Quote of the Day

"In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it... and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself." --Grace Llewellyn




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Quote of the Day

“So many people have said to me, ‘If we didn’t make children do things, they wouldn’t do anything.’ Even worse, they say, ‘If I weren’t made to do things, I wouldn’t do anything.’ It is the creed of a slave. When people say that terrible thing about themselves, I say, ‘You may believe that, but I don’t believe it. You didn’t feel that way about yourself when you were little. Who taught you to feel that way?’ To a large degree, it was school.” ~John Holt




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Good-bye STUFF

This is what my living room looks like right now...

Most of this stuff, plus the 4 garbage bags you can't see to the left, are going away. This is AFTER an enormous garage sale two weekends ago. That means there's progress, right?

It is amazing to me how much STUFF a family of five can accumulate.

Since we've started paring down for the trip, I have been hyper-aware of the pervasive marketing of crap by every store, every commercial, every sign...I mean, yeah, I'm normally a pretty aware person. But wow. We are supposed to buy new tablecloths for the Fourth of July, did you know? And special drink holders. And wouldn't it be nice if we had a new this or that this year, this season, this week...it's all making me feel a bit claustrophobic when I go into a store.

We plan to get rid of most of our stuff, and put the rest in a small storage unit. I take my parents as a cautionary tale: they have had an entire household in a storage unit for very nearly 20 years now, making monthly payments on it ever since. I am sure we can find better things to do with our money in Thailand than spend it on keeping stuff here in the states that we're not using.

So, GOOD-BYE, STUFF! I will not miss you when you're gone, although sometimes I think I will. I am happily divorcing you. We can visit cordially, but I'm not taking you home with me again.

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Location:Bellingham, WA

Saying goodbye...

Yesterday we had a belated third birthday party for Miranda at the zoo in Seattle so we could say goodbye to both sides of extended family.



Me with my parents....

It was a sunny, warm day, something we have not had enough of lately, and it was great fun to relax and chat with brothers and sisters and numerous cousins...




Otto and grandma...



Miranda with Uncle Paul....



Silly cousins....

So, if we don't see you again before we leave, family and friends, know that you are loved and we will be thinking of you while exploring Asia!

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Location:Seattle, WA

Blogging via iPad....really?

Well....editing previous posts looks evil from this app....I'm going to try to post something new so I can see how THAT works. Please ignore my mess!


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Garage sale #1, DOWN!

Lord love a duck, as my dad would say. We garage-saled long and hard this weekend, and man....people are rabid dogs! On the plus side, though, we made a lot of money and got rid of many years of accumulated crap.

Saturday's crowd were the professional garage sale circuit players, it was obvious...bothering us in the pouring rain at 7:30 when we weren't starting until 9, digging though boxes of books on the porch with their UPC readers on their phones, buying to re-sell. It was raining for the first hour of the sale, so some friends had come into the house to visit...and soon our living room was full of people I didn't know! "If I don't know you, get out of my house right now!" I yelled from the front door, and 10 or 12 people sheepishly shuffled out. You can't make this shit up!

Sunday's crowd was much better, though. Not nearly as many people, but they wanted to visit, ask about the story behind items, tell me about their plans. I talked to many people who had been to Thailand, or wanted to go to Thailand, or just to travel with their families. I talked to a public teacher, who bought a box-full of books for her classroom, that complained about the school system and lamented not having home schooled her own kids. She was amazed at our collection of books and told me I had obviously given my kids a very well-rounded education. Actually, I told her, they had very far-reaching interests and had simply followed their passions.

She's coming back on Tuesday to chat.

(please excuse any mess this post might be in...I'm learning how to blog from my iPad!)