Update: Rosebud wrote this storybook at school shortly after we arrived here.

 

30 January 2023

 Back in August, Mr. Brown went out to Utah for a family funeral, and he came back with the firm impression from God that we needed to move, and we needed to move right now, as soon as possible.  After some confirmatory prayers and consideration, we started packing and getting ready to sell the house and move to Idaho, which we've been considering for a couple years.  But after moving forward vigorously, we got stuck and couldn't seem to make any further decisions or progress.  We were puzzled and confused, but then I was invited to apply for a promotion at work that would involve moving to Maryland.

I knew almost as soon as I heard about it that this is what God has been preparing me for, for years, going back to when we lived in Iowa.  Leaving Michigan and leaving Florida were key parts of the preparation.  It was a moment when you get a bit of understanding of what His plan for you is, and it was a beautiful gift to have that understanding.  

I interviewed for, was offered and accepted the job.  It started at the end of January, and after some discussion, Rosebud and Bobo and I moved out to Maryland mid-January and are staying with a friend.  Mr. Brown and Nut Brown and Rose Pink are staying in Texas until the school year ends for Nut Brown and the house there is sold. Although the adventure of living apart for four months is not one that we are excited about, we are going to make the most of it!

Bobo, Rosebud and I had a good trip out.  We took it in easy stages, and it was only the fourth and final day that we were all cranky from being stuck together so much.  We listened to an audiobook, ate snacks and made lists of the things that we saw in each state.  We stayed overnight in Oklahoma with Spencer's mother and had dinner with his sister's family.  The next night we slept over at his brother's house in St. Louis and went to the Arch in the morning.  The third day was Illinois/Indiana/Ohio with a hotel at the end of the day, and the last day got us to Maryland.  The drive on the last day was through mountains and tunnels, so exciting!

Bobo and Rosebud are enrolled in school and seem to be doing pretty well.  The friends we are staying with have five kids, including a 9yo boy and a 7yo girl, so there are lots of people to play with in the house.  I requested the school put Rosebud in the same class with the other girl, and they did, so she had a familiar face on her first day in her new class.

Here we go on our new adventure of being a family in halves!

21 January 2023

 Nut Brown got another stripe on his in his jiujitsu class!  He and Mr. Brown have been making a greater effort to get him to more classes, and all his work paid off in advancement!

18 January 2023

Things Rosebud has written this year:

and these treasures are from a week when I was out of town for work:

17 January 2023

As her birthday present, Rose Pink requested a visit to the Austin Aquarium, which is about 30 minutes from our house.  She does love animals and marine life.  The aquarium was more like a zoo than an aquarium, because there were so many animals that we were invited to touch!  I was even brave enough to put my hand in a tank of some kind of shrimp that like to eat your dead skin.  They crawled on me for just a second before I pulled my hand back out.  

Rose Pink spent a long time petting the sting rays.

The girls and I also had the chance to feed parakeets.  We held the feed in our hands and the parakeets climbed on us to eat it.  It was thrilling!  Rosebud loves birds and keeps saying that she wants a bird.

We had such a good time!

 

16 January 2023

With the plan for leaving Texas in place, I decided to go after something that I had wanted to go see ever since I found out about it: dinosaur footprints in a local river bed!

Riverbeds also include water and rocks and we had chosen a gorgeous day to go exploring.  

water + loose rocks = dam required

We also found the dinosaur footprints, and they were pretty cool!

15 January 2023

 

Happy birthday, girls!

Rose Pink celebrated having a driver's license and being a legal adult by taking the car for the day and going ice skating and shopping with friends.  Rosebud had a tea party with her friends at home.  On the day in between birthdays we ate pozole, which is their favorite dish!

12 January 2023

After church on Fast Sunday, Bobo told me that he had written his testimony down on a paper airplane.  I asked if I could read it, and he said, "No, because my handwriting is so bad.  But I will read it to you."  Then he unfolded the airplane and read it to me.  "My name is D B and I would like to share my still growing testimony.  I know that the church is true, that Christ is the true god and that he is the way to eternal happiness."  Mr. Brown said that he had been working on it during fast and testimony meeting, which had been particularly spiritual that Sunday.  I was glad he shared it with me.  He doesn't want to discuss spiritual things very often.

11 January 2023

6 January 2023

For New Year's, we had our family sandwich party (no guests this year) and played some of the new games that we got.  I love traditions.  And I love spending time with my family!

We also have a post-Christmas tradition to celebrate Epiphany.  We call it "the twelve days of Christmas" and it starts with pear custard pie for Christmas dinner on the 25th.  This year for 'two turtle doves', we ate Dove chocolates on the 26th, and ordered fried chicken for three French hens... and so on.  Here are the boys eating omelets for six geese a-laying, making origami jumping frogs for ten lords a-leaping and Rosebud eating a Drumstick ice cream cone for twelve drummers drumming.

 

4 January 2023

A sign that Rosebud posted on her door one morning when she was tired of the noise of the household.  (She and Rose Pink share a room.)