Second Time’s a Charm

Let’s just say a whole lot has happened in the three and a half weeks since I last blogged.  We went from everything being a first these past eight months (yes, you heard that right – we had our eight month full-timing nomadiversary since I last blogged) to several things actually being a second (which is a first!)  We returned to the  exact same park we had already visited, for the second time (more about that later). Also, I made yet another long drive to pick up our granddaughter, Saylor, so she could come stay with us, for the second time.  Wait, what?!?!?  Yep… You heard that right.  As I said above, a whole lot has happened since I last blogged. Put it this way, Elijah said I should name this blog entry, “Less Relaxing, But More Exciting”.   Remember when I said in the last blog entry that we are NOT retired!  Well, little did I know when I wrote that statement just how far from retiring we really are.  Apparently we are are not even done raising young kids.  God knew and even then He was already preparing us for our next journey. To clarify, here is an excerpt of what I posted on my personal Facebook page last week:

Saylor is back! Brittney (our adult daughter) is still having a tough time getting back on her feet and feels that Saylor needs more stability. Yesterday we both drove 4.5 hrs (each way) to meet halfway in the middle so that I could bring Saylor (and all of her stuff!) back to live with Papa, Elijah and I – for the foreseeable future. We would all covet your prayers.

Prayers for Brittney to have peace, wisdom, and God’s guidance for her future; For Saylor to feel loved, content, and stable; For Greg to be able to work and focus and not get stressed; For Elijah to not get too stressed and to continue to love this lifestyle even with the added responsibilities, less space and more noise. (He’s a quiet peace loving adult-like teenager); and finally for me. For my health to not suffer, for the energy to keep up with her and for me to figure out a good routine to homeschool both a high schooler and a kindergartner in our tiny home. 

We ALL feel strongly that this is God’s will and plan so that made it an easy choice. One thing is for sure… our life is never boring!

Saylor stayed with us for six weeks over the summer, so having her with us is one of the second things I was referring to above.  This time it’s not temporary though, so we have quite a different mindset.  This isn’t just a fun summer vacation time, but a new way of life for us all.  To that end, we are adamant about establishing consistent routines for our homeschooling schedule, Greg’s working schedule, her bedtime schedule, and so on.  We turned the loft back into her room, this time making it more permanently functional for both sleeping and for having a nice play area for her so she truly feels like she has her own “room”.    Check it out:

We have literally had to transition overnight (with very little notice or forethought) from a go-with-the-flow, not tied to any routines other than our own, relatively calm, quiet, traveling regularly in our tiny home family of three with no young children; to a routined, relatively less calm, a great deal less quiet, traveling regularly in our tiny home family of four – with one of them being a five year old.  She has been here less than a week, and after a few stressful days (for everyone it seems except Saylor who has been happy as a clam since day one!) I can confidently say that we have officially begun to settle in and feel our groove.

The other second thing that I mentioned above is we returned to the same campground we previously stayed at for a second time!  If you’ve read my prior post you will remember that we stayed at Ponderosa RV Resort several weeks ago, which is located right on the south fork of the American River.   The last time we had a large private site up on the hill with a fence that felt like our very own yard.  We loved that site, but it wasn’t available this time so we ended up finding an even better spot right on the river.  It’s not as large or as private, but it’s a lot more scenic and we can watch the kayakers paddling by right out our back window, or when sitting in our campsite.  Check it out…

Here are some pictures taken right before we left the Lake Tahoe area.  Some of these are in that area and others were taken during our drive to Nevada.

Here’s another second thing, Elijah and I went to the Sacramento Zoo when we stayed here several weeks ago.  We decided to go AGAIN and this time we took Saylor.  Here are a few pictures of our zoo day with Say.  (That rhymes!)

Today I took Saylor to Marshall Gold Discovery State History Park which is literally less than two miles from our campground.  Greg and Elijah have walked there and back several times. Saylor and I went and ended up spending several hours there.  She did the “Junior Ranger” booklet, watched a movie about travel back in the gold rush days, and even did a 45 minute gold panning class!  She was so excited to be able to find 3 flakes of gold!

Last but not least, these were taken on my drive all the way to Winnemucca, Nevada to pick up Saylor.  From the worst rest area ever, to the prettiest snow capped mountains.

We are leaving this campground on Sunday, October 30th, to head to an Encore resort in Santa Cruz for one week.  Then we are heading down to Santa Barbara to stay at Rancho Oso, which is a horse ranch type campground, and we will stay there for three weeks.  We have a LOT coming up, in the next couple of months. I’m flying back to NC during Thanksgiving to be there for the birth of my first grandson, then we are flying our 20 year old son, J.Jay out for three weeks over his college Christmas break shortly after I return.  I’m going to try to write as often as possible, but realistically it will probably be every three weeks or so from here on out, instead of every two weeks.  My time is even more limited now, as Elijah said above, our lives have become less relaxing, but more exciting!  Join our journey and if you ever think about us, use that thought to lift up a prayer on our behalf.

Until next time… Happy Trails and Sunny Sails