Over a year ago I was turned onto Sara’s blog Walk Slowly, Live Wildly…I love reading her blog, feeling so warm by her words, enjoying reading another like-minded bloggers thoughts.  Then she announced that her and her fam would be taking to the road in a veggie-oil powered RV.  I was more than intrigued.  I offered a somewhat flat piece of concrete in front of my home for them to park for a few days, little did I know they would actually take me up on my offer.  Their tour the Live Lightly Tour is traveling the country spreading the word about veggie-oil powered vehicles and sustainable living…

Last week they came our way, stayed for a few days and our lives were changed forever.  Matt and Sara are amazing creation-loving Christians.  From the second they arrived Nick and I felt like we had known them forever.  (We continue to wonder if they have that affect on everyone they meet or if we were *special*, I would like to think we are *special*, but I think maybe not.)  We had an amazing weekend of laughter, scooters, redwoods, photography, raw food eating, veggie buying, worshiping, jammin’ (as in Matt and Nick playing music), girl-time, where we squeezed as much into as little time as possible, Thai food, coffee and Borders all before bedtime (thank you Daddy’s).  We had such a wonderful time with the Janssen’s and we would welcome them back anytime, absolutely anytime!

]]> http://twistandshout.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/live-lightly/feed/ twistandshout http://twistandshout.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/im-back/ http://twistandshout.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/im-back/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:57:24 +0000 twistandshout http://twistandshout.wordpress.com/?p=150

I had some major spamming problems, which got me down, then I thought “why the heck do I blog anyway?”, so I went private and now I’m back….

Stay tuned for updates.

On Wednesday night @ 10:33pm Elijah Joseph was born and I there. My best friend Kristy was so amazingly strong during the whole labor and birth. I am so blessed to have been able to be there from start to finish, only sneaking away a few times to nurse Dillon. Thank you Kristy and Greg for allowing me to be a part of Elijah’s birth

We have been strong these days, here are a few things we have done in the past few weeks:

-Dillon and I went to Santa Rosa for my best friend Kristy’s baby shower, Nick stayed home with the other three

-Soaked up the nearly 70degree weather in Humboldt County

-Planted seeds indoors

-Spent many hours “spring cleaning” the yard, still in process

-Rearranged the living room

-Spent time dreaming of adding onto this tiny house

-Found out that two family-ish members are pregnant, both have had losses, so lots of prayers going their way

-Dillon started walking, YIPEE!

-Aidan can read pretty much anything that is 6 letters or less, it is kind of crazy

-Téadora is compleltly day time potty trained

-Aidan is completely diaper free, he was day time potty trained at 2 1/2 but has worn a diaper to bed for until now

-We are still COMPACTING and going strong

Alright, I promise I am going to be better about blogging

Today he turns four. Weird though, he doesn’t seem four, I mean he acts four, does things a four year old would do, but then he looks at me and he is a baby in my arms. Only its better now, he doesn’t scream all the time.

Coda loves being outdoors, loves digging, hammering (he can hammer a nail in better than I can), is obsessed with tools and I mean OBSESSED. He does not love sitting still, reading, watching tv, however his attention span is lengthening. Coda has the most amazing dimples and smile, he has a passion for life and when something doesn’t go his way he will let you know.

For his birthday he wanted to go to the beach and fly kites. So we did. He was interested in flying kites on his birthday for FOUR months leading up to the day, the 10 minute drive to the beach and about .2 seconds once we arrived, then he was on to something else…finding rocks and throwing them in the ocean and digging.

After the beach we came home and had a family party. Coda is on a gluten-free, casein-free diet, so everything at the party followed his diet, even the cake and frosting. It was mighty yummy indeed.

What a wonderful and beautiful day. The kids were amazing, considering they were going, going, going for the entire day. Our day began with a Brunch @ Church, then Church, then an Easter Egg Hunt at the Ingomar Club, then a quick drive to pass some time, then an afternoon meal at the Ingomar Club, then to the cemetery to lay flowers on Grandpa Caroll’s, Grandma Oma’s and Ricky’s (Nick best friend who died @ age 15) graves, then back to Nick’s parents to open Easter presents from Grandma Lende to the kids. Oh and in there while the adults and the babies were still at the Ingomar, Aunt Nonie (Nick’s aunt) took the bigger kids on yet another Easter Egg hunt. And we continued the festivities tonight with a big family dinner, ANOTHER Easter Egg hunt and opening of Easter presents from Nick’s parents to the kids.

Sunday morning was beautiful, sunny and bright, just as I imagine it was on that first Easter Sunday. I am so thankful for our Lord, Jesus Christ for coming and dying and rising again so that we may LIVE.

I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. John 10:10b

Atleast they are all sitting on the same couch, right?!

The sun was bright!

Just the 10 of us! (Easter 200

Today Yesterday I made a quick stop at St. Vinny’s for a few things. I was looking for some small bowls for the kids, we use to have a bunch, I think they eat them :), a travel coffee mug for Nick, he loses them frequently and a hair dryer, mine is on the outs!

So I didn’t find any bowls or a hair dryer, but I did find a travel coffee mug for Nick, a brand new Starbucks Travel Mug for 89cents! And then the Lord truly blessed me. I found a milk crate full of cigarette-lighter adapters, like for to charge your cell phone in your car or plug in your Travel DVD player. We have been without a plug-in for awhile now, even our last trip to Santa Rosa (4 hours away) we went with no DVD player, because we are Compacting and we couldn’t buy one new.  So I ran out to the car got my DVD player, brought it into the Thrift Store and started trying different ones, after about 12 tries I found one that fit for $1.99.  (And yes it works, DVD’s now play in the car again.)  Then I was walking to the register because I had overdone my “just 5 minutes” by like 15 (Nick was in the car with the 4) and I saw a handheld shower head.  I needed it.  It was 99cents and made me so excited.  See our shower is not really a shower it is a bath with a handheld shower head taking water from the bath faucet and bringing it up to shower height.  Ours was broken, not so broken that we couldn’t shower, but broken enough that water sprayed EVERYWHERE!

So for $4.15 Nick has a brand new travel coffee mug, the kids can watch DVD’s on long drives (I will be sane-ish-er on our next out of town trip) and we have a amazing new shower head.  Thank you all you Eureka-ians for your donations to the thrift store.