August 15th!?

I'd like to say that I have been writing like crazy this month due to the writing challenge from Art of Redemption, but I haven't.  The past 3 or 4 days for instance, I have chosen to nap instead of write and that's ok considering I am growing a baby.  This 3rd pregnancy is not easy.  It's very uncomfortable.  I'm 36+ weeks... I'm swollen... I'm cranky... I still have 2 other kids, 2 dogs, and a husband to take care of and I go to work tomorrow.  It's only for a 2 day training, and then we don't have to go back full time until the 24th, but still.  My summer is done.  And it's kinda sad.  I can't say I got everything accomplished that I'd hope to, but we've done a ton of stuff this summer including a garden which is something we've always talked about doing... it feels good to get some 'to do' things done.  We want to get our porch done on the back of our house so we have a private, outdoor space to have dinner and hang out since our home is small... it would be great to have an outdoor living space. And obviously we need to dig out some baby clothes and supplies and be ready to have a new little one living with us!  It's weird how 'done being pregnant' I feel some days, but how I haven't really done anything to get ready to have baby here... this is much different then how I felt with N and B.  We were 'ready' weeks ahead of time.  I even remember I packed my hospital bag well before Briella came and when I got into the bag at the hospital I had forgotten what I had packed cause it had been so long.  We do have some things done for baby's arrival, so I hope he or she holds off until we have a bit more done and are more realistically ready.  And I sure hope transitioning back to work when I am this pregnant goes well.  Last week I had dreams that I missed a half day of mandatory training and used the excuse that I was going into labor to keep from getting in trouble.  So I think it means my head wants to be back at work, but my body is gonna make me slow down and pay attention to Baby 3.  Here's hoping I get up feeling good in the morning and am able to make it through training with little to no pain or mood swings... ha!  And perhaps sleeping with my new snoogle pillow will help... Nate found one on FB today from someone we know.  I think it will help me sleep well.  :)

Writing Challenge Day 8

I haven't been posting on here, but I began writing about the journey we as a family are taking to be debt free... I intended it to be short blog posts, but it's turning into more of a memoir perhaps so I am just dating things as I go and we'll see where that takes us.  I've always thought it would be cool to write a book and never had a vision for one... maybe this will turn into something like that.  Anywho...

Just a real quick thought from today.  It's been 2 years since we got to talk to Jason (Nate's dad) and have him communicate clearly and smile at his grandchildren, etc.  He didn't pass away until the 13th, but the 8th and 9th were his last days that we talked, sang, interacted and saw him really react to us being with him.  It's overwhelming to recall all of the emotions that rolled through our family those days of saying goodbye and I am very glad it's in the past.  I am glad we don't have to live like that each day.  It was very heart breaking and a wonderful gift to be with him, but I am so glad it's over.  Now we are healing and can remember him without wishing that he wasn't suffering.

Here is the picture that brought back those memories...
He loved his granddaughters so much!! 

Writing challenge...

It's hard to keep up with this when we are having so much fun and being busy on our little vacation in the Denver area this week... we drove down on Wednesday and have been to Rocky Mountain National Park, Golden, the Air1 Positive Hits Tour, The National Tiny House Jamboree, Pike's Peak, a few favorite restaurants and 1 new one that was super yummy - Rudy's BBQ... it's been busy and we are exhausted.  I did write a little about living small and the 'why' behind our downsizing, etc. the past few years.  I'll have to finish that later and post it sometime... And since I haven't been writing each day, here's a picture and I'll count it as my 1,000 words.  ;)

Writing Challenge Day 3...

I'm barely making the 'deadline' for writing today... I have had the urge to write about a number of things, but was driving or in the car or with my family outdoors, etc. and just didn't get a chance yet.  I woke up to a sermon on the radio that mentioned Blaise Pascal's writing called "Fire" which he had sew into his coat after having realized he was forever dedicating his life to God and no one found it until he passed away.  It was an intriguing writing and sermon that I may do a reflection on soon.  At the moment, I am going to focus on some random thoughts about marriage... and yeah... I mean random.  It's too late to try to make it more concise.

As I was growing up, I always felt like I would have a family some day... a husband, kids, a house, probably a dog or pets of some sort, etc. but I never 'planned' it all out like other people around me did.  I had friends with very specific wants... 3 kids, land with a nice house and room for horses, a black pickup to drive around.  They talked about their weddings and weren't even dating anyone.  I think a few times I would glance at a JCPenney's catalog my mom always got in the mail and wonder what my wedding dress would look like or what color I could have for my bride's maids, but I didn't plan for anything and I sure didn't try too hard for many years to 'find the right man'.  I just went with what God had in store for me and one day I met Nate and now 10 years later, we have 3 kids, 2 dogs, a small house and have been through thick, thin, boring, exciting, etc.  It's nothing like what I imagined being married would be like.  Maybe because the only marriage I knew was my parent's marriage and each marriage is unique and so my experience is unique.  And it should be. 
I know my husband always wanted to be married and have many kids.  It's a desire he had since he was very young.  I don't recall every wanting children until I was in college working with students of all ages.  My desire was to focus on school and teaching and enjoy the people God allowed to be in my life by working with and learning from them.  I can look at the paths that Nate and I had before we met each other and I see what God was doing to prepare us for one another and it's an amazing thing.  And now we are together each day with these young people watching and learning about life from our perspective.  I sure didn't imagine this life years ago and I sure wouldn't change anything today... except to maybe get a bit more sleep, especially with Baby #3 on the way.  ;)


~Chelle

30 Day writing challenge

August 2nd:
Our friends over at The Art of Redemption challenged their listeners and group members to write at least 200 words per day during the month of August... so I decided I will TRY to use this blog to do that.  I missed day 1, but may make up for it during this post!  I noticed they are using #augustauthors as a 'hashtag' and I must confess, I am just under versed in the world of hashtags that I don't actually know how to make that work and it will be something I learn so I can keep these posts connected to the challenge.  Obviously this post's purpose is to inform readers of this challenge and provide my ideas of what Nathan and I may write about in the next month.  I came up with these ideas...

- recap each year of your life one day at a time (some of us will be writing for more then 30 days...)
- write letters to each of our kids
- write letters to our soon to be born Baby #3
- write letters to family and friends
- short stories
- script and illustration ideas of children's books that are stuck in my head
- vents/rants/raves/etc.
- treat it as a journal, but with a specific theme (parenting, forgiveness, faith, work goals, health goals, etc.)

We'll see how Nate and I do with this... He mentioned it last night as I was falling asleep and I am not sure he did his writing yesterday, but I will encourage him and try to get all the creative ideas inside his head to pop out.  I'm not sure the world is ready for some of the stuff my husband has stashed away in his brain, but he needs to share with more then me.  ;) 
~Chelle

2016 Update

It's been well over a year since updating this blog.  I often feel like composing a post here, but just don't.  What's that saying 1% inspiration... 99% perspiration... ??  I have tons of ideas and just don't act on them often, hints my house is messier than I want it to be.  Projects are semi done or the 'to do' list stays constant for many weeks at a time.  I'm not sure why we live like that, except 'life' happens and time keeps moving whether or not we use it wisely or how we intended to do so.  With that... here's a brief update on The Long Family of Casper....

~ After living with family for over a year (September 2014-November 2015), we bought an almost 800 sq ft., 2 bed, 1 bath, 100 year old house in November and have enjoyed having our own space since then.  It was a blessing that my parents allowed us to invade their space while we restructured our way of living and went from a 2 income household to a 1 income household.  Nate and I have often said we sure aren't the 'traditional' family and we continue to stick with that... I am working full time with the school district and Nate takes care of our girls along with some IT, design, etc. freelance work on the side when he has time or when he is needed.

~ Our oldest is 5 now.  5!  How did that happen?  She's a great swimmer, doing awesome at piano, loves to make her own music (she even beat boxes on her own), has an interest in basically all aspects of life, and gravitates toward older children when she's in a group of kids.  Lately when I look at her, I see Nate when he was 5 if he had long wavy blond hair.  People have told us she looks like him, but I never noticed until recently... she's a mini Nate, but much prettier.  ;)

~ Our 2nd oldest is 2 and is hilarious!  N makes us laugh, but B has this way about her... she's just a fun loving, goofy, little person with a very loud voice!  She can be so loud and talks non stop sometimes.  One week her older sister didn't feel very well and we really noticed how much energy B has and how she constantly uses it to play, sing, entertain herself and others... she's basically the cutest 2 year old I know.  :) And people say she's a mini me, so... who knows.

~ Baby 3.0 is on his or her way!! We have seen baby on ultrasound, but didn't get the best pic and aren't sure if this is boy or girl.  So... we'll be surprised.  I can say as I get older, as I have more kids, it's harder each time.  N's pregnancy had it's ups and downs, B was a bit worse in different ways, and this baby has just been hard.  I think it's due to me being the most out of shape I've ever been right before I got pregnant, the stress we've dealt with the last few years, and then making changes that we do feel will be overall beneficial compared to if we had not made any changes.  We were getting a bit anxious to have another kiddo, and are very happy that the Lord blessed us with #3 and so far a healthy pregnancy.  Our small house isn't ready for a baby yet, but I'm sure ready to be done being pregnant!  Today I actually feel pretty good... somedays I don't go anywhere and stay in bed.  Either way... in about 6 weeks, we should be meeting this little one and will make the adjustments to a family of 5.  Our girls are excited!  N asks so many questions about birth... B just says she "loves your baby mommy!" and cute things like that.  :)  They are gonna be awesome older sisters.  Nate and I have names picked out, but haven't shared them with each other yet... it's fun to anticipate what we will call this baby.  I have a name that could be either boy or girl and sometimes call baby by that name (when husband isn't around) so we'll see what name suites when we meet.  :)

~ Jobs.  As mentioned above, I still teach/tutor with the school district and have an amazing team to work with at Lincoln Elementary.  Ultimately we do hope that I can be the stay at home parent, but Nate is truly enjoying the time he gets with our girls and we take this time as a blessing from God since we didn't think either of us would be able to be home with them this soon.  And beyond 'ultimately', we actually would both love to work from home and be with our kids and work as a family.  There are so many things that could allow this to happen and we are looking into different options/businesses/opportunities etc.  Our hearts desires are to be a debt-free family that lives minimalistically and uses our talents to bless others.

So far... we are working on the 'debt-free' and have made some effort toward living with less... downsizing has it's challenges and when you work for a public school district and your time is not your own for most of the year, it's hard to keep that momentum and con't to purge and adjust.  I do hope we are blessing others around us... we just feel led to work toward doing more in the future.

Well... as I type I can see Baby 3.0 wiggling and rolling around... I can hear my girls and Nate breathing after drifting off to sleep (our house is so small I can sit in the living room and hear their soft noises from both bedrooms) and should probably head to bed myself.  I've had many sleepless nights with this pregnancy, which is new for me, and am praying that's not a sign that this one won't sleep well.  We shall see... ~Chelle

Every which way...

That's the direction I always feel like I am going, or could be going.  I get really focused on something and then think about other things I should be doing or I can't get anything done because I don't know which way to go or where to begin.  Is this how life should be?  Have I don't something wrong to make life be like this?  It seems everyone else around me is kind of doing the same thing and it truly seems like it's not good for anyone.  Even now I think about all the different directions I want this post to go and don't know what to type about next.  I want to share my thoughts on a book I am reading about a woman, who is pretty much the same age as I am, and who grew up with the same kind of Christian lifestyle... but I am not yet done with the book , so should probably wait to 'review' it.  I want to talk about the weirdest, toughest situation I have ever faced in my job that makes me not want to go to work some days.  I want to talk about how at times my heart aches to just be a stay at home mom and how I am frustrated that my heart and head never wanted that before I had kids.  I want to publish a children's book I have attempted to write like 50 times.  I want our debt to be gone, our non existent house to be paid off, and our life to be generally a little less about all that and more about investing in others' lives. 
I guess that's what's on my mind most these days... because of some decisions we made in haste in the past we have struggled for some time, recently have taken a few leaps of faith, and are on what I perceive to be a slow, but steady journey to the life we are feeling called to live.  It's hard explaining this to others without the call being to become missionaries or be a part of some specific mission/Christian organizations... we literally feel called to be a family that isn't burdened with paying a million bills and not knowing how to feed ourselves.  We want to be a family that lives comfortably while giving to others... and our 'comfortably' is much simpler than the average American families 'comfortably'.  This is just what we have been called to do and we are working to 'get there' with the help of family... even family that doesn't quite understand it.  And above all it's happening because God is faithful.  I sure am not faithful some days, but He is and thankfully Nate is too... :)