New in Elkhart, Indiana. Home to the RV Industry

Elkhart, Indiana

In January 2018, the Blackburn family officially moved to Elkhart, Indiana. After years of driving cross-country to visit my family, God dramatically opened the door for us to live here.

We moved into a cute little yellow farmhouse just south of downtown Bristol for three months. It needed some TLC, but we got it cleaned up and all the utilities turned on.

Little yellow farmhouse 

In April, we purchased a 1960s red-brick ranch and settled down in our new home. Within the last year, we found a home church. Joined a homeschool coop. And participated in several family events, thus cementing the best reason for being here. Family.

1960s red brick house

We also joined a robotics program and the younger two kids started up in a technical school –Elkhart Area Career Center. Liam is learning all about industrial automation and engineering. And Kyla excels in the Commercial Photography program.

This will be their second year doing robotics and the career center. Both of them finished their core academics and are now on a trajectory toward their future careers.

The kids with best friends at our new church

My oldest daughter, Jessica, opted to return to Colorado to be a camp counselor after graduating a year early. She interned at Camp Idrahaje for the last year and will be finishing up her incredible experience this month.

As for our RV adventures, we put them on hold. Like everything else in life, there is a time and a season. We plan to continue traveling in a couple years, but need time to stabilize and root.

There was a thing I had been missing, but I couldn’t describe. A restlessness. I think part of that contributed to my constant need to find “home.” Once we moved here, that restlessness left. I love being close to my family and can’t imagine ever living anywhere else.

Life isn’t perfect and we still have ups and downs. But my husband absolutely adores being home. And I adore having him home. Our relationship with God is stronger and we are closer than ever.

Overall, I would say if I had to do this journey again; I wouldn’t change a thing. Because it led us to where we are now.

Happy. Healthy. Rooted in community.

My sister and my mom. My best friends in the world.

Family is a rich tapestry

During my side-of-the-road wait for our tow truck driver and my attempts to compose shaking hands and a pounding heart, my father calls to remind me to wish him a happy birthday...  He was at my sister's house enjoying his favorite meal: home-made mac-n-cheese, just like mom used to make, and Rocky Road ice cream.

Leaving DIA

He decided that he missed my kids terribly and wanted to fly them out to Indiana unaccompanied, for the summer.  This took a little bit of digesting, but I knew that God's timing is always perfect and that the kids would have an amazing summer.

So, on the Fourth of July, they flew alone, all by themselves, without any adults.  It was challenging at first to let them go.  But I trusted my family to be at the other end.

Arriving in Chicago with my Dad to greet them!

The kids got there just fine and my parents met them at the gate.

They've been gone a week and settled into a routine.  I receive phone calls and facetime calls almost every day.  My sister wrapped them into her schedule.  They do devotionals and chores in the morning.  Then school.  Then free time.

I realized that this summer is God's gift to all our family.  To my husband and I, because we haven't been alone like this for over thirteen years.  Our relationship has blossomed and rekindled romance to a whole new level...  Plus, his new job is taking a lot of creative energy and time.  And my camp hosting job requires more of me than I'm used to giving to people outside my family.  And I don't have to worry about them. 

My parents and siblings get to meet my children.  Get to know them in a way that is impossible when I'm around.  For the cousins, because it brings them closer together.  More like siblings.  And for my children, they are experiencing the rich tapestry that is family.  That is grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  It truly takes a village to raise children.  And for years to come, they will cherish the time they spend together.

Cousins!

Bristol, Indiana

All the cousins together for the very first time...

Fall has arrived in glorious multi-hued colors.  The poison ivy sticks out like a red sore thumb.  As we wind through the back country roads in Bristol, Indiana, you can see thick clumps of it crawling up the side of oaks and maple.  The corn stocks behind my sister’s house have turned that rustic harvest decoration color.    All day, the kids run back and forth between the house, the fort and the trampoline.  Outside the dining room window, I can see the big blue tarp they threw across the top to act as a roof. 

This morning, I walked quietly down to the ponds and sat on the half rotted dock watching steam curl up from the swimming pond half covered in lily pads.  The sunlight filtered through the feathered Cyprus and maple, creating a mock halo around the algae infested fishing pond.  Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spot movement.  A mother whitetail deer and her two half grown fawns stepping daintily out of the brush, nibbling on leaves and grass; though she saw me and flicked her tail uncertainly. 

What is it that I admire about this place?  The peaceful serenity and the extreme privacy.  I think it is that and the lush, green trees that arch overhead, creating a cool oasis. 

Crazy cousins

My mom kept her fifth wheel parked here over the summer, flitting back and forth between business in California and visiting her grandkids in Indiana.  The lure of all her children and grandchildren in one place was too much to resist.  Thankfully, she is coming in the middle of October with Bill. She’s leaving the Mojave Desert and picking him up in Denver.  Then, they’ll come out together –he is catching a ride and she is gaining a driving partner. 

This time of rest is good for me.  A chance to breath and rejuvenate.

We are in Bristol, Indiana, visiting my sister on her ten-acre farm.  So peaceful and tranquil.  My kids love it and don’t want to leave.  My niece, Zoe, is three months younger than my son, Liam (almost 11), and my nephew, Judah, is a week younger than Kyla, 9.  My brother lives about a half hour away and occasionally brings his two young boys over to play.  Sometimes, my dad, who also lives about 30 minutes away, comes over after work.  It is nice to have most of my family close by during our visit.  

Birthday girl (13th birthday) with Papa Scott

Zoe driving the golf cart

Jessica driving golf cart

Cousins just hangin'

Most of the days blended together in a splendid symphony of not quite so harmonic cousins doing what children do best: play.

I captured some sweet moments between them that just had to be shared:

Judah is waiting for the rain to end

The boys working together

Little Ben, 4-years-old

We had fun hanging at Lake Michigan.  Quite a novelty to play in fresh water waves...

My beautiful sister, Sarah, sunning

Zoe and Jessica burying Kyla in the sand

Judah waiting for lunch

My sweet stepmother, Yvette "Mema" Caviness

My dad, "Papa" Scott Caviness -the best in the world!

My brother-in-law, Lester, avoiding the sun...

Poor baby raccoons

It is a fact of life, on a farm, that animals will live where they aren't wanted.  While helping my brother-in-law get his office organized, we ran into that problem.  Baby raccoons had nested in the walls and so the hunt was on.

The most entertaining part was watching everyone defend themselves against the baby raccoons just in case they darted through the hole in the wall.

Papa Scott with his gun

The intrepid Racoon hunting group!

Lester

Papa Frank ready (not really!)

I was the worst one because I couldn't shoot any poor little critter.

In the end, our fearless Amish neighbor, Aaron, did the dirty deed and disposed of the varmints. 

How many people does it take to remove four baby raccoons?  Just one -with experience...

Haircuts

My sister, Sarah, is a professional hairstylist. One night, she gave everyone a cut and color. The girls picked pink and the boys picked blue.

The color faded after awhile, but lots of fun while it lasted.

Parades and Parties

Among the many fun activities we did whilst visiting the heart of Amish country was watch a parade in tiny Bristol, Indiana.  A mix of the modern and the old.  The kids managed to gather some candy.

After which, we rested in front of the oldest stick building in Indiana, the "Stone Soup Emporium".  Rumor has it that a ghost haunts the upper floor of this eclectic ice cream shop, which also sells everything from hand-painted stools to antique comics. The ice cream is to die for.

We also celebrated multiple birthdays.  The theme for my brother's son, Ben, was superheros.

We went with what we had... The best part of it all was being with family!

Chickens!

So my sister, Sarah, bought 12 baby chicks shortly before we arrived at the farm house.  The little peepers quickly outgrew their cardboard box home and moved into a huge tubby, under the heat lamp.  We helped her keep the water and food dispensers daily, and sometimes twice a day.  Those chickens are messy!


Here's all of us (moms and kids) using our legs as a fence while they got some sun!

The kids also enjoyed holding the chicks.  My youngest, Kyla, especially!

After awhile, they got too big for the tubby and kept flying out.  So Sarah bought a chicken coop and painted it sunshine yellow.  She loves bright colors...

After that, we let the chickens run around outside.  But weasels, raccoons and hawks began to lower the local chicken population.  Whittling the total down to seven.  As a temporary solution, we fenced in the trampoline to make a coop.

 Eventually, the chickens learned to live in harmony with the kids.

Every morning, the first one up (could be a child or adult) would open the coop and usher the fast-growing hens to the trampoline.  Then freshen their water and food supplies and pen them for the day.

After the loss of the last chick, Sarah purchased a skinny yellow rooster in hopes it would help defend the flock. We quickly discovered, after comparison, that one of the biggest "hens" was actually a "he".  That would explain the larger comb...  His name changed from "Princess" to "Prince".

The skinny yellow rooster, heretofore (at the previous owner's farm) picked on for his little size, became a fierce guardian and protector. He constantly hen-pecked poor Prince, who was twice his size.  Napoleon syndrome?  Probably.  But it didn't matter, considering his prowess in keeping the ladies together.


My sister tells me that they are big enough to roam around now and will come back at dusk to roost in their sunshine-yellow coop.