Marshmallow does Kansas

Sadie on the road

The world's biggest rocking chair in Casey, Illinois

Super human strength in our family

Sleeping in the van, note Moog's leg over the cooler

A restaurant in Boothbay Harbor where the lobster boats come right up to the dock. Note the working Diesel fuel pump right next to the bussing table.

Hud at sailing camp, Great Pond, ME

So here we are in Maine, staying with my kind parents in the house I grew up in.  After one whole year with no vacations and a serious amount of preparatory work and planning we are finally able to take a deep breath and just STOP for a little while.  We gave up a lot this year as we prepared for our new lives--we didn't travel, we saved every penny we could, and we spent every evening and day off working like fiends towards this goal of buying a sailboat and living on it. We knew it would be hard, but it was way WAY harder than we ever thought it would be, and Trav and I have our first gray hairs to prove it.  (As it turns out, leaving your lives and starting new ones is super labor intensive and stressful.  Keep that in mind if you ever start thinking about taking a trip like this.) But now, for the first time in over a year, we can goof off a little bit. We swim in the pool, we take rides in the boat on Great Pond, we eat Whoopie Pies like they're about to go extinct.  And I keep catching myself thinking about when this vacation is going to end and then remembering, "Oh right, this is how we live now.  IT'S NOT GOING TO END." I won't lie to you, it's a really weird feeling. That's an understatement actually- it's not just weird, it's ALIEN. For as long as I can remember, the end of summer has meant a return to work, a return to school, a return to routine.  Now we have no routine of any kind and to be honest, it's kind of hard to wrap my head around that.  In Telluride, my daily to-do list filled an entire page.  I got used to being stressed, just about every single day about how I would get it all done. Now my daily to-do list reads like this:
1. Run
2. Get dog groomed
3. Pick blackberries
And here's the messed-up part-- I have to keep telling myself that IT'S OK NOT BE BE STRESSED.  Crazy, right?  Travis and I are in the process of re-training our brains that we don't have to be in a rush, we don't have anywhere to be at a certain time, and our responsibiities are few and manageable.  Strangely, it's much harder to do that than it sounds.  And it makes me realize, in a MAJOR way, how much we needed this. Stress isn't good for you.
In other news, my brother is getting married in 2 weeks!  My sister is coming from California in 2 days!  Vivian learned to swim!  Hudson learned to sail! Homeschooling begins in a few weeks! In October, we leave for Florida to start our lives on the boat. Things are happening and life is good. As always, I am grateful.