It's a Constant Life

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Big and little

I may or may have not been scolded by a few of you.

First off, may I say that it's always surprising to me when people are riled up because I haven't updated the blog. You have asked to know what's going on in our little traveler world and I am kinda surprised anyone is keeping up on it.
Secondly, I'm sorry that my jacked up belief has kept me from putting time and energy into this blog! We really do love you! I also have realized that because this is a 'personal' blog, I get overwhelmed at the thought of really putting some emotional energy into it. It's easy to post things about my businesses, quick "stati" (plural for status?) and my daily little stuff on social media because it does not require me to sit, ponder, assess, and delve deep.
Doh.
So, there's the honest truth. I have a hard time sitting still and focusing my brain. (wonder where Wyatt gets it?) That's not an excuse. Just how I currently am. I haven't made the time for it. And I don't like it. And I don't plan on staying there. And really, it's not about me.
Here's what we ALL have been up to here in New Hampshire!
My sweet mother-in-law had shoulder surgery this summer and it has been a pretty big deal in the household. Not just because it's a tough surgery and recover period, but because she's been independent for the past five years, doin' life on her own. We are forever indebted to her kindness in getting to live with her these past five months, and it's been a great opportunity to get to help her out in whatever way we can. We've joked that for those first several weeks that she was my best 'child' :) She's doing well and making progress every week in PT! Pray it continues!
Tim is working it like he do' at the hospital in Concord, NH. We are so thankful he's been able to be on the mid-shift and not have to do full nights! 12 hour shifts can be brutal if they are 7p-7a. He's gotten along well with the staff and it's so funny to have him working in the same ER his own mom used to be charge of! It's circular. We are wrapping up our 2nd contract with them and just signed an extension to stay on until Nov. 2nd. We are so glad to get to be here for more of the fall.
'Dos KIDS-
We JUST started homeschool last week for those not on social media...here are the obligatory first day of school posts complete with my ghetto-fabulous signs. (you're welcome for making you feel better about yourself)

We are all easing into the idea that this is really happening. Yes. As if doing it last year didn't make me realize that before now. Consider it my denial coming to an end that we are really a homeschooling family. By necessity and by choice now. Not that it looks like what you might imagine. Think a pinball machine with children as pinballs and our house as the table. If we get them to stay in the school room for the majority of the time, it's a win!! Let me just say that I am really thankful for Classical Conversations this year too. We didn't participate in this once-a-week program last year and I am really grateful to connect our everyday learning with something more than my fly-by-the-seat of my pants style teaching :)
In other news the kids are adjusting and proving more resilient than we ever imagined. Not that there aren't the tough days, but we are proving God's faithfulness to provide every place we go. The boys miss Colorado and mention it often. They miss their Marmie and Papa in Florida and some dear friends we made there too.
Just the other day, Tim asked the boys where they missed most. They both answered both Colorado and Florida. Tim told them that we'd probably be missing NH as well when we leave here, and Vrai piped up excitedly, "Yeah, we'll miss it. But we're TRAVELERS!" That boy. He's such a tender heart and an encourager. We don't know where God will have us plant our roots eventually but we are confident that it will be good. :)
So, the latest is that we will be in NH for the next two months, ending Nov. 2nd. After that we hope to find a placement in CO for about three months. We have some things on our to-do list, among which is just get to BE with some of our dear friends. We'll keep ya posted on how things shape up but we may need help celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas if we're there! :) After January, we hope to get out to CA for a bit! That's as far as we know now, but anything is possible!

I was just pondering here (ha-progress!) and realizing that it's not that we have things easier or harder really...we all take ourselves with us, WHEREVER we go. We all have to confront the same ole' struggles, baggage and history that we have had for ages. I have found that this traveling experience has caused me to be able to see those things more clearly and I'm less afraid to confront them now because there's a major hurdle you cross when you make a big, brave decision. The littler issues seem more conquerable. :) Little by little, state by state, we are learning big things and seeing God come through. Thanks for caring about the journey. Stay tuned and we will do our best to update more frequently!
MUCH LOVE!
Am for
The Constants

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Next stop....

These are the faces of a family that just found out they have a placement in New Hampshire! A miracle!

Packing again...so much LUV for our sweet family and friends here in FL!

You're going to want to read this one from the Travel Nurse himself-

During a lull at work, I typed in our old address on Erin Court into Google/maps and peered into a frozen history. Our little home tucked at the end of a chip-sealed cul-du-sac, hidden by overgrown elm trees; two graffitied dumpsters standing sentinel at the entrance to the parking lot, waiting to ingurgitate themselves on the next piece of dead furniture. If you zoom in far enough you can see two pixelated, white, plastic lawn chairs problem solving over an apoplectic kiddie pool in the back yard; a wire fence still ajar from a foregone small figure in search of parking lot adventure, the ground missing grass that laughter trampled bare.

Such a strange happening that a photograph can fumigate the past. Judging by the still life of our house in what looks like the convection of July heat, we hadn't a care in the world and were probably down at the creek chucking rocks at ducks. Life always seems simpler in pictures. The pictures taken today will be simple in a year from now, though I wouldn't call my life simple now. The thing missing from pictures is the future and its the future that steals the simplicity from the now.

In that dormant picture off stage there is a man not wanting to go to work and wondering how he can pull his family out of debt and lead them spiritually and raise his kids to be anything but what seems like the inevitable sociopaths they are destined to become if he can only restrain his temper that bays like bloodhounds on a scent. And a woman with fingers chapped from changing diapers and suffering multiform toddler abuses, with a heart that beats to sing the world a new song but the blood shunting towards keeping kids from dying every moment of every day, choking herself out with Pinterest expectations of what motherhood really is.

Yet when I gold pan my memories, pleasantness and grace remain and the dregs and silt of the anxiety I carried like a passport sifted away. Because we are all right. And back then, we were going to be all right. God promised to preserve us, and He has preserved us. In this moment I am kneading and rolling the mass of things that I need to accomplish with the ending and beginning of contracts, the moving of my family, the emotional tectonic activity rumbling in our souls, and the myriad other duties I wish I could subcontract out. Even as I write this I can feel this acrid leaven rising in my soul. But when I Googlemaps this moment in my life in a year, I will know then what feeble faith struggles to see now: that come what may, it will be all right. And there is a host of saints with severed heads that say the same. The only functional difference between the tranquil past and tumult of the future is the promises of God waiting in the queue.

I'm thankful for the nascence of our family in that fair city. I don't know if we will play our game pieces back on that board. I don't know where we will hang our trellis and let life grow all over it. But for now we are on a ship with full sail, the tell-tale pulled stiff, a landless adventure off the bow.

We will have been in Orlando 8 months by the time we leave in two weeks, a near full term pregnancy. And if I may extort the analogy a bit farther, it didn't take long for us to implant our life into the fertile and wombish community here. We were able to spend both Christmas and Thanksgiving with Phil and Cathy, Amber's parents, which was such a rich and valuable time; mostly for Cathy, I think, who would love nothing more than to roll around in a bin of grandchildren, like a kid in a ball pit. We owe a great deal to them for the life changing trajectory this time has had on our lives, and we thank them for a little borrowed time. As to the other mischief that was done in Orlando, are they not written in the annals of the Book of Face? (Ha!, a 2 Chronicles joke)

Our next stop will be in Concord, NH and, as we have seen God's providence carving out a path for us so clearly, this is evidence to me of his preparation. As far as I could tell, this was the only job for an ER travel nurse in the state of NH. I wasn't qualified for it, nor did my start date jive with the facilities. I was initially rejected for the latter reason, but they reconsidered, I interviewed and the job was offered to me. I could take from this one of three things: 1) The hospital manager was so awestruck by my composure and articulate answers she immediately shredded the rest of her applications, fanned herself, and bequeathed the job to me 2) The other applicants were a scurvy lot of opiate addicts and misogynistic inbreds, against whom, my interview was passable. 3) The Lord worked some butterfly effect that mazed its way down, starting in the stratosphere, one consequence agitating another, like a raindrop on a window, to His intent. He blows me away. A God with Whom it takes no effort to know the location and future of every thought, molecule and electron position in the universe; and sovereignty over their outcomes. I will take # 3. Even if He used #3 to make #2 happen.

We miss you, all of our friends and family, and a special preemptive 'miss' to the friends and family we are about to leave.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The surprise of my life!

Some of you may have caught my social media posts when Tim completely surprised me last Monday with a 4 day/night cruise to the Bahamas.

To understate, I was completely FLOORED.

The big reveal...he straight up handed me the receipt to the cruise! AHHH!

I have never been on a cruise, or to the Bahamas or had four whole days and nights just with my husband (since we became parents)! I can say that living with your parents/in-laws totally paid off in this one week! A HUGE thank you to my mom for not just keeping my kids alive, but very well and to all the family that contributed to this extravagant gift!
Some of my favorite highlights were finding a giant sting ray while wading out in the ocean; snorkeling with tropical fish and sharks (they were at least 6-8 ft!) and dancing the night away with my personal Dance instructor hubby on the ship! Here's a few photos for those who aren't on facebook, etc. A picture's worth a thousand words so, Enjoy!