The Story of a Lifetime: Total Randomness

Outside my window....

Ice. And a ton of it. On March 18th.

I am thinking...

Single random one sentence thoughts.

We're not in Texas anymore.

Texas really is a state of mind.

Texas: It's a whole other country.

Homesick.

People do not know what it is to just live in peace here.

18 more months.

Westward bound.

Dragging up stakes.

Heading home.

1700 miles back the other direction.

It's time to go home.

101 Reasons to Live in Texas:

#75 - Texans of all political stripes are usually super serious about their freedom and think everyone should be able to do whatever the heck they want as long as it's not hurting anyone.

Fact: Everyone lives by that code within the state of Texas.

Fact: The rest of the world does not think like that.

Transplants that did not transplant so well.

The grass is not always greener.

14 people back the other direction.

I miss Texas freedom.

Hatted ranchers. Booted cowboys. Single finger lifted by pickup driving old men....sheer respect for existence beyond themselves.

Love Project is over now.

Oct. 2015. Westward Bound.

Home...where the southwest winds blow, people are kind, moon sits like an orb of liquid gold on horizon, Milky Way unfurls a silver ribbon through dark night sky.

Family. Friends.

Mom, Dad, Brother, Pawpaw.

Going home.

There could be no better depiction of large family life in this state. Perhaps of large family life as a whole anywhere.

I am thankful for....

Cardinals that outnumber anything I have ever seen in life...that sit as perfectly perched crimson ornaments on every branch outside our bedroom window...that mesmerize in early morning light. Cardinals that fly across driveway in mass as we slowly creep down in diesel running truck. Trees that tuck us away from all of the world. For a time in life to live in this physically beautiful place. Beloved, faithful dog that runs in freedom for the first time in 2 1/2 yrs. For the time and people we have been given here before it is time to head home. For a plan to go home. For all the experiences we have had and continue to have as we are grown and changed and transformed into something better than we ever were before. For the people that have been used to grow us and teach us about life. ..everything I want to be and don't want to be...for all the impact they have made on us and within the lives of our children. For all the good and all the bad....it's helping us raise them. An amazing Boy Scout troop. Opportunities to travel. The most amazing scout master I have ever known. People that willingly donate their time on cold sleeting nights to come speak, educate kids, and the ability to help a 16 year old achieve Eagle within his lifetime. For a diesel beast that sits quietly in driveway and will oneday see the road again. For the light hearts of children that keep us laughing continuously with their funny antics and the absurdity of all that we continue to encounter. Windows....absolutely everywhere. Sunlight. No paneling. No sickness. Concrete floors. Overwhelming gratefulness for our house of light and sun and love and laughter.

I am wearing.....

4 shirts, 3 pair of sweat pants, 5 pair of socks, 2 hats, 2 pair of gloves and a ski mask under about 5 blankets.

I am hearing.....

a ton of rowdy boys playing an intense game of football on playstation, a lot of boy laughter, a lot of male rough housing and a 5 yr old girl right in the big middle of it all telling them the next play to make.

I am pondering....

how a week's worth of P90X can so convince a person that sexy has met its match, that despite any past pictures the present moment is the best one has ever looked or felt, and continue on to make one delusional enough to actually think they possess enough strength and endurance to conquer Everest...until they attempt to climb 5 lone steps...and can only make it up 3. Feel the burn.

I am wondering......

if all that we have been through has prepared us for such a time and place as this.

I am reading...

I am going.....

to someday remember the lines we had going for two bathrooms and I will laugh then like I do now at the absurdity of what it must look like and all the people running back and forth between bathrooms trying to find a free one. The view from outside looking in will forever be a comical one.

I am smelling...

coffee and baking bread.

I am noticing....

that attempting to clean 1500 sq ft with 14 people in it is the absolute epitome of insanity....or seriously like eating Oreos while brushing your teeth. And that maybe living on white concrete floors on a farm where red mud runs rampant with 12 outside loving kids will develop character, patience, an undeniable ability to overlook some stuff and truly be at peace with the fact that your house might really never be spotlessly clean....because it is indeed an impossible feat. But....it is ALL absolutely wipeable and disinfectable and it's NOT carpet. Amen.

I am remembering.....

shift night, perfect, steamy, quiet bubble bath in huge deep tub, long past bedtime....and a little voice on the other side of the door

"Mom, did you get your beer and candles??? Mom!!! Can you hear me? Did you get your beer and candles???"

Me: "Oh Ivye....are you serious?!?! You cut your hair AGAIN?????"

Ivye, unexcitedly and rather dully: "Oh. No ma'am, that wasn't me. Baby A did that.

"WHY would you let him do that??? You now have even worse bangs than you did before. You're 5. He's THREE. Why do you keep letting him cut your hair??"

Ivye: "Well....I can't help it if he hides the scissors under his pillow."

Apparently little safety, art scissors are perfectly capable of styling hair and inflicting bangs....over and over...and over...again.

And just maybe that's why bed sheets have recently begun resembling the beginnings of a new origami passion????

Life in pics......

Busy.

Celebrating freedom.

Off the trolley and happily within the boundaries.

Big enough to finally join the big guys outside....and pretty happy about it.

Her real live baby doll.

When all grows quiet.

Roaming in freedom.

Hard working boys.

Blessed are those who persevere for they shall eventually conquer. Yep. I did it. After years and years..and more years...of kitchen tantrums and adapting the vocabulary of a sailor. Behold the glory.