Road Trip: Texas, Day 2

Day 2

6:26am

On a regular day at home, I'm scarcely awake by seven or eight, but here on vacation, I woke naturally at six (5:00am our time) and felt rested and ready for the day. Very strange. 

The older boys shared a queen-sized bed to my left and gosh, was that an ordeal. They've been spoiled to have their own beds too many times on trips (worth it to avoid the controversy), but last night was just a stopover in the drive, so we didn't feel two rooms was necessary. 

This morning, they awoke just as rowdy and competitive as they were last night, so I shooed them from our room to sit and watch the lobby television before they woke the rest of the family. Those boys will behave better with a different audience and I was able to study my Bible in peace. 

C is to my right, still sleeping, and beyond him is J in the pullout couch and O is on the couch cushions in a bed made up on the floor. They seem sufficiently zonked for the time being. 

I find myself to be extra think-y while traveling, so I hope you'll put up with my random connections to regular life. I reread my post from yesterday and realized where my head was most of the time. While we explore the unfamiliar, it gives me time to reflect on everyday things. I'm not sure why or if I'm alone on that, but if you mind too much, then you can just skip this set of posts. 

Anyway, for me, day two has begun. I am sitting in a dark room with the glare of my screen and the flashing lights of the smoke detectors above for company. The bed here was sufficient without being overly firm or soft. I slept alright.

Road Trip: Texas, Day 1

I'm trying something new...blogging on my iPad. So if there is crazy spacing or excessive typos, I hope you'll extend some grace.

Since I'm on leave from Instagram, I thought I'd try sharing our trip to Texas in blog form. Here it goes.

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Day 1

On the road by 9:00am (an hour later than planned), but we don't need fuel or breakfast, so no need to stop for quite a bit. Also, it dawns on me now that if we had left on time we would have been completely stuck in commute traffic.

When I'm Not Sure What to Write...I Write Everything

As always, the most "cooperative" photo subjects around.  Ha.

I have done a dozen or more of these kind of "general update" posts in the past and I'm afraid that's what you're going to get from me this time.  I have such writer's block lately!  So for those of you who like to know basically what's going on with our family currently, this is a post for you.

I Am as I was Prepared to Be

I never was one for testing the waters for very long, usually, I jump in with both feet and trust God to hold me up.Well, in this picture, I rode the slide, but you get the idea.

I think I have written here before about how blessed I am to have had a heart for adoption long before I was married and even considering having kids.  Adoption was definitely going to be part of my life story and even though I didn't know the particulars, I was prepared (as much as a child can be prepared) for that chapter to be written.

The thing I've been pondering lately is just how the Lord prepared me, not only for adoption, but for many things I've had to face as an adult.  When I was a child and later, a teenager, incidents happened in my life the way everyone has happen.  I don't think I ever imagined how much impact those moments would be for my life in the long-run.

Homeschooling: New Family Adventure Book Coming

Preliminary illustration from the book's illustrator, HeatherBlu.

Hello Friends,

I am excited to tell you about a new book that is currently in the making.  I can hardly wait to see it published and read it with our kids.

Update on our Homeschooling Adventures

First of all, I wanted to share with you a section of this month's Home Educating Magazine...because our homeschool classroom was featured!  Very exciting for us. This makes me feel so very official now.

Second of all, I wanted to share with you some changes we are making to our daily format.

Originally, when we began homeschooling, I had no clue what I was doing.  I attended a conference and talked to several homeschooling families to get their advice and then I clung to our first set of curriculum like it was my life blood.  Things went well for a little while.

Do you know what happened next?  We added more kids into the homeschooling routine.  Then life -- outside of homeschooling -- continued to happen.  Suddenly, we were weeks behind in the curriculum and I got so stressed out.

In The Beginning: 2014

Here we are in a new year and I have yet to stop by my own blog to say anything.  Hmm.  I don't get it either.

As usual, I'm living it up over on Instagram.  I'm involved with a great photo challenge this month as part of the #knittogetherbyadoption "group."  It's been really challenging me to readdress some of the things I've learned over the years through our adoption journey and giving me a lot of material to write about.  If it wasn't an Instagram challenge, I'd probably make better use of my blog space writing it out here.  Anyway, if you click the square camera button on the right, you can check out some of those posts if you're in the mood for reading more about our adoption experiences.

2013: It's A Wrap, Basically

I know there are still a couple days left in the year, but those are bound to be busy days, so I decided to jump on this today in case I don't have another opportunity before 2014 happens.

This year!  There is so much that comes to mind from this year.  Perhaps because I'm a photographer, I remember 2013 in snapshots of time, like squares of memory in a quilt that has been slowly coming together over time.

Some of those squares have bright colors and fancy patterns and others are dull, worn and gray.  But together, they are stitched together into a warm and beautiful cover, large enough to protect each of us in this family from the cold.

I'm not a quilter.  I barely know how to replace a button when it falls off something.  But the image of memories bound together is a striking picture in my mind.  Besides, how many times this year did I want to hide under my covers until a tough day had passed this year?  Quilts, blankets, woven cloth... clothes.

The Christmas Season

My most favorite time of year.  Things have been super busy over here lately, so my blog is getting a little neglected again.  However, I've been doing some daily writing on Instagram if you want to come check that out.  You can find many of these (that I'm referring to) under the hashtag #praycember.

The whole Praycember idea was the genius of one of our pastors who asked us to pray every day this month for our church and for the whole Church (body of believers, bride of Christ).  This has been a great challenge for me and I feel myself being stretched in new ways through the course of this AND Advent Bible readings I'm doing sort of alongside Praycember.

This month has been a real blessing to my heart and soul and I can't wait to hopefully share some specifics with you soon.  But, I shall wait for now.

Thanks for continuing to check back to see if I've posted.  I apologize for the irregularity, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to dedicate more of my time this month to time with the Lord and celebrating the Christmas spirit.

I hope all is going well for you this merry season.

A Stranger in Santa's Clothing

(Source)

While we were out running errands today, we stopped by the mall.  We've had O's keepsake ornament to commemorate his adoption (it matches those that the other kids have) for years now and still had not made the time to get it engraved for him.  His six year adoptaversary is coming up and so I figured it was high time.  Anyway, the ornament came from Things Remembered, a keepsake store that pops up in most normal American malls.  So we were headed there.

We were given a pickup time of 11:30am, which was perfect, because I needed to run to the nearby Target for prescriptions and then we'd be back to the mall just in time.  However, at 11:27am, we checked at the store and it was nowhere near done, nor was it at the front of the line to be completed.

We decided to do some mall walking while we gave them an extra fifteen minutes or so.  We were not shopping, mind you, because A) I really do not enjoy shopping at the mall and B) I had two of my gift recipients right there with me and they're too old to stick things in the cart that they do not notice.

You moms of younger kids know what I'm talking about.  Embrace and enjoy this time when you can Christmas shop with your kids right there with you and still surprise them on Christmas morning.

While mall walking, besides the shoe shine guys who asked me three times if I wanted my old tennis shoes cleaned up (no, I did not), we kept passing by the Santa booth.  You know the one where kids in pretty clothing line up with their parents to get the official Christmas picture for the year?  Well, we were actually on the second floor and the Santa booth was on the first, but we could see it down below every time we passed that section of the mall.

Finally, I was convinced that I wanted our kids to get a picture with Santa!  They agreed that this sounded like fun.