Our life

Posted on July 15, 2015

I admit it, our family is a little wacky.  We laugh a lot and play a lot.  Mycah is the absolute king at belching and can do it on command – almost saying the entire alphabet. (not in public). Kjira can scare everybody by walking like a velociraptor and make my mom squeal in fear. Jude can and has eaten peanut butter on everything and I mean everything, and loves her toast burnt. Aidan randomly sings and dances like Mama Mia stars all over the deck of the boat….the list goes on. We’ve lived our lives having picnics on the roof, dumpster diving just for kicks, eating breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast and putting green tobasco on our popcorn. We are each others best friends and have deep open random discussions about the weirdest things. While other families are sitting around the TV together we are out exploring the cave we just discovered or night diving looking for tiger sharks. We live on a boat.

It’s always interesting to see and hear peoples responses when they ask, “where are you from?” For me, that question has a long answer…I was born in Rhodesia, raised in South Africa, came to Idaho of all places from Africa and now live on a catamaran but not in any place in particular because we are circumnavigating. Right now we are in Panama. Their response is usually, “So….you live on a BOAT? Like…how do you do that? What do you do all day? Don’t you get bored? What about kids school? Isn’t it dangerous?”

So here’s the scoop: We LOVE living off the grid on our boat.  We love our simple life where we eat every meal together, explore new places, learn new cultures, dive new reefs, love people from all walks of life and in all financial circumstances, and we do it all together. We love sailing into a new place, dropping the anchor, grabbing a mask and fins and diving down to see what’s below. We love that our car is a dinghy. We love the way our home moves gently in the water at night, rocking us all to sleep, and that we can take it anywhere we want to whether it’s the Caribbean or the Antarctic. There is so much to see in this incredibly amazing world and we want to leave this life having shared every inch of it with our children. We want them to taste, smell, feel and see life with their own bodies and in person – not in books or documentaries.  I LOVE being a mother and a wife. Our children are homeschooled and have many many friends.  Some are their age, some are younger, and some are retired couples who have lived full long lives and share beautiful life changing stories with them as they sit on the dock together.  Life is good.  We are in no danger and we love what we do…because we do it as a family.

Yesterday Jude sent me these photos.

They had caught the water taxi into Bocas to grab some groceries and stopped for an ice cream. I love that they are so independent and strong.  They work as a team and love being together.  There is hardly ever any bickering between the kids – sometimes a discussion between the twins, but if you ask Mycah who her best friend is, she’ll tell you it’s Jude (Hannah).

I am grateful for my up bringing.  Living in Rhodesia and then South Africa taught me so much about what’s really important in life. Danny’s travels have taught him the same.  How can we not share this gift with our children.

Last night at my ex husbands parents funeral, his brother read something that described his Dad, and it really spoke to me.

Edward Abbey wrote, “One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.”

Funeral

Posted on July 15, 2015

The past couple days have been really tough. My Dad has weakened so much more, to the point of at times needing to be carried.  I love being here to help him and my mom, but it is just so sad.

Snuggling up to my dad is one of my favorite things. I stroke his head and kiss his face and listen to his breathing. Yesterday he and I shared some Dulce de leche ice cream together. I fed him and he loved it.

He and my mom are so precious to me.

Today I sewed him a new bath robe. He looked so cute in it.

This evening was my ex in laws funeral. It was great to see long lost aunts and uncles and cousins, but sitting there by my dad, realizing that his time is coming soon, was more than I could bare.

Kjira and Hunter were pallbearers and did beautifully.  They were so strong and I am so proud of them. It is good to have this day over.

The creatures in Panama are doing so well. All is in order and I am looking forward to seeing them on Sunday again.