Hello, friends and family.  The wandering worldschoolers and homeless house-sitters are doing quite well, thank you. We have less than three weeks before leaving Nebraska. Where will we go next?

South Carolina

With a stop or two in between.

We are extremely excited to sit a 25-acre family farm — wood stove and all — as I continue to write books and we continue to home and worldschool.

The farm owners are heading to Mexico. We are enlisted to care for their dogs, cats, chickens and more. We are, after all, professional housesitters.

Will wood-cutting help me to muscle up some?  I sure hope so. The farm-sit adventure begins the first week of January.  Plenty of incentive to split wood for the furnace.

What about December?

Great question!  Sobering response.  We just learned that Denielle’s dear aunt has been diagnosed with leukemia.  The bad news is her aunt isn’t expected to live long.  We will miss her terribly.  We are praying night and day for her. The good news?  God in His great wisdom has dropped some heavenly manna on us.  A family in Kentucky, where Denielle’s aunt is from, has accepted our application to sit their home and pets.  Interestingly, Denielle and I had agreed to sit a home in Seatle, WA during this time.  Thankfully, the homeowner understood our predicament and hopefully found another sitter.

The good news?  God in His great wisdom has dropped some heavenly manna on us.  A family in Kentucky, where Denielle’s aunt is from, has accepted our application to sit their home and pets.

Going to Kentucky for a few weeks will give Denielle precious time to visit with her aunt.  We will then spend the holidays with my folks in Georgia.  While there, Denielle will drive down to Florida and meet up with her aunt for a visit to Harry Potter World.  A check mark for Nana’s bucket list.

Family update

A quick update on all the crew members …

The Teenager

Kaelyn is working part time at Chic-fil-A and constantly asks, “Can I drive?”  She has her permit and working toward her full license. Scary, I know.

She gives her two-week notice this week.  Kaelyn loves her job and was just promoted to work the drive-thru window. That would scare me.

She is also helping to illustrate some of my children’s books.  She is quite the artist!

The Bookworm

Casey has read close to 10,000 pages of books while in Nebraska.  What a feat!  I can’t keep up with her unabated book-reading.  She’s even on goodreads!

But she hasn’t written a book … yet.  Just saying.

The Scouter

Neil is, well, Neil — a sensitive spirit and a teaseful, but well-meaning, pre-teen.  It looks as though he will receive his Arrow of Light here in Nebraska.  He likes it here and doesn’t want to leave.  I think he may have said that about Indiana.

He is also busy feeding me brilliant ideas for my books.  He has quite the imagination.  We have a story about an orphan and a dragon we are working on.  It’s a hard-knock life.

The Whistler

Clifford smiles and whistles all the day long.  If only I could bottle up his cheerfulness and sell it on Amazon!

He too enjoys scouting but wonders if the worldschooling life is for him.  He said he would give it a year or two and let me know.  Meanwhile, you can catch him at the park, in the woods, or climbing a tree.

The Princess Ninja

Lil’ Lydia is simply a princess, well, a princess ninja.  When around her dad, she shines.  But behind our backs, she metaphorically wraps a dark ninja mask around her face, slides two ninja swords into the scabbard hanging from her back, and places a purple tiara on her head tilting it expertly to the front.  And then goes to work stealthily sabotaging the world around us.  The good news here is she’s still alive and healthy and has inspired a potential series of children’s books soon to come forth.

The good news here is she’s still alive and healthy and has inspired a potential series of children’s books soon to come forth.

Mom the Bomb!

Denielle is celebrating her birthday this week.  She is busy homeschooling, preparing a farewell sermon for our congregation, and celebrating her recent accomplishment: over 400 Instragram followers.  Good job, dear.  Keep tweating.  Or instagraming, or whatever.

She is also busy looking up and applying for future house-sits.  Apparently, she doesn’t want to spend time in a tent.  So far, God has been good in the house-sitting department.  She even has our budget just south of $1,500 a month … for a family of seven, mind you (more on that in a future post).  Go Aldis.  Go Costco.  There goes our luxury food, like Nutella for our crepe fete.

The author

And me?  I’m praying that I can do all that God has for me to do before we leave Nebraska.  I have a few Book of Mormons to hand out, some people to invite to church, and a house to deep clean before the homeowner returns.

We are currently fasting each weekend for 30 days for guidance on our current writing marathon and learning God’s will for us before we leave.

But the most significant recent event is I was invited to confer the Holy Priesthood of God on a new friend and ordain him to the office of Elder.  You know, the usual.

You know, the usual.

The end?

Are we snorkeling the waters in Mexico, scaling the mountains in the Himalayas, or eating fine cuisine in the Mediterranean?  Not yet.  Next year.  For now, we are content traveling the states and looking for ways to be tools in the Master’s hands.  And, climbing trees.

November Photo Album

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