Welcome to our story!

We are: One single mom, three kids, three cats, one dog, 31 feet of living space. We're blogging our tales and adventures here for all to see. How do we earn a living, get along, find privacy, handle the ocassional bad situation... ? I'm Chey, I'm 34 and mom to three kids ages 15, 12, and 2 and I'm putting them all in an RV for the adventure of a lifetime!

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Feeling Better

Starting to recover form the flu, finally. Whew, what timing! Delaying the yard sale by one day due to the flu, I just can't get it all done in time no matter how hard I try.

Bedroom is done, and the kids room. Still have the kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, living room, studio, and office. Sure I can finish it all today and tomorrow! Why not?! hahahaha

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Scared for Me

My sister said she is afraid for me. When I asked her what she was afraid of, she couldn't answer just kept saying she didn't know. It's sweet that she loves me so I can't hold it against her. She also said she just couldn't see herself in such a small space with kids!

I told the dad of my daycare family that I had to give 30 days notice. He just seemed very sad. He said they really like me and are really sorry to see me leave.

Today I go get my mail forwarding set up, change my bank to a national bank instead of my local bank, and other small stuff along those lines.

To top it all off I have the flu. I'm sneezing, stuffed up, have a fever, etc. I can do this but sheesh am I miserable right now!

Monday, May 28, 2007

Support

I am getting such wonderful support from everyone I tell! I'm a little flustered because I guess I expevcted opposition and naysayers. But so far it's been an amazing response. I admit I put off telling people because I just didn't want to deal with the frustration of naysayers when I was trying to get everything accomplished. But now I feel a little silly for having put it off.

I still have to tell my sisters. I expect them both to be naysayers, only because they love me but they are both worriers. I'll call them tonight. Better add it to my ever growing list.

The lists keep getting bigger not smaller, this is not good.

Yard sale this coming weekend. My second so far in this process and the final one.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Lists

I have lists for my lists! I'm drowning in them! Packing lists, RV checklists, road trip lists, show lists, shopping lists, to-do lists.... help me!

Telling People

I've been doing daycare for two years to make ends meet while I build my business and to help bridge the gap when my ex skips child support. So anyway two of them I have had from the beginning, they are young brothers (2 and 7), and they love it here, and their mom likes me and I have to tell her tomorrow that I won't be able to watch them anymore. I have to give her 30 days notice so she has plenty of time to work something else out, but still, I feel bad. I'm close to their school, imminently reliable, safe, and I love the kids. I know as a mom that is rare and hard to find so I understand why she likes me.

But it's time for us to go on to this adventure. I hope she understands and feels good about it. It would be fun to send postcards to the kids as we travel. So I tell her tomorrow. I hope it goes well.

Cleaning Out

Can I just say, we have a lot of crap. No really. We live lightly, it's important to me to do so. I've worked for years to cut down on my amount of stuff, to live as lightly as I can and to practice the principals of voluntary simplicity.

So you can imagine my dismay when I realized just how much *shit* I had accumulated! I was able to weed out two large lawn bags of clothes from my wardrobe alone. Who needs that much?? My kids were just as bad or worse and we've only just gotten started!

This process is so hard. We're renting a very small storage unit which will hold the things we can't take but also can't let go of. Family photos, precious drawings and things from my kids over the years, that sort of thing. My goal is a 10X10 or smaller. Not sure if we'll make it that small or not yet.

Basically all of the furniture except a few of my very favorite pieces are going. I'm keeping my mothers desk, my mothers cedar chest, my wooden futon, and my solid oak bookcase. The rest is all either stuff I don't care about or that is cheap and replaceable anyway.

My bedroom is echoing... it's eerie. I'll just have to live with it for the next month though. We go pick up the RV on the 18th.

I do feel lighter already though. It's so amazing how much junk and crap we carry around with us "because I might need it". I didn't want to be wasteful, so I kept htings that no longer served me under the idea that they migh tone day be useful again to me or someone else or reused in some other way. All well and good but it can definitely pile up.

We live in a moderate home in a moderate neighborhood on n average street and our house is far from full. You wouldn't look at our "stuff" and call us packrats or slobs or compulsive stockpilers. Nevertheless we have way way too much crap! Bags upon bags upon boxes of it! I guess I'm really surprised, and am feeling much much lighter already.

I've purged before, but never to this level and the difference is so amazing. I used to purge what I thought was a deep purging every year or two at minimum, and yet I have already gotten rid of a mountain and still have three or four more mountains left to go!

It feels great! So far so good, we can do this!