Mammoth Cave KY

Hi All,

We're enjoying a nice rainy day here at Mammoth Cave in KY. Vashti and Shanti earned their Junior Ranger badges today. Yesterday Daph, Shanti and I went on a half-day tour of Mammoth Cave that was very educational and uniquely inspiring. We have seen bats, spiders, deer and wild turkey here in the park, and enjoy swimming and mini-golf when the weather has been dry. Right now Vashti is enjoying playing with a toy workbench here in the common area while I write. Love to all.

Birthday

Yesterday, August the 13th, was my 38th birthday. It turned out to be one of those simple, perfect days that I will probably remember for a long time (it reminds me of the day Vashti was born). We woke up to a beautiful, warm, sunny day (the previous day had stayed cool and cloudy with occasional soft rain). I baked a chocolate cake (the first time I have baked in our little convection oven), and I was happy to see that it baked very evenly. Brian and I went for a walk and enjoyed a leisurely yoga practice and meditation together. During our practice, the resident falcon circled above us and even managed to do a spectacular dive right as we rested on our backs and looked up. Afterwards, we ate lunch, went for another walk, lounged around, and then cooked quinoa chili for an early dinner. After dinner, Brian and I walked down to the lodge while my dad hung out with the kids. As usual, we had the whole place to ourselves. We played three games of pool while listening to classic rock music and then played ping pong (it felt very 80's and was a lot of fun). As we headed back to camp for chocolate cake we decided we should get gear for mini-golf so the kids could burn off their sugar buzz. Brian gave me a piggyback ride across the parking lot, and we felt like kids goofing off. For the third time this week we lit candles and sang happy birthday (Vashti is very into candles). The cake was delicious with a very rich dark chocolate glaze. After cake we played mini-golf and I got a hole-in-one on the very last (and one of the most difficult shots). We had a nice walk back to camp and enjoyed watching the bats fly above us.

Brian and I have been reading a book called Respectful Parents Respectful Kids. It blends ideas of interconnectedness and the importance of true co-operation for the health and sustainability of families, communities, and the whole world with Marshalll Rosenberg's style of Nonviolent Communication. So far, I'm enjoying the book, and I'm feeling very thankful for being at a place in my life where I can take care of my own needs so that I am able to better meet the needs of our family and kids.

From where I am sitting outside I can see my dad and Shanti canoeing across the placid lake. It is another beautiful day (the high is supposed to be 87 degrees). I am thinking of all my beautiful friends, and hope that you will all take the time to do something nice for yourselves today. I had another lovely yoga practice this morning, and now I'm going to head off to play with Vashti.

The soul empties itself of all its contents in order to receive the being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth ---Simone Weil

Catching Up

We have been enjoying a simple existence lately without cell phone service or internet connections. After we left Livingston, TX we camped at Lake Tawakoni which is east of Dallas. We had a lovely lakeside campground where we enjoyed bike rides and bird watching. While we were parked at Tawakoni Brian, the kids and I drove into Dallas where we spent a week visiting my mom and little sister, Lindsay (who is now 13). Despite the heat, we all got to spend a fantastic day out on the lake in my mom's boat. We got caught up on all of our shopping in Dallas, and then we finally made it out of Texas to camp at DeGray Lake State Park in Arkansas.

DeGray is about 20 miles south of Hot Springs (which is where Brian and I bought our $8 sterling silver Hopi Indian engagement bands back in 1992...I still wear mine as my wedding ring most of the time). It was fun to revisit the city with the kids. We also visited Diamond Crater state park where we got to play in the dirt digging for diamonds and other gems/minerals. DeGray lake is breathtaking and I highly recommend camping there when passing through Arkansas. After camping in Texas it seemed like we had jumped back in time about a century to be on such a beautiful lake with no houses or businesses surrounding the water. There was a wonderful produce stand just outside of the state park with lots of fresh, local produce. It was incredibly hot while we were in Arkansas, but we finally got a break from the heat as we headed into Tennessee. It rained most of the day as we drove into Tennessee, and the temperature stayed in the low 70's. Currently we are camping about 50 miles east of Memphis. The campground is about 300 acres and we are sharing it with 5-10 other people (depending on whether it is the weekend). We have a swimming pool, pool table, ping pong, mini-golf, tennis court, a small playground, and a pond stocked with very big large mouth bass pretty much all to ourselves. I have found a perfect spot for doing yoga, and the weather has stayed in the 70's to mid 80's during the day and around 60 degrees at night (just cool enough for a campfire and marshmallows with a couple of the other campers). We met a woman who is in a tent with her dog and she is probably between 70 and 80 years old. She camps for part of the year and she has a home in Baja where she stays the rest of the year. My dad said it made him think of what Tricia might be like when she is that age, and he suggested we invite her over for dinner.

After spending the last few years cooped up inside (trying to find relief from our allergies) it is great to be spending the majority of our time outside. We love being lulled to sleep by frogs and bugs, and to wake up with the birds each morning. When we leave here we will stay at a campground near The Farm (which you can check out at thefarm.org), and then we will be heading up to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. We will try to post some pictures while we still have internet access so stay tuned!

Livingston, TX

Right now, we are enjoying an evening rainstorm at the Escapees Campground in Livingston. The drive from Lake Conroe to Lake Livingston was beautiful. It's amazing how much more rain this area gets than Austin. Everything is lush and green, and we saw some stunning fields of purple flowers (not sure what kind). Each night the frogs sing us to sleep, and we have seen lots of bunnies and bats. Shanti and I have been going for bike rides together down scenic rural roads, the kids swim with Grandpa Johnson and their daddy each afternoon, and Vashti enjoys chasing the bunnies through the field as it gets dark. Today we visited a local history museum with an old steam engine and and old historical cabin. We plan to stay here until Tuesday. The mosquitoes are huge, but slower than the small ones!

On the Road Again

On Saturday, July 12th we departed from Austin, and officially began our aimlessly wandering, roadschooling, adventure! We had originally planned to leave Austin sooner, but on June 25th a young man ran into the side of our truck while Brian was out working. Luckily, no one was injured and our gracious neighbors, Karen & Tomas and then Cathy & Larry, let us park in their yards until it was time to leave Austin. We got our truck back around 11:30 on Saturday, July 12th, and pulled out of town at 4:30 after a few tearful goodbyes and a few rounds of the kids singing "On the Road Again".

Brian and I reflected on how weird it felt to leave Austin knowing that it would most likely never be our home again. The comforting part is knowing that the friendships we have made run deep enough to withstand the distance of time and space.

We arrived at our first destination around 8pm on Saturday and set up camp at Lake Conroe. We were very pleased to see that our new membership with Thousand Trails is well worth the cost. During the past two days we have been swimming, playing mini-golf and tennis, watching the sunset at the lake, going for walks and staying cool during the hottest part of the day with board games, coloring, reading and writing practice, watching video clips and reading journal entries on wherethehellismatt.com (which is worth checking out....thanks Marjorie!)and eating Ben & Jerry's. Right now we are enjoying a nice evening rain,and tomorrow morning we plan to pack up and head over to nearby Lake Livingston for a week long visit with Brian's parents. Our general plan after Livingston is to stay at Lake Tawakoni and Lake Texoma for about a week each, which will allow us to visit my mom in Frisco, and then stay near Hot Springs, Memphis and Nashville on our way to Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. I am looking forward to finding cool (as in temperature) places to practice yoga.

Fun in Austin

We have enjoyed a fun-filled week in Austin! On Monday, Brian and I took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda which was a nice reprieve from the heat for a few hours. Tuesday, Poppy and I took the kids to the little natural history museum at UT, and then we had Thai noodle bowls for lunch. It has been 100 degrees every day in Austin this week. On Wednesday, I went to a great yoga class taught by Charly Pivert, and in the evening the kids played in the sprinkler which they stuck in the dirt to have a crazy mud extravaganza. They were having so much fun that I kept thinking I wanted to play. Not being able to hold off any longer, I changed into my bathing suit and joined in on the fun. When I showed up in my bathing suit the kids couldn't believe I was going to get in with them. As soon as I stepped into the mud, they tentatively began to make mud prints on my legs, but once they realized I was committed they went all out and scrubbed me from head to toe (it was a laughter filled spa session for free :-)! Thursday morning, Poppy and I packed a lunch and drove the kids down to Natural Bridges Cavern (just north of San Antonio). We enjoyed a beautiful hike through the caverns, and a nice picnic lunch in the shade. When we got back to Austin, Brian and I took the kids out for Mexican food, and then Vashti asked if we could buy some balloons and fill them up with water. We stopped by the grocery and found a bag of 200 balloons for $2.99. Back at the Fernandez homestead/campsite, Brian filled about 175 balloons with water while I kept the mosquitoes at bay. Brian, Tomas, all five kids (Shanti, Vashti, Sofia, Cinco and Diego), and I had a blast tossing balloons to each other in the driveway. Everyone got wet, and everyone had fun! On Friday, I had a very leisurely lunch at Blue Dahlia Bistro (which was outstanding) with Mary Londos, and we had a relaxing evening at home swimming, eating pizza, and watching a movie. Aaahhh, Brian is taking the weekend off and we are hanging out and staying cool. It looks like we will be leaving Austin around the beginning of July. We're going to start planning our final going-away party so stay tuned!

Settling In

We are settling into life in our 5th wheel. Currently, we are parked in our friends driveway (which is only a few doors down from our previous home), and the kids are having a great time staying here with the 3 Fernandez kids. The new owners of our house (Marjorie and Danny) let the kids go swimming every evening at the pool Brian put in last summer, and they are happy to let the kids harvest all of the blackberries this season. It is a little weird being in visual sight of our home of the past 12 years, but this has allowed for a gentle transition. We get to enjoy some of the joys of our previous home and we get to visit Zoe (our puppy who is now living with our next door neighbor) while at the same time we are letting go. Zoe seems very content with her new family which consists of a young puppy named Annie, 2 older dogs, 1 yr. old triplet girls, 8 yr old Brannon, and Larry & Kathy.
As of right now, we have not decided when we are leaving Austin or where we are going first. We had planned to head towards Ohio and Pennsylvania, but it seems very likely that we will spend at least part of the summer in Colorado first. As the heat increases the mountains seem to be calling very loudly! Besides, I (Daphnie), have been really missing the mountains, and I am excited to get out and hike with the kids. Brian has been compiling a list of places he would like to take the kids over the next couple of years, and we are all getting excited about hitting the open road.
We weighed the rig, and discovered that we have to get rid of more stuff because we are over our weight limit! I was pleased because I still felt like we had more than I wanted to be responsible for, but it is tough because it means we have to start eliminating things we really wanted to keep like extra tools, massage table, kitchen stuff, more clothes and books. Everyone is generously giving away more belongings (including Vashti and Shanti) which is pretty amazing since we have already given up so much. Vashti even agreed to part with a whole box of her favorite board books (impressive for a 3 year old)!
It feels like the time to leave Austin is getting close. For now, we will continue to enjoy our friends and all the things we love about Austin.