56 People and Counting

Jill's Journal: These two people…

…begat these four people…

…whose combined families now number 56 people.

The girls’ great grandparents – my Mom’s parents – bravely emigrated to the U.S. from Holland after World War II. Their four surviving children gave them 13 grandkids. If they were still here today, they would surely be enjoying the 24 great grandchildren those grandkids have given them so far. In just the next six months, their 11th grandchild is getting married and two more great grandchildren are due, so the number will undoubtedly grow and continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

A family of 56 people from one humble, resilient, and amazing couple…my grandparents would definitely be proud and probably a little astonished at how the family has grown if they were still here. The entire group gets together every single year, without fail, for a Christmas party. We’re the only ones in the whole group who don’t live in California, so we usually miss out. We last made the party in 2004, when Erika was just a baby and before our other two were born. But we made it today and so did every other single member of the extended family save one. I think the girls were a little surprised and delighted to find they have 2nd cousins – 21 of them, to be exact – in this branch of the family!

Guest Post by Beppy: Tangleweed Farm and Family

Jill's Journal: After my parents went on an Alaskan cruise this summer, I’d asked my Mom to write a guest blog post for us. She didn’t do it, but (even better) surprised me with one today! I’m so thrilled to have her speaking in her own words on here about our day together. I love the thought of the girls reading them someday. Thanks so much, Beppy! :)

Today was the day to explore Tangleweed Farm, a family-owned farm in Tehachapi with lots of fresh produce. The produce is grown organically, harvested, and sold right at the farm. John and Laurie Thorpe started the farm as a homeschooling project in 1999. Jill talked about homeschooling and travelling with Laurie while the men talked about crops and farming with John. I tried kale right from the plant and it had a wonderful, sweet flavor. The girls found a pond to explore and rocks and sticks to pick up. The weather was perfect.

It will soon be time to say goodbye to the last of our family after Thanksgiving. We will miss the grandkids ringing the doorbell and spending the afternoons with us. As each of our family members left this weekend, I felt like they were leaving home for the first time. But, we treasure the time we get to spend as a family and look forward to the next time.

The Day After

Jill's Journal: No Black Friday shopping for us the day after Thanksgiving. Lunch at a local winery in Tehachapi sounded much more appealing.

Our ranks may be diminished…

…but we still have fun.

Add in some playground time for the kids…

…and everyone is happy.

Life is good.

Grateful…

Jill's Journal: Grateful for so many things, including the chance to spend the first Thanksgiving in 20 years with my family. How sweet it is.

Grateful to have more food than anyone could possibly eat, along with the girls’ Grandpa who slaved away to pay for it all and the girls’ Beppy who slaved away to prepare it all.

Grateful for three healthy and happy little girls, including one who was so excited about Thanksgiving she made name placards for everyone. No, they weren’t really meant to be attached to foreheads.

Apparently Uncle Adam’s name is too long! Or maybe he was at the end of Erika’s name card project and she decided to cut it short. Either way, he got abbreviated.

But that’s clearly no reflection of these girls’ adoration for him. They practically sat in his lap during Thanksgiving dinner. By the way, he surprised us all by rocking the facial hair for the first time ever (remnants of a recent elk hunting trip in Colorado). My handsome baby brother suddenly looks like a grown-up.

Back to being grateful…there’s nothing to be more grateful for than a new baby joining the family next spring. This will be the girls’ (long anticipated) first-ever cousin and Rob’s and my first-ever niece or nephew...oh my goodness, WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!

Three Months and Counting!

Jill's Journal: It won’t be long! Our days right now are filled to the brim with preparations for our grand adventure. Rob’s office/storage space has been completely cleaned out. All of our horse and farm equipment is only days away from being totally eliminated. We were hoping to get our house on the market around March 15, but we’ve still got a good chunk of work to do to have it in tip-top sale shape. My dear 90-year-old grandmother passed away this week and I’ll be going to California for a few days for her services and to be with family. The trip will cause us to lose an entire weekend of work, but that’s okay – it’s a necessary thing. The rest of it will all get done. We’ve made huge strides and will continue to do so.

There are signs of spring; it’s a beautiful thing! We’ll start really kicking butt and taking names now. We've had some rough winter weather and several snow days. Each snow day taken by the school district caused another day to be added to the end of the school year…and another day of delay to our “launch date.” Hopefully that’s all behind us now and we can see a concrete finish date to Erika’s Kindergarten...and to the beginning of our family adventure!

“Adventuring With Children”

Jill's Journal: I skimmed another book with our journey in mind. Nan Jeffrey’s “Adventuring With Children: An Inspirational Guide to World Travel & the Outdoors” is a little outdated and not necessarily suited to the RV traveler, but there were some great tidbits nonetheless. Mostly it provided plenty of fodder for our belief that what we’re planning isn’t crazy and will enrich our children’s lives.

Some of my favorite passages include:

(Regarding meeting other adventuring families)
“…We spoke a common language—that of homeschooling and one-burner meals, of family cohesion and a sense of achievement, of sleeping in strange places and absorbing alien cultures, of raising our children in a neighborhood that encompassed the world. It was the language of an adventuring family.”

(Regarding the joy of traveling as a family unit)
“…It doesn’t take long to grasp that family adventuring is much more than taking a highly stimulating trip. It’s time apart, a chance to discover and reflect, to explore and grow…Regardless of destination or mode of travel, the benefits of this temporary lifestyle are many: living simply, becoming self-sufficient, experiencing new cultures and ideas, challenging your mind and body, being in harmony with the natural world, learning to have patience and tolerance and be content, and developing an unassailable joie de vivre. Best of all it fosters an interdependence within the family, one that encompasses all ages as you work toward a common goal.”

(And finally, encouragement to travel the world, not just the country)
“The presence of children will do much toward bridging the cultural gap, for children represent the ultimate peace offering the world over. Most of the world dotes on their young and will welcome yours with open arms. Your children will elicit a hospitality and generate a warmth denied most tourists, resulting in a more meaningful, enjoyable experience.”

“House on Wheels”

Jill's Journal: On this Christmas Day, I’m struck by the fact that this is the last Christmas we might spend with extended family for a few years and certainly the last one we’ll have in our beloved little house. As sentimental as I am, I’m not sad about this. We have some beautiful memories and the anticipation of what the future holds. Can’t beat that.

Our girls have full knowledge of “the plan” and are excited. That’s a blessing in itself. Erika brought home the CUTEST thing ever from Kindergarten recently. For an assignment in her “writing workshop,” she drew a picture of an RV with the words, “I want to live in a house on wheels so I can see the world.”

Yes, I melted.

And the Purging Marches On

Jill's Journal: It seems not too many days go by without me purging items, whether that means selling, donating, or destroying them. Last week I sold a saddle to a lady in Tennessee and donated a mountain of old tack to Central Kentucky Riding for the Handicapped. And a few days ago, Adam and Kristi had a massive burn pile and I burned 11 – yes, 11! – file boxes of old papers. Electric bills from 15 years ago, performance reviews from old jobs, etc. just don’t seem so important to keep! Seeing all that paper – records of life’s details – go up in flames was remarkably freeing.

We actually had a pretty uncluttered and tidy life compared to the average American family before this whole process started, but it’s amazing how much stuff one really doesn’t need.

Occasionally I glance at a site called unclutterer.com and a recent post struck close to home. In brief:

“Even if you live to be 100, life is short… There are only 24 hours in a day, and I want to spend those hours focused on what is important to me… Uncluttering is about clearing the distractions that get in the way of your remarkable life. Once the distractions are gone, you can pursue your priorities and make the most of your life. My life’s motto is to Carpe Vitam — Seize Life.”

It sort of sums up why we’re seeking this adventure. We want to focus on what matters most to us – our little family – and the fabulous purging we’re doing now will help remove all the distractions. Bring it on!

Huge Strides

Jill's Journal: Ridiculous strides have been made and at lightning speed lately. Rob has been the driving force behind it all. He promises to fill in the blanks, but for now, a quick synopsis...

*We pulled the trigger and bought a fifth wheel! It's absolutely everything we had been looking for, with the grand exception that it's currently located about 2200 miles away in Poway, California. We absolutely cannot wait to get our hands on it.

*We bought a truck. A big truck. A really big truck meant to pull said fifth wheel. A Ford 550. See photo.

*Rob literally just left a few minutes ago in said truck to pick up said fifth wheel. Long journey for him and although I know he is more than completely capable, I still worry about him. Erika started kindergarten this week (another big step in our lives!), which means the girls and I are tied down here and couldn't go with him. I nearly pulled her out and started homeschooling a year early!

*And in other news, Rob told his mother and sister our plans. It did not go well, as we expected. It's the only negative blip in what so far has been (and will be!) an incredibly positive life experience for our whole little family.

Ditch the Stuff; Focus on Family

Jill's Journal: I’ll admit it: I love reading blogs. And today I found something so profound on Simple Mom. It fit our trip and our philospophy so beautifully that I had to share it. It’s a guest post from Nicole at Burning Bridges and this is the part that I simply had to include:

"Be Rich in FREEDOM.
"When I loosen my grip on money and things in order to give to others, my things and my money loosen their grip on me. Letting go of something I think I need reveals that my need is not as deep as I thought. Letting go of some portion of my money or some thing I’m keeping as a safety net or luxury — if I can finally let it go — helps me redefine my needs. Am I dead? Am I freezing? Am I hungry? Am I bleeding? Most probably not. When we hold tightly to things, we start to fear the day of their release. And yet, ironically, it’s often our holding them so tightly that binds us up with fear in the first place.

"Be Rich in RELATIONSHIPS.
"If you’re like me, then the more stuff you have, the more you’re consumed with managing it all. Cleaning, sorting, organizing, and analyzing. Things have mass and the more mass we own, the more we are weighed down with it all. When we use our things and our assets to bless others, we remind ourselves that people are of primary importance and that relationships will outlast everything else."

Isn’t that profound? That’s what is at the heart of our trip: the simplifying of our lives to focus on our family. Because in the end, that’s what matters the most.