Have Doula, Will Travel

I seem to be obsessed with thinking of ways to bring in an extra buck right now, during our crunch time. It's really not all that crunched, but close enough to be uncomfortable. It's the whole 2 mortgages thing that is absolutely draining us. It sucks. I know our situation will change. I know our boys are only little for right NOW, and that, someday, I will actually have the time to work for $money$. I seem to cycle through this feeling every couple of years, then the need dissolves when I realize which chapter of my life I'm living right now. I was thinking it would be fun to be a traveling doula, though! Heck, maybe someone out there would just connect with me and my wacky ways and hire 'that doula that lives in a bus', over a stationary one! Ya never know!

We were all set to go to a coffee roasting tour today in Temecula, only to arrive to find the shop a few employees short, so they had to turn us all away. So, instead, a group of us decided on the park and the boys had a wonderful time playing and exploring with new friends. We even met a lovely unschooling family....ahhh....big sigh of relief... It's been a while, well over a month to be exact, that we've been around such wonderful energy. It was nice. Sue has a sweet little girl turning 8 on the 16th, and our sweet little boy turns 8 on the 11th, so she suggests we do a combo birthday party at her house! It's happening on Monday. Gotta love someone that throws that out there after only just meeting you! Again, it was nice.

John is back at work after his scrumptious 17 day break! I got really used to us all being together all the time. Now, we're figuring out how to be without him, even if it is only for a couple of hours in the evening. He's such a trooper, working all night, and then getting up WITH us in the morning. He just doesn't want to miss out on time with his family. What a man! He came with us today, and there's a park day tomorrow from 2-4 that we'll be taking tricked out cupcakes to that he'll probably attend as well. (sorry for that poor sentence structure!)

Tricked out cupcakes, you say? Well, that's the only way I could describe Saylor's plans to 'spray paint' his white frosted cupcakes with baaaaaaaad Red (number god only knows?) frosting spray decorating stuff. It is *his* birthday, after all! :) Which, it seems, he'll be celebrating from today on through next Monday. Not too shabby! We went to an army surplus store while we were in Temecula and got him exactly what he wanted: a flint and ---sit down for this one, mom! --- a machete. We've had many conversations about how/when/why to use a machete, and we trust him and know he will maintain that trust. One of those conversations was that Dad and I really feel most comfortable with him using it if one of us is *with* him. He can live with that== happily, I might add.

All the boys had to build a fire as soon as we returned back to the bus. They were successful at their first attempt of flint fire starting. Cool! Saylor also grabbed a $6 pouch of freeze dried macaroni and cheese, just to see what it was all about. He tried it, it was disgusting, went in the garbage. Six bucks in the trash...well, I'm trying to remember it was about the 'experience', not the food.

The 3 younguns and I went for a shower before John left for work. We've been showering in the campground's shower house because the water is really hot, nice full water pressure, and you can shower for longer than 4.5 minutes! It was getting comical trying to shave my legs in our bus shower, having to shut the water off and rinse my razor in a dish in order to have enough hot water left to rinse my hair. Now, we shower, or bathe as Stone and Sage would have it. I just haul over one of our big Rubbermaid tubs and they're happy as fishies! And clean, at least for a short time!