Patience, Flexibility and Peace of Mind

Gosh I can't believe it's been over three months since my last post.  I can't believe we've been living in an RV for almost three months, for that matter!  Our first official night in the RV was Easter Sunday and that last week of moving was not something I ever care to live through again!  But we made it through and we've just been spending our time so far getting settled into our new home, getting acclimated to our new surroundings and adjusting to the challenges that have come with the change and decrease in space.  Of course, change is hard in any situation, but when you go from a home with over 2000 sq. ft. to a travel trailer out in the country, it takes a certain amount of patience and flexibility.

The biggest reason this is my first post since the move is we've only been online since this past Saturday.  ...and by online, I mean dial-up...  yeah...  So, remember in 1996 when you'd call a friend and get a busy signal and you'd assume your friend must be online?  We've gone back to those days.  So, if you call us and get a busy signal, we're probably online.  This is partially by choice and partially by necessity.  We are SO far out in the country that there aren't many internet service providers available to us.  There are various satellite providers and we've been told that AT&T will have Uverse or DSL here in a matter of months.  We've waiting patiently for AT&T, but nothing yet.  So, rather than sign a 2-year contract with a satellite company that may not be very reliable, we decided we'd trudge through with dial-up until something better comes along.  So, I'm not sure if I'll have may photos for a while...or many posts at all for that matter...  We'll just have to see how this goes.

So remember using the laundromat in college?  That's what we did... hang out, do laundry, maybe eat a pizza or study.  You'd get all of your laundry washed and dried within a  matter of a couple hours.  Well, we have some work to do to get our laundry facilities completely up and running so we had to use the laundromat.  The first couple visits to the laundromat were kind of a novelty.  We got over that really fast.  Who wants to spend their Saturday afternoon at the laundromat, let alone spend over $20 to wash & dry your family's clothes!  Thankfully my parents have allowed us to use their washer & dryer, but I'm afraid we'll soon be wearing out our laundry welcome.  That's ok.  Nathan almost has the washing machine hooked-up and will probably use a clothes line to dry during the summer months and until we can get an electrical expert to help us with the dryer hook-up.

So, our little family of five has one bathroom to share.  It really hasn't been a huge issue, but it can get pretty crowded around there in the mornings while Nathan is getting ready for work and the kids are waking up and using the bathroom.  We've learned to deal and work around it.  The bathroom topic brings up the septic issue...  That was all new to me:  black water, grey water, flushing tanks, septic deoderant, etc.  Now it's just part of life. 

The absolute biggest challenge for me is the kitchen.  Of course there is no dishwasher, so I wash all of our dishes by hand and the water pressure isn't wonderful, but I make it work.  Because space is so limited, I quickly get overwhelmed with dishes.  Grocery planning takes some work as well.  I can't over-stock because we have just a small refrigerator inside and a small one outside to store cold drinks.  On the other hand, I don't want to under-stock because the grocery store is about 20 minutes away.  There is a small corner market up the road, but it's not a place to do major grocery shopping.  I do like to go in there though.  It's good to have close by for those small trips to get a few necessities, they make the tastiest potato salad, and the people there are so "small town" friendly. 

So, with all of these challenges, where does the "peace of mind" come in?  Well, life is so relaxed out here in the country.  Life has become so much more simple.  Despite the heat, we've spent some entire weekends outside just grilling, playing and hanging out.  The boys are absolutely filthy at the end of the day and they love it.  When we clean house, I don't literally spend the entire day cleaning the whole house...I'm done in a couple hours max!  YES!  Of course, the cost of living is so much easier on our bank account as well.  There is a lot to be said for living below your means.  There have been some challenges in Nathan's job and while things seem ok right now, we feel so much better knowing that if our income was affected in some way, we could manage and be ok.