An Ordinary Extraordinary Day

Jed and I the month before our wedding day

Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary! I cannot believe how quickly the days fly by! Our Son is almost 2 already. I have fond memories of our first anniversary date when I was 8 months pregnant and we walked around in Nebraska Furniture Mart in KC KS and bought an Awesome printer! We had a blast spending time together before Gunner came along.

Our second anniversary we spent the weekend in Utah on the way back from a route out to Oregon we ate Cafe Rio with Gunner and went to look aroud Cabela's. Jed bought me an awesome Benchmade knife! I use it every day...and a year later we are still using it daily!

Today is the first day of year number four and each day keeps getting better and better!
Despite today being our first ever anniversary while working all day fixing mud flaps, encouraging obedience in our cooped up in the truck toddler, dealing with refer problems. My hubby told me he was sorry he couldn't make it a more special day for us. But I told himthe ttruth...I loved every moment of it! Being together with him, working, teasing, growing, training our son, laughing and loving together, makes every day the best day ever!

God, tank you for my husband. With your precious gift of Christ being the most perfect example of love for me, you also gave me my husband. How could you possibly love me this much? You are so good. I will praise your name forever.

-Miranda Wood

Surviving Colds and Viruses Naturally

                            Our Essential Oils first aid kit


When your hubby or little ones are sick it's never easy. You hate seeing them inpain and you want to help them recover ASAP, and being sick yourself can make it even more complicated.

The first thing most folks will do is call the doctor for antibiotics but that destroys all of the good bacteria in your stomach and digestive system, so before you do that try these great natural remedies for flu, colds, rashes, viruses, fevers etc.

For colds we make sure to load up on vitamin C. We have Children's gummies, chewable supplements, and fresh fruits to give us options for a good source of vitamin C. Then water and lots of rest is all you need to fight it naturally.

For the common flu we take vitamin C, and chicken broth to stay hydrated when we can't even keep water down. We also take a teaspoon of liquid silver daily and that easily fights bacteria that causes the runs or upset stomach.

For the viruses we've experienced such as hfmd, fifths disease, yeast infections, and average diaper rashes, aside from daily baths and changing diapers often, lavender and melaleuca oil make great antibacterials as well as diffusing thieves oil to defeat any airborne viruses.

For stuffy noses I have a great herbal balm that I rub on the chest and throat to open up the airways.

My son is very energetic and fearless when it comes to his way of pplaying around and expending energy, asa result he bumps his head quite a bit, so I carry Arnica gel in our kit to use in case he gets a goose egg on his head, this stuff is great at rapidly reducing swelling! I hope some of this helps you out when you are under the weather and don't have access to many methods of medicine.

Being in the truck on the road has made me rethink what I put in my emergency kit/first aid kit. Read my post about a natural first aid kit in order to see what I keep in mine while on the road.

-Miranda Wood

Reading with your kids

Some of my favorite memories growing up through the years are my parents reading to me. I specifically remember the poky little puppy, Maggie the mighty, the Golden Egg, the little house on the prairie series and hindsfeet in high places.

Reading with your children is the perfect way to bond with your kids, instill imagination in their little minds, and help them learn to read, write, and spell at a young age, not to mention your children will love it!

Reading to my son is so exciting I can hardly contain my excitement when it comes to buying him books!














He has hundreds but can only bring 3 with him each week, the rest are in storage and we rotate them out so he stays interestedand gets to enjoy several different ones.

My new favorite place to buy his books is Usborne books. Here's a photo of my last order. It's been so fun reading through these books!

Miranda Wood

Headstart Homeschooling

As a Mom of a very clever very quick-learning little boy I'm convinced with his eagerness for new knowledge my 20 month son is NOT too young to start school.

We work as a family from a truck and we decided long before having kids that we wanted to homeschool to spend more time together. I always thought we'd start working with him on his first year of homeschooling when he was four or five, but I know he's ready now! There are a billion books and blogs to read about what your kids need to learn but at such a young age I'm working hard to introduce things that interest and encourage him in order to naturally induce more of a desire for him to learn even more!

Here's what we are working in this week: colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and rhyming. That may sound like alot, but let me give you examples of how we are practicing learning each one.

Colors are the easiest, they can be learned along with other Simple first words: "Gunner, do you see the green grass." "Is that leaf green?" "Mommy's shirt is green."
My son has recently started saying pink, girl, pretty because the first time he saw pink it was a little girl's sparkly pink shoes.

Shapes, these are harder they will just take more time and repetition. I have one of those magna doodle boards for the truck that's small and easy to pack in his bag. I draw shapes and say their names and he traces then copies them while repeating their names. This one is still a work in progress for us.

Numbers, Gunner loves to count when he gets to three he starts over at one unless I remind him. We count to three then jump, we count fingers and toes, we count food, we count when we read number books, practice, practice, practice and using several different methods is how your little one will get their numbers down.

Letters Gunner loves reading them, drawing them with me, we say the alphabet, we point and say the names of letters he has in a magnetic cilirful alphabet set, and today we played a new game that he really enjoyed.

This game is where the learning to rhyme came into place as well. I would say a letter and he would repeat it, then I'd say the sound the letter made for him to repeat next then he repeated after me words that began with that same letter, most of them matching of course. Then we would start the game again, but this time he got to pick a letter or word forme to repeat! This game in addition to being a great learning tool also kept our boy entertained in the truck for a whole hour when he really wasn't enjoying being cooped up, woohoo!

Eating healthy on the road

I'm not going to lie, eating healthy isn't easy, especially when you are traveling or on a tight schedule and there's a drive through in sight. However cutting out processed and GMO filled foods has made a huge difference in how we feel and how we live.

Instead of burgers, soda and fries all the time, we eat REAL food!
We bought a small grill that we can fit in our sidebox in the truck and two nights a week we cook up our meals for the next few days.

We cook and eat all organic and eat raw fruits and veggies for breakfast and lunch. Here are some of our favorite healthy foods to eat: melons, apples, oranges, mild cheddar cheese and Whole wheat crackers, granola, yogurt, peanut butter with flax seed oil, fruit snacks and cookies, sweet potato chips, cooked potatoes, carrots, beans, raw veggies, chicken, steak and so much more

I hope this gives others great tips on eating healthy while traveling. It takes a little more time but it's so good for you and definitely worth your time in the long run! If we can make it happen, you can too!

-Miranda Wood

10 Reasons not to own a house

Sunday we officially moved out of our townhome. We've been married almost three years and have decided to do something most people just cannot understand. We are homeless. At first the idea of not having a place at all was uncomfortable and even scary, but the more we talked about it, the more exciting the idea became.

Just as a little back story, my husband has been driving for his family's trucking company for going on 5 years and most of the last three I've gone with him and when our son came along he started traveling with us too. As a result of his job, we are already very used to sleeping and spending all week and part of the weekends in the truck.

Some things about living on the road are completely normal to us, however, some things will be different and for those reasons we are doing this to begin with.

1. No more paying $1300.00 a month on rent plus utilities, etc.

2. No more rush to get home while we are off 36 hours every week. This also means more time to spend as a family doing fun activities or exploring!

3.We do not have a lease to keep to so we can go wherever whenever!

3. Since we no longer spend our time off at home we have more time for hobbies which we never had before, I.e. working out, gardening, blogging, taking our son to the zoo or park etc...

5. Ability to invest in others: we gave several things away to friends, we are are helping a friend with a garden this next year, and we get to spend more time with our families!

6. No Loud or Pesky Neighbors like when we were living right next to a public university.

7.Nothing to clean besides windows of the truck and wiping down the dash, I used to spend almost our whole weekend off cleaning.

8. Ability to save for a house more easily and quickly.

9. Cultivating grateful attitudes while having only what we need and nothing more.

10. Without a house to live in, I have no excuse not to follow my husband everywhere. Iam so blessed.

We love this new adventure and can't wait to share more about it soon!

-Miranda Wood

Growing where you're planted

       I used to dream of traveling the world; exploring everything and every place I could imagine. Now I dream of building a home, establishing roots, growing old, and making a legacy...all in one, single, place.




     
     What has changed in my life to make me feel this way now?


God sent me the most amazing husband any woman could ever ask Him for, we have a son who puts a constant smile on my face and extra jump in my step (those of you with toddler boys know what I mean on that one, ha ha.)




   
      I cannot wait until the day that we buy or build a beautiful home...then I remember some advice I gave a friend who is moving several states away and was not looking forward to some place new: "God will grow you where He plants you...or blow you around in the wind 'til He gets you where He wants you." And of course I will praise Him as I blow in the wind...and I hope you will too.






                                                      -Miranda Wood

"Everyday my Savior leads me."