Another Birthday!

It was my birthday on Sunday! Although I didn't get to laze about all day, I did get to have dinner with my family. I had a wonderful dinner and homemade chocolate cake. Yum! My birthday is always a time of reflection for me. As I get older, I find that I dwell on the goals I had set for myself. This year was no different. Last year had its ups and downs for me. I did well in school...managed to maintain a 4.0. I was invited to join Phi Theta Kappa and the National Scholars Honor Society. That was one of the highlights. Another was my first year as a grandmother. The lowest point was losing my small business. I really love working from home. Because of the changes in our living arrangements, I no longer have a land line, which is necessary for what I was doing. I hope that I will be able to find something else that I enjoy as much and that I can do while living "on wheels". Although I am not currently in school, I hope to take online classes in the Fall. I think that should give me plenty of time to adjust to our new lifestyle.
This week has also brought some sadness. Down the hill from us in a huge 5th wheel trailer there lives an older gentleman named Ralph. The 78 year old is a caretaker here at the RV park, and so is a "permanent" resident. He lives alone. Ralph always stops with a friendly "hello" for the girls as he drives his work truck with it's wooden trailer up the hill and past our trailer. On Tuesday morning we awoke to a commotion down the hill, and the sound of sirens. Ralph had a stroke. We offered to help in any way we could, as he was taken away by the ambulance. We have not heard anything since. I am sure that the park management will not say anything, so as not to alarm the guests. My heart goes out to Ralph. I hope that he has family to care for him.

Abuelo turns 97 years old!

Here is the handsome gent with his namesake, Little Rafael, and his oldest grandson, Ryan.

Starting out the New Year...

The Ortega girls had a nice quiet New Year's Eve at home. We played board games and put together puzzles as we waited to toast in the New year with apple cider. My girls are also big on the Jonas Brothers...sigh :( So we watched them on TV. On New Years Day we did our usual activities,a bike ride around the RV park, were it was a beautiful sunny day and a short hike with the dogs. Ani gave all three of the girls binoculars for Christmas, which make our walks and hikes a lot more fun. We had a change in plans, however, as we got a wonderful surprise. Ani and Alvin brought the twins up! We showed them around a took a stroller friendly walk through the RV park. We had such a great time...To top it off, USC won the Rose Bowl! I hope everyone else had as nice a start to their year too!

A New Year!

Wow! So much has happened since I last posted to this blog!It's a new year, with a great many new changes! We are going to have a new President, gas prices are down and people in general seem so much more optimistic! We had a lot of changes as a family. Kaelyn had a birthday & she is 5 years old! She is now a big kindergartner. :)Haley had a birthday too! She turned 7 on Halloween.. A few days before Christmas, the twins had their first birthday!
However, our biggest change as a family came in November. We no longer live in a regular "stick" house. We are officially full time RVing! We have a 37' trailer. We are currently in Acton, California. Acton is beautiful, we are in the mountains. It's a nice change after several years in the desert. It is strange to go to the post office and see a sign advising customers not to tie their horses to the rails! lol. We will probably be here until mid-January. We are enjoying "camping full-time" and have already had many adventures. Being city girls, we are not used to seeing much wild life. We have already seen raccoons, rabbits and coyotes. We were actually snowed in!Adjusting to our new life has been interesting. We were already homeschooling, so it was just a matter of establishing a routine. Our trailer has a separate bunk house, so the girls have their own space. The biggest adjustment was living in a much smaller space with a lot less "stuff". I think it is really a good experience. We are realizing just how materialistic we had become. I do miss my washer and dryer. The RV park has its own laundry facilities, but it's not the same...lol. We also shop for groceries a bit more frequently.On the other hand, we are fortunate enough to have a full sized refrigerator. Although RVing with children has not turned out to be very difficult, RVing with pets is another matter! I can no longer put the dogs into the back yard and let them run around to do their business. They have to be walked...frequently. I can't let them out alone for fear of coyotes and hawks. So, I get up at the butt-crack of dawn to walk them, no matter how cold it is, and I can't go to bed at night until they've been walked, rain or snow. As the old saying goes...every cloud has a silver lining. I have lost 10 lbs with all the extra exercise! All in all, we are really enjoying ourselves. We'll be posting more about our new life.
Happy New Year everyone!

Our Dream Rig

We think we have found our dream RV! We went to the RV show at the Pomona Fairplex this week. There were so many RVs and trailers, with just about any option you could dream up. Many of them were nicer than our house! We found one that we all fell in love with. We have not driven it yet, so we are not 100% sure. The interior space has just about everything we want...There is a king size craftmatic bed, no cheesy RV mattress here. There are bunk beds with drawers underneath, as well as a full sized bed over the cab with it's own sunroof! That was a huge hit with the girls. It has a washer dryer option and comes with a bathroom and a half. There also appears to be plenty of storage. Another feature that was a big hit with the girls was the number of TVs the RV comes with, there are 5! Although anyone who know me knows I am not big on TV. Oh, and did I mention...it looks very cool! It is called the Supernova "Grand Hotel" 6400.

On the down side, the dinette table appeared to be very wobbley and there was no oven. Since it is out of our original price range, it may be a while before you see us pull up in it. :)

Makin' jam

Yesterday we made jam for the first time! We received several pounds of peaches. Rather than have them go bad, we decided to try our hand at jam. It turned out rather well and we had a great time! As a matter of fact, we have already eaten a jar and a half. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I found an awesome website with recipes, and even pictures: www.pickyourown.org. Since we have picked close to 50 lbs of apples, we plan to try apple butter next.

Thomas Jefferson Education

A couple of years ago, another home schooling mom told me about a book called “A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century” by Oliver Van DeMille. I was interested enough to purchase the book, however I actually never got around to reading it. I finally read it this week. I find the concept behind this method of teaching to be very intriguing. The basic concept is to raise future leaders through the use of the classics and mentor, as opposed to what the author refers to as “conveyor belt” education. After reading this book, I believe that this method would produce a well rounded, educated student. I am planning on researching this a bit more. If you are home schooling or planning to, this may be something to look into. Here are some resources: http://www.gw.edu/
http://www.tjed.org