The struggles...

Ava's homework says it all....

"I used to live in a house next to all my friends, but now I live in a trailer next to a bunch of old people. It was awesome, but now it's boring..." She is having a little bit harder of a time lately. I think it has to do with Eleanor and Truman finding friends out here their age, but there isn't anyone out here her age. And also she has had a lot of homework lately, plus the heat and Mosquitos that come with it, she is having a rough time. But you can see at the end she added "scratch that I just ran away from my homework and caught a lizard"(which is true except instead of a lizard it was a blue moth I don't know why she changed it)

We had a discussion last night on how it is hard to live out here but it is also a lot if fun. And we are doing a lot of things here that we couldn't/didn't in our house and that it's not forever and we need to make the best of it. I'm going to try to be more patient, because I know that just because I love it out here and see the beauty in it my kids are little and it's gotta be hard to for them to adjust to this change. By reading her homework I can tell she sees it too, and hopefully those are the things she will remember. And hopefully she will have a blessed day tomorrow.

For fun.

So remember the totes of toys we packed for the kids? I can count on one hand the times we have pulled them out. And only Truman's. We really shouldn't have brought any. I wanted to do a post of some the ways my kids have been entertaining THEMSELVES. These activities were all unprompted by me. (Besides fishing and biking, those are communal agreements) We have been blessed with creative,imaginative and smart children. Which is good, because I mostly like to be lazy. 

Lunch in the teepee

She created "Berry" from cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 from a leftover valentine heart.

Yoga! Downward dog and some giggle inducing oooom-ing.

They designed some t-shirts. Ava's says be true-stay you:)

Ava put together a scavenger hunt for us.   Can you tell what she is learning about in math? Hehe

Fishing! We still haven't caught anything yet. We will probably have more luck when we go out on our kayaks. Truman and I like to go before school sometimes, but we can't tell sisters because "that's so unfair!!"

Lots of biking! So glad he is off his training wheels.

This was my favorite idea they had so far.         The Dazzle Spa! 

Here is the receptionist checking me in. It took a while to find my reservation lol. She was so serious. So posh.

I was informed I got everything for free and they have me booked for two hours!! Amazing!! All I've ever wanted!!

My hand massage was magnificent!

The foot massage was even better. Even if my appointment only ended up being ten minutes. It was still the best.

  We are having fun. The kids have bad days sometimes, but it's been mostly good. Nobody has said they hate it here or they miss our old house(yet) I'm hoping they won't. I wake up feeling grateful and spend most of my day thinking about how happy I am and how l wish we would've done this sooner. Stu agrees. Have a blessed day!

You're Improved!!!

(^^^target lady voice)We have almost been out here a whole month! It's gone by fast! We have done a lot of adjusting and made some improvements on some things. Improvement número uno: steps with storage! Much better than the ghetto plastic stool we were using. My handy lumbersexual man whipped this baby up in one day! 

Little cubby for flip flops..

Shoe storage! Everytime I sit to put my shoes on I think of the keva we had in elementary school:)

He also raised the sink up so our backs don't hurt so bad. And we got sick already of taking so many trips to dump the water he got one of these huge 32 gallon totes with wheels. Oh, anyone have any tricks to get soot off of things?

Beautiful. We also got some new warm lights that go all the way around the canopy! It's just like Christmas!

And the last improvement I made was too my  first trailer accessory purchase-the flamingo light. I took the corded light out and replaced it with a battery operated candle. Ain't nobody got room for all dem cords. Wish you could see it in it's lighted glory. 

But really guys the black soot(this is me after making dinner "mom you have something on your face") everyday. And all over my clothes. I need an apron. 

                Have a blessed day! 

How do you sleep?

So cozily! Thought I would do a post about our sleeping arrangements. Here we have the kids bunks. They each have 1"&1/2 padding plus their sleeping bags which they have been sleeping on top of because it gets too sweaty to sleep in them. They all are adorned with the lovely  I Spy quilts mother Gunnell made them when they turned two. And each have their own privacy curtain.

Here is a peak inside Ava's "room"

Eleanors: school lunch menu(very important) and you can't see but she wrote "have a good day today" on her wall:)

Tru: his calendar. Alway set on the month of May(his bday) Turtis and Kermit his little friends.

These pictures look so grainy I don't know why. And here is our "bedroom"

Our privacy curtain

And this is how we watch movies when the kids are sleeping. Ear buds hurt my ear holes. Also Stu really enjoys his clothes hanging in his face.

Have a blessed sleep! 

My kitchen

So here's my kitchen. It's not very cute, but it's not like were glamping over here. It's functional and that's all that matters! We of course have some things we want to improve on but it's been working so far! 

Our lovely outdoor carpet came from Walmart our favorite store in the universe:/ Our large kitchen sink we ordered on Amazon. We rotate through our 7 gallon water jugs that catch the grey water, then we dump them at the dump station. We got one of those water hoses that are safe to drink from, but it still tastes nast even after we filter, so we have been filling our water jugs up at the rec center, then filtering them in our brita. Notice we have both warm and cool lights...so fancy...almost glamplike.

Stu made risers(?) for the table so that it would be counter height, we are going to figure someway to raise the sink up too because it kills your back to do dishes so low. He also made a little hanging rack thing out of PVC so we could hang stuff on it. There's nothing on it in the picture but the strip cord but usually there's a nasty kitchen rag or two hanging up to dry. The large wooden box has all my pots and pans/cooking gadgets and it weighs 5,000lbs. Probably.

My little stove top. My mom got this for us for Christmas and she got me the hot pot for my BIRTHDAY. Correction made mother. Love them both. I could not do dishes with out the hot pot. 

My little oven and outdoor cabinet. I got the oven off the classifieds page here for $40 score! I love it! Don't even miss having a microwave. We got the cabinet for Christmas from my inlaws. I love it!! We have a utensil drawer, bag drawer(has ziplocks, tinfoil, seran wrap etc) rag drawer(has dishcloths, hotpads,scrubbers) and my spice drawer! There's also a long pocket on the backside, I keep big tongs and spatulars in. Our first night here I maybe forgot to zip up the cabinet and this happened...

Cocoa powder errywhere..some critter had some delicious fun rolling around in it, then carried a tin of ginger into the woods that Truman found later that day. So fun! It made me think of the time like 7 years ago I was opening a box of cocoa powder and it exploded in my face. Up my nose, in both eyeballs, I thought I was gonna die. After a few minutes of old lady hacking I wiped my brown snot and cocoa streamed tear face and had a good giggle. Have a blessed day!!

First week in review

Whelp we made it a week and a few days in our new little home. It has been an adjustment for sure but we are doing good. The first couple days were a little chaotic just trying to get into the routine of things. All the kids got to school on time(or a little but early) so that is good. The drive to school really hasn't been that bad. Only takes about seven minutes and it's a pretty drive so I don't mind. I have figured out laundry needs to be done every two days, there isn't room to pile it up. We do dishes after dinner. When I say "we" really Stu has been doing them mostly, the kids dry and put away. My favorite thing has been my Hot Pot my mom got us for Christmas. Hot water on tap for days!!(well, hours)

So nice. Cooking has been fun. For breakfasts we have been having cereal, yogurt, bagels, oatmeal, toast. Sometimes tea if I'm feeling fancy. Lunches have mostly been nachos, sandwiches, fruit and leftovers. Really nothing much has changed in the food department except for how things get cooked. I haven't used my dutch oven yet, hopefully this week, but have been putting my double burners and electric oven to use. I love that thing! So nice to have for toasting/reheating and I baked a chicken in it tonight! See....so yummy.

Some of the other dinners we have had so far chili dogs, Salisbury steaks, tacos, pesto noodles, bangers and mash. Cleaning has been fun. Basically if anything is left out it's a mess. There really is no room for anything to be out of place. We are working on that. The kids like the throw their coats on the floor, leave papers out and that just doesn't work. It is a small place to clean, Im just using my little sweeper and dust pan but I'm gonna invest in a hand held vacuum because that's faster. We went to Florida for two nights this weekend, it was fun. When we got back Eleanor walked into the trailer and said "it's good to be home" and it is. Have a blessed day! 

Taco Tuesday

More like "burrrrrr"ito Tuesday! It was frigid and windy this morning! I didn't bring my crockpot with me because I wanted to utilize my wonder oven more. What's that you say? It's this amazing beanbag like box of sorts that will keep your food hot or cold for hours! My awesome sister shauna made it for me a couple years ago. You can find a pattern on Pinterest if you want, I'm too lazy to put a link. I'm sure you can buy them too.

All you have to do is get whatever your cooking to boil and squoosh it down in the bag, put the top on and it will continue to cook(it has to be something liquid or liquid covered to work) I have used it mostly to make yogurt(which I may do another post about) but today I had to try and make my refried beans. I got the recipe off of Pinterest and I make them about very two weeks. So good. Don't buy canned ever again! Here's the original recipe, I made a smaller batch today and used onion powder instead of an onion.

Put your dry pinto or black beans in a pot. Cover with water( I probably halved the recipe above)so used about 5 cups.

Add the sthpithes...

Bring to a boil(took forever because it was windy and freezing)

Hurry put the lid on and shove it down in the wonder oven so it's nice and cozy.

Put the top on. And wait for like 7 hours!

OOo they are done so drain the bean juice water(but save some to add in later) add butter...

And mash them....like so...

So fun. Add some bean juice until you get the right consistency(you can make bean juice popsicles with the extra..so good you guys)

Masterpiece!! Now make some tacos and burrrrritos like these. If you can..delitchous..

And the best part is later when you live in a tiny trailer and there is no where to hide from everyone's farts. It's really great. Have a blessed night!!