Betty and Veronica

Calista's bosom buddy, Maija, flew down this weekend to spend some time with Calista. It has been almost one year since they have seen each other so this is pretty special. We dubbed them Betty and Veronica when they were quite young and you can see from the picture why. They have been singing, applying make-up, watching TV, and all the other things girly girls do. We are going neon bowling tonight. Calista is going to feel the void when Maija leaves tomorrow night but, thank goodness, we aren't too far away anymore and can see her pretty often. Her mom is my bosom buddy and she couldn't come this weekend :( so I will be anxious to get up to Fairbanks soon.

Some fellow unschoolers, the barenaked family, were on Nightline last night. They have lived in their motorhome for five years now and they were featured on the show for that reason. I dreamt about being back in the motorhome last night and it is just starting to sink in for me that I am going through a grieving process of sorts. I know that sounds a little much for just moving out of a motorhome but I REALLY love the lifestyle and I am longing for it right now, wishing all my kids were still on board. There are some good things about owning a house but I am quickly discovering that I would much rather be in the motorhome. I refuse to allow discontent to settle in again though so I am choosing to be happy and saving the road living for another day, hopefully not too far in the future. It might work out that we can still keep the house and travel in the motorhome in the winter months so that everyone has what they want. I think we have decided that we will actually try to sell the motorhome and maybe in a year or two buy a bus, which is what we have always wanted. After doing some searching online we are very sure that is what we want to do.

Something else that is really bothering me right now is the over-abundance of STUFF that we have. I went through so much when we left last year and thought I was getting rid of SOOO much but I am finding out it wasn't near enough. When we were in the motorhome we had exactly what we needed and it was so freeing to not have a bunch of stuff to take care of. So, I have decided that every day I am going to get rid of two things. It is easy to part with two things every day and I will do that until I am down to just what I need, and what the kids absolutely think they need. It was so easy to keep focused on the simple life while we were traveling and so easy to get caught up in the not-so-simple-life while living in a house. So I have to constantly remember that I am comitted to living a simple life because it is so much less stressful and so much cheaper!! I want to spend my money building relationships, not decorating a house. Not that there is anything wrong with making your house pretty, I just don't want to get focused on that. There are a lot of better ways I can spend my money, for sure.