A farm girl, an RV, and a dream

I just had to share these adorable pictures of my baby! You know Sunbonnet Sue? Well this is Raincoat Doodlebug! These are from the last time we went to visit my parents' farm.

Doodlebug loves to water the garden, collect eggs from the chickens, feed the goats and the dog. She likes to do anything to "help" her Grammy and Gramps with farm chores. She even has her own cute little set of real garden tools from Lehmans so she can help. She is learning to not be afraid of the geese (and so am I!). It is so cute how she tells them, "No! No!" She calls chickens "ooh-oohs" (as in cock-a-doodle-doo) and ducks "meep meeps" (which really is more accurate than quack, I think).

Seeing how she loves doing the farm chores makes me long all the more for our someday homestead. One of the best things about having the RV is that someday we can buy land and we won't have to worry about the house. We can either build ourselves or spend as much time as we need fixing something up while we live in the RV.

Still dreaming...



A Pantry Organizational Project

Before

After

I cleaned out our pantry when we decided to go grain free to make the things we use most often more accessible. Yes, there are still some grainy things in there that we needed to use up, but for the most part we can find what we need now!

The Hidey Hole

This is Doodlebug's own personal space. I think every kid needs a place to go and hide and just be alone to play or calm down or whatever they need to do. We happen to have the perfect spot! The passenger floorboard!

What is it like to live in an RV?

We have lived in the RV for two months now (good grief I need to update my blog more often!), so I thought I would answer this question since I finally sort of know.

Keep in mind all RVs, locations, and situations are different, so this would vary depending on your situation. For example, we live in an older RV, so there's more maintenance. It is also small, so more space would make a difference. And we are docked. Things would be much, MUCH different if we were travelling all the time. So without further ado, a list:

~It is small. Very small. We are constantly getting rid of things we realized we didn't need or just didn't have room for. Even still, it is somtimes hard to find places for things we DO need, like toilet paper. It's also a bit of an adjustment to get used to such a small kitchen. On the other hand, sometimes smallness is good, because:

~It is easy to clean. I can clean the whole RV from front to back in twenty minutes. But:

~It is hard to KEEP clean. The thing gets trashed in two minutes. One toy on the floor feels like three. Because the floor is so small, the carpet always looks dirty (when the dirt is all spread out in a house it doesn't look so bad, but when it's all consolidated into one spot... well, it looks gross).

~Doing laundry stinks. This applies for anywhere without a washer and dryer, though. I just got spoiled to having my own in the house.

~Showers are... interesting. We have a decent sized tub/shower, but the hot water doesn't last very long. One day I had just enough hot water to get my hair all soaped up before the shower started shooting little ice balls at me! (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was COLD) I don't know what I would have done if hubby hadn't been there. He warmed up some water in the microwave so I could rinse my hair and then I finished my shower in the park showers. We have been showering there ever since. Our shower is currently being used as a closet.

~It takes a bit more maintenance than a house. We have to move it every month to fill up the propane tank, and start it every couple days to charge the battery (because of a glitch in a fuse, most RVs don't require that). Not really a big deal, but more than a house.

~I love it! Except for the showers and laundry, I really love living in the RV. Doodlebug has lots of places to play and climb and hide, and we spend quite a bit of time outside. Spending less time cleaning means more time with my little girl!

I'm sure I will probably add to this the longer we live here. I am truly enjoying the experience, though.

Our New Home

So I finally got around to posting pictures of our new home. I decided that if I waited for it to look perfect that I would never post them, so please ignore the mess!

Obviously we haven't decorated or anything yet. These lovely curtains are circa 1983!

This is our living area. That shelf is really a bed, but we needed it for storage. I need to get it cleared off soon.

I am undecided about decorating. We will be in the RV for a few years, so I want it to be comfortable, and I could easily redecorate the whole thing for a couple hundred dollars, but part of the reason we are living here is to save money to pay off debt. So I sort of think we should use the money for that? I haven't decided yet, and I can't paint right now anyway, so I think I'll just wait.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

A Big Humongous Update and Life in an RV

Hello there everybody! I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted. We have been super super busy and blogging has been pretty low on the priority list.

After a terrible four day search for a home in our new town, we gave up. I jokingly mentioned that we should just get an R.V. to live in, since we will hopefully be moving back to our true heart home soon, and hubby went for it. So we bought an R.V.!!! We got rid of a ton of stuff, stored way too much, and moved into the R.V. We've been in it for a week today, so there's been lots to get used to. I don't have pics to share right now, but I promise I will soon.

Hubby is still in training for his job, so his schedule is sort of irregular. And our WiFi doesn't work very well here, so my posts will still be pretty far between for a couple weeks. After he gets started with a regular schedule I have been promised regular blogging time on his days off, so you'll hear from me a lot more often.

I am hoping to actually be able to regularly commit to my blog, growing and improving it. I don't want to overwhelm myself. My first job is wife and mommy, of course; but you can expect at least two posts a week. I've got lots of things going in my head about our purging of stuff, simplification, life in the RV, etc. I hope you'll subscribe and see me again soon!