Time for an Update!

It has almost been a year since we continued our innovative life journey by moving to Oregon. We have met many wonderful people and already accomplished much on our new home. We love the way Oregon smells! If we could bottle the smells of an Oregon morning and a Caribbean rainstorm, we would be millionaires! Seriously…THE BEST! It has been a bit of a hard transition trying to settle somewhere during a pandemic…but we are starting to feel a little more comfortable and more at home.

Stewart has been here for over a year! It is so hard to believe. He started out working a 1/3rd of a contract at Tillamook High School teaching drama. Knowing that a 1/3rd of a contract would not support our family he got another job at Fred Meyer. He was told that his teaching would all be in the afternoon and that it would not conflict with the job at Fred Meyer. Well…..crazy how a pandemic seems to play poorly with so many things! The schedule at the school kept changing and therefore Stewart’s schedule kept changing as well. It was beginning to impact his Fred Meyer schedule and that was making it hard to support our family even working 2 jobs! We began looking for another job that would allow him to not get up SUPER early (4am) AND support our family.

A friend of ours was working for an online credit recovery company called Graduation Alliance. Stewart applied, interviewed, and got the job! He finished his contract out with Tillamook High School and Fred Meyer as was able to begin at Graduation Alliance at the beginning of June. The job is remote, so he gets to work from home. It is such a blessing to have him at home. He doesn’t have to get up early, he doesn’t have to commute, and he gets to work in the basement. Winning! He misses people he worked with at both places, but he is happy to be home. He also misses being in the classroom and creating. We are looking forward to a time when we will be able to have an outlet for our creativity.

Miles is in 8th grade! Ahhh…how did that happen? After so much change and crazy schedules last year, we decided to keep our boys home and do online school. The school district here in Tillamook offers an online option for residents. We decided that going online would allow us the flexibility and control of schedules. We are loving it! Miles is enjoying moving through the courses at his own pace. He is doing clarinet lessons with his grandpa via Google Meet and is having a great time! Such a blessing to have a grandpa who can do that! He also spends a lot of time playing basketball with his brother.

He is taller than me – though that is not a real feat. He is very helpful and kind. He is still a teenager, and we navigate that stage in life with as much mercy and grace as possible. He loves to be outside and would like nothing more than to get a drone.

Gabe is in 6th grade. He is ALMOST as tall as me…though it won’t be long. Oh well…it was nice while it lasted. He LOVES to learn. He is a voracious reader. He is a geography wiz and will pour over maps for hours. He is also currently obsessed with travel. We picked up a book about all the cruise ships in the world and he renewed it at least 3 times! He knows everything you would ever want to know about cruise ships. He would be happy to find the best cruise for you if you are in the market. He is still a train aficionado and is constantly trying to get us to go on a train trip. He plans those as well. *wink* He has an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoys looking for ways to try to make money so he could go on a cruise, a train trip, or buy more Legos….of course. Check out our  shop for his designs.

It is truly a joy and a little intimidating to have children who are smarter than you. I love it though and rejoice in their successes! I’m so lucky!

As I am the writing this, I will forgo talking about myself in 3rd person because that is weird….

I am staying busy taking care of day-to-day stuff at our house. The usual – laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. I also have been loving the colder climate that we live in now and bake a lot more. I try to make art often. I fell in love with making art while being an art teacher in the Caribbean. I miss teaching littles the joy of creating. I have been doing some teaching online through an online company called Varsity Tutors. I have been doing a lot of digital art and trying to work up the courage to create using other types of media.

In a perfect world, I would find a great job that I could work from home and Stewart could quit his job and write books or plays and work on house projects. If you happen to know anyone who needs a hard worker with a background in education, theater, and graphic design – send them my way….I’m ready!

In the meantime, I have launched products that I have designed on our blog’s shop and I have also added items to Fine Art America. You can find the Fine Art America items here on our site or you can go directly to their site.  If you choose to make a purchase in either of these places, you will be supporting our efforts to keep this blog going, do more house projects, or just pay for groceries. We’re keepin’ it real friends.

I am constantly trying to keep myself busy and bettering myself with books to read or listen to. In case you read our blog often and just think “Well, aren’t they lucky to have such a wonderful and “innovative” life…”, our life is not always wonderful. I cry a lot when I am stressed. I worry about finances and health. I worry about a lot of things. HOWEVER, I have spent a giant part of my life not being who I want to be and have spent the past 17ish years learning who I DO want to be. As with all habits, it is a matter of small, intentional steps that create what IS wanted. So, though each day is not ALL amazing, innovative, or wonderful – I try to take small steps to create what I DO want. I have that power. I can create a life that I love just by making choices each day. It starts with a thought….then grows to actions. If you are interested in learning more about this concept or idea – I am passionate about it and would love to talk more about it and the tools I use to keep me in this mindset.

We are currently trying to get our upstairs bathroom finished. We have only had one functioning bathroom since January when we had to tear into the whole east-side of our house and have it all replaced. So, we are really looking forward to having that completed – hopefully before the new year! Stay tuned for videos or updates on the blog or Instagram about that project.

We are hoping that an opportunity to travel will also come soon. With the pandemic and job transitions, it has been a challenge to find a time to safely travel. We are ALL dying to go somewhere! Perhaps we’ll go on a cruise that Gabe has found!