Finally Spring!

We made it!  Through winter I mean.  We always seem to go into hibernation in the winter.  We socialize less, we do fewer activities, we stay indoors mostly.  But this winter felt especially bad.  We didn't spend much time with friends, we rarely played outside and we definitely spent way too much time on electronics.  Finally, we are getting some warmer days and starting to play outside again.  It's amazing how much the weather can effect how you feel.  It's so nice to open the windows and enjoy the longer days.  I think this year I was the one who felt the winter blues the most.  I had a hard time staying motivated to get anything done and I really just didn't want to do much of anything.  It's time to get back out there and put friendships back into the forefront.

We are counting the days down till summer.  We can't wait to swim.  There is a pool directly across from us at the park we are staying at.  They are prepping it now and we are all obsessed with watching the progress.  We can't wait for lazy days at the pool. 

We are also getting more serious about finding land to build on.  We are doing on our research for a couple of plots and hoping to make an offer on something soon.  We are all getting excited to build something of our own. 

Recently to get out of the house more, we have taken up roller skating.  I didn't think I would remember how.  Turns out it all comes back to you.  The kids are picking it up rather well and we all love it.  So for now I will leave you with this little video of our last outing to the fun center.  There are also bouncy house stuff there. 
Roller Skating Video

Oh and the kids have been learning to ski.  Kya and Charlie spend most of their time on the big hill with Brian.  Lily is learning to ski with me on the small hill.  She loves it and begs to go all the time.  And I think she is the cutest thing ever when she skis down the hill. 
Lily Learning to ski

Big Kids Learn to Ski

Miles of Love,
Stacey

A Day Inside

Ever wonder what a day in the trailer really looks like?  Well Saturday was just that.  It was snowy and cold out, and not the nice fluffy snow you can play in.  So we hunkered down and stayed in ALL day.  My biggest problem with this isn't being cramped together in a small space, it's that my kids want to just sit on their tablets all day.  So we decided to work on their Valentine boxes for school.  One of my worries with homeschooling was that my kids would miss out on things like class parties and exchanging Valentines cards.  This was a huge draw back for me, as I know it is for a lot of home school parents.  It seems silly but it really is a factor in the should we home school discussion.  Since we signed up for a co-op this year, my kids go to an activity day once a week.  So this year they were able to participate in a Christmas party and now a Valentines day party.  So it's a win win.  They are so excited.  Kya has asked me a million questions about how it all works.  I love it.  So we worked on their cute boxes.  Charlie made a Pokemon character and Kya's is a collage of stickers.  
I let Lily make one too.  She just wanted to put the stickers on everything but the box.  

Look how cute they turned out

While we worked on the boxes Brian was changing the breaks on the van.  Poor guy ended up working in a snow storm.  He was a trooper and got it done.  They kids liked taunting him from the window.

Lily had seen someone make barbie shoes on YouTube.  They used a hot glue gun and when she saw mine in the craft box, she insisted we try.  So this was our attempt at making barbie shoes.  It took a long time and after I finished them lily told me she hated them.  Kids! No appreciation.  I mean they weren't pretty but they did fit Barbie perfectly.  

Already disappointed before I even start.

We wrapped her feet in plastic wrap and then covered them with hot glue

Barbie seems to like them but they needed color

So we painted them with blue nail polish

And they are done.  They looked more like house slippers than the tennis shoes that Lily had hoped for.

So after a full day of crafting do you wonder what a small RV looks like?  Well let me show you.

Yep, that is totally real life.  I got behind on dishes and there were toys and craft items everywhere.

However when people ask me what I like most about living in a tiny house, my answer is always the same.  The house can go from this to this in less that thirty minutes.

Even the kids are better about helping because they know it's quick.  I spend so much less time cleaning and it makes the messes not feel like a big deal at all.  I have to admit that when it is messy it feels like the walls are caving in.  But just a quick clean up and everything feels much better.  We lived in a three story house before and after a day of crafts and playing, it would have taken me closer to two hours of cleaning to get the house clean again.  So I am always thankful at the end of the day that my time is much better spent now.  

So that is how a day inside goes.  We do a lot of crafting, play dough time, puzzles, really anything to keep us off electronics.  I will be so happy when the sun stays up later and when it's warm enough to go out and play.  

Lots of Love,

Stacey

  

January Update

Wow January really got away from me.  To be honest,  January is always a survival month for us.  It's always a month we all get out of sorts and quite frankly a little unpleasant.  This year of course, it didn't help that we are all living on top of each other.  I think everyone said at least once this month that they were done living in the trailer.  The cold days and early sundowns really get hard when you have no where to get away.  But this last week has seemed better.  The sun is going down later, it has been a little warmer, so we are feeling like we can spend more time outside.  I'm sad I didn't keep up with the blog because this is really what I am using as our family journal.  So I'm going to give a quick update about the last few weeks and then hopefully I will get back on track.  

Big news! The binky is gone! Lily came up to me a couple of weeks ago with a baggie full of her binkies.  She said she wanted the binky fairy to come and bring her an LOL doll.  So she put the binkies outside and the binky fairy wasted no time in taking them away.  She has done amazing.  She hasn't asked for it at all.  The only downside is that she is no longer napping regularly.  This is a kid who used to put herself to bed at nap time.  She loved her naps.  She also takes a little longer to fall asleep at night.  But it gets better everyday and I am glad that I let her decide when it was time to get rid of it because it was so easy and stress free.  

Last moments with her binky.

Totally worth it for the doll

The other big thing we've been doing this past month is lots of skiing.  Charlie had made so much progress over Christmas and we were so excited about that.  Recently though, Kya has also made leaps and bounds.  She is super fast and she even loves to jump as she is heading down the mountain.  She asks to go skiing almost everyday.  She loves it.  Over Christmas we tried to put skis on Lily but she wasn't having it.  But then about a week ago she asked to go.  So we rented her some ski's.  The smallest boots they had were two sizes too small.  We figured it didn't matter because she probably wouldn't last very long.  We headed up the mountain and I thought I would take her out and let her scoot around a little and then we would head inside for some snacks and playtime.  Boy was I wrong.  She picked it up amazingly fast and I spent the day running up and down the magic carpet slope.  She skied for seven hours.  She outlasted Brian and Charlie by more than an hour.  I had to bribe her to take two breaks during the day because I needed it.  I am so glad she loved it.  She also asks to go everyday.  So it looks like I better learn to ski.  

All three of my skiers. 

Lily, Kya and Charlie

After seven hours of skiing, she was asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot.

Some other things we have been up to are field trips to museums, the library, indoor playgrounds, and the airplane museum.  This was Charlie's favorite.  We have been playing games and doing lots of crafts.  Charlie is way into Pokemon lately so we have been learning to play that.  I really don't like that game.  

Doing school work on the train ride home from a field trip

Life in the trailer has been going OK.  Our hot water heater has a switch that is broken, so when we need hot water we have to go outside and hit the switch.  This is a bit annoying since it's cold outside.  Hopefully we get that fixed soon.  The plug outside that our heated water hose is plugged into has shorted twice, leaving our water hose frozen.  So that was fun.  Overall though, we are still fine with living in Millie.  Lily really loves it.  The other two occasionally complain and want to live in a stationary home but then when we look at land and talk about building a house and moving out of Millie, they whine and cry.  So you can't ever go by kids reactions.  

I'm going to try harder to keep up on a more semi-daily basis with the blog.  So if you are enjoying following a long make sure to check back frequently this month to see how we are holding up this month.  

Miles of Love,
Stacey

Best Friends For Life

I am the luckiest.  You want to know why.  I have had the same best friend for 30 years. Every year on Christmas day she flies out here from Florida to spend a week with us.  The kids love it so much and they think that her kids are their cousins. I never correct them.  In fact my whole family looks at her like another sister.  Christmas day is special but her arrival makes it even more so.  Her girls have taken up skiing and her oldest has gotten quite good.  So we spend a lot of time up at the ski resorts.  The kids all ski and we sit inside and drink hot chocolate.  It works quite well.  
Let me tell you about Angela.  You'll never meet anyone more giving or generous.  She is loyal to a fault, hence the friends for 30 years.  I'm sure she should have kicked me to the curb many times, but she never would.  She never speaks unkindly about anyone, ever.  Trust me, I've tried.  She has the patience of a saint and I have never heard her raise her voice.  And trust me, I can be quite a brat.  I absolutely deserved to be yelled at more than once.  Anyway, I'm pretty lucky she has been by my side during this life.  I'm certain God knew what he was doing when he crossed our paths.  
So this is our winter holiday tradition.  Every year she arrives and we do as many snow activities as we can before they head back to the warmth of Florida, and I am left here to freeze.  
We did three ski days while they were here. 

One of the ski days turned into a small blizzard while the kids were out.  The little girls lessons were even canceled half way through.  But that did not stop Halle and Brian. They kept at it, getting pelted by wind and snow. 

This was the last ski day.  It was freezing outside so only Halle was willing to brave the elements.

This year we decided to travel up to Idaho and go to Lava Hot Springs.  We didn't know much about it.  We made the mistake of going into their indoor pool first and once the kids saw the play structure we were stuck.  So we never made it to the outdoor pools.  Maybe next year.  It was still fun driving up there.  It was such a cute little town.

We spent New Years Eve at my sisters house.  She got really sick so Angela and I ended up helping her get the party ready.  It was quite an adventure.  We did a fondue party and I have to say the food was amazing.  We all ate way too much.

We also went sledding while we were at her house.  She has the best hill in her neighborhood.  

It is always so hard to say goodbye.  Kya cried all the way home. 

The time always goes so fast when they are here. I've already convinced Halle to come back in the summer and that she should go to college here.  Her parents can thank me later.  

Oh and if you are wondering, yes we all stayed in Millie together.  It actually worked pretty well.  We stayed here for six of the nights.  We kept busy during the day and everyone stayed nice and cozy at night.  We did run out of propane one night and our hot water malfunctioned a couple of times, oh and our toilet backed up, but overall it was a fun adventure.  

Miles of Love,

Stacey

Worst Day Ever!

Today was by far the hardest day in the trailer to date.  First of all, we have been passing a stomach virus around for the last couple of weeks.  This thing has been the worst.  I think Lily picked up a virus at the pool and then passed it to each of us one at a time.  So everyday for the last 12 days I have had at least one bed to change.  Usually more than one though.  Taking care of 3 little sick people while being sick myself has not been the easiest.  Still, I felt like we were surviving and I was holding it together.  Not today though...

I woke up in the early morning hours to a child throwing up in their bed.  So I got her showered and put her in bed with me and slept for a couple of more hours.  Then I was woken up to another child who had an accident in bed and wouldn't you know it, a 3rd kid then yelled out they had wet the bed.  So looked like all three kids beds had to be changed.  Then that first kid woke up in my bed and oops, looks like an accident in my bed.  Awesome.  Let's just say at this point I was feeling a little overwhelmed.  After stripping all the beds and throwing the laundry onto the porch, it was way too big of a pile to keep inside, I walked in the bathroom to find someone had peed on the floor!  I was losing it fast. I burst into tears and sat down on the toilet to hide.  I decided it was too smelly in there and the place is so small that those littles out there would eventually find me.  So off I went to get ready for the day and start cleaning up the place. 

This is what it looks like when we are disinfecting the bunk house.

Sick kids everywhere, at least they sleep a lot.

Oh yeah and remember the kid that threw up.  Well she mainly hit the carpet right next to her bed. So that was on the clean up list too.  It was really top priority since it was stinking the whole house up.  Luckily, I have a good friend who brought over a carpet cleaner and lunch.  That lifted my spirits for sure.  We headed off to the laundromat, got our car washed and headed back home.  Things were going better but I could still feel that I was teetering on insanity.  So I decided we were going to go get dinner, I couldn't take washing dishes tonight, and go see Christmas lights.  

Dinner was fine, remember we are all sick so no one really ate much and then we headed to see the lights.  Wouldn't you know it, all the kids were fighting in the car and tattle telling on each other.  All I could think was, maybe we should just go home and go to bed.  Lucky I didn't, because when we reached the city park and started driving through the display, listening to Christmas music, everyone started talking excitedly and squealing with joy.  I love Christmas.  It really is so magical.  

After the lights everyone was much happier.  As I write this the kids are all playing with their baby dolls and all 3 are playing happily together.  I really needed this day to end on a happy note.  I'm sure glad it has.  The thing is, that messes of this magnitude seem so much more intense in a smaller space.  It's harder to clean up when you don't have the room to make piles of laundry and you have to leave the house to do laundry.  Days like these make us miss our stationary home, but we also have big dreams and have to keep perspective to get through.  Tomorrow already looks better.  Now here's hoping for a good night sleep.

Miles of Love,

Stacey