Handy (wo)man even for a trailer

Just because one lives in a brand new trailer doesn't mean there are not maintenance items that need to be addressed.  Yesterday armed with a phillips screwdriver I added three coat hooks to various walls, installed a hand towel rack and the toilet paper holder.  I was unable to get the bunkhouse door to latch again.  I have one hinge off but I need to get John's help to rehang the door.  As it was his birthday yesterday I did not press him into any of my honey do lists.

Out on the property John was busy working on the frame for the trailer pad and also building a lean-to attachement to the shed (to cover bikes and such)

The simple life

here we are coming up on a week at the KOA.  Life is simple. So simple this is the first time in over a week I have sat down to a desktop computer.  The joy of a full size keyboard and a mouse....and a screen I don't need to squint at to see.
Life has slowed dramatically.  Laundry is done at friends houses or at the laundry here at camp.  All five kids are now home, leading to new dynamics.  Tense moments, tears, and grumpiness.  But overall we are doing well. We had several visitors last night.  My sister went out to dinner with us and then came to see our new digs.  While she was here our family friends stopped over.  We sat outside and talked and laughed and watched the kids scooter.  We served up ice cream in paper bowls with forks because all the spoons were dirty.
The property is coming along.  We got the water pump working so we can use those 1500 gallons in the tank.  The well should start in two weeks.  We also met with the designer and he is getting back to us with new plans.  It is very exciting to see things moving forward.
John is working off site as he has had issues with his work computer connecting wirelessly.  It is well and good since it is loud and cramped in here.
There are no pictures with this post as they are all on my phone and this is John's computer.  Mine is laying on the bed with cables in a box in the back of my truck.
Life is simple and good.

The adventure continues...

Well we closed on the house on the 7th. Family and friends kept us going by stepping in and helping us pack and clean. We finally finished up around 3 am on the 7th. We signed papers and eagerly awaited the wire transfer, you know the one we needed to get the trailer, we waited and then waited right through Friday which bumped is to Monday. Our friends said not a word as our stay was extended.
We sent one boy off to camp on Sunday reducing the count under one roof to 11.
Monday the money showed and we were off to get the trailer. We parked it at the property and got the generator running. It was a gas hog and just wasn't working out well. We ended up at the local KOA. We signed up for a month. Hey free showers and a pool. It's all good. More later as I'm typing on my phone... ya know because we don't have our Internet up yet.

A new season...The adventure begins

Obviously it has been awhile since my last post.  Many things were happening in my life and I lost my ability to multitask.  I had some health issues that needed taking care of (nothing too serious and I'm keeping the details close to the silicon for now) and am just now coming to a point where I feel like writing again.
This time around I will be journaling our adventure of moving from a 4900 sq ft house to a 35 ft trailer on 5 acres!  We purchased 5 acres back in February, put our house on the market and waited.  Our house closes on June 7 and we will move onto the property on June 8.
Should be fun with 7 people, a border collie, 5 acres and tight quarters.  Come along and see who survives... feel free to count the grey hairs as they sprout on my head!
In the meantime I need to pack!

October 21

This day marked two years since my double mastectomy at the hands of Dr L.  and the start of the reconstruction process by Dr S. Three months later all surgery would be complete.  One year following that I would have a final procedure to normalize my look.
Two years later I still struggling with the whys?, the what ifs?, the shaking of my head and the sobbing over what was lost.  On this day two years out I was serving some beautiful women on a weekend renewal.  I had asked my team to cover me in prayer because anniversary dates are difficult and I really didn't want to go down in a sobbing ball of messy while serving women.  I made it about halfway through the day without a thought to what the day meant in my history.  And then....I glanced up.  A simple black t-shirt with a large pink ribbon caught my eye and my breathing became shallow and the tears started pouring.  I quickly excused myself from the room and headed for fresh air.  I pleaded with God to make it short, this weekend wasn't about me and I didn't want it to turn that way.  A few of my team mates saw me hit the door and prayed for me.  The attack was blessedly short lived and did not reappear the rest of the weekend.
I learned a few things this past weekend.
1.God is present even when I am pushing Him away
2.Prayer is powerful
3. Good friends who pray are powerful
4. Pray now not later
5 Time does heal wounds but scars are always present.

Girls Weekend

Once a year I get together with a few girlfriends and head out on the town.  We are homeschooling moms who live about as far away from each other as you can get.  Between us we leave 15 kids in the capable hands of our husbands.  I literally breathe deep the whole weekend.  These two women have listened to me whine, rejoice, cry heavily over broken dreams, and laugh.  At their feet I glean wisdom.
This year one of friends couldn't make it.  Logistics just couldn't be had.  God has a reason for that....but it sure was a different time without her, besides we all know how much getting away recharges us.
I plum wore myself out this weekend.  Time was spent walking all over the riverwalk, and alamo.  Eating whatever I wanted, and doing whatever struck our mood.  We also managed to run a 5k at Sea World after the above walking!  Good times.

Bright Ideas Press WONDERMAPS

WonderMaps by Bright Ideas Press is well, wonderful!  This is a fabulous product that makes finding and printing maps for your specific need very easy.

This year my kids are studying American History with a little bit of world thrown in to set up some timeline correlations.  As we study each time period of American History I need to find about a dozen different maps with the detail or with the click of a button lack of detail that I need.  Wondermaps provides that and more.

So let me give you an idea of what I mean.  We are currently studying a bit about the Civil War.  I needed a map that showed confederate and union states as they were at that time.  Navigation is fairly easy in the program.  I searched using the thematic maps.  I also browsed over where the Mystery of History  and All American History curriculums are mapped out to see how easy it would be to use if I was using those curriculums.  Once I had the map I could decide how much detail I wanted.  Rivers, key, labels etc could all be selected.  This works beautifully for quizzes.  You can use the same map for teaching and then remove the labels and present the same map for testing.  No more white outing!

Here my son is coloring in the confederate states

A close up of the maps. This one is from the All American History II.

As I briefly mentioned above if you are a user of Mystery of History or All American History then the maps for those are organized for you in their own section of Wondermaps.  

WonderMaps isn't just maps.  There is a teachers guide as well that has ideas, mapping projects, how to make a salt dough map and much more.

Below is a video that Wondermaps created that gives a fantastic overview.  See for yourself how the program works.


I really enjoyed getting to use Wondermaps.  Not having to search all around the internet for a clear map of exactly what I need to teach my kids is a blessing.  I love the fact that you can select more or less detail as you see fit.
You can get WonderMaps from Timberdoodle for $44.95.  This is a product that will span the entirety of history teaching.  You can get a Free homeschool catalog from Timberdoodle as well.

Disclaimer: As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of WonderMaps in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.