose (which floats around the "kitchen"). We don't drink this water though because it tastes like rubber. Very nasty. We even tried using a super duper RV filter thingy that attaches to hoses, still disgusting! The hose is used for filling up the buckets to wash dishes, cold showers, watering the garden and filling the kiddy pool. On occasion it is also used for rinsing veggies or random things that fall on the ground and get dirty. I also have a sink, which, going with the "map" theme here would be halfway between the "refrigerator" and the "stove" (aka- coolers and grill). The faucet is very low though, and it's hard to fill things with it. Usually we have to fill a bottle, and then use that bottle to fill other things. We can rinse veggies in the sink, most times, but there is no real counter. The kids usually rinse the veggies, one at a time, and bring it to me. It keeps them busy anyway. The 3rd water source comes from the sink, but we store it in bottles in the camper. This is AJ's job. I use the sinks to rinse veggies or my hands, but I have to pour the water from the bottle because when we hooked up the hose to the camper we got serious leakage under the camper. It was dripping everywhere. It was very hard to see where it was coming from too, so we gave up, figuring it was better for Josh to spend his time fixing the house, rather than the camper.
And there you have it. :) I get my exercise for sure!
Imagine living in a house that had a kitchen that was 40 feet long and 20 feed wide. Sounds good, right? Well, maybe a bit big. But anyway...now imagine that in this kitchen the cabinets are on the west wall, the table is on the north wall, next to the stove, the trash can is in the south east corner, and the refrigerator is on the south wall. Now take away the walls, and you got my "kitchen" set up mapped out perfectly! HA! Oh, except the water....it depends on what I need the water for. I have three sources. The first source is the hose (which floats around the "kitchen"). We don't drink this water though because it tastes like rubber. Very nasty. We even tried using a super duper RV filter thingy that attaches to hoses, still disgusting! The hose is used for filling up the buckets to wash dishes, cold showers, watering the garden and filling the kiddy pool. On occasion it is also used for rinsing veggies or random things that fall on the ground and get dirty. I also have a sink, which, going with the "map" theme here would be halfway between the "refrigerator" and the "stove" (aka- coolers and grill). The faucet is very low though, and it's hard to fill things with it. Usually we have to fill a bottle, and then use that bottle to fill other things. We can rinse veggies in the sink, most times, but there is no real counter. The kids usually rinse the veggies, one at a time, and bring it to me. It keeps them busy anyway. The 3rd water source comes from the sink, but we store it in bottles in the camper. This is AJ's job. I use the sinks to rinse veggies or my hands, but I have to pour the water from the bottle because when we hooked up the hose to the camper we got serious leakage under the camper. It was dripping everywhere. It was very hard to see where it was coming from too, so we gave up, figuring it was better for Josh to spend his time fixing the house, rather than the camper.
And there you have it. :) I get my exercise for sure!
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Flies & More Flies
Day 21
I can not even begin to imagine what it would have been like in Egypt during the plague of flies, but I can believe that it was complete torment. We have successfully managed to keep the mosquitoes and biting flies at bay. There are a few random bites, but nothing like when we first moved out here. The one thing we have NOT conquered is the fly! The common ole' house fly!
We have been tempted to buy one of those screened in pop up gazebo type things. They just love to be around us when we are eating, which I would take as a compliment to my cooking if I didn't see them swarm around fecal matter and other such things!
They quite frequently find their way into the camper as well. The door system to get into the camper is not the best. And with that and the 4 children I have under the age of 8, you can see why. These flies are persistent little buggers! Bugs are gross. Yeah, we all know that, but it is convenient that most bugs stay out of eye sight. But these flies seem to find enjoyment in tormenting the human race, or at least my FACE!
A few days ago, I piled the left over food from our breakfast meal onto a plate, and I set it aside to go inside to look for something to put it in. At home I did this often, with no problem. Well, when you cook and eat in the great out doors, this is NOT a good idea. I repeat, NOT a good idea. I came back to the plate not even 5 minutes later to see it COVERED with flies. I mean COVERED! Ugh! I can tell you with conviction that it hasn't happened again, and it WON'T happen again. *shudder*
Well, this morning guess what I awoke to! A fly! That's right. A nasty little fly decided to perch it's nasty little body on MY head, over, and over, and over, and over! NOT COOL! Of course, I wasn't fully conscience at first. It didn't take long. Soon I had littlest A's head and mine under the blanket. I think this is the worst way to wake up. There might be one way that is worse. Maybe Eldest A throwing up on my head, as he is falling out of his bed, and landing on me and the pile of throw up. Yeah, that is the ONLY thing that would be worse. ;)
I can not even begin to imagine what it would have been like in Egypt during the plague of flies, but I can believe that it was complete torment. We have successfully managed to keep the mosquitoes and biting flies at bay. There are a few random bites, but nothing like when we first moved out here. The one thing we have NOT conquered is the fly! The common ole' house fly!
We have been tempted to buy one of those screened in pop up gazebo type things. They just love to be around us when we are eating, which I would take as a compliment to my cooking if I didn't see them swarm around fecal matter and other such things!
They quite frequently find their way into the camper as well. The door system to get into the camper is not the best. And with that and the 4 children I have under the age of 8, you can see why. These flies are persistent little buggers! Bugs are gross. Yeah, we all know that, but it is convenient that most bugs stay out of eye sight. But these flies seem to find enjoyment in tormenting the human race, or at least my FACE!
A few days ago, I piled the left over food from our breakfast meal onto a plate, and I set it aside to go inside to look for something to put it in. At home I did this often, with no problem. Well, when you cook and eat in the great out doors, this is NOT a good idea. I repeat, NOT a good idea. I came back to the plate not even 5 minutes later to see it COVERED with flies. I mean COVERED! Ugh! I can tell you with conviction that it hasn't happened again, and it WON'T happen again. *shudder*
Well, this morning guess what I awoke to! A fly! That's right. A nasty little fly decided to perch it's nasty little body on MY head, over, and over, and over, and over! NOT COOL! Of course, I wasn't fully conscience at first. It didn't take long. Soon I had littlest A's head and mine under the blanket. I think this is the worst way to wake up. There might be one way that is worse. Maybe Eldest A throwing up on my head, as he is falling out of his bed, and landing on me and the pile of throw up. Yeah, that is the ONLY thing that would be worse. ;)
Friday, July 20, 2012
Top 10 Reasons Why Living In A Camper Isn't That Bad
Day 20
10- The passenger seat doubles as a nice cushiony office
chair.
9- You learn to condense your junk.
8- It only takes a few steps to get from one "room" to another.
7- As a kid didn't you dream of camping all summer?
6- There's a 20X10 foot section of the lawn that doesn't need to be mowed.
5- It takes 10 minutes to clean.
4- The back bumper doubles as a make believe Garbage Truck.
3- Sleeping on the couch doesn't mean your in the dog house.
2- AIR CONDITIONING!
1- It increases your thankfulness to a great benevolent God and gracious good friends.
by Josh and Katie
The Day In Pictures
Day 19
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| Spoiled by the hubby, once again. |
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| Beans cooking in the crock pot. |
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| Coffee brewing in the coffee pot, just for my hubby! |
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| Litte A on the bike, with an umbrella I rigged to keep her protected from the sun. |
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| Isn't she the cutest! |
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| Little A and Mama. |
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| I love her. |
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| Are you done taking pictures AJ? |
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| Seriously, what are you doing AJ? |
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| Eldest A and Little Dude. |
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| LOVE |
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| Riding bikes in front of house. |
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| "Mom, take a picture of our parade." |
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| Love those lips! |
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| CUTENESS! |
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| "Here are some flowers mom." |
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| "Cheese." |
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
HOT SHOWER
Day 18
Today I had a HOT shower! It was like a whole bottle of 5 Hour Energy! It was reviving! I would have spent a whole hour in there, if I could have, but I was at someone else's house, and I couldn't bring myself to indulge for that long.
It's so funny how the little comforts in life can really make a difference.
Today I had a HOT shower! It was like a whole bottle of 5 Hour Energy! It was reviving! I would have spent a whole hour in there, if I could have, but I was at someone else's house, and I couldn't bring myself to indulge for that long.
It's so funny how the little comforts in life can really make a difference.
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