Camper Living, Family, My Story, Uncategorized

Just jumping in

With our first 2 weeks down in the camper, there are few things I have to note.  Let me start by saying I went into this somewhat blindly.  I had never stayed in a camper until the first night here.  I really had no idea what to expect.  If you are reading this and you frequently stay in a camper you may roll your eyes at some of my findings, but for this newbie, there were a few things I wasn’t ready for.

  1. It is bedtime and we are all nestled in our little bed, when all of the sudden the entire camper is shaking and I am sitting up in bed asking if someone is breaking in.  Joel informs me one of our kids rolled over in their bed.  oh. all that shaking for a shift in position?  well, ok then!
  2. The toilet room is extremely small.  I mean, I know you aren’t suppose to be doing a lot of moving around but goodness.  Also, it kind of feels like a port-a-potty, which doesn’t feel fabulous.  I am getting use to it now but will be extra happy to have normal toilets in the new house!
  3. When your water is ran from a hose to the camper, when  you take a shower it really makes you feel like you are showering from the garden hose.  Essentially, you are, but just inside.  You know how water smells coming out of the hose outside?  Or is that just me and my overly sensitive nose?  Any way, it is a thing, at least for me!
  4. Speaking of shower, when you have 7 people who need to be bathed, and your husband says “oh by the way, you will have to wait at least 20 minutes between each shower because the hot water tank isn’t very big” you realize that showers will now have to be scheduled and no one is allowed to get dirty unless their scheduled shower is next. 

  5. While blow drying my hair in the middle of the day, all electricity goes off.  I realize I have thrown a breaker.  After I threw the breaker 3 more times I realized I wasn’t going to get to blow dry my hair.  Apparently when it is 98 degrees outside the camper is working really hard to stay cool and can’t handle my blow dryer.  My shower is now scheduled first thing before it gets hot.

It is funny how we get use to certain things and even though there really isn’t anything to complain about living here (we have a roof over our head, electricity, running water, indoor potty), but it still takes some getting use to.  I am so thankful for this opportunity and right now I am welcoming the challenges the camper brings. (ask me again in a month or two!)  Now if I could just get excited the challenges that the 2 & 4 year old are currently bringing…….

We have had so many people ask us how it is going living in the camper and I must say that so far, it really hasn’t been bad.  It has only been 2 weeks of staying here and we have a long ways to go still.  I am happy to have less to clean and I am enjoying the simplicity living in the camper has brought.

Here’s to another week of camper living, coffee, & Jesus!

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Camper Living, Family, Uncategorized

Adventure Awaits!

IMG_0016It has been a very long time since I sat down to write.  I miss it because it is so therapeutic to me!  A lot has happened since I blogged last.  We have started a new adventure and I thought this was a great time for me to get back to the blog. 

Entrepreneurs, parents to 5 kids, homeschooling, hobby farmers (this is on the back burner but will be happening again), we are dreamers for sure.  For the last year we have been searching for land and finally found the perfect piece!  In July we closed on the land and started the process of building our new house!  Our lives seem to be ever changing as we create new chapters and sometimes that seems overwhelming and chaotic.    

But just when you thought we couldn’t get any crazier…… We decided it would be best for our family to move while we build the house.  So with our 2 week old brand new baby and other 4 kiddo’s in tow, we moved…. into a camper!  Yep, you read that right!  We moved our family of 7 into a camper on our land. 

We have been asked “Are you crazy?  Why would you do that?” When we made the offer of the land, we had not planned to move into a camper.  But as time went on and we were getting closer to starting the house, I begain thinking about all the time that Joel would be here working on the house and we would be 25 minutes away at our house.  I would be trying to drive back and forth to take dinner to Joel and make sure he didn’t need anything.  I knew I would be trying to keep up with our big house with 5 kids (one of which would be a newborn) and I knew we would feel torn between the two properties.  When I came to Joel and suggested the camper idea he was shocked and excited because he thought it was a great idea but couldn’t believe I would be willing to do it! 

In the end we knew that building a house ourselves would present plenty of obstacles and that either way, staying in our house or moving to a camper, we would be challenged.  We just decided that having us all in one location was the challenge that would work best for us!

So if you are up for some funny stories, keep reading because I plan to try to blog this adventure regularly.  Life inside a camper with 7 people living in it is guaranteed to never be dull!

Here is our Home Sweet Home, for now!  IMG_0018