The Great Hippie Road Trip!

Things have been rough around the Vardo so far this year. Things are starting to turn around, and I want to keep this trend going with a super awesome vacay! We need something to look forward to, and we need a grand adventure.

I have been thinking that the Witchlings and I should start off the summer with an adventure! My stepdaughter is coming out for the summer again, and I thought that Bug, Mojo, my dog Mal, and I could pack up the car and take a camping adventure across the country, pick up LaLa, and continue our trek back. 

I have this Route in mind so far, which will take us through Santa Rosa NM to see the Blue Hole the first day, Keystone State Park in Tulsa OK to camp the second night,then on to Terre Haute, IN to see friends the third day. We will then spend a few days with family and friends in Indiana and to pick up LaLa. 

On our way home, we plan to stop in Memphis TN, second day we will see Crater of Diamonds in Oaklahoma, then the third night somewhere in the area of Midland, TX. I am open to suggestion here, I picked Midland because of driving time, not coolness.

 I would LOVE to get input from all of you for tips and tricks for road trips with 3 kids (3, 8, and 13) and a dog, places to see, and even any neat gear or camping trips. 

I have also started a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise some funding for this trip! Donate if you can, share if you could, and if nothing else, leave me a comment to let me know if I'm nuts, or to cheer me on.

H.W.

Update on the Allegro

We have now been living in the Allegro for a little over 2 months. I still love it more than I dislike it, but when  the weather is bad or my Dad is having a bad day as far as Dementia, it gets pretty small. Even though we are making plans to move Dad into a Memory Care facility (This is the result of MUCH convincing of me by the nursing service that I have done all I can do and it is in his and our best interest. More on that later.) in the near future, we are still crowded, but determined to see this plan through

I have begun to call it The Vardo. This is the Roma name for the Gypsy wagons the Roma used to live and travel in. Because we are looking to potentially be here for six months while we go through the process of cleaning up our credit and get a loan to buy land and/or a home, my Mom came down two weeks ago and helped me spruce things up.

If you did not see my earlier post about it, here is what it looked like before.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate paneling? Yeah, it's a deep-seated hatred. So with it's nickname of The Vardo in mind, I set my plan in motion. Both my Mom and The Hubs thought I was nuts when I showed them my paint choices. They are bright and gaudy and awesome. If I'm gonna do a thing, I'm gonna DO IT! Their doubts were assuaged by the 2nd day when what I was seeing in my head began to take shape. A modern twist on the decadently garish Gypsy style. Love it or hate it, I present The Vardo

Not much altar space, but a Mason jar terrarium and my Buddah fit in the corner.

We put up a curtain as a "door" to separate our bed and the bathroom area to give the illusion of privacy.

I added more plants since. I put up coat hooks and hung the plastic buckets by one handle

Kind of hard to see, but I covered the mauve upholstery on the seat cushions with blue twin sheets. I secured them with sheet straps, crossed over, underneath. They stay put when going up and down between table and bed. 

This wall is right at the entrance. I used stencils.

Obligatory Instagram shot. I plan to hang two more curtains, one on each side, across the front to hide the "cabin". I really hate the mauve curtains, but the front faces more or less South and they are blackout curtains. They keep out a lot of heat and blinding light from the Arizona sun. 

What you cannot see is that we organized each overhead cabinet and it was amazing how much stuff The Vardo can hold and still be relatively neat and organized. I say "relatively" because I have 2 kids and 2 dogs...something is always messy.

I still have to finish the bed/bath area, but it is such an improvement! I love it even more now. 

When we get somewhere more permanent, The Vardo will become either an actual camper for trips, or a guest house, depending on how expensive making it road worthy will be. Until then, it's our little Home Sweet Home.Gypsy Junkies Axel Caplet Boxy Long Sleeve Tee at Free People - Black (Google Affiliate Ad)Cotton Tale Gypsy 3-Pc. Wall Art Set (Google Affiliate Ad)Gypsy Junkies Mimi Tunic (Google Affiliate Ad)Gypsy Junkies Mimi Tunic (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Karate Bug

So, about a month ago we signed our Jilly-Bug up for karate. She had gone with a friend to Buddy Day at the studio in town and fallen in love with it. Keep in mind, she has been telling us for years that she has "karate skills". This proclamation is always followed by a volley of kicks and flailing of arms that is reminiscent of someone who has just walked into a spider web.
A few days later, we received a postcard from the studio offering half off a 3 class trial and a free uniform. We signed up for the 3 classes, and she really did well. You could see her enthusiasm, as well as her rapt attention to the instructors. We signed her up as a full student.
In the last month, she had worked her tiny butt off and earned her 1st tip. I have learned that she needs 2 tips before she can test for her yellow belt, which should be in July.
So this makes me hope we can put Mojo in the "Little Dragons" class when she turns four. If I knew I had a babysitter to take them too, I would take the adult classes. Until then, three cheers for Jilly!

Karate T-Shirt (Google Affiliate Ad)KARATE KID COLLECTION BY MACCHIO,RALPH (DVD) [4 DISCS] (Google Affiliate Ad)

Puppy Love... and Loss

Two weeks ago I took a big step and went to an "intake" appointment to begin to get myself some help for my growing anxiety and depression issues. It was very hard for me. One of the major problems for me is talking to people about my anxiety just increases my anxiety because my issues are becoming more and more  social. Apparently  I used up all my "faking it" to pretend I was ok on the Indiana trip. It was like as soon as I held it all together for that, I just let the basket slip the rest of the way out of my hands. I am becoming paralyzed by any little situation that might have the slightest bit of discomfort or confrontation for me. Thank Goddess for Blogger because it is that degree of separation to talk about things.

One of the the things we discussed for my plan was to start training my dog Harlow to be my Service/Comfort animal. We were going to get that ball rolling the beginning of November, and I went home and began to work on reminding Harlow of  the training he already had so he would be ready to go through the "official" training.

That was on a Friday.

On Sunday, Jilly went to take Harlow outside to potty, as she has 100 times over the past year and a half, and he bit her. She didn't startle him, she wasn't rough, she didn't do anything to warrant it. She was raised around dogs and knows how to act around them. I saw the whole incident  and I have no idea what happened or why.

 He didn't break the skin, she inherited her mother's reflexes I guess. I can't tell you how many potentially serious bites I have avoided over my years working with dogs. The problem was, he didn't snap at her...he attacked her. He barked, snarled, and knocked her down to go after her. She saved herself from the first bite, me pulling him off her saved her from whatever he was planning to do.

I knew immediately we would have to find Harlow a new home. I love that dog, I can't say how much, but he is a large Standard Poodle and I am shaking right now thinking how much he could have hurt either of my girls. When The Hubs came home, I told him what happened and gave him a list of rescue/foster groups he could call the next day. 

I shut down. I was barely functional before, and this had me in a constant state of panic. The Hubs worked his ass off with a local rescue group and arranged for his new owners, a retired couple with no children, to come pick him up on Thursday of last week. In that time, we were both watching Craigslist pretty closely for a new dog. We both agreed that we had to get me a dog for both my anguish at having to give away Harlow, but also to continue with the plans to get the Comfort dog program.

We found an ad form a man who needed a home for his 7 month old Australian Shepherd because his plans to move from an apartment to a house fell through and he felt he was not giving him what he deserved cooped up in an apartment alone all day.When he and The Hubs talked on the phone, he said he had already turned down 4 people, and he would have to come meet us first. Here was a guy who loved his dog, but could not keep him and was taking every effort to make sure he got the right home.  Exactly what we were trying to do.

He came over on Wednesday, spent 2 hours with us so we could all get to know each other and make sure: a) We liked the dog and he liked us

b) He was good with the girls, who he allowed to climb all over him and take his chew toys right out of his mouth

c) He got along with Bruno, our Toy Poodle, who is a little bully

d) His former owner was comfortable that we were the right people for him

We all decided it seemed like a good fit, and so with many tears, he left the Aussie, who we decided to name Malcolm, with us. We promised to keep him posted by email on how Mal was doing from time to time.

The next day, Harlow's new owners came to get him, with a similar degree of care that dog and humans were a good fit. I am ashamed to say I was absent from this process. I took Mal for a walk up Miller Canyon. I knew I was doing the responsible, adult thing by giving Harlow a chance at a home where he would not have to be kept segregated from the family for fear he would hurt the kids, but I was not in a head space to face it.

So for the last week I have been throwing myself into caring for and training Mal so he will be ready for his certification, and to give myself something positive to focus on. I think the only reason giving Harlow away did not put me in the hospital was because Mal was already here. He has already helped me so much. I have had a few panic attacks this week and he always comes right over to me, wanting me to pet him or play fetch with his toy. He already knows his job. Mom is upset, I need to make her happy.

Hopefully everything I have had to let go of in the past few months will have this same theme. Letting go of things that you love deeply, is killing you to lose, and you had wanted for years is horribly painful, but sometimes you have to let go so the next good thing can come.

I hope Harlow feels the same. I hope as much as he loves me he found a better, forever home and people who love him as much as I do.

Dry Erase Crayons FTW!

We are still on 'Summer Vacation' but when I bought supplies a few weeks ago we got some Dry Erase crayons. I had never seen them before, and they were kind of an impulse.

We do a lot of Ladybugs schoolwork on Dry Erase boards. We have the 'workbook' type ones, blank ones, and ones with lines for writing. I even found a cool one that's clear with a removable back so I can put workbook pages in it and reuse them. Dry Erase boards are my friends, Dry Erase markers are not. They get left out without caps and dry up. Mojo likes to draw on the furniture with them. they don't work as well on a vertical surface, like the peel and stick board on the fridge. 

The crayons (the kind we got are Crayola) are smooth, bright, and erase easily. They have the same issue as the markers in that if you wait a while they get harder to erase, but just color over the old writing and then erase.

I'm really glad I bought them, not just because I think we will use the hell out of them, but because when I went on the Crayola site to find out more about them for this post I saw that Crayola has lesson plans on their site. So not only do I have new awesome stuff, I have new awesome resource for home school lesson plans!! The projects I looked at were really cute. Ladybug really likes creative, visual projects, so I think this will be a good match for out schoolwork. There was one for a diorama of Amish quilters that we will probably be making after our next trip to Northern Indiana.

Happy Birthday Mojo!

My little Mojo is 2 years old today!

It has been a hard but wonderful 2 years. Hard because of a lot of stupid life stuff that had nothing to do with my sweet, sweet girl, and wonderful because in the middle of all that crazy I had a little Mini-Me to raise.

When we had Ladybug in 2004 it took us a year and a half to get pregnant. I had a difficult pregnancy, followed by an induced labor that resulted in an emergency c-section. We decided not to have any more children, because it was just too much. Flash forward to 2008. Both the Hubs and I were feeling strongly that we were meant to have another child, but neither wanted to say it to the other. When I finally broached the subject, the Hubs jumped right on board. I prayed and meditated, at one point getting a clear message that there was a child waiting, quite impatiently, for us to have.

 We made an appointment with the OB/Gyn to see if I would be taking too much of a risk, given my history with my 1st pregnancy and got medical clearance to go forward. That was a Monday. I stopped taking my  birth control pills that day, and literally got pregnant that weekend. That's why we call her Mojo, we had the baby mojo workin'! The pregnancy was even harder. I bled a lot just like the first time, afraid every month I was going to lose her and ended up on full bed rest, with the Hubs having to take a lay off to take care of me and Bug. The birth was better, since we just scheduled a c-section, but was followed with severe postpartum  depression, but that's a whole other story. 

No matter the tough pregnancy, no matter the months of darkness that followed, Mojo is a gift that the Universe handed right to us from the Lord and Lady. I would go through it all again to have her, a baby I didn't even think I wanted a few years ago, and then suddenly I opened my heart and she came pouring into me. Now, two years later, I feel as if we are walking out of a dark patch in our lives where she and Bug were 2twoof the few points of light, and into a place as bright and beautiful as they are. Happy Birthday to my Magickal girl.

H.W.