Cinderella's Carriage Ride

Art on the Road

Buy Now

We are packing up and wheeling out. Today we are disassembling the outdoor living space and securing loose items inside the "house." Tomorrow we will fire up the engine, say goodbye to Jekyll Island and watch the open road rolling beneath us with expectant eyes and hearts through our enormous "picture window" windshield, ready for the next adventure. We are following 75 degree weather as it works it's way up the U.S. East Coast.

Jekyll Island was the perfect location for our first month as rookie RVers. I am excited for the new environment of our next location, but I will miss the trees here. The entire campground is canopied by great, towering live oaks. Spanish moss drips off hundred year old giants who guard the campground like strong, welcoming angels. On a historic carriage ride, we learned there are several trees on the Island over 600 years old!

 Highlights of our first month RVing can be read here. Photos too!

My artistic inspiration is flowing. I've created two pieces of art to commemorate our time on Jekyll Island and I intend to do the same at each location we visit. Prints on Canvas are available in my shop.

Buy Now

Stay tuned for our next location!

But first... catch up on what you've missed.

April at a Glance

April at a Glance

We told stories...

folded mountains of laundry...

(laundry doesn't let up no matter what campground you hide in. But laundry became almost pleasant when I did it outside on the picnic table.) 

Grilled as many food groups as possible...

Welcomed visitors...

  

Puzzled both inside and outside...

This purchase is dynamite for RVers who love a good puzzle. Space is an issue, but not with this handy tote board. It slides under our bed when we are taking a break on a 2000 piece puzzle. This might even be genius for life in any home. You can find it at: http://www.bitsandpieces.com/product/puzzle_store/puzzle_organizers

And we told more stories...

Telling stories, instead of reading books, has become a favorite pastime. It all started 6 months ago when I told Samantha the story of "Mommy and Daddy's wedding" for the first time. This is a tradition started by my Dad. When my sister and I were small, we often stalled bedtime by asking Dad to repeat the story of his wedding day. Hundreds of times, we never tired of it.

The first time I recounted the events of my wedding day to Samantha, I found myself laughing at unexpected moments. Certain traditions, like the cutting of the cake, take surprising creativity to explain to the mind of a three year old. For example, why did Mommy and Daddy "feed eachother" the cake like they feed baby Annabelle? We both nearly wet our pants laughing over this one. And then there was the end of the story where a huge crowd of adults stands outside to blow bubbles all over us as we hold hands and run to our car and hop in and drive away to live happily ever after. Adults blowing bubbles at us? It really becomes illogical and hysterical through the eyes of a child.

We did much more during the month of April. I will share more in a future post. In the meantime, if you want to see photos of Samantha's Cinderella Carriage Ride, click here

When the Wind is Stronger than Your Roots

It was Day 4 or 5, mid afternoon, Samantha was just finishing a nap and I was preparing to put Annabelle down to start a nap when I got a call from Chris. He told me to get the girls ready. As soon as he arrived home, we were going to jump in the Jeep with him and check out a beach he stumbled across while away running errands. I LOVE IT when he does this. Usually he is counting on me to make fun plans for the family. I love it when he surprises me with a cool plan. Annabelle would survive a missed nap. Early bedtime or something.

THIS is the beach. Driftwood Beach. Have you heard of it? I never had. I forgot my camera in the excitement of jumping in the Jeep. We parked, walked down an enchanted, narrow path through the woods and stepping out into this scene, my jaw dropped. I was in awe. I'd never seen anything like this before. I asked Chris for the keys and I raced back to the campground to get my camera. My mind was already forming this blog post for you.

THIS is what happens when the wind and water are stronger than our roots.

It's beautiful in a way.

And this? Seriously? It looks like a giant sci-fi spider.

This next one... See it? A torn heart?

Here... I'll draw the top back in for you...

These giant, majestic trees...

There will ALWAYS be something more giant, more majestic.

Extra strong, this one. But his time will come.

I've been discussing the subject of roots and change on this blog for years. What an amazing visual to illustrate this topic. 

At 4 years old, my roots were deeply dependent on that green house on Cherokee Lane. (read: April 3rd Post for that story.) Yet 36 years of moving led me to write a post in 2014 about planting my roots in a different Source. (see post: October 2, 2014) Little did I know that 12 days later my husband would arrive home early from work to carefully deliver the news that my Dad had shot himself. Suicide is an event of high winds far stronger than any relocation from one house to another.

I am still on a journey of transplanting roots of my heart from the shakable to the unshakable. Just because I'm RVing, doesn't mean I have this root thing all figured out.

Lately I've been asking myself the following question: What does that ancient text mean when it says,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

How, exactly, do I store my treasure in heaven? When I kiss my daughter goodnight, is that action kept, for safekeeping, in heaven? I can't capture every precious, glittering moment on camera, and even if I could, moth and rust will eventually destroy it, even if I store photo albums carefully for 150 years of grandchildren. Are all these beautiful moments being saved in heaven somewhere for my later enjoyment? Am I storing up treasure in heaven when I wash dishes? Or give a homeless man a bag of groceries? Is it only certain actions that get put into heavenly storage or is it the Spirit in which we do it? Another text says,

"if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

Those are the questions I'm asking myself as I soak up each sparkling, temporary moment with my family this Spring and Summer. I take incredible, unspeakable joy from my small family and yet, God and I have had our moments alone. He and I know that He is enough for me. He knows He is the only One who fills my heart with the best and most Ultimate Joy which never disappoints. Yes. I have felt that sentiment. It is real. In my darkest moments and in my highest moments. Sometimes I loose touch with this Truth, but it's always there when I remember and reach for it again.

(Oh Jesus, please don't test me again on this commitment now that I've said this in front of all these people.) 

Fear or no fear, it needs to be said. He is my first Love. My heart longs to be with Him. It always has. From the very first moment I learned of Him. My passion only increases the older I get. Ever heard the words to that song on the radio?.... "everybody want to go to heaven, nobody wanna go now."

That's me. I'm longing to go... just not quite ready yet.

Day 16 - 7:30am - Tiptoeing to Spy on the Girls

Two little heads, playing, waiting for the timer on the twinkle lights to go off so they can go play with Mommy and Daddy. This has been the common scene for many months. Only difference now is acting out this ritual in the context of RV life!

Samantha waits for the Bunny Clock to "wake up," at which point she crawls into Annabelle's bed to play until the twinkle lights go off, signaling permission to bombard Mommy and Daddy with energy.

"Twinkle lights aren't off yet, what are you doing in here, Mommy?"

RVing with Babies - Practical Solutions

It's a rainy day..... an ideal time to write to you, cozy in the RV.  We're capitalizing on cozy with twinkle lights. It's incredible how such a simple thing changes everyone's mood. 

Last week was sunny, balmy and delicious, which made it hard to finish unpacking and organizing. Rain drove us inside every day this week and I'm happy to announce that today, at 10:34 am, the last basket and bin tucked themselves into place. Every last toy, toothbrush and shoe has a happy home, with room to spare.

This has been the shoe system since Day 1. Shoes off as soon as you walk in the door. I tidy it once a day. Usually it looks like the next photo... (tiny pink sneaks and big gray sneaks being wayward most often ;)

You wipe your feet as you walk through the door and pass the driver's seats. 

I'm going to skip the main living space for now and jump you straight to the rear of the "RV house" to the "girl's bedroom." 

I would not have enjoyed RV life 3 years ago as a first time Mom. I wanted to give my baby the "classic" nursery of children's books and magazines. An entire room dedicated to a crib five times bigger than baby, full size dresser, changing table, nursing chair, book shelf..... and..... last but not least, wooden toy box. I knew babies didn't NEED all of this, but I wanted it. At the time, it was my current expression of love for my baby, mixed with my own desire not to miss out on a beloved tradition from modern day, middle class, America and Europe. I will probably put the same amount of elaborate decor into decorating a similar nursery in our next home later this year. But for now, I've done the big nursery thing, and now I'm ok to do the RV thing. I'm finally at a place in my life where I could be ok to live without anything a big house offers if we ever decided to travel on wheels full time. I might feel different four months from now, so ask me then. I will talk, in a later post, about whether I'm ok with no dishwasher or oven.

As you can see from the photo above, Samantha is equally excited about her RV bunk bed, as she was about her nursery. Samantha's bed arrangement was simple and didn't need any extra effort from us. It's apparent that most people with babies, young enough to roll out of bed, don't typically go RVing. None of the RV's come equipped with an itsy bitsy RV size crib. But if you're 3 or older, the RV designers have got you covered, fish net to catch you if you fall out of your perch. (which Samantha did on Day 3 until we learned to put a mound of blanket between her and the net. However, she never knew any of it. I happened to see her sleeping, cradled in the net, a few inches below her bed as I was responding to Annabelle in the middle of the night. Chris lifted her back into place and all was well.)

Annabelle's bed, on the other hand, took weeks of planning and troubleshooting before we arrived at a reasonable solution. She really doesn't care WHERE we put her to sleep, if we will PLEASE just be consistent and put her in the same place every night with the same soft cushion, with the same smell, under her and two familiar stuffed animals within reach.

We had to return the first bed rail because the hardware would not work with this particular bunk. Our final design included googling what other RVer's have done to solve this, plus our own engineering. The Dex Bed Rail from Amazon or Target is the one with a plate shape that can slide down between the bunk and wall. It wasn't designed with RV bunks in mind, but it works quite well nonetheless. In the end, the adult mattress, turned vertical and wedged across the "room," is a bit unsightly, but overall, this arrangement is cute enough to satisfy me, and practical and out of the way. We were all somewhat irritable dancing around the makeshift solutions of the last two weeks.

Do we need a changing table? Nope! All changing supplies live in this handy basket on the bathroom counter. Folded changing pad tucked behind is a brilliant design I've had in my car since baby number one. It doubles as a diaper bag. Patem brand, given to me by another friend who loves minimalist solutions.

What about mealtime? I, personally, LOVE the old fashioned wood spindle high chair with tray waiting for Annabelle in storage for our next house. It's so pretty. But I don't see an actual need for it. If she feeds herself, she sits in the sink to do it. If I'm feeding her, or if she's just picking up dry rice puffs, the following arrangement is working well for us.

It quickly became clear that Samantha was going to have a terrible struggle sitting still to eat, until we provided a booster seat to raise her to a more comfortable height. I was tempted to push on the budget a little bit more to run out and buy a booster seat. But in the end, I decided to use this cardboard box. 

I'm not going to be one of those bloggers who shows you gorgeous diy Pintrest projects. You've got plenty of that at your fingertips. I WILL show you this slap together solution which made both Samantha and I happy. We picked two old towels, we didn't need, and stuffed them inside the box to make it sturdy. We took cut strips of colored paper from my craft bin and taped them to the box, to make it cute, and wrapped the whole thing in clear packing tape. Easy, small, washable, cute. Took 10 minutes.

(Yes, it's peeling. She's been picking at it. I'll give it a new skin soon and have a chat with her.)

Annabelle's toys are all right here, in this one drawer which slides out from under the dinette seat.

Occasionally, when I need Annabelle up off the floor, I strap her into the seat belt on the couch and hand her toys. This spares us the need to have extra bouncy seats or baby saucers taking up space.

When we are outside, Annabelle is usually in the stroller or playpen.

She even slept in it one afternoon before I set up the monitor.

Our medicine cabinet was the final bit of organization, complete today. Stacking storage containers are a great solution for limited cabinet space...

Stay tuned for more inside photos, plus, RV life from the male perspective.