CRAWFORDlife

the Portland Experiment

Ben — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:05:25 +0000

This last week our family moved to Portland for at least 2 months. We may stay here longer but that it up in the air. As of now, we are living with a family of 4 that we came to support with discipleship related goals. In one sense, this whole trip is an experiment to determine if our family can travel with more of a nomadic lifestyle and still maintain a healthy rhythm, identity, and achieve our goals as a family.

Here are some of our small picture goals while in Portland (kind of just a to-do list):

Go to Saturday Market
Go to Powells (the largest bookstore in the world)
Go to Multnomah Falls
Ride a bike everywhere under 5 miles (Ben)
Take the kids to Multnomah University and show them where Kami and I fell in love
Take the the kids on the MAX (Portland’s light rail)
Spend one night a week on active and deliberate discipleship with Host family
Meet with Adam and Nate for 1 hour a week to discuss life and family
home school the girls for 3 hrs. Mon-Fri (Kami)
Take one of the girls with me to work (coffee shop) each day to teach them and have them interact with me on my schedule 5 days a week (Ben)
Facilitate 2-3 Family Team discussions
Write 3 e-books (Including the story of our Wonderland Trail Adventure) (Ben)
Get a tattoo, it’s just that time (Ben…and I think maybe Kami?)
Better understand our ability to travel and live in temporary places as a family and use this experiment to plan our next 3 months.

If you can think of an awesome food spot that we have to eat at while in Portland Post it as a comment! If we visit it twice we will buy your meal the second time!

Can YOU think of anything else we should add?

Wonderland Pictures Uploaded

Ben — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:08:43 +0000

We posted 60 pictures on facebook. You can click HERE to see them all. You do not have to have a facebook account.

Wonderland Slideshow – Our 93 mile journey around Mount Rainier with 4 kids

Ben — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:37:54 +0000

Actually, it may be better if you put these videos in the “documentary” category because all totaled, they are more than an hour long. If you don’t have the time to watch them all, I would encourage you to watch the first one and the last two. In one sense it’s a shame to even put these pictures and videos online because they don’t seem to do justice to the images and emotions that we experienced on the mountain but hopefully they give you a little bit of a feel for what we experienced.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting some thoughts and specifics on this trip over at bencrawfordlife.com

ALL OF THE VIDEOS CAN BE VIEWED IN HIGH QUALITY BY CLICKING “HQ” (in the bottom right corner)

We Finished the Wonderland!

Ben — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:00:57 +0000

Just wanted to let all of you know that on Friday August 14th all 6 members of our family completed the 93 mile wonderland loop around Mount Rainier. We started on August 3rd and finished in 12 days, 3 days ahead of schedule. Our last day was 14 miles long. Thank you for all that have supported us. We are going to be working hard in this next week to get some pictures and video up but for now we are all just enjoying the 6 of us not having to share a 2 man tent.

93 miles at Frying Pan Creek

If we met you on the trail, please shoot us a note so we know how to contact you and leave comments so we know how you did!

Lemonade Stand

Ben — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:05:20 +0000

Empty the DISHWASHER!

Ben — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:57:14 +0000

This video was sped up 400% so the entire process took place under 6 minutes. Not bad for kids that can’t reach above the counter.

Learning How to Use a Knife

Ben — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:02:09 +0000

We were making strawberry shortcake and I was teaching Seven how to use a knife and this is the video that resulted….

New Business

Ben — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:36:25 +0000

Ben is involved in a new business ideas with Kami’s brother Jeremy and two other partners, Jon Collins and Stephen Mowry. The idea is based upon creating a site where people can watch epipheos and get one made for them. Don’t know what an epipheo is? Watch the video. (Don’t worry if you didn’t already know. we made up the word. )

Climbing Season

Ben — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:01:15 +0000

This last Sunday we took the kids out to Exit 38 off of I-90 to do some climbing. We’re looking forward to getting out more as the weather gets better. It takes about 30 minutes to get out there and we were climbing for about 3.5 hours so it makes for a pretty full day. If anyone else is interested, we would love to take some other families out there and share the experience. Let us know if you are interested. You can view more pictures on facebook.

Crawford Christmas Card 08

Ben — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:16:36 +0000

Dear____________, (to retain the spirit of xmas please print and fill in your name)

Please accept our humble apologies for the tardiness of this years x-mas card but due to budget cuts and overall recessional depression we have had some staffing difficulties at crawfordlife.com. It also does not help that the median age of our team is 12. Without to much ado, here is just enough info to make you feel like you are a part of our lives without too much to make you feel un-comfortable.

Family: Our family has made some big changes for 08. One of the biggest is that we have decided to start homeschooling our kids. Whoooaaaa…..hold on a sec. We know what you are thinking and we have not become one of THOSE families ……… yet. To date, Kami does not wear a fanny pack and our kids are allowed to eat refined sugar. Our decision to home school was based upon a desire to create more freedom and provide a more conducive learning environment to the purpose of our children’s education and development.

In June, our living situation changed dramatically when we had the Rubatinos (Jeff, Rainbow, Lavinia, & Sunshine) move in with us. Rainbow has been a great help with the children’s education and also cooks and does laundry which leaves only the cleaning for Kami. Community living has it’s fair share of bumps but overall has been a really valuable experience and it looks like we will carry on with the “experiment” into 09. Stay tuned for our 3 part documentary into our home life which will be released on crawfordlife.com whenever we get around to it.

Ben: Has had some pretty dramatic shifts in growth and development due to his involvement in the 12 step process. He has continued the process of blogging his experience and thoughts which was a discipline even he is surprised he has stuck with. He is currently working on some new business ideas which are too numerous and convoluted to mention here but updates will be available if you are into that type of thing. He summited Rainier, for the second time with his brother, in September and just recently went x-country skiing for the first, and possibly the last, time.

Kami: Has a little bit more of a grasp of what it means to manage a household of 6, than she did a year ago. Enough so that she has expressed interest in managing a household of 7!! One of the biggest changes for Kami in 08 has been the introduction of a weekly schedule (or “rhythm” as we refer to it). Built into her schedule are times for when to wake up, daily family AM meetings, date nights, going to the zoo, the library and her favorite time of the day: an hour and a half of uninterrupted reading and prayer.

Dove: is 7. This year she learned how to swim and has been reading paragraph books. She has been a great older sister and takes care of her younger siblings. She enjoys helping with the cooking and enjoys drawing. She loves taking pictures and uploading them to her blog. One of her favorite events are date nights with her dad. She currently resides in a tent.

Eden: is 6. She is the quietest of the bunch. She gets along really well with her brothers and sisters and likes building forts and playing “animals” with her siblings. This year she got her ears pierced on a date with her father. She just recently learned how to swim without a life jacket and she wants to learn to play the guitar. She likes going to the museum and Kentucky.

Seven: is 4 (yeah we know, it’s confusing). This last month he was counting “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven……………………………….that’s me, eight, nine…”. Seven can be found more often than not wearing his spiderman outfit. He enjoys swords, guns, legos, and copying his sisters. He has been working on his letters and numbers and can spend hours a day coloring. He usually tapes his art around the entire house but prefers to display it in his parents house. Every night he prays that he will be able to “protect his sisters.” He likes going on guys night out with Dad when there are no girls.

Memory: …..is trouble. 2 years old and she is the spiciest of the bunch. This girl is able to hold her own. She enjoys bossing around her older sisters and brother as well as her parents. She just recently learned how to use the “potty” and has learned that the more frequently she goes the more chocolate chips she will receive. She likes jumping, running away, and saying “no” to offers of a hug.

09: Family Camp I on Whidbey Island during July, maybe moving to a bigger house, carrying on our family mission of Discipleship and Growing the Body of Christ, Great Wolfe Lodge, Neighborhood movie nights on the side of our house during the summer. Kami and Ben are looking to grow closer together as a couple as they learn how to relate as spouses and parents in a more healthy way.

CRAWFORDlife.com

Check our site for updates and news on what our family is up to.

Merry Xmas and Happy St. Patricks Day!