Jacob's pictures

Jacob's imagination was sparked by watching a Pokemon cartoon. I know so many parents are against their kids watching or even having anything to do with Pokemon, but for ours, they've learned so much from them. One of the things was trick photography so Jacob spent the day taking pictures. Click here to see them, and then see if you can figure out how he did them.

Things were going too good

The rule in our house is if things are going too good, something bad is about to happen. And don't they usually come in threes?
One:
When the light is red, I must stop or Johnny law will follow me.
Two:
Finally after seven years of me asking, is that rack gonna hold that tool box? I have my answer. For seven years it will.
Three: What I like to see in my rear view mirror:

And what I don't.

The bike is supposed to be standing on the trailer, not taking a nap.

Click on any of the above pictures to see more photos I've uploaded.

We actually left Iowa

I know I said we were gonna do it, and we have now officially done it. We left only a week ago and already feel the freedom. While we've been on the road a long time now, having a house the last few years had taken away that sense of freedom for us. It's a great feeling knowing *this is it now*, no more worries about things back home.

We were originally going to NE so my Mom shipped Jonas's birthday present there. First stop: Nebraska. The package was a huge hit! My mom never leaves anyone out so each kid is just as excited as the kid whose birthday it is. They're not big gifts, dollar store stuff, but our kids treat them like treasures. They each got their own roll of bubble tape, confirming the fact that I'm not as cool because I make them share one. With the gift card Mom sent, Jonas got his RoboRaptor he's been after and then some more gifts for Jake and Jewel.


We headed South after getting our mail and saw pretty much nothing but this for miles and miles. I was hoping to come across the sunflower fields but they must have been harvested already, too bad. We then spent the night in Holdredge, NE at a 5$ a night city campground (it used to be free). From camp we walked across the tracks to check out the train station.











During our walk we must have come across 50 toads, and Jonas and Jewel had to stalk them all. They played way into the night with these toads. The kids made up a game of *let's see whose toad can play dead the longest*. Luckily no toads were harmed during the making of A Good Night in Nebraska.

Math, art and an unschooler

This is how the kids have been sleeping

Every morning they say they slept great. Then I caught Jewel right before she fell off

So today we tore down my closet (sob) and built temporary bunks for the boys

We built these without having to leave the property or, my favorite, spend a dime.

After the boys had them all set up to their liking Jonas figured out he was going to have to sleep sitting up because of all the pillows and sleeping animals. Jacob said Jonas focused too much on design and not enough on usability. He said he "figured 65% design into his bed and 35% on sleeping ability and Jonas figured 99% design and only 1% on sleeping ability".

Joey and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Happy kids

Happy kids
Originally uploaded by jakesmome.

It's been raining, the grass is green again and the weather's perfect for playing...life is good

These are a few of my favorite things

That I'll miss like crazy when I'm gone:

Jumping on the trampoline to firefly twinkles
Long baths
Jewel crashing in on my baths
Mowing the lawn on the rider
Mowing in my underwear
Watching the corn grow
Softened well water
Walking the lane with Joey
Watching the wild rabbits play
Late night porch chats

Taking our time

We're still in Iowa. We've decided against going to Nebraska, and for giving ourselves a few extra days to get things wrapped up. We've been sleeping in the bus now for a few days, and thankfully everyone is sleeping good. We took everything that we've decided to keep to storage today, and tomorrow will be the final Goodwill load and the dreaded cleaning. Ugh! Joey hired out some construction work at the house, I may just hire cleaners myself. It's only fair, right?

I planned on doing a much better job at chronicalling the steps we're taking to get back on the road, but by the end of the day I'm tired, and really...who wants to hear all the boring details anyway. I'll do much better once we're on our way and life is simple again.