Our Homeless Summer

Silverton!

Posted on June 22, 2014 by sevenwildandfree

It’s Silverton time baby! Headed up a little late Friday with all the Little People. Van pack full of food, breakfast in their snack bins, and no real plan in mind. Decided to keep it simple this trip and not think too much, if you know me, that’s a clear lie.

I will say my planning sucked for this trip. Nearly everything I have for the kids I have bought myself in the last 6 months. I like matching shirts (so I can find them easier if they are lost), comfy clothes, basically whatever it takes to keep things as simple as possible. Yet, I found myself with nothing, and a whole lot of shopping to do. With drama always on my door step, getting out of town took longer then I wanted.

So we drove, FINALLY, the 6 of us. We stopped when we wanted, snacked when we wanted. Other then a little more whinning then I would have like, it went well! And then they saw Silverton:

Obviously they are a little odd… but I kinda like how Tay calls marrying the same gender “flavor”. He is well on his way to a comedy career.. or incarceration… a Mother can never be too sure!

They talked about how much they love small towns and they ran around on the playground and all came back out of breathe! Oh, a Hardrock loving Mothers dream. They were all so happy to be “home”.

We headed off in the mountains to sleep. It was too late for me to care to put up a tent, van it was. Tru laid on me for a while and was nice enough to inform me “no poop Mommy, no poop”. Thanks Buddy, glad you don’t plan on pooping on me tonight. Everyone found their “spot” and sleep came. The morning was my favorite:

On to the fun adventures! I have some exciting plans for my out-of-shape little ultra runners! Stay tuned!

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: 5 kids, camping with kids, Divorce, Divorced Parenting, five kids, homeless with kids for fun, Large Family, living outside with kids, Mom of Many, Mountains, Parenting, road trips with kids, running trail running, Silverton Co, single mom, single mom of 5, single parent, sleeping in the car with kids, Too many kids, Traveling with kids, Ultra Running | 1 Comment

Couch Surfing

Posted on August 18, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

Everyone has had that friend that crashes at you place “just for a night” and 2 weeks later they can still be found on your couch, Well lets try this, multiply that time 7, would you let them stay? Seth and I are currently on a mission to find out, how long can 2 adults and 5 kids couch surf before we severely overstay our welcome.

Since getting back a week ago we have been intensely looking for a place to live. Our plan of not having anything figured out before our homeless summer was cute when we started, but now seeing the housing market here it’s scary to say the least. Renting is our only real option currently and rentals are priced high and getting renters quickly. What doesn’t help is walking into a home with 5 kids and 3 animals, clearly we are not the ideal renters. So we continue to search, but in the interim a new experiment was born.

Currently we are splitting out time between Seth’s Mom’s house and my best lady friend Lala’s. The kids have had many social events leading up to school starting so that has kept us all pretty busy together during the day, along with the house searching. Needless to say we are not use to this heat so meltdowns and grumpiness are pretty regular. We both try and be as helpful as possible at our respective crashing spots, but how long will people really put up with us?

In just a few days Seth leaves to run Cascade Crest, a 100 mile race in Washington. The kids and I will be here still doing the school thing and all. My biggest concern is couch surfing for 7 days, alone with 5 kids while Seth is gone. Just the simply tasks of putting 5 kids to bed is made that much harder in a home not your own. Add to that that my little people are use to sleeping in a tent or car makes things even more difficult. Breakfast creates that many more dirty dishes, which uses that much more water to clean them, which costs that much more. At what point does someone say “enough is enough” to this homeless gaggle of peeps?

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: Couch Surfing, homeless, Sabrina | Leave a comment

More Vegan Camping Food Goodness

Posted on August 13, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

One of the biggest search terms coming to our blog is “vegan camping food”. So in an effort to give the people what they want, here is a little of what we cook on the road!

First and foremost for us, we like to hit up as much fresh fruits and veggies we can. Giving a child an apple as a snack always feels better to me than handing them anything packaged. One of the kids’ current favorite is being handed a whole mango. They simply peel as the eat, or eat the peel as well. The mess is worth it on this one!

Greens!

Cauliflower, sweet potatoes and garlic salt!

With green veggies a little browning in oil, salt, and garlic usually does the trick for us. Cauliflower is a huge hit either browning with salt and pepper or cooking up some cauliflower fritters:

Boil cauliflower until tender enough to mash

add 1/2 cup of flour and 1 egg replacer per cauliflower head

salt and pepper to taste

form into patties and cook in oil until browned on both sides

Cauliflower Fritters…

With a smile!

When fresh isn’t an option, how we supplement to keep it cheap. Pancakes, biscuits, banana bread, all these can be made vegan in a jiffy! Play around with them and get creative. Add a little extra sugar to your biscuit dough and fry it in oil for some yummy vegan camping donuts (with jelly on top?). Canned chili might not seem too amazing, but add some fresh avocado and suddenly you’ve upped the nutritional value and deliciousness of the meal. Pasta can be a kid favorite with some fresh vegetables, oil, and garlic salt. Even boxed rice can be spiced up with some canned black beans and kale. Basically when running low on veggies and fruit, supplementing with carbs wont be the end of the world and will help you stretch out the super nutritional stuff.

Chili made Fancy

Noodles and Veggies!

Foraging- A wonderful Lady I know Mrs. Lylal Ledner convinced me foraging was a wonderful idea one day as I followed her around her beautiful farm, The Simple Farm. There with her I felt safe tasting everything despite the fact that I had no idea what it was. Convincing as she was, out on my own in the real world I got scared! So alas, no foraging was done except blackberries and a wonderful surprise of roadside strawberries one day. Sorry Lylah, one day I hope I can get up the courage! The beautiful possibilities that lie out there in the world that we don’t even know about are a perfect option for non scaredy cat vegans!

While strawberries found by the roadside!

Favorite packed products-

Justin’s nut butter! Have you tried it? Squeeze packs make every child (and adult!) into happy campers plus they have vegan peanut butter cups (just the dark chocolate ones), I may be in love!

Lara Bars. Just dates and nuts? Yes please! Tons of awesome flavors for kids to choose from without the added sugar for mom to stress about, everyone is happy!

The moral of my cooking has become “just roll with it” some of our best meals have come when I thought we were going to be hungry that night. Sometimes your grill doesn’t work and you have to cook on the ground on a tiny Jetboil, roll with it. Sometimes you don’t have the correct utensils and find yourself improvising like a pro. Creativity is always the key!

Sometimes…

You just make things work!

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: Camping Vegan, Cauliflower, Fruits and Vegetables, Sabrina, Vegan, Vegan and Homeless, Vegan Camping Food, Vegan Kids, Veganism, What Vegans Eat | 1 Comment

Ashland- SOB 50K

Posted on August 8, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

Late post-

I think I am in love. If I could live anywhere all summer Silverton is my all time choice with Ashland not being far off as second. It is a super cute little town having all the quiet and character Leadville lacks. Both Seth and I had a hard time dealing with how “busy” Leadville seems, Ashland just seemed much less “on the go”. We spent the morning at the railroad park called such because it sits next to the tracks, a little disappointing but still a cute place. In true homeless style we cooked our lunch there as the children climbed trees and made new friends. The joy of having no agenda.

How 8 years old taper

Keeping it green the day before their big race.

T-shirt pick up at Rouge Valley Runners wasn’t too exciting but luckily we draw attention! We parked in front of this super cute antique store and as I stared longingly in at all the amazing old books, the kind woman who I believe owns it came out. She informed the kids for all children 10 and under it was free book rushed them inside and began offering them all wonderful options, of course they were all super excited! The children all shook hands and gave high 5’s to her husband as we said our thank yous and headed on our way. I love happy people who just want to make the day of others! So thank you to the lovely couple, my children (who are complete and totally book nerds) were beyond happy with their selections. This super cute couple also looked up our blog, how cute is that?!

Tea being sad I would not buy her a new handheld for the race.

The kids each got their shirts, picked out some race nutrition, and we headed for a nice walk around town. +1 informed me we should have the kids try the Lithia water in Lithia Park. Always up for tricking my children we convinced them to all partake and of course they all were grossed out (expect Tru… hmm…). The best part of this was our new friend Pirate we met. He informed us that this water was a joke and showed us where the real water fountains were, right next to the Lithia Water. Pirate then informed us until the day prior he had longer hair then Tajh, but he cut it for court. Apparently that did not help the outcome of his case, at which point he asked if we needed any weed. Being cautious Pirate whispered this, you know, since the kids were there and all. Overall, I think Pirate is a great guy. Silly court system in Ashland…

Tajh loving all his race nutrition picks from Rouge.

Tru apparently isn’t too picky.

So between Pirate and our finding of a super cute little market to grab some tasty food at, we had quit the exciting day in Ashland. Eventually we headed up to Mount Ashland to sleep at the start, and the kids and I ran the course a little to get a shake out run and a feel for what they had ahead. Both of them had finished a 50k plus a little before, but this was the first time they would be running a set distance, non loop course. Honestly I was a little nervous, and with Seth being the one to run with them and me having to watch the little ones it was worse. I love being there with my little people, and helping them through the lows. The real joy with the kids is being there during their highs. I have never seen my kids as goofy as they get when feeling amazing hours into a race, although it is hard to keep up at those times! So we ran, and then had a dinner of mash potatoes and veggies, and they headed to sleep.

Getting a feel for the course.

In the morning it was a little crazy getting all 3 of them ready and sending them away, but once they were gone the sitting and waiting was terrible. I have no idea where they were at and occupied my time hanging out with the little ones and cleaning the van a bit. I knew Seth would get cell reception at some point on the way in so I asked him to text me back whenever he had it. Seven hours into the race with a 7 ½ hour cut off (which apparently actually isn’t enforced) he text me they were still on the PCT; it was going to be close for Tea. I immediately assume that means Tajh is ahead, then I second guessed myself and ask for clarification. See, we usually run ever step of a race with the kids, I don’t believe either of them should be out on a course alone. Its not that I don’t trust them, its just IF something does go wrong, I believe Mommy or Daddy should be there. Going into this race we knew it would be hard. They can usually run together some, but for an entire 50K that just wasn’t going to happen. Seth is really good about running back and forth between them, but what if they were so far apart he couldn’t? Seth eventually text me back Tajh was behind… shit. If Tea was going to barely make, what is Tajh going through mentally?

My two amazing Littles at the start.

Seth woke Tajh up by telling him the race started in 3 minutes, MEAN!

Teagan and Seth coming running in, huge smile on Tea as always, and the race director announces Seth’s name as he has done for all people previous. I believe I yelled something like “and Teagan” and he looking completely confused and disheveled then yells, “I cant see her number”. Now here’s my point, if an 8 year old girl is signed up for your 50k, shouldn’t you take notice? And on top of that, not being able to see her number? Is that really an excuse when she is THE ONLY 8 YEAR OLD GIRL?! Seth runs by and yells her name which the guy then butchers… ugh… To continue on the volunteers then try and not give her a finisher medal and Seth has to correct them on that and then they aren’t taking the chip off her shoe. *sigh* Not a happy Momma here AND Tajh is still out there. I offer to run back and find him but Seth informs me he has it, and off he goes.

Coming in to the finish with Daddy!

This Lady is amazing!

As Seth takes off a man rushes over to talk to Tea. At first I assume he is a race director, but no he is actually a reporter. It basically is chaos at this point as my tired little girl tries to talk to this man (which she actually did a wonderful job at!) I try and wrangle 3 little people, stress about Tajh, and try and get my little lady whatever she needs. Eventually its back to sitting and waiting, but this time with Tea too. Forty minutes later Tajh and Seth come running up. Tajh’s name gets butchered by the man announcing and he luckily gets his finisher medal without too much hassle. Poor Tajh did not have the best day out there, but that little guy sure stuck it out and finished.

He loves his medal.,

Finishing with Daddy. Not the time he would have wanted, but still awesome in my book!

We hung out for a while, a couple of people congratulated the kids, and the kids had their free post race meal from a taco truck. They do get caffeine in long races and they both informed us it didn’t kick in until after the race. This “crazy mode” as Tea calls it I think isn’t the caffeine (I think they use that up during the race) I believe its just a little post race high. Honestly they are just crazy, talkative, and goofy. I feel like its similar to those kids after the dentist videos that go viral, maybe I should film it!

Tea in “crazy mode”

Post race vegan gummy worm.

So with no race director ever coming over to say anything to them, we eventually head on to our next adventure, which turned into the Redwood debocal of 2013 . Maybe I’m silly, but I believe my children deserved a little nod from the race directors. They are the youngest finishers of SOB 50k (at least that I saw) and I think that they desired a “good job”. Instead they got people almost seeming annoyed that they were there. Tea finished under the time cut off, with many people behind here, and Tajh was by far not the last finisher. They were not in the way, not a pain to have out there, they were the same as any other finisher, just shorter. Oh well I suppose. They both got medals they were super excited about and they both were happy with their performances. They thought the course was very pretty and they both of course were happily playing not too long later. Although I am jealous of their recovery time, I love my little people and I am so proud of both of them for their finishes!

Dirty feet. New Balance is all they wear, both finished the 50k in 890’s.

Moral of this, I love Ashland. I think I need to plan another visit, spend some more time, maybe even a different race! 🙂

Tajh’s race report

Tea’s race report

*July26-27

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: Ashland Oregon, homeless, Running, SOB 50k, Trail Running. Ultra Kids, Ultra Running, Ultras, Vegan Runners | 1 Comment

Mount Massive

Posted on July 30, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

Mount Massive is huge! Well the landmass under it that is. Mt. Massive is the third highest mountain in the lower 48 (behind nearby Elbert and Mt. Whitney in California), though it is the second largest mountain in North America behind only Denali, in Alaska, nearly 6,000’ higher. We rolled into Leadville and needed to decide our plan of attack. We only had one day and it came down to Massive or Elbert. Although Elbert is higher (by a couple feet) Massive seemed to be calling. As we looked at our possible routes, the trailheads were only about 2 ½ miles apart, I wanted to go up one side, down the other, and have Seth run and grab the van when we were done so we would get to see both sides of the mountain. Perfect!

We decided to take the shorter route up, just four miles but all the climbing in it, sounds like a good plan right? The drive from the lower trailhead was a little crazy but luckily we drive a super van. We got up to the trailhead in the afternoon, made dinner while the little people played in the creek, and went to bed in the van.

Sometimes you cook for 7 people on a JetBoil, no big deal.

For some reason we usually are late starting up the mountain. This is aside from once when I made banana bread the night before Redcloud. I believe we started up around 9, Tenny on my back, Tru on Seth’s, and a pack on both of our fronts. The beginning of the hike was super pretty in the trees but quickly we were exposed on a boulder field, and for me things became interesting. The big three were far out in front and Seth and I kept having to ask them to wait for us to keep up. Here’s the secret: THEY WERE PLAYING! They had just spent a ton of time with an awesome new family/ little friend in Silverton. She loves horses and she really sparked our kids’ interest in them. They all began reading and learning as much as they could about horses, to the point that the entire way up and down Massive they were “riding” their horses. Let me tell you, this was the best motivator ever for Tay. Usually he bonks 1-1 ½ hours in. That was not the case this time! They were all in front the entire way, and although that was amazing, it was also frustrating for me.

A ride on Momma’s back! She ended up loosing that Buff… my favorite one.. book!

This intense climb with a pack and a 30lb toddler on my back, plus the added pressure of my oldest three killing me on the climb, was stressful for me. About half way up Tenny was in my ear asking repeatedly when she could walk. I finally said “now” and put her on the ground. I secretly thought she would be tired in 10 minutes and back on my back for a nap and I would have won. I mean, we are climbing over rocks, what three year old can last?! Apparently mine when she wants to spite me! She marched on and we lost Seth and the big three… ummm… where are we?

Fast people!

The “Slow Ladies”

I used my poles to help direct her to the next boulder and to help make sure she didn’t fall, but at a couple of points I lost the trail. With no Seth in sight we ladies were on our own. To be honest, I didn’t trust myself to find the way. At one point a marmot sat in our way on the trail refusing to move. We stood back staring at it hoping it would scurry away but it wasn’t willing! I threw a rock in its direction and it stayed. Tenny asked “does it want to bite us Mommy?” I think it did! I threw another rock and off it went. Thank goodness! They also have white marmots up there which Tenny thought was pretty amazing.

A friend!

Not a friend…

After a while Tenny and I turned a corner to see all the big ones plus Tru sitting on the trail, alone. Ummm??? Apparently Seth had headed up to try and see if the weather was going to turn. The weather on 14’ers can change quickly and be really dangerous. It was starting to look a little gloomy but being that we were on the west side we could not see the weather coming from the east. We all sat and had a little snack until Seth came down and informed up he thought we could make it. Perfect! Onward and upward!

The crazy gang!

Along the way we saw a mountain goat, which was pretty awesome for everyone. We all happily trudged along eventually hitting the summit for some awesome views! Little Tenny had just hiked almost 2,000 vertical feet and as she said “Mommy this is real rock climbing!” This little girl is amazing! We only spend a few minutes on the summit since the weather far to the North of us was looking a little crazy and the lightning off in the distance did not make me feel too stellar. Hiking down was harder for Tenny, but we made it down to the trail to the lower summit with her tripping the entire way. I could tell she was tired so I put her back on my back (with her pleading to stay on the ground) and within minutes she was asleep. Rough life.

All those fast people ahead of us!

Boys on the summit!

Girls on the summit!

The way down the children continued to play happily and Seth and I tried to keep the pace up, afraid of it becoming dark and of the weather turning on us. Tenny woke up and got back off my back to “run 50 miles”. The trail on this side is pretty tame so I didn’t mind too much but we had to encourage her to keep up. Eventually we ran into my +1 (stalker!) and he joined us for the rest of the way down. At some point +1, Tenny, and I were pretty far behind and I had a mommy intuition to throw her on my back, which she again did not agree with. We picked up the pace and right as we hit the trailhead it began to hail, hard. My +1 drives a truck so there was no way to send everyone with him. I told Seth to take the babies and he, the babies, and my +1 went flying up the crazy road to the van.

Heading down

The big three and I were in pain. They hail was unrelenting and we ended up taking shelter under a short tree which didn’t help much (there was no lightning and the tree was the smallest in the forest, don’t judge!). Somehow Tay’s The North Face shell did not make it into his Camelbak before we started, so he was wearing my not-so-amazing jacket and I was wearing fleece. It was cold! Eventually the hail stopped and it was just rain so we stood in the middle of the parking lot waiting huddled together. This is where our talk about marriage came up ( ).

My +1 literally came flying down the road and I stripped the kids of jackets and threw them in his truck. It took Seth longer since he had to put the babies in their seats, so they waited for him somewhere a little warmer. Once he came, we got them all down to their underwear and in their seats in the van. No hypothermia here! Of course a short drive down the road the rain stopped and the sky was blue again. Got to keep it interesting for us!

Suckers for an awesome view! Somewhere near the top, always worth it!

What we learned:

-To be thankful for +1 showing up and the hailing waiting for us to get off the mountain

-Double check the kids’ shell is always in their Camelbak

-The babies do not like hail, at all

-Mount Massive has beautiful views!

-We eat a lot of nutrition/snacks when climbing 14’ers

Why we hike 14ers.

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: 14er, Kids Hiking, Leadville, Mount Massive, Mountains, Parenting, Sabrina | 2 Comments

Super Van Down

Posted on July 29, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

Like the bad kind…Poor Supervan…

So I know I have a lot to recap, some fun things having been going on prior to the demise of Supervan. For now though I’m going to fill you in on the chaos. Priorities!

Saturday after the race (that the kids wrecked!) we left the beautiful Ashland, Oregon and headed toward Redwood Forest National Park. From the get go the van was feeling a little funky, but in true “we are homeless lets just go for it/live dangerously fashion” I told Seth to keep rolling. Around 9pm we were in the middle of the forest and things seemed a little funkier, plus we needed to sleep, so we pulled off at an information center. Upon opening the hood we were greeted with black liquid, everywhere… Awesome…

Before we left for our summer homeless adventure I made a point of getting premier membership AAA. I thought “Hey, if shit hits the fan we will be covered. 200 miles free towing is perfect no mater where we are!” Ha… I think I jinxed us! So silly me assumed that would also mean all my people could get to where the van was headed. Alas, as in any good chaos story, I was wrong. The tow truck would only take two people and they wouldn’t cover transportation for any of the rest of us. So, Seth and Tea headed with the tow truck for a two hour drive (sounds a little Gilligan’s Island-ish to me) and Tajh, Tay, Tru, Ten, and I sat at the information center and waited.

Bye bye Super Van

My phone was almost fully charged when they left but between it being an iPhone that doesn’t hold a charge, and my +1 texting me to find out what was going in, it ended up dying a little over three hours in. At this point I knew: 1) Sitting around with four kids and no caffeine sucks 2) My previous/present injury hurts so hiking anywhere was not an option 3) This two hour trip turned into three and Seth was just now in Eureka with no ETA on return, and 4) I needed a nap!

I took this time to teach the little 2 to play baseball… clearly they still need some work…

Funny thing is, the information center closed at 5:00pm. So basically it was just people stopping to us the restroom and then this random lady off to the side with four children. Only one person questioned this and asked if we needed help. This Mom, Dad, and teenager daughter sat at a picnic table nearby and ate dinner as we did the same. They packed everything up and drove over to the bathroom in the 1980’s beat up Suburban. As I’m cleaning a kid I see the Mom walking back over to me. When she gets closer I hear “Excuse me Ma’am, you aren’t stranded here with your children are you”? I explained my situation and thanked her greatly. Just one of those random moments you remember there are good people in the world.

Back to this waiting thing. Eventually, who knows what time, I get Tru to sleep in my arms. It’s really getting cold at this point and as I sit in the grass holding him the mosquito’s are swarming around us. Almost seven hours later I see the glow of a stark white rental minivan. Never have I been so happy! We got everyone in the rental van and headed back toward Eureka. We were all able to sleep in the van so we spent the night in a pull-off by the ocean, a great place to wake up to!

We all fit! Kinda…

Our poor Supervan needs a new transmission. Of course it would be something serious, gotta keep things crazy, right? So now we sit in Eureka waiting. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow night and we can get on with our adventures. We have places to go Supervan!

Sad sad Lady she is. See you soon Super Van!

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: Car problems, Giant Van, homeless, Redwood Forest National Park, Sabrina | 1 Comment

Because things must always stay “interesting”

Posted on July 20, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

So we left Silverton (with many tears shed by me), and moved on to Leadville. Oh wait, scratch that, headed to Denver to get me some new shoes. I have been hiking in super old New Balance 730’s (since I haven’t been running, I convinced myself I didn’t need knew shoes) and decided the lack of tread needed to be addressed before another crazy mountain and I met. So Denver it is with some delicious food mixed in for sure.

First stop was the super amazingly fancy REI. Seriously I think I’m going to live in this place. My plan is to sleep during the day in one of the kayaks and come out at night. Play dress up for hours on end while no one is there and eat some delicious food until the wee hours of the morning when I go back to my kayak home. Don’t tell so someone else steals my plan! Anyway… Awesome time there. Love me some REI and put a rock wall in the middle and I’m a super happy lady. No shoes for me here, on the next place.

Found a running store called Runners Roost and just grabbed some New balance 110’s. Not super stoked on them but guess they will work. We then headed to this little Thai place to grab dinner. I love me some Happy Cow (awesome website dedicated to helping you find Vegan grub) and especially love little hole in the wall restaurants they bring us to.

So we hit up this super cute little place and ate vegetables, yes VEGETABLES! Being in Silverton for over a month where everything straight from a plant is super expensive it was so nice to gorge ourselves again. On to the point, as we ate we noticed Tru was not using his left arm. His water was in the fairly large Styrofoam cup and he needed help moving it to his mouth. No amount of prompting or bribing could get him to use it. Damn… after finishing dinner (where we were of course praised many times for how well behaved our kids are) Seth and I tried playing with him outside. Poor little boy cried because he couldn’t use his arm to get up from a sitting position. Hospital time it is.

Luckily we live in the awesome ultra running community. We had two great ladies willing to come to a random hotel and watch our bigger four so Seth and I could take our sad little man to the hospital. We chose the awesome Lady closest to us (thanks Shawna!) bid and hasty goodbye to the other four, and headed out after 9pm to the children’s hospital in Aurora. Apparently it’s a popular place at that time.. ugh…

A digression- We lovingly refer to Tru at home as “Drunk Frat boy” because:

-His speech is slurred, if you can understand him at all.

-He often wanders around with only one shoe on

-He falls, balance is not his thing

-He wakes up in the gutter, well not really but often he throws tantrums that appear like he has

-He has random bouts with violent aggression

-He throws stuff, anything really

-He is a hot mess

See, Drunk Frat Boy. I mean, he is just making sure he is well prepared for his future as one. Luckily for him his drunk Frat Boyness will be at an Ivy League school, gotta make his Momma proud!

His first hospital bracelet for an injury!

So alas, Seth stayed with us at the hospital until Midnight then headed back to the hotel to let Shawna go home. Tru and I continued to wait as his serious hoodlum behaviors came out. Really kid? It’s MIDNIGHT!!! Even without the use of his arm he managed to be a crazy little guy. Eventually we got called back. The doctor diagnosed it at Nursemaids elbow (which we had assumed), and moved his arm around putting all those silly ligaments back into place. Nurses came in to check vitals again and Tru was not having it. Apparently at 1am after a doctor has just caused you great pain in is acceptable to kick nurses… sigh… I honestly just couldn’t be mad, poor little guy. So nurses left and it took FOREVER for the doctor to come back. Someone please explain to my why a CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL does not have everything child-proofed? I was exhausted and could not close my eyes since this little guy was running in circles opening every drawer.

Mom this is serious!

Just kidding!

Hind sight-

Isn’t it funny how you question things as they are happening but they don’t make sense until after?

At REI I had put Tru on a bear statue with the other kids. Normally this would be a fun activity, but he kept crying whenever Tay would put his arms around him. This Mommy thought “goodness why is he being such a punk right now?”

Tru not having fun.

As we got out of the car at REI Seth pulled Tru out of his car seat and set him on the step of the van, like normal. I remember Tru crying and grabbing his arm. Again I remember thinking “Why is he being such a punk?”

So as Seth pulled him out something was funky and his ligaments in his elbow got all pulled out of whack. Nothing crazy happened, just another normal moment that for some reason went awry.

The best part of the evening was when the male doctor came in, Tru happily gave him a high five with both hands, and we were sent home. With the promise that this will probably happen again… I guess kid number 5 just wants some extra attention so we will find ourselves in a hospital room getting it popped back into place probably again and again with this daredevil. Yup, My Drunk Frat Boy had his first dislocated joint. Such a proud Momma!

Best part about going to the hospital? You get to play with you sisters baby all night and no one stops you!

This is what you look like at 2:30am we you are FINALLY leaving the hospital! Guess he enjoyed his evening!

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: Drunk Frat Boy, Hospital, Injured Baby, Parenting, Sabrina | Leave a comment

Homeless life is exhausting

Posted on July 18, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

Now don’t get my wrong, I honestly LOVE being homeless. I think being homeless by yourself, or with a partner could be pretty cool. No agenda, no real plans, the fly by the seat of your pants approach to life is great. Having a bunch of kids makes it tiring.

No T.V. to put them in front of so you can “relax”

No couch to “take a break” on

All the elements that cause added stress (e.g. rain, hail, anything causing them to be inside)

Cooking all 3 meals plus snacks (there is no easy way out here)

Dishes being done by hand after every meal (I don’t want to be eaten by a bear)

Clothing being washed in the creek or at a Laundromat

Always being vigilant in order to be sure the children don’t fall off a mountain/eat something that will poison them/get eaten by something

Basically there is no escaping hard work when you are homeless with kids. Breaks don’t come like they do when you live in a house. I am tired all day, every day. I need a nap, I need some down time, I need to watch some terrible television and veg out, and I wouldn’t change any of that for the world! What I am learning about myself, my children, and that weird guy that keeps following us everywhere, Seth, is worth all the exhaustion that can be thrown at me. May I suggest you try homelessness too?

Disclaimer- I am talking about homelessness by choice. Before you get all huffy about how being homeless because you have to be and how “there is nothing fun in that” and how I am “terrible for implying that anyone should be homeless”, I understand homelessness because you have to be is terrible. I understand there is nothing fun about that. So, now you can’t yell at me!

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: homeless, Parenting, Sabrina, Too many kids | Leave a comment

Handies and The Terrible No Good Very Bad Day.

Posted on July 3, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

Last summer, when we were visiting Silverton for a few days, we tried, and failed, to hike Handies Peak. Here is how it went from both of our perspectives.

We left Silverton right after breakfast. As we were driving out of town, we were relying on my quick look at a map of the area and Sabrina and Paulette’s memory of having driven to Grouse Gulch, the start of our hike up Handies, during Hardrock over a month prior. We ended up taking the wrong road out of Silverton and wasted quite a bit of time before we realized where we should have been. We got to the Grouse Gulch Trail Head around late morning.

Kids and Nature

As we started up the trail, a series of long switchbacks, the kids quickly started to feel the elevation and the hike. We had made it up the switchbacks and about three quarters of the way up to the American Basin-Grouse Gulch Pass when a break became absolutely necessary. Several kids were bonking hard. We stopped at a small glacial lake that had a rock outcropping to shield us from the building wind and had snacks. Nourished and rested, we headed up the rest of the way to the pass, which tops out above 13,000’, which would end up being our highest elevation for the day.

Seth and Tenny looking amazing!

Snack time.

During our hike up, Sabrina’s stress fracture hadn’t seemed to inhibit her greatly. The kids were moving slowly and the lower impact of uphill travel did not seem to be affecting her too much. As we started down into American Basin, things started to turn to shit. The boys took off down into the basin and within minutes were several hundred yards in front of us. I tried to stay back with Sabrina to help, but trying to keep up and the impact of keeping her footing moving downhill produced visible winces of pain in her face. We regrouped at the bottom of the basin and started our climb up Handies, now nearly 2,000’ above us. This quickly proved to be too much. On top of this, it started to hail. Fucking great. Sabrina sat down and we all put on our rain shells. This is the point that the day turned from a poorly executed hike to a total failure.

Sabrina still feeling “OK”

From the moment I got out of the van it was a disaster. I was my usual self trying to get everything done and in the rush slipped out of the van causing some ridiculous pain in my facture area… oops. Not being willing to admit failure, I strapped Tru on my stomach and threw the pack on my back. I’ve never hiked with poles but thought possibly this could relieve some weight from my leg and gave it a go, not too gracefully. As Seth said the up hill was fine, down I was just hoping to not cause a full fracture. My careful steps still hurt and how slow I was going began to scare me more and more. At some point I knew this was going to get terrible, I just wish I had known how terrible it could get.

Sabrina couldn’t get back up. She was either in shock, or early hypothermia from sitting down and having her body temp plummet in the now quickly worsening wind and hail/rain. The decision was made for me to run across Cinnamon Pass to see if the route would be possible in the van. This would prevent Sabrina from having to climb back up and over the pass and down Grouse Gulch. From where we were in the basin, it was only about a mile to the American Basin Trail Head. As I ran over Cinnamon Pass, I realized that this would be a real challenge to get the van back over. I also realized that with the worsening weather, the near impossibility of getting Sabrina back over the pass which we had crossed, and the much longer trip over Cinnamon Pass than I had anticipated, I had no choice but to drive back over. I finally reached the van maybe seven miles from where I had started, and at least an hour longer than I had estimated (I had guessed the pass to be three to four miles). I got in the van, turned the key, and the bane of my existence, the gas light, flicked on with three quick chimes. My heart sank. Not only would I have to make it over Cinnamon Pass, I would have to hope like hell I didn’t run out of gas in the process. The first side of the pass was sketchy, but not too stressful in our 15-passenger van. As a tangent, our van is built on a truck chassis, but at the time, we had some pretty suspect tires for what I was trying to pull off. Since, we have put commercial-grade off-road tires on the van to help ensure we are prepared for our adventures. Anyhow, the second half of the pass is where the day became truly terrifying for me. Our 15-passenger van, though it is built on a truck chassis, and has decent ground clearance, is still a 15-passenger van. It is really long. Trying to navigate the worst hairpin turns I have ever encountered in my life, as the van is making all kinds of noises indicating that it is about to break under the stress that I am putting it through, while trying not to look off the edge of the road that drops a thousand feet to the dabin below only a few inches away from where I am maneuvering six-point turns still sends chills down my spine. Somehow, both the van and I made it down the road to the American Basin Trail Head, passing Jeepers with their jaws on the floor at the sight of what this jackass in a 15-passenger van was trying to pull off.

So Paulette, myself, and 6 kids sat. Paulette and I sat very close together huddling for warmth as the hail/rain continued on and off. The kids quite surprisingly and to our benefit played happily most of the time. Tru even stayed pretty silent maybe sencing the same thing Paulette and I were feeling. The conversation with us was kept to mundane topics. As time drew on it was later discovered that we were thinking the same thing, there was no way it took this long, something terrible happened. I watched the small amount of cars leave the trailhead and the daylight slowly go away, what were we going to do? Could we hitch a ride with someone? Not knowing what the road out looked like I wondered how terrible it would be to take all the kids sans carseats out of here. At what point would we have cell phone reception again and be able to call seth, my +1, anyone for help? The thoughts stayed terrible but neither of us talked about them…

I parked the van below the 4WD point for the trail head access road. Both to get my feet back on solid ground and to preserve what little gas we had left. I had been gone hours longer than I had told Sabrina and Paulette that I would be at this point. As I ran the road the rest of the way to where they were waiting, the looks on their face puzzled me, at first. They started to yell “Where is the van??”. It hadn’t occurred to me that approaching on foot would scare them. It was nearly dark. I told them that the van was just down the road. I also suggested that Cinnamon Pass wasn’t the road that I would suggest for us getting back to Silverton. They agreed. At this point, I the gravity of what I had just pulled off sunk in and I almost started to cry. That was the scariest shit I have ever done.

Paulette and I basically freaked when he came on foot. After he described his journey we were happy to take the 4 hour drive around and we shared our fear of him being dead all around. Im pretty sure he was not the only one that cried, that day was probably the most emotional day of all of our lives. So today Handies and I have a beef. Although I may be healing from a stress fracture (undiagnosed from before the trip) I am ready to finish what we started last year. Hopefully with no Cinnamon Pass stories this time!

Categories: Our Homeless Summer | Tags: 14er, Epic Disaster, Handies Peak, Hiking, Kids Hiking, Sabrina, Silverton | Leave a comment

Silly Judgy People!

Posted on July 2, 2013 by sevenwildandfree

So I came to this awesome little place in Silverton to work and the little ones needed a nap (big 2 are running with Seth). So here I sit, little 2 in car seats and Tay in the front playing.

This is my view:

I left the windows up for 5 minutes or so waiting for them to actually be asleep before I let in a ton of noise, good plan right? Well of course nosey old lady decides to inform me it is hot in my van. Mind you we are in Silverton, Colorado, not Phoenix! My van is huge on the inside so never heats up too terribly, and it’s white! Ugh… She informed me she would not like to be in there, I thanked her and continued to do my work. (I did roll down the windows once Tru was asleep and no one was sweaty or uncomfortable)

This is just a giant reminder that people always think they know better than you. Not too long ago Tajh and Tea and their running was posted about on Facebook. Plenty of people had kind comments while there were some angry people. Apparently I am living through my kids, forcing them to run, and they are going to end up getting burnt out on running so I am a terrible Mother. ugh… I couldn’t help but laugh as I read these comments. Children are raised in all different ways, who is to say one way is better than another? I might have some crazy hippie ideas on how to handle my children, but I have to say I get tons of compliments. Honestly, to each their own. I try to not get too bent out of shape about the evil comments and bask in the awesome ones. I even say thank you when I get the occasional “God Bless”.

Categories: Our Homeless Summer, Parenting | Tags: Hippie Parenting, homeless, Parenting, Rude people, Sabrina, Working Parents | 3 Comments