and we keep rolling...

Been super busy, but loving it! The airstream is looking good and the plan is to move it down to Spokane this weekend. We've been working on it in spurts between running the last of the jobs through the business, applying to school, shooting weddings... and just living life. ;-)

Since the last post we finished the floor:



Henry has LOVED every minute of this remodel project. He is never happier than when he's with Peter, a tool in hand. The orbital sander is his favorite!



We painted the inside: yellow in the main area and blue in the back half (bedroom, bathroom.)



Henry pitched in with the painting, too. Notice the dried yellow paint in the hair... that was a nightmare to get out!





Meanwhile, Joanna just doted on Candy. She didn't really want to leave her side -- so while the rest of us engaged in the remodel, Jo rode, brushed and fed the pony.



Here's a shot of the back half in painted process...



After the paint and floor were done I moved in my much-loved drop leaf table... and started working on the painting on the back wall. I wish I could have free handed it, but I didn't trust myself with those birds... so I used the old carbon paper method. :-)





The cabinets were the next project... and we were both pleasantly surprised by how much bigger the kitchen seemed after the cabinets were in place. It looked like such a smaller area before he roughed them in. I'm delighted by how much storage and counter space I'm actually going to have.











I started working on the slipcover next. I also hit the jackpot for baskets. Organization, Baby. That's how we're going to do this thing.



I'm happy with how the birds turned out.



I kept the kids busy one afternoon by having them "wash" the trailer! I don't think it did a lick of good for the trailer, but we ended up with a lot of soapy fun and thoroughly wet, delighted kids!






Jo lost her first tooth last week! She's so proud of her gaping smile... and the next tooth is about ready to fall out, so that happy gap will widen.



Peter also got the kids bunks roughed in... and I got to make use of my baskets already.





So it's really coming along! It's fun seeing our vision take shape. We'll get it moved down to Spokane and in place for the summer and then we'll finish the rest: cabinet doors/drawers; my desk; the bathroom; the fun decorating elements like rugs, curtains and such; and then we'll buff the outside and get'er shining again.

progress!

Home Sweet Airstream.

Keep in mind people, this is definitely a "before" picture:




And, yes... we are actually making progress! It's a bit slower than we anticipated (of course!) but it's coming along.

The best part so far has been the deconstruction. Can anything be more satisfying than demo work? There is none... at least not for a three year old boy! ;-)





So far we've stripped the inside (and I do mean stripped... almost everything came out.) We've laid the hardwood floors and we're working on painting the walls in prep for the new cabinets. We decided to change the layout a little to better suit our particular needs. Since we are tying to eat a larger percentage of raw foods, we decided to pull out the oven and just use a toaster/convection oven. This will open up more room for a bigger house-sized fridge. We also pulled out one of the closets (who needs clothes?) and we're rearranging the space to build bunk beds for the kids.






(yes, painting IS better with a glass of red)

::like a bird::

I'm waaay past due to post an update. We moved out of the house/shop about a month ago and have been floating between my parent's country and city houses since then. The kids and I ended up really sick the first week -- so we laid low and pretty much did nothing but sneeze, cough and drink pints of green drinks and tea (until finally pounding the strongest over-the-counter medication available) for seven days. After giving our coughs to several dear friends, we got better and plunged into the trailer remodel full-steam. It's been slower than we hoped, but we ARE making progress! I'll get some pics up soon.

I've had several sessions and a wedding in the last few weeks, so I've been busy with my photography. It's tough running a business without a home base, no consistent internet, no stability... but somehow it's all staying afloat.

It's actually quite an interesting little season of homelessness and floating. It feels surreal. I go to write down my address and come up blank. No home at the moment; no permanence. We could end up back in Idaho, or Washington... or leave the country altogether (not that I think that's necessarily going to happen!) It's been good for me to continue in the theme of living lightly and freely. It's crazy how much stuff we people acquire -- how much we keep around us to pad the empty spaces and fill in the lonely blanks. In reality, we need very little to live and actually very little to be happy. I'm so aware of that as we travel back and forth between my parent's houses with only such things as can fit in a bag or two. Everything else we own is in a storage unit somewhere in Idaho. Since I've never actually been to said storage unit, it seems almost mythical... like my whole life's worth of belongings vanished into thin air. And you know the craziest thing is that I'm fine with that -- I have the most important things with me.; inside me.




The week before we moved out, I wrote this in my journal:

i want to live like a bird
completely unattached to anything restricting -- free to soar
no more accumulation... i want to give away all the unnecessary
freeing my soul & my mind as i free my body & my life from stuff

From way up there a bird can see it all... what's been and what's to come...
i want that same perspective. i want to just sing and soar and delight in the living and in the flying... in the moment -- not in the having or the performing.

And it's really been like that since we let the business go and moved out. Obviously there is some stress inherent in not having a permanent address, but really what an opportunity to live purposefully, joyfully and willingly free. It's far better to have chosen this path, to have wanted this lifestyle, than to have it forced unwillingly by losing a job, a house... or by living in most parts of the world. I'm asking God to work more compassion deep in my heart. Any inconvenience in the season, may it just strengthen my resolve to give more and serve those that really truly have nothing. I have so much. We have so much.

deep in the country

My kids are LOVING being back in the country. They are such ragamuffin farm kids at heart... kinda like their momma.



We bought four baby chicks last week. I'm still not quite sure why we did since we are currently without a permanent home, but we'll appreciate them later when we're settled into the airstream and have fresh eggs. Peter is going to build a portable free range pen for them.



They are sooo cute and Jo is captivated. This kid of mine is seriously obsessed with every kind of animal there is. She's spent hours already hovering over the chicks and feeding them out of her hand and hatching great ideas for the tricks she's planning to teach them someday.

I love it.

learning the unforced rhythms of grace

This is what Jesus says. This is his way:

"Are you tired? worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me -- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

(Matt 11:28-30 The Message translation)

::shout out::

My new header is from an original painting by Arian Armstrong.

I am seriously in love with this girl's art. It's amazing. You should check it out... you'll fall in love too! I am really looking forward to ordering some prints for the Airstream. Her designs and paintings speak to my soul. I think it's the childlike wonder, the simplicity, the colors, the stories within the illustrations. She's inspired me to pick up a paintbrush -- which is something I have always, always wanted to do. She's also inspired in me in so many other ways -- a truly beautiful soul.

You can find her painting and designs on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/arian

She has a blog: http://ariansstudio.blogspot.com/

She designs tshirts for this online store to help fight human trafficking: http://stoptraffick.myshopify.com

I'm a total groupie! Thanks for the major inspiration, Arian. You rock.

::changes::

After almost seven years of owning and operating our cabinet business and wood shop, we're done.

I won't lie; I've been dreaming about this day for YEARS! It's been a roller coaster ride... we've made some good decisions and had some success, but we've also made some mistakes and felt the weight of the business pressing into us and affecting our family. It's not the easiest thing in the world to start up a business and then run a shop with employees. I don't think either of us realized the extent of it before we jumped off the cliff with romantic ideals about building a family business.

Of course we're grateful for the lessons we've learned, the relationships we've built, and the connections that have come from Glanville Woodworks and Design. And there are a lot of high-end homes in the Coeur d'Alene area with mind-blowingly gorgeous cabinets (my artistic guy is a master craftsman for sure.) So, it's all good. It's life: we live, we learn.

We decided about a year ago that it was time to let it go and move on to a new season -- it's just taken a while to get our proverbial ducks in a row. Peter finished his pre-req classes at SCC last trimester and he's planning on entering their paramedic school in the fall. We put the business on the market in January and thought we had it sold locally until that fell through just weeks before we had to move out of the shop. Yikes! A little stress ensued, but another buyer found us -- this time from LA.

So, at this moment in time (and we have to be out of our house/shop in one week, so we really, REALLY hope everything goes smoothly with this one!) we'll be heading down to California and will be staying for a few weeks (months?) while Peter helps get the shop operational down there and trains the guys. This scenario came as a complete surprise, but a total gift. God is so good to us; He orchestrated this great plan that enables us to sell the shop and have an adventure!

After we are finished in CA, we are going to come back up to the Northwest. Our summer plans are a bit unconventional -- but we are stoked about them! We're going to remodel the vintage Airstream trailer that the family inherited from Peter's grandma and live in it until September at least... maybe longer. Call us crazy, but we are super excited about living small and living lightly and being free to pursue some dreams. Um, yeah -- it needs some work! ...but we are in our element with a restoration project. we thrive on remodeling. taking something ugly and turning it into something beautiful is about the best thing I can think of doing! Living freely. simply. without the anchors of house loans, business loans, business commitments and entanglements --

This opportunity came at exactly the right time in my life -- and to not seize it would be crazy! I've found a level of freedom and peace this last year that my soul has longed for. I feel crazy grateful for the chance to live in grace, walk in freedom and follow the nudging in my heart: to give, to serve, to love, to create -- but all from a place of being at peace deep inside. Peace with myself, peace with others. This chance to let things go and live lightly is the clearest picture I can think of to represent what is going on inside me. And for that, I am thankful. And again, the phrase flows from my heart: be loved. be free. BE LOVED. BE FREE.

So this airstream adventure will just be for a season -- but golly, I am so looking forward to this season! Honestly, nothing sounds more delightful than to take my little family and just the very barest necessities and live in nature in our little silver cabin on wheels for the summer.

And after that... who knows? We're just going to take things one day at a time. We know that Peter will start school in the fall in Spokane -- but other than that, it's wide open. I'll be doing photography and Peter will be doing free-lance woodwork. Free spirits, I think is the right term. A little scary... but oh so exciting.