Back To School And Such.

Hello everyone! Happy Friday the 13th!!!

(Real quick, I actually typed pic captions out this time. You can read them if you let your mouse cursor hover over the pictures.)

We haven’t been up to a whole lot the past couple weeks. We’ve started homeschooling this month…or maybe I should say Unschooling? We’re waiting on our Calvert curriculum to arrive, so in the meantime, we have been taking an eclectic/student-led approach. I thought it would be chaotic and she would only want to play Monster High all day, but I have been pleasantly mistaken! She’s taken the initiative quite a few times, actually, to do work in her Math or English workbooks. Hands down though, this girl’s most favorite thing to do is read! She’s on Book 3 in the Chronicles of Narnia: The Dawn Treader. She’s loving it!

There’s no telling her twice to go outside and collect leaves, and she’s also doing a bit of horticulture for Science. She’s grown her very own tomatoes from scratch AND they’re organic. Ahdoo helped a bit…I kill everything green, so I stay FAR, FAR away for everyone’s sake. :)

     

     

For gym, she’s learning to ride a bike and joins me in Yoga occasionally. For the record, the bike is also tied into Math. She’s been saving her allowance for a few months now, and saved up every penny of the $97.01 necessary to buy it. She paid for it all by herself with her own hard work! We were both so incredibly proud of her!!! (It was also a very important life lesson via Love & Logic. She had originally saved over half the money for it, but spent every dime on Monster High dolls. We had explained to her the consequences of those actions. If the bike showed up in any of the stores after she spent her allowance, we were NOT going to bail her out and buy it for her. It showed up a month later when she only had $20 saved. She was devastated, but she quickly realized the importance of making wise decisions. She worked even harder and rebuilt up her savings in no time, so that she could reach her original goal.) We did end up putting the training wheels back on. They’ll stay on until she learns the mechanics of balancing, turning, stopping and going, lol!

  

In regards to music, she’s very interested in learning recorder and I have been slacking off quite a bit in teaching her piano. I haven’t gotten it out ONCE since we’ve moved here. I know, I know. I need to get on top of that. She was doing really well there back in May when I was being really good about giving her lessons! Social studies is easily taught through us living this lifestyle. I really don’t think I need to go more into that. ;)

Does anyone else’s kid eat their breakfast in full Lotus pose? Weirdo. (I’m so jealous!)

Two weekends ago was Nascar weekend (not that I would’ve known about that if it weren’t for all the rigs here!) and in with that crowd, rolled a nice family that has completely inspired me beyond words!!! They had been living in a tent (by their own choosing) for 2 years and have just recently made the upgrade to a pop-up camper this past May. They have no desire to go back to a Sticks & Bricks home and I really don’t blame them. It’s Mom and Dad (he’s a painter) and their daughter. My daughter is enjoying playing with her every chance she gets and I’m thrilled to meet a fellow female adult!!! Believe it or not, sometimes it gets to be a bit difficult to just hang out with people under the age of 8 all day long. (Conveniently enough, they are parked directly across from us, but I had actually met them through their daughter. Our girls had met each other on the playground and I walked them home once it had gotten dark.) Fabulous family and so incredibly sweet!

  

  

Here’s a few random shots from the past 2 weeks:  

      

     

She was so happy to get a baby carrier for her favorite baby. Oh, she also figured out how to get to the snacks in the pantry. She was in so much trouble…good thing she’s cute!

        

Here’s a couple more shots of my other adorable girl child.

     

For the record, it isn’t always easy to take photogenic pictures of my family…

  

And…well, this just isn’t cool. At. All. Who left these all for me to do?

The past 2 weeks with me quitting smoking could be summed up by this look.

I’ve been without an actual cigarette for *almost* 2 weeks now, and I’ve been without even an e-cigarette for 4 days now. I’ve had a couple melt-downs over insignificant things and I’ve been EXTREMELY MOODY, but other than that, quitting smoking is going really well. (I haven’t had any cravings at all yet…probably because I’m actually weaning myself off nicotine…for once.) I’ve quit so many times in the past. Always cold turkey and obviously, all have been epic fails. But, this time it seems different. It feels different. I know that it’s going to be for good now. My one fear though is that I’ll gain weight, but I realize that’s a stupid thing to worry about. That only happens when you replace smoking with eating and that isn’t happening for me. I have been drinking a LOT of water though…which I’ve been needing to get back into anyways. So, to summarize, it’s an across the board win-win-win situation for me. (Not to mention the money we’re saving!) ;)

And here’s a couple random nature shots. Do shoes in gravel even count as a nature shot? I’m thinkin’ that today they do…

     

I just realized that I have a few night shots that I would like to share with you. For me, one of the best parts about living this life is the frequent campfires! Full-timing is really akin to luxurious camping! For us, that’s like a dream come true!  ;)

My Husband took this incredible shot of the first quarter moon! It took us quite awhile to finally narrow the three perfect shots down to this one. We think it shows the craters and the shading of the moon the best.

I really just share these spider pics to torment my best friend. This guy was a lot bigger than the one in our last spider pic. He is about 2 inches big, leg to leg. We let him live too. He wasn’t posing a “threat” to my home and his home was gloriously spun. I didn’t want to ruin it or him. Btw, he isn’t venomous…otherwise, his life would’ve been cut short rather quickly.

Me in our office…right now, lol. I’m writing this blog, while scanning every picture from MHG’s new Celtic designs coloring book to the computer so I’ll always have copies, trying to keep up with my fellow RVers on FB, checking my email, picture editing and all of this while refereeing my girls. Whew! Lucky for me, this is not a daily occurrence. (I haven’t even done anything REALLY productive all day. Chores will just have to wait a bit longer I suppose.)

Last but not least, my Mother-in-law thinks I’m so boring cuz I’m not a fan of my girls having all kinds of toys with fancy bells and whistles. Although I love that woman to death, there occasionally is something we don’t agree on. Basically, if it takes batteries, I’m not on board. I honestly do not think we have a single toy in here that takes batteries… Anyways, I AM however, a huge fan of toys that encourage kids to use their imagination, i.e. puppets, puzzles, blocks, wooden play food, etc. I am also a fan of toys made from materials such as sustainably grown/harvested wood (Haba, Hape, SOME Melissa & Doug stuff, and the like), recycled plastic (Green Toys), sprig toys and preferably toys NOT made in China. For the most part, the aforementioned toys really hold up a heck of a lot longer, are better for the environment once disposed of, and most are of heirloom quality, so I will have no problem saving them to pass on through the next generations. It should be noted that Monster High anything does not fall into any of the above categories, but that is fighting a losing battle. I seceded years ago.

  

  

So, to wrap things up, we have Cindy putting together her shapes puzzle that she loves to death, and we have MHG playing with something for once that ISN’T Monster High. They are Rory Story Cubes and they are one of the most fun games to play ever! They are basically dice with a different picture on each side. You draw as many as you want, lay them out, and make up a story from the pictures you drew. It makes for some hilarious stories, fun bonding time together as a family and the best part is they don’t take up much room! (That’s always a plus when you live in an RV.) P.S. The also KICK BUTT to take on the road for road trips! (I’m sayin’ this to you my fellow road warriors!)

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you soon! Shoot us a message over at our Boho Hobos Facebook page if there’s anything that I can help you with…or even if you would just like to say hello. :) We just hit 100 likes today and I think that’s really special that so many people are interested in our crazy life! Until next time…