The house is emptied

Taa daa! Our house is completely empty. I cleaned the fridge on Tuesday and I was so sore by night that my husband hired a cleaning lady to do the rest of the house. He is my king! Today we had the carpet cleaned by Chem Dry and it needs 3-4 hours to dry. I replanted two daisy plants to replace the ones that drowned in all the rain we had last month. Husband is putting a sealant on the truck. It shines line nothing you've ever seen before - not for long though!

Our mail forwarding is messed up. Apparently the post office can take up to two or three weeks to start sending it to the new address. Only they know why it takes so long. Fortunately it got messed up after, and not before, I received my very cool hair organizer from busyhsmom. It's beautiful and I love that it's hand crafted. When I have a chance I will get a photo of it. Thanks busyhsmom! ...The check is in the mail. For reals! It is perfect and ideal for traveling. No more searching for bobby pins or that flower or a certain hair clip.

We hope escrow on the house will close tomorrow. The property management company for our son already has a renter. They did a drive by and wanted it without even going inside the house!

My hair has been mostly ugly, as have I. I did a side braid yesterday and looked nice for awhile, but we're so busy I don't have any time to myself. It'll even out. Soon I'll have plenty of time.

I stopped at the health food store and found a fabulous selection of shampoos and I chose some Aubrey Organics shampoo and conditioner. I heard about it from Fox and she highly recommends it. I like it. It's honeysuckle rose.

Packing, stacking, cleaning, painting, oh my

I miss my blog so much. I lie in bed in our trailer at night and wonder what everyone is doing. What's everyone saying at The Loom and at The Mane Board? Who had The Huge Dog? What's happening at RV.net and The Beauty Buzz? I don't know! It's just torture.

I did finish rereading a book I just bought called The Abandoned by Paul Gallico. When I was 12 my mom took my sister and me on a trip through Canada to Nebraska to visit my grama. We lived six weeks in a van and ate only one meal at a restaurant. It was fun, although we couldn't have afforded to eat out if we wanted to. I found this book, The Abandoned, quite by accident. I just picked it off of a bookshelf at the supermarket one afternoon. I remember reading it at a picnic table in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada at 10:00pm at night. It got dark later there because it's so far north. When we got home that book was passed around for years and years till finally we lost track of who had it. It's so cool when a book does that and so many people you know like it.

Photo of my long brown hair back in the day

My hair circa 1989.

Look at those thighs will ya. This was a photo I had done for my husband's birthday eons ago. I was a runner. More of a jogger really because my time was an 11 minute mile. It's accurate to say I'm not built for speed, but I was up to 14 miles at a stretch and I was in dance class at university too, so that's something. I was hoping to enter the L.A. Marathon but I never got my mileage up high enough. My husband entered and finished the marathon.

The photographer really liked this shot and he almost blew it up giant size for his studio waiting room but unfortunately, you can't see it in this photo size, but when the photo is enlarged I have a little bit of a tummy. That is to say, I do not own a perfectly flat belly. My husband has always called it my Renaissance Tummy. I like that. Well, so what if I don't have a perfectly flat tum. I have a big nose too.

My hair was tailbone length. It was full of all kinds of goo, it was tortured with a blow dryer followed by a high heat industrial curling iron, and the make-up/hair lady even teased it - nanny nanny boo boo. My hair was frozen in the same exact style for like three days after the photo shoot.

Tired of hearing this about homeschooling

How many more times do I have to hear "I could never homeschool my kids."

I get tired of it. I never pictured myself as a homeschooler, but having 19 years between my sons and seeing the quality of the education our eldest received in Southern California really made it a no-brainer.

You do what you have to do. You do what's best for your family; for the children upon whom you have conferred life. They didn't ask to be born. They didn't ask for second best. You have to do your best on their behalf, even when what's best for them is not what you had planned for at all. When I worked outside the home I loved being an urban planner. I lived it, breathed it, thought about it day and night. Now I'm homeschooling. I enjoy it. It wakes me up. I live it, I breathe it, I think of it day and night.

If one more woman looks at me and marvels at my patience I should like to punch her in the nose. I'm not doing anything that anyone else couldn't do. Education is no big secret. It's not magical or mystical. There's no esoteric elixir to teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. It's my current job. It's a season in my life. I have determined to do my best and I will enjoy the process to the utmost. If I had told myself I couldn't do it, I would have never done it. Now look at us. We're going to be traveling around North America for a year!

We want our son to have a remarkable childhood, a life off the beaten path. Truth is, if we weren't homeschooling we'd never have reached a place in our life where we entertained the idea of a year long trip. You never know where life will take you, but one must foster an open mind for opportunity to knock. An imprisoned spirit cannot fly.

Sold the last of the big stuff

I just sold both sofas, the chair, coffee table, two end tables, two ottomans, two lamps, 36" Sony television, and the armoir. Our neighbor bought the whole deal and said we can keep it as long as we want until we move. Her son is buying our SUV. Had our last garage sale today too. Never even had to put an ad in the newspaper. God sent everyone to our house to buy our stuff or haul it away!