Indiana Summer

Two weeks ago little Abe and I went on a five hour trip south with my mom and my sister. We found ourselves in southern Indiana where many of my mom's relatives live and also where my grandparents lived when I was a kid. When I agreed to go on the trip with my mom and sister I wasn't really sure what I was signing on to. I haven't seen the majority of my relatives in Indiana since my grandmother's funeral eleven years ago. In a way they're almost like strangers. Between five of my cousins there are at least ten children in the family in southern Indiana that I'd never met. Is it weird for me to have been a little nervous about visiting my own family?

When I was a kid I remember dreading the drive down there. It was about an hour longer back then but for as old as I was and as annoying as my brothers could be it seemed more like a fifty hour drive then like the six hour drive it actually was. But the six hour drive also meant that we were going to visit my grandparents and their wilderness wonderland. For that I'd make the excruciating trip again and again. I know that at least once my parents dropped my brothers and I off at my grandparent's house and left us there for a portion of the summer. The three of us were free to roam the thirty two wilderness acres, investigate the gardens, swim in and fish in the ponds, and for hours on end enjoy every single bit of what it meant to be a kid.

Grandmother and Grandpa with
one of my aunts (their first born)

 I'm convinced that my intense love for nature started after those six hour drives in the summer as a kid. I hold very dear some of my fondest childhood memories from my Indiana summers. I remember so clearly the adventures my brothers and I had with our cousins in those clay bottom ponds. Visions of us swinging from grape vines over ravines in the woods have never left me. I remember firefly evenings and the smells that always came from my grandparents kitchen. I remember my grandpa taking us for amusement park like rides in his little tractor which he fondly referred to as Little Mack. Sometimes if I close my eyes and think hard enough I can smell the cigar smoke, Indiana clay aroma, and sawdust that mingled together in their garage. And how prim and proper both of my grandparents were, our grammar was always corrected, no running in the house, and no hats were allowed at the table.

Their home in Indiana shorty after it was built,
with only a small corner of the bigger pond showing.

After my parents divorced my grandparents sold their home in Indiana so they could move next door to my mom, their youngest. The property had housed their dream home. They built the house and spent their retirement working on the land. It meant a lot for them to move away from so much of their family that they'd spent so many years near and to leave behind their home. They did it to be with us, with my mom. Unfortunately my grandpa passed during the move. It was weird how in a very few short years during my adolescence I lost my family (when my parents divorced I felt like I lost my mom and my dad), I lost sight of who I was and all self confidence, I lost my favorite place in the world (my grandparent's home in Indiana), and I lost my grandpa. I mean talk about childhood being ripped away all at once.

My grandparent's have both been gone for a long time now. Eleven years ago my grandmother very happily departed in her sleep. She was ready. She missed my grandpa so very much. And more then twenty years ago my grandpa left us far, far too soon. It's been close to twenty five years since I last felt the magic, the safety, the love, and the very meaning of what it is to live while at my grandparent's home in Indiana. I've lamented that loss ever since.

Back to where I started, two weeks ago, seven hours after I got out of work including one rather exhausting five hour car ride later little Abe, my sister, my mom and I found ourselves in southern Indiana at my aunts house in the country. The sky was a dark nigh time expanse, clear as could be and speckled with millions of stars. Crickets were chirping, tree frogs were singing. In the darkness I could smell my grandparents home (although we were no where near it actually).

We spent the next three days reuniting with wonderful family. Except for the new children and the years we each wore (everyone looks so much older, including us to them) it was like time hadn't really passed. My mom's family are so kind and inviting. They're so down to earth and real. They're just as I remembered them and better.

A bridge my cousin built over a
fantastic stone bottom creek.

Between the five different homes we visited and the (literal) hundreds of acres combined that surrounded the homes, the three separate ponds, fish, the wilderness trails, dogs, goats, goat dogs... lets just say my Indiana family is living my grandparents Indiana legacy. I was in heaven. One morning my sister and I sat on my aunt's porch enjoying paradise for two hours while little Abe played in the wonderful hot end of summer sunshine.

This little man had the time of his life
(and made several new furry friends)

Little Abe took tractor rides through the forests, skipped rocks in the creek, threw fish food to catfish, watched Doug the dog try to catch fish, oh yeah while he was swimming in the ponds with Doug and Cooper (another dog). He also swam and played with new cousins he'd never met before. He ran around outside barefoot for hours on end. He climbed trees, watched a plethora of different birds and butterflies, and truly enjoyed the beauty of hundreds of different flowers. Apart from the fireflies I remember as a child that were apparently out of season and swinging from grape vines (which I'm okay with him not having done) he spent three days in southern Indiana almost exactly as I remember it. It was the biggest blessing in the world for me to witness my son enjoying exactly what I remember so fondly enjoying when I was a child.

During the last evening there we had a big family cookout. Seeing everyone was wonderful. Enjoying the Indiana wilderness, and more than that, watching my son revel in adventure was priceless. The vacation away from home to just relax, with family, in so much beauty... it was basically like being at a cabin in the woods by a small lake for three days which I never ever get to do, was amazing! But most of all I regained something vastly precious that had been lost to me for almost twenty five years. Even though my grandparent's home in Indiana is essentially gone (no longer in the family; I can't go back and be with them there) I felt like I was there. And spending time with my aunt who looks (and acts) SOOOO much like my grandmother in her "mature" years, visiting with cousins that remind me of my grandpa, being with family that we mostly have only been with and around through my grandparents... I think the best way to say it is that pieces of my grandparents are in all of their children and grandchildren and great grand children and I could feel that while we were down there visiting. My grandparents have both been gone for eleven years, plus, but they were there. My cup runneth over. 

Things I Learned on Vacation

1.) My husband really likes gummy candy and tootsie rolls

(I should have come to this realization before now but I've officially made note of it now)

2.) "Free" hotel breakfast certainly can be a lot like hospital food/ cafeteria food/ school lunch food (we did not enjoy it at all at either hotel)

3.) DO NOT give your debit card to the hotel for incidentals because they might put a hold with a charge on it for a week even though you didn't have any incidentals.

4.) I need to make a point to travel with my family at least once a year. Getting away together and adventuring is absolutely priceless.

5.) I much, much, much prefer walking through the woods or boating through a cave or anything out in nature as opposed to exploring/ walking/ shopping around in a big city.

6.) Boat rides through caves are both awesome and a little scary all at the same time. Totally worth every penny!

7.) Kentucky is really really neat!

8.) Kentucky looks at lot like Guatemala at points. (no there aren't dinosaurs in Guatemala)

9.) Indiana takes about a million hours to drive through (I already knew that actually but still worth mentioning)

10.) Despite a very adequate amount of sleep my child can get exhausted beyond function-ability just from too much vacationing (DO NOT leave the stroller in the car no matter how much energy he appears to have!)

11.) Smarties work just about as good as coffee (maybe better) when driving at night and one is trying to keep oneself awake. Or maybe it was a placebo; I thought I was incapable of night driving as of at least five years ago and I rocked the last five hours of the drive home in the dark without my eyes even getting heavy... ate a boat load of smarties though!

12.) Cats, dogs, and I guess even sunflowers can really miss their family after three days of not seeing them. I am NOT going to take a photo of my pathetic sunflower upon arriving home (I think the thunderstorm did something to it, not sure)

The end.

Home Sweet Home

SOOOO Close

I've been eagerly anticipating the bloom of my very first sunflower. When my sister in law gave me the sprouts she had no idea how big each flower would get, if they would cluster, or even if they'd be red or yellow. The seeds were a strange hybrid. She harvested them herself from one flower and has grown them before with all different results. The one sunflower sprout she gave me that survived the neighborhood wildlife (although it's enormous regal leaves have been heavily attacked by bugs) is now taller than me and has far surpassed how big I thought it would get. I'm in love with the giant thing and cannot wait to see it's flower. Today is the first time it's started to open. I probably looked out my kitchen window at least 100 times to make sure I hadn't missed the bloom. But no, the sun is now setting and the flower is not yet fully opened. Tomorrow then, right?

Additionally on the eager anticipation chart is our vacation. I am a little overwhelmed by it's rapid approach but very excited. The hotel rooms are booked, restaurants have been researched (mostly), caves in Kentucky have been thoroughly (internet) explored, and my wonderful lovely sister has been booked to stay at our house with the furry family members while we are gone. My to do list is extraordinarily long right now but I am so excited just to get away!!! (this is little Abe's countdown so that he has a better grasp of when the trip will be)

Sorry its so blurry; I'm too tired to retake this photo right now

Time for a Vacation

The dear sweet man I call my own decided that he needed to join in on a Kickstarter campaign for a band he really likes. One of the "donations" included a copy of the new record they'd be making along with a small listening party with the band. The "donation" was honestly very small in reality (about the same cost as two new video games) but the listening party is in Nashville Tennessee. So really the cost is in driving to Nashville, getting a room, and food and activities along the way. He asked me if it'd be okay for him to make the donation. Come on folks, lets be honest, this is a step in the right direction. I mean the man once bought a Gibson Firebird guitar without asking or telling me.

Together we planned to take a nice little family vacation to Nashville. We've taken little Abe to Chicago twice but outside of those trips we have not had a family vacation, the three of us (and my mother in law went with for both the Chicago trips since both trips involved my hubby and I going to a concert together). For Nashville I'd plan food, pack lunches, and we'd eat cheap. We'd get a discount hotel room somewhere (I love booking hotels online through priceline or hotels.com where you can get really great hotel rooms for super cheap). Most likely we'd rent a car (Since I drive a lot for work I don't like taking our cars on trips, it's more worth it to put the miles and extra wear and tear on a rental). The kiddo is not big on car rides so I thought we could find something touristy outdoorsy where we could all have fun and he could run around maybe half way to Nashville, then he could nap for a good portion of the second half of the drive. Okay, so in my mind this would be a fun trip.

My husband made the kickstarter donation several months ago and I went through our budget and scraped together $700 for the trip. Over the past several months that $700 has turned into about $250. I cannot get my husband to understand that once you spend money it's gone. Seriously, I gave up being mad at him a long time ago and he has come a long way but I could just pull my hair out. Gah!

I told him today that if he still wants to go to Tennessee then WE are going to have to get on the same page and both sign a spending contract. He snarled but I'm fairly certain that with his trip on the line and my foot planted VERY firmly to the ground I might, maybe, possibly will be able to get him to commit, we should be able to have a nice frugal family trip, and we shouldn't have to go any further into debt (always my main goal).

Here it is:

For the record, the exercise goal is so that I have to commit to something as part of this deal as well. You know I can go without buying anything and without eating out (I already do). This will be VERY difficult for him. He would really like me to exercise more often (and I need to) so that part of the contract is for his benefit. I added the "go for a walk together" so that we can not only get exercise and spend time together but also so that we have some quite time to maybe talk about the trip and how we're doing with the contract.

The box at the bottom is to record if we spend money that shouldn't have been spent, or if I don't do the four work outs one week; for anytime we break the contract. It's my personal belief that accountability is enormous and so I want us to have to write down on the contract anytime that we break it.

Here goes!