Saturday Surfing

A collection of links and images from around the web that interest and inspire me.  Ideally published weekly.

  • Today is a travel day for me of a very different sort - via air instead of RV! We're working on a large project for a client based in Amarillo, Texas and I'm headed up to spend the day onsite with them tomorrow. While we work with clients that are all across the country and even abroad, we don't typically get face time with them outside of video calls. Or if we do, it's fit into our summer roadtrips. In this instance the project was big and complex enough to warrant some in-person discovery and strategy sessions, so off I went this morning on my first #businesstrip in years. It feels a little bit like an adventure and a little bit scary to be flying away from Chris and the girls. Luckily it's just one night and then I will be back to our normal home routine...and tonight I'll admit I might be looking forward to sleeping all night with no 2-year-old interruptions. 😁
  • A rare photo of our cat, Pixel, who, of late has taken to spending her days sleeping under comforters and quilts on various beds. Pixel goes with us on all our trips, which is sometimes surprising to people, but when we were living fulltime in the trailer she got used to it, and she does pretty well on the road...never even tries to leave the trailer. We do crate her and bring her in the truck on drive days since the trailer can get really hot when towed, but otherwise that's the only disruption to her cushy lifestyle. 😁 Also, we learned this summer that having a cat is no guarantee that you won't get mice! A mouse must have crawled up a stabilizer or wheel and into the bottom, but it made it into our pantry and was nibbling our bread with no fear for its life... and Pixel apparently was shirking her guard cat duties in favor of lazing about, so Chris had to get a trap to catch it.
  • Relatively frequently people ask me how I do it - run a business, travel, and parent three kids. While there are occasionally (seriously, occasionally) moments when I do feel like super mom who is making it all work together beautifully, there are also lots of moments when I feel like I'm barely holding things together or when things are falling through the cracks.⠀ ⠀ As of last night, I am now 2 for 2 on failing to come through as the tooth fairy for someone's first lost tooth. This sweet girl, who used to cuddle on my lap while I worked just 10 or 15 hours per week, is now 6.5 and has been anxiously awaiting losing her first for more than a year. She watched as her sister and friends lost teeth and kept wondering when it would be her turn. Finally, finally, she lost a tooth last night...and then she actually *lost* the tooth. We stopped tears with promises that it was OK and the tooth fairy would still come, all she had to do was write a note explaining what happened. She wrote the note, put it under her pillow and went to bed expectantly.⠀ ⠀ After tucking them in, I sat down to update slides for a workshop I taught this afternoon (nothing like the last minute). I worked until 1:30, went to bed and completely forgot about the tooth fairy. Chris did too. It was one of those #parentingfails that really eats at you, and the sort of thing that I'll admit happens way more than I wish it would, given all the balls we're trying to keep in the air. ⠀ ⠀ I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, expect to say work-life balance is really hard, disappointing your kids sucks, and just in case you were wondering there is nothing magical and no superpowers happening around here. Fingers crossed, tomorrow is a better day.
  • Home again, home again! I thought I'd take a break from latergramming to update on current happenings. We're not one of those amazing homeschool families who can balance travel, work, and schooling, so this week we hauled it back (in an epic 14 hour drive) to get home in time for the start of school. Plus this will be the perfect opportunity to get the damage assessed and fixed from the massive tire blowout we had in early July that resulted in a hole in our undercarriage and torn off flashing. We have a nice long driveway and added a 50 amp plug when we rennovated the house last year, so the trailer is just about fully functional when we're home with water and electric, just no sewer. Chris worked his behind off to get it cleaned out and now we're waiting on the insurance adjuster to come assess the damage and provide an estimate for repairs.
  • Here it is! #oregonstatecapitol. I always love when we get surprised with a non-domed Capitol building, and the ones from the 20's and 30's are some of my favorite with their fabulous #artdeco style. More pictures in my stories.