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.

One of my dreams.

I think this sounds fun too :).

Hoping you all have a fantastic week!

Our camping trip

We love, love, love camping. Wintertime is when we make all sorts of plans to take lots of camping trips next summer. Then summer comes and it's to hot then it's fall and..........well, you get the picture. So, by the time September hit we figured we better take every available weekend we can! Since we have a camper it's changed our priorities a little on where we go. We ended up at Tucker Hollow, a campground only 45 min away but I had never been there. Turns out, it's the best one in our area. Too bad we just now discovered it. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The view from our picnic table.

Michael learning to make 5's.

We got there Friday around lunchtime. Since we were packing the morning we did school at the campground. Some of us thought this was more fun then others. Mostly I thought it was fun to accomplish our weeks goals. 

Makayla writing sentences.

After we got to camp we realized Michael's back tire was shot. Electrical tape helped a little :).

Hot chocolate when it's 80*? Why sure. Because we're camping :).

Having a great little conversation with mom.

Christian and Michael not fighting over the hammock.

Since we missed church camp we invited anyone to join us and were delighted to have a least 4 different families come spend time with us throughout the weekend.

I learned to roast the perfect marshmallow :)

S'mores are so much better if you pick the marshmallow out with your fingers.

Isn't she just darling? Miss Holly Peachey

Swinging on the hammock that my brother gave us for Christmas.

Christian is 3 days older then Michael and reminds Michael often. They are finally playing so well together I'm amazed. They had tons of fun together.

Crazy boys

Ethan got a little sick of Holly and Emily continually mothering him.

They were so cute together!

Eldon and Michael racing on bikes :)

Ethan loves his daddy!

Michael leaned to ride without training wheels. Amazingly, he only wrecked a few times.

Just relaxing

Saturday night we had mountain pies.

Swimming in the lake

New friends

Olivia and Kiersten are hands down the most responsible and non-annoying 8 and 10 year olds that I have ever met. They showed up for mealtime and s'mores and then our children ate at their campsite too :). They helped our children fish, rode bike, and kept them entertained very well. Eldon and I thoroughly enjoyed their company too.

Gorgeous sunsets

For the last 5 years we have lived at a house that we cannot see sunsets. So I always notice them. This is another huge benefit to having Texas for our home state!

Monday morning we packed it up and came home. It was lovely. I got pages and pages of scrapbooking done. We spent lots of quality time with the children and each other. And our friends that showed up.

 And then we pulled in our driveway and the race was on :). I forget what all we did that day but it was amazing. I got the camper completely cleaned as well as the Excursion. Eldon spent hours weed eating and spraying for weeds. We both felt very accomplished at the end of the day.

Downsizing

     I sometimes get the feeling that people think I just love to get rid of things because I hate stuff and that it doesn't effect me at all. Well, I do love to get rid of stuff but it's not been all roses the last month either. When we finally decided to put our house on the market we thought we should have a yard sale first to clear out a bunch of stuff. Naturally, we should do this in the 2 week slot before we go on vacation for 2 weeks. O yes, we wanted to buy a camper in that time too. Well, it happened. We ate cereal, Wal-mart subs and Little Caesar's pizza for over a week and I may have lost a little sleep but it happened.

     I started by walking through the house and taking pictures because I wanted to be able to remember how it used to be. I also got slightly depressed looking at all the unnecessary items.

This is the closet in the boys room. All those boxes and totes contained clothes. The shelves are full of toys and misc items.

Our closet. Stashed full of clothes I'll probably never be able to wear again. (Here I stopped to dig out some chocolate from my secret stash. If I'm not losing weight anyhow I may as well eat chocolate, right?)

The laundry room shelves are stacked with lots of things that we just might need some day. You never know.

And lots more things that we just might need :). 

My kitchen. It didn't look to bad at the time but now it is MUCH more clutter free.

On Sunday (it was a Friday that we decided to put our place on the market) Eldon announced at church what is going on. Ya'll, people came to help us Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening! I was so blessed. And amazed at how the pieces flew. I was able to pull out stuff to sell and they could price and set it up for our yard sale. They folded laundry, washed windows, brought food, and gave me the boost I needed to keep going. The guys did tons of work outside. I wish so badly I had before and after pictures. The house was power washed. They finished trimming the windows and stained the trim. Lots of weed-eating and cleaning up. Junk hauled off. Mulch spread. Our place looks better now then ever before!!

Wednesday afternoon we went to Springfield shopping for campers and found one we love. Hurray! We sold all our animals except 3 pigs this week as well. Sheep, goats, horse, chickens, guineas, and dogs.  I got to help catch them too since Eldon was working when most people came to pick them up. Maybe I will fit into those dresses again.

We had our yard sale Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. A friend came to be with me Thursday and brought lunch. I'm so glad because I was totally swamped. I could not believe how much stuff we sold. At one point I found Michael sitting outside the door watching things leave with a very, very sad face. I quickly put him back in my bedroom and started a movie. No way I could handle that! Friday and Saturday were much slower but we steadily sold things. By Saturday night I was delighted to have that all behind me. For now. We are going to have to have another sale before we leave because I keep finding things as I pack.

I very quickly went through and pulled out things that I knew we could do without before our sale. Now I've started actually packing and sorting more intentionally. We will have a storage shed at dad's so that is wonderful. It's hard deciding what to keep and what not to. What will store well and what won't. What's worth hauling to Texas and what isn't. And yes, believe it or not, I get all sentimental at times. 

Like this clock. Wedding gift from my best friend, all my growing up years. No question. It's gotta go with me.

And this. A wedding gift from my Grandpa. It's going with me too. As well as a boatload of other things. But it's ok. While I know that "stuff" is not what life is about I believe that there is a balance. So rest assured, any heirlooms are not getting thrown out. And special things like the afghan Eldon's Grandma made us. And all the 5 totes of books we have (no, I'm not kidding. I wish I were. Did I mention that we basically never read the books we have?).

Sorting and packing the toys was a much dreaded job. Most of them stayed. Because when you have Grandma that gives very expensive, educational gifts well.......and also, 40% of the toys were Eldon's when he was little so they are almost vintage :).

I'm much happier know that the job is done. Rest assured, we still have lots of toys out that they choose to keep in the camper. I was astonished (and slightly annoyed) with their picks. Mostly cheap toys that won't last a month with a lot of use. Guess that's good for me :).

I bought 4 of these lovely containers from Tupperware and have one for each child's keepsakes. A baby outfit, hospital band, pictures, and all the other stuff you pick up along the way that makes you say "awww". 

The cedar chest is packed full. That was a fun one. Lots of little things disappeared into it.

There is starting to be rows of boxes everywhere. I'm loving it!

No, I am not an organized freak. It just looks like it :). I do love to have a system and know where things are!

Now for some random pictures.

This is us, heading for Pa. We made stops in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina as well. I'll do a post about the camper sometime soon. Let me just say it's lovely to sleep in your own bed every night!

Ethan and I enjoying each other's company.

A random rose from Eldon :). 

At 5 months old this little stinker is certain that he must eat real food. And he knows what do with it too. I'm not exactly thrilled about this stage.

"I'm not tired". 

Walking on a lovely trail in North Carolina.

We've been doing school for a month but this is our official back to school picture. We are sticking with Abeka for now.  Makayla is in second grade, Michael is doing K4, and Emily has some letter and number workbooks. So far it's still fun for all.