RV living. It's a different kind of living that’s for sure, but it is living that we are really enjoying. Truthfully, so far, there haven’t been any moments when we wanted to live in a house again. We have so much peace here and know that can only be the grace of God upon us for this. Our kids have really enjoyed it too. They haven't complained about sharing a room, in fact they actually really like it.
I love the closeness we have as a family. We are all always together and we have grown so much over the past few months. I have seen my kids relationships with each other blossom and really turn into friendships. I have seen their relationship with God grow stronger. Jason and I have become closer together and as a couple have grown closer to God as we have been trusting Him with more and more of our lives.
We made our first real road trip in Big Blue this weekend and it was so much fun. We took a trip to Atlanta for Jason to take his naturalization test and become a US citizen…he'll be writing a post about that later this week. But for us, it was so exciting to watch him take the oath as a citizen and then to recite the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time. At the end, they played Proud to be an American, and of course, it got me, as it always does!!!
Now, I won't pretend we haven't run into a few snags in adjusting to RV living along the way, but they have all turned out to be funny…in their own time! Here are a few lessons we have learned since our adventure began:
*When moving into an RV with 6 people, if you think you have gotten rid of enough stuff, guess again, you need to get rid of more. And when you have gotten rid of more and think you are good, just go ahead and get rid of some more. We have learned to live without things and it is the most amazing feeling.
*Don’t anticipate getting alone time. Ever. Not ever. The "bathroom" is in the middle of the RV, and the tiny room with a toilet in it doesn't lock…note to self, change that. The shower has a glass door, which is an open invitation for the children to laugh, giggle and make jokes while you shower. If you try to sneak outside early in the morning to get some alone time, be aware that the whole RV will shake as you go down the steps and the kids can automatically detect your presence is gone, and they will find you.
*There is a spray nozzle in the toilet room to help "wash out" the toilet and flush it when you are done. If you are going to push the foot lever to give a courtesy flush while you are still sitting, make sure the nozzle isn't stuck on or your back will get soaking wet when it sprays you.
*Some people are serious Rvers. Like, really serious. We learned that the first few weeks of living in here. One guy in particular made us really realize this. We watched him one night pull his 5th wheel into the spot next to us. He got out of his truck, opened the storage compartment, pulled out flower boxes for his windows and hung them under all the windows. He then got a rug out and put 2 rocking chairs on it with a small table in between. He put another chair underneath the awning. And the best was a statue of a mermaid that he put on the front hitch. It was a big statue. This guy looked like he was going to be our neighbor for a long time. It was about 4pm when he pulled in. The next morning at 10am he was packing up and heading out. I thought maybe he was not thrilled about being next to 4 kids under 7 and was getting another spot, but nope, his reservation was only for one night (it says on the paper you hang at your site). He was just serious about RVing.
*When the LP alarm (propane) goes off, it might not be a propane leak. It might be that your waste water tank has a bacteria in it that smells worse than any dirty diaper your children have ever done. And you might freak out a little bit, thinking you are going to explode because propane is leaking in. You might go overboard and turn off your propane for 2 days, which means that you can't have hot water or cook, only to still be able to smell that horrible wretched stench. And when you can smell it coming back from the park, you know it might not be the propane. Rest assured, you are not alone. All you need is a bottle of bleach, clean water and some time to wait while the bleach does its magic.
*An ant infestation in your home is not such a major deal, until your home is 200 sg ft and you sleep, eat, hang out, watch movies all in the same room and there are ants everywhere. But not just the small ants that have left a trail along the wall of the RV, those are easy to get rid of. It's the carpenter ants, the ones that come out at night when it starts getting dark. At first, you just see one, but then they all start coming out. And the crazy part is, you can't see where they are coming from, they are just there. Staring at you, daring you to go to sleep so they can get all their friends to come. And your husband might just say it's no big deal, and be able to go to sleep, but you know they could come and crawl in your nose or your ear while you sleep, so you watch for them and squish them when you see them. But they just keep coming. Next morning, they are back in hiding. It might take some insect bombs to get rid of them and ant poison spread around the tires and jacks to prevent them from coming in. Rest assured, we got rid of them and so can you.
We're pretty sure this is just the beginning of our lessons learned, and the adventures that await us as we begin travelling more in her. It surely is an adventure. An adventure we feel we were born to do. Jason put his 2 week notice in at work today and then we will begin our travels to get some more partners so that we may go to Thailand and do what God created us to do. We are taking a big step of faith and are so excited to see what God does.
Thanks for joining us on this journey! We look forward to sharing more with you