Today's Gifts: Slower Paced Days & An Avoided Disaster

Since we have arrived, I can say that one of the most refreshing things about this move has been the slow pace of life. My only obligations: checking in on my online class and making sure the bathrooms here are ok! Having time to sit without a constant to-do list swirling in the brain is a gift I do not want to take for granted. I sat for an hour in the grass today, and the boys and I created scenes with lego and cars. I was fully present. 

As for activities, we have been biking and doing just a dab of hiking almost every day. This was from our journey yesterday. We have already met lots of neat people from several places, including FL and Puerto Rico

We sleep with the windows open to hear the water rushing over the rocks and feel the crisp morning air of the mountains. This is what I see when I look of our windows. I love sitting on the rocks along the river as I sing, pray, and read. 

We visited another church last night. I tell you, I am getting some nuggets of experience as we go as visitors. As I mentioned in my last post, I'll write a post as we visit more, but the quote of the night came from an older lady who said to me, "I didn't talk to you earlier, because I thought you were a kid!" I guess there is some unspoken norm that if you are beyond a certain age you should not interact with the kids. Just for the record, they were a really nice group of people.

One of the adjustments I have been making is meal planning/cooking. I have always bought on-sale, in bulk. I have always budgeted $400/month to feed our crew and stay within that almost every month. Because we have very limited fridge/freezer space that is no longer an option. I decided to use the sales ad from the closest local grocery store to purchase meat for the week. All other things, we will be driving a bit further to get. I think I finally got into a good routine yesterday. We had gumbo today/tonight and will grill for the weekend. I hope to be able to stay within our budget. Also, there are several people already set up with produce around here, and we are about 12 minutes away from an apple & peach orchard!

On another note, we left to come here on Thursday, April 26th (our  21st wedding anniversary). We stayed the night in Scottsboro, AL. We reasoned that we would avoid arriving in Chattanooga during rush hour if we waited to leave on Friday. GOD definitely knew what He was doing when he led us to do that. We purchased our camper at a retirement auction. For all purposes, the tires looked to be in really good condition (prior to buying and the day we were leaving for the trip). At one point, I told Johnny the air pressure looked a little low in on of the tires from my view following behind. He pulled over and checked them...all was good.  We arrived in Scottsboro and that morning he was scrolling FB and saw a post from a group we follow that lives full-time in campers. It encouraged people to check their tires. He decided to go into Walmart (we slept overnight in the parking lot in the camper) and purchase a high pressure tire gauge. Once he did that, he called me outside and said, "You have got to come look." All 4 of the tires had separated and the belt/wire was unraveling on 2 of them! We were a disaster waiting to happen! Thankfully, Johnny found a local tire shop that had the kind of tires he wanted to buy. They were so accommodating. We parked across the road from the shop, and they brought the jack over and replaced the tires so we didn't have to unhook and navigate trying to get a huge rig into their lot! The guy changing the tires could not believe it. He said it was indeed a miracle. He said if it had been him, he would have been on side of the road. We were so thankful for His protection the previous night. We have had a blow out before but, this would have been a pretty serious deal. I suspect when one finally gave the added pressure would have encouraged the others to go as well!

Here are a few more pictures of some of our fun this week. Johnny was in MS Tues-Thurs. working, so you won't see his face. Thankfully, he should be on his way back to us as I type!

This past weekend, the campground was completely full and overflowing. There was a 100 mile mountain bike race on the trails that connect to the campground. On Sunday evening when everyone was cleared out, we asked the boys to make a loop on their bikes, and see if anyone left firewood. We wanted to gather it to get us a pile handy. They returned, and said there was not any.  Johnny went later, and look what he discovered.  

Welcome to my life..."Boys, will you get ------- out of the cabinet?" Their response after looking, "It's not in there."  I will never understand.

And for the last picture for today: this is our view as the sun is breaking the horizon!

So far, so good and blessed!

Live a Meaningful Life!