Tonight is the last night the boys and I will spend in our little house on Burlwood. Tomorrow at 2pm I sign closing papers and turn the keys over to the title company. What a weird thought. After living here for 7 years there is a part of my brain that is just certain this is all a joke, and we can't be really leaving lol. But, I am so excited and ready to hit the road. Although I can't make it happen any faster, I just can't wait to get into our 5th wheel where we will have beds, and a place to call home again. Even if the view does constantly change.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Last Night at Burlwood
Tonight is the last night the boys and I will spend in our little house on Burlwood. Tomorrow at 2pm I sign closing papers and turn the keys over to the title company. What a weird thought. After living here for 7 years there is a part of my brain that is just certain this is all a joke, and we can't be really leaving lol. But, I am so excited and ready to hit the road. Although I can't make it happen any faster, I just can't wait to get into our 5th wheel where we will have beds, and a place to call home again. Even if the view does constantly change.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Reactive Attachment Disorder
Well this evening I am reminded that, while moving and traveling will be a very good healing process on the road to recovery with Reactive Attachment Disorder, we will still have to travel to the pits and back before my son comes out on the sunny side.
Grant me patience please.
- It took him a while to learn to trust us, but even now when he gets scared, he doesn't talk - he reacts. So I guess the deeper more scary parts of trust are still being built - even after 2 years. Being tossed into the air by a loving parent and riding horses were Terrifying, just to name a couple. We turned them into wonderful trust building opportunities and it did him so much good in the end though.
- It took him a long time to realize that, even though we travel from time to time to see family, it doesn't mean he's getting left at another home. The first time we traveled with him, he was so quietly scared, he did not sleep for 33 and a half hours!! He had only just turned 2 at that time. How a boy could go that long without sleep at that age is just beyond me.
- It took him a long time to realize that even though Marty travels to a work camp for 2 weeks, and then spends 2 weeks home every month, he is still coming home to us and will never leave us.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Plan Unfolds
As I touched on in a previous post, we finally got through repairs, renovations and the purging of all our things, and were able to put our house up for sale a few weeks ago. It's still hard for me to believe, but I’m happy to announce it sold very fast, and we are very happy with the price we got. I sign closing papers in just 7 days! Despite our strange and unconventional plans, we have felt God behind us every step of the way. I know some of you may still be wondering what the plan is! (keep reading!)
Marty had to fly back to work for his 2 week shift plus some extra weeks today, but will be meeting back up with the kids and I in a few weeks. The children, dog and I will leave Wasilla, Alaska on August 1st driving down to Washington where we'll spend a little time with friends and family, and then slowly meander on over to Idaho where we'll pick up our truck, and Marty will fly in to meet us from work. From there we'll drive over to Elkhart Indiana as a family and pick up the 5th wheel we recently purchased.
At this point our plan is to travel the U.S. for about a year before settling back down into a bigger house. Where we go and when, will not be planned very far ahead of time except Marty will be keeping his job working 2 weeks in Alaska, and having 2 weeks off (spent with us) each month. We’ll be purchasing his plane tickets close to a month ahead of time to keep the cost lower.
The house we're in at this moment is just too small to continue doing foster care, and is a bit cramped if it just remained the 4 of us! But even more, we just really want to spend some time in good weather, and enjoy our newly adopted boys (and each other!) before thinking about buying another house or doing foster care again. Our little boys lived with us for 2 years as foster children before we were able to adopt them, sometimes that timeline goes on much longer for other children. We LOVED doing foster care but it really ties you down - we would never take in a child with out being committed to seeing their case plan through. Travel is limited and your heart and time is committed to visits with the children’s family, social workers, and G.A.L’s, court dates along with keeping our training hours up and a huge unknown emotional roller coaster to put it very shortly, lol. So we figure a year vacation will be a great rejuvenater. From my count we've only had 8 sunny days this summer, so I am just biting at the bit to find the sun again!!
So for the next seven days the kids and I are living in a house almost completely empty, I just have a little cleaning to do, a lot of visiting to do, and even more praying on safe travels!
I’ll try and update later with some photos.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Make your own compost tumbler.
Compost Tumbler
This is the easy and quick way to make compost. Compost made in a compost maker like this is ready in about four weeks. All that is required is some initial labor, and the following materials:
- Steel barrel such as a 55 gallon drum.
- 2 heavy-duty hinges.
- 4 heavy-duty rollers.
- 2 door latch locks.
- 3 drawer pulls.
- Heavy-duty steel plate such as a straightened “L” bracket.
- Nuts & Bolts to fit all of the above.
- Cradle to the hold barrel. This should be about thirty inches high so a wheelbarrow can roll right under for “belly dump” capabilities. Metal would be best but wood is cheaper and works just as well.
- Flat black spray paint.