The Great Purge

Steve and I watched a documentary on Netflix about these three people that tour some National Parks and it will INFECT YOU with the travel bug, so beware. But also, make sure you watch it ("America Wild: National Parks Adventure"). In an effort to find more of that, we started searching the documentary section of Netflix one night and found one on minimalism. (Aptly titled, "Minimalism.") Previously, I thought that I had done a decent job of living minimally. We don't really collect anything, I donate (or trash, depending on the condition) Hank's clothes and shoes when he outgrows them, and our entire household can fit on a large Penske truck (ask me how I know!). So after watching the documentary, Steve and I looked around said, yeah we do a decent job with that. "Well, I mean, except the kids' books. That's a little out of control," Steve pointed out. I have been collecting books from yard sales and thrift stores since I was pregnant with Sam. In my eyes, having a bunch of books, and a wide variety, would only encourage more reading! And reading is so good for kids. Well it turns out our children tend to gravitate towards the same six tattered books that teach no real morals or values and the rest are used to avoid being swallowed up by the floor when it transforms into lava. 

So the next day I started separating them into piles. Many many piles that my children instantly used for lava stepping stones until I put a great chunk of them back on the shelf and into diaper boxes to donate. Then I turned my eyes towards shelves and closets, under beds, in drawers. Turns out, we have quite a bit of crap that serves no purpose, has no use, and takes up a lot of space. And since I can't donate anything to the thrift stores just yet, I decided to list it all on Facebook. In a little over a week, I'd sold $250 worth of useless garbage lying around the house, most of which I had previously purchased at thrift stores for a fraction of the price I was selling them. I'm not gonna lie, it's quite the high. I mostly sell to people who either live on post or have access to it. But there were a few times I had to meet people at the visitor's center, which was fine. One morning, a lady wanted to meet me at the visitor's center to buy a $5 spoon rest. Long story short, Steve ended up meeting her there before heading into work. 

First of all, Steve wants everyone to know about his great IBS struggles, and secondly, needs everyone to be reminded that promptness might save a person's pants, you just never know what kind of shit someone else is going through, literally or metaphorically. 

As I was telling Steve that I was going to blog about him almost sacrificing his pants in exchange for $5, I remember laughing hysterically, but it's considerably less hilarious now that I'm retelling it. I did have a glass of wine in me then though, so maybe try reading this with wine in you as well. Consider that something you should do before reading anything here in the future too.

We have spent quite a bit of time out at Noel's farm working on the camper. The kids love this because that means they get to see (and usually feed) the animals while also playing on a playground with other kids and running wild.

Horse: can y'all not plz

Steve and I actually hired a sitter this past weekend so we could go out there alone and focus on cleaning and installing some storage. 2009 Jenn never anticipated paying someone so she could clean, but 2020 Jenn is super pumped to escape children to do literally ANYTHING, even clean the world's tiniest and nastiest bathroom. Unfortunately, it was quite rainy and Steve and I are really not good at setting up the camper and I also came to the swift realization that my rain jacket from college is no longer waterproof. After four hours (I truly/madly/deeply wish that number was an exaggeration) spent hitching, moving, unhitching, leveling, leveling, more leveling, re-parking, leveling, and opening the camper, we were finally able to begin cleaning. Once we got going, it was great! We can accomplish so much without kids underfoot! Then the fire alarm started chirping. And once the fire alarm was removed, something else started beeping and we could NOT locate it. Just our luck to pay for some quiet to clean and some alarm is like, lol no. At that point, I had to go home and pay the sitter and grab the kids and bring them back out with us because we were nowhere close to being done. Noel came out and found the offensive beeper while I was gone (under a toolbox actively pressing the beeping button!!!) and we did not get home til 10pm.

analyzing every little thing that needs to be replaced and repaired

I will say, that was the first time we'd popped the slide all the way out, and the entire space is so much bigger than we originally anticipated, which was a huge relief. We are figuring out what works in the space and what doesn't. I'm desperately measuring to see if I can wedge a washer/dryer combo anywhere inside, as my biggest apprehension about being on the road is not being able to wash a load of clothes every day, but am coming to terms with using campsite laundromats if that's what it comes down to.

looking quite innocent here

We took the kids out there yesterday to do some more cleaning while it rained and can you see my crazy eyes from here?! More than once, Steve looked at me and said, "You sure you want to do this for an entire year??" Definitely. Maybe.

How can two little people be so cute and also so crazy?

        "Check out this limp celery that none of the animals want"

likely the only time she wasn't talking during this outing

DREAM COME TRUE

I comfort myself with the fact that we won't be in the camper much once we get on the road (hopefully just to sleep!) and that we're stuck with these kids regardless of where we live so we may as well have a nice time and see the country. (I kid, to a degree...) We were talking about our current home and how we utilize the space. We have a four bedroom, 2 bathroom home with an open concept living space and it's plenty big enough for us. But aside from going to sleep at night, my children do not use their rooms. They have a few toys and books in there, but getting them to be in there during the day is a struggle. I try to implement a quiet time during the afternoon so Hank can rest, but this unjust request of mine is met with much resistance. No matter where Steve and I happen to be, there are the children, right on top of us. We clearly passed no values concerning personal space down to this tiny, clingy army. So it really doesn't matter if we are living in 1800 square feet or 280 square feet, we still have about the same amount of personal space. We plan to be outside as much as possible, as the best sleep aid for my kids is the great outdoors, second only to trampolines. So there's that. We are still accepting all thoughts and prayers you can spare though.