Our Kingly Expedition: On loading a trailer and dreams

My parents decided to go on the Sail and Sing Cruise to the New England states this year. And they thought of the brilliant idea to come have us take care of their 19,859 chickens, 16 dogs, 2 girls, and fabric store. It worked out wonderful since we could bring a load of stuff down and also build a storage shed on their property to put it in.

While I have gotten rid of a huge amount, we still have a lot that I wanted to keep. While discussing what size U-haul we should rent Eldon assured me that you can pack A LOT in a small one. I ~~argued vehemently~~ nicely informed him that he has no idea how much I have packed and ready to go. So he smiled and told me to get a 6x12, the biggest trailer they have. He's so good to me. I went to the U-haul place and paid for it Wednesday then Eldon met me there when he got off work and hooked it up and pulled it home. I wasn't feeling quite that brave. He also helped me load 4 pieces of furniture, my cedar chest, buffet table from Beachy Dawdy, mom's old dresser, and his bookcase. Amazing how much bigger the trailer looks on the inside then the outside. I went to bed with a niggling fear that I might not have enough to tightly pack it. Eldon worked Thursday and we wanted to leave around 1 a.m. Friday so I had cleared the day to load that trailer.

Lovely sunrise

I stepped outside to take some pictures of the sunrise. My reward for having the entire upstairs cleaned and all the boxes hauled down already.

A small portion of the mess!

Makayla woke up throwing up which was not in my plan. But by God's grace I was able to remain calm (somewhat) and trudge on without her help. Michael and Emily did fantastic at carrying little boxes out for me as well as playing with Ethan.

Around lunchtime I realized ~~Eldon was right~~ I am a fantastic packer. You see, I had everything packed in the trailer and it was only a little over half full. I went through the house again and packed a few more boxes and found more random items. Still lots of room! So I humbled myself and called my husband and asked what I can take from his shed. He didn't even laugh, but nicely told me how to drive the tractor so I wouldn't have to carry it all up the lane. 4 hours, a tiller, air compressor, ladder, 5 totes, and other misc things later I finally concluded that it might work.

Packed to the max, so things don't shift. I added more after the picture :)

Since our house is on the market I had to make sure it was show ready when we left. I tucked everyone in bed at 8:30 and set to work. At 11 I collapsed into bed and 10 min later Ethan woke up. O the joys of motherhood! When the alarm went at 1 a.m. I said "Noooooo, we need to sleep longer". So Eldon set the alarm for 3 and we got up and left then :). Traveling went great and soon after noon we were at dads.

O, Eldon refused to say "I told you so" even though I practically begged him too :).

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I've been thinking about dreams again. And how fast time goes by. Most things I want to accomplish are so huge they look impossible.

Hmmm. Good point.

When we first started telling people that we will be living in an RV we got many responses.

1. The people who told us we are absolutely crazy. Ok, I can't think of anyone that did but I'm sure that's what group 2 was thinking.

2. The people that just smiled an awkward smile and said, "Wow. I couldn't do that".

3. Mostly though, we heard older people saying how they wished they would have had the opportunity to do what we are doing. The chance to travel and spend so much quality time with their children. A simpler way of life with less stuff.

Quite frankly, I was overwhelmed by how many responded in that manner. It reminded me that time is almost the only thing we cannot get more of. Money? Dishes? Clothes? Land? Yep. Time? Nope.

Whatever your dream is, go after it! Maybe it's to start a blog, buy a house, own a business, spend more time with God, or clean your house every week. Whatever it is that you want to get done I encourage you to sit down and look at it realistically. Ask yourself what is holding you back? How can you get to where you want to be? Then make a list of what you can do now and go after it!

If it's important to you, you WILL make time for it.