This past month has been…frustrating, enlightening, and humbling for the Driven to Educate gang.  We’ve had several problems with our motorhome, although most of them have been minor.  Thank God Dan can fix almost anything.  It was during this time of breaking and repairing that we found out that the warranty that we thought came with the RV when we bought it, had been cancelled.  Not good.  (We’re still trying to get that straightened out.)  Then, on the day that we were planning to drive home to Memphis for a week our van broke down.  ARRGGGG!  We towed the van home and put it in the shop.  Then we took the RV to the shop to repair the electric water heater (it hasn’t worked since Chicago, but luckily we have a propane back-up heater).  All of this chaos was followed by a week of refocusing at home.  We were able to talk, without our children present, about how the trip was going – what was working and what wasn’t, about our expectations and our desires.  In the end we decided to make a few changes. 

For one, we plan to slow down.  We’ve been moving pretty fast to try to avoid the winter in the northwest.  We don’t really like the thought of driving this 40 foot rig plus the van through snowy, mountainous terrain (have you seen pictures of the San Juan Skyway?).  But we also don’t like rushing.  Our best days are the days that we aren’t in a hurry.  Our best weeks are the ones when we aren’t tired from over-doing it.  And the kids retain more of what they’re seeing when we don’t try to show them too much at once.  We’ve decided that we’d rather savor the journey along the way, even if it means we have to miss some really great things in the northwest. 

We also have to contend with rising gas prices, and if we don’t want to be forced home then we have to be more frugal now.  That means planning ahead a little better.  We can’t just move because the schedule says it’s time to go.  We have to look at how far it is to the next city, how much the gas will cost, how much will camping cost there, how many attractions are there to see and how expensive are they.  In the end, we may need to wait until the next pay check rolls around before we move on. We’ve also learned that we stink when it comes to food prep.  We eat a lot of junk because we aren’t well prepared or we eat out, which is even worse because we can’t really afford it.  After much research, I think I may have found the answer…menus4moms.com!  This is a FREE service that emails you a weekly menu, complete with recipes and shopping list.  I admit, this is the first week I’ve used it, but so far I love it!  See what you think.

We are also very cognizant of God working in our midst.  This trip provides us all with such amazing growth opportunities, many that we didn’t expect (that’s just like God, isn’t it?).  For example, I am by nature very controlling.  I like things to be organized and I like structure.  This was evident in our homeschool when we were in a “stick house”.  We had a schedule that we followed daily and weekly.  I always had a plan.  On the road it is almost impossible to have a schedule because every day is different and much of it I can’t control.  By necessity, our lives are very fluid.  Unfortunately, I don’t do fluid very well, but I think that God intends for me to learn to.  I need to let go of my pride and the illusion of control and know that everything will not fall apart.  The kids will not degenerate into little monsters if they don’t have a rigid schedule.  Things will still get done, they’ll just be done differently.  Everything will be fine.