Homeschooling/Roadschooling our way

I've decided that the time the have stared out the windows staring at the rain, puddles and not the birds playing in the puddles counts as nature study. Especially when it was when they were supposed to be doing math or writing.

Never mind getting them to write in a notebook about what they've seen. That would make us serious experts in Classical or Charlotte Mason or whatever. We are no experts here. On anything except *maybe* slowly loosing our minds. On that I can assure you I'm at expert level.

Largely because it's raining. AGAIN. I swear to you I have moved to Seattle. This home on wheels in only intended for living in dry southern CA where it does not rain.  And now with the new added feature of wind it not only leaks in the known places (which I swear is pretty much the entire roof perimeter) it blows in through the vent and air conditioning unit in the roof. Not that we have a whole lot of floor space to walk in, it's better without the buckets catching drips - on the floor or my bed.

BUT after pretty much exhausting the options on rentals, great ones (well from the online listing or road) being already rented, others being too small or just nasty dirty and smelly, others I thought were perfectly acceptable but none of which called Larry's name and seeing every known house, neighborhood within 30 minutes of base that was for sale or rent we bid on a short sale being told - sorry- assured- that it could close in 45 days but at day 15 it hadn't really moved anywhere and we were being told we needed to understand "these things take time" which I responded  that we only bid on it because we were assured that it would close in 45 days but if they couldn't even get the process rolling in 15 then we were going to cut bait and run. Because frankly closing by Christmas will drive me out of my mind much much faster than closing by Halloween. Especially if this stupid rain keeps up. I told our agent to pass on the other one that a little honesty upfront wouldn't have lost the chance of a sale or wasted 2 weeks of my life. In fact I'd like to lock him in a camper with the rain with my 4 kids and see how quickly he would have gone crazy.

So.. we looked at our other options and other houses and were in the process of bidding on a somewhat more sure bet one squirrel trail led to another and a late night change of plans led us to bidding on a house we'd previously excluded being out of our price range but dragged into it because.. well.. because it was going to be cheaper in a few days and the builder was ready to sell it asap and willing to make a deal. Ironically this neighborhood the first week we got here we ruled out as being a little too foo-foo. It later became a top pick- mostly because it was close, had dock, water, pool and exercise room. HOWEVER it also comes with an HOA. Of which I've only read 31 pages of the 65 or so of the restrictive covenants and other HOA related materials. Our house doesn't have a flower bed so I won't get fined for not having live flowers in it. I'm going to assume that parking on the road is a problem but they have a lot for us to park the camper at if we keep it. *IF* and that's once it gets back from it's prospective 6 month stay at the RV repair spa. We have an extended warranty and know how to use it.

Back to the house - We've never had a new house before. This is going to be a new experience. Assuming all goes as planned and no new hiccups occur. Probably need to double check about the mortgage having everything it needed.

And it's further from the water so much less likely to have a first floor filled with water should that first hurricane get here. Tho with the wind blowing like it is maybe I should check the weather...

So yesterday as the weather and I conspired to confine and torture the kids with schoolwork they took it upon them selves to fog up with windows with their breath and write "HELP" on them. So help me.... if ever I am blogging from a jail cell I can tell you I'm innocent and my kids are somehow the culprit.

Two of said culprits just got back from collecting sand and shells. There are 2 shark teeth. more signs. I should fill in the rest of back story to that- But later- I have a beach to walk on.

Life in the small house

Small houses are all the rage. I guess those don't realize that there is huge populations of people that have been doing this forever. They used to scornfully call those people trailer trash. Honestly the main difference between a tiny house and trailer trash is where your tiny house is parked. The right neighborhood makes all the difference.  We still wait for more permanent housing. And since we've been less than thrilled with our neighbors here we shopped around for other trailer parks. And I realize not all are the same and honestly if we just bought a plot of land with sewer and electric we could be all set. Although showering is still a hassle in the camper.

But since a picture says a million words here is our life

The front "cabin" now the makeshift library.

The classroom. Under those books is painter's tape. It's divided into 4, although 4 do not think they fit there at all.

shower. Also doubles as the laundry hamper, clothes dryer hanger thing and catcher of leaking roof drips

living room area. minus kids who are outside now. without rain and 100 degree heat outside is more appealing.

kitchen. this is across from the living room area above. Enough counter space for 2 coffee cups. coffee maker has to go into the closet to make room to cook.

microwave. also dish drainer storer and bread holder. this is not household size nothing sized larger than 1/3 actual size fits in either the microwave or toaster. that's a micro-dish drainer. I'm pretty sure it should have been sold in the doll size dish section of Ikea. But having no counterspace for anything else and this thing hangs off the wall.. it's what we have.

another view of the kitchen/stove.

the beds. Bunk bed and double bed in back. The dining room table and couch also turn into beds.

micro-closet. hanging all our coats, Larry uniform and storing most of the clothing. It might look big but I assure you it doesn't fit much.

storage. seriously at a premium here. this is cleaning suppliesa, extra whatever, kid stuff,etc.

the school work shelves. Not sure that TV works, as the rest of the entertainment system in the RV has not worked. It came with it and hogs that space. but it's deceptive. It's not deep enough to hold a regular size binder or book.  so it's about 8 inches deep instead of the 8.5 in you need for that sort of thing.

6 of us share this. There are 2 towel rods so that's pretty much the way the kids just stuff towels up. And unlike real houses you have to deal with the stuff that comes out in regular plumbing. For your household it's about every 3-4 d that I have to empty the tanks and do laundry.  I have over the door hooks over the side of the shower door that hang robes and towels if anyone bothered to try to hang towels there. in theory it was a good idea. in actuality it' turns into a huge face level mass of wet towel/robes that blocks the mirror.

So that's it. not glamorous. I could take pictures of all the storage cubbies but I doubt it's all that exciting to anyone else. Besides then I'd feel compelled to clean them first to make it look uber organized instead of the general shove-it-in-quick-and-close-the-door-before-it-falls-out way that things tend to revert to. if you have any doubt look at the bathroom picture or the storage shelve pictures. 

Finally the weather has broken

We were promised that it would get better. Yesterday was absolutely glorious. No too hot, not raining, humidity under 100%.

Got school work done and spent the afternoon at the beach. Larry and the boys spend the night hours fishing. We are having fresh caught shrimp tonight for dinner.  He's been spoiled living here at the beach - all the fishing, shrimping, crabbing and clamming is just a short walk away.

I'm re-thinking most of my earlier curriculum choices and now that I have a post office box I can actually get mail.

That was an unexpected frustration in this whole move- when you move without a forwarding address you can send it to "general delivery" at a main post office at your new town. Well.. I choice Camp Lejeune. But apparently I chose the wrong main zip code because when I got there they didn't have any mail and had to look up where it was actually sent- which is downtown Jacksonville.

And while using the term 'downtown' is really a stretch here. it's definitely out of the way and hard to find. My GPS is totally unable to find it and insists it's in Jacksonville, Florida. (sigh, technology)

And when we got there to get the mail, I ask, can I get a PO box? and the answer is " you need proof of physical address- registration, drivers license, lease, etc" to which I looked at him and said "if I had that I wouldn't need a PO box" And he tells me 'oh, that's ok, you can have it sent general delivery for up to a month" so which I reply "it's already been 3 weeks." he says, well, as far as concerned, it started today." gee, thanks.

So this goes on a few weeks when I go to the base post office (the one that didn't have our mail) to cash in a money order (long sorrid story of shipping a car going sideways) and ask them, can I get a PO box? I brought a copy of Larry's orders knowing that usually gets us far on base.  Sure, he replies and hands me the same form. I start filling it out and hit the same "physical address" part and instructions that I need 2 proofs of physical address.. and look at him and say "this part is a problem"  He says "what's your husband's unit, put that there"
Seriously, that's it?
That's it.
I have a copy of his orders..
That's fine. I don't need them.

Oh glory day.

On to update addresses for all things like bank statements and credit cards...

So I can get the mail actually delivered, hopefully.

The other rather unexpected part in this is that when you use your credit card at the pump and it tells you to put in your zip code... it's hard to remember it. In a military town I don't get too many crazy looks when I have to pull out my phone to look up my address and zip. Usually I just say "we're new, I'm having a hard time remembering it"

We bid on a short sale house. It's a lovely house and we have absolutely no furniture to put in it. Almost absolutely, practically speaking. It's more house than we need. But it has all hard wood floors and I really like that idea. PLUS it has washer/dryer hook ups. And a real size kitchen and fridge. Another huge bonus and it probably wouldn't be TOO hard to put a gas tank and line in for my dryer.  BUT you can see the water from it - as in the water that rises when a hurricane visits. So I am almost guarantee you that the first real hurricane of the season will be the month after we close on it if we get it. It's ok as long as I'm mentally geared up for that. It's not like we'll have had time to buy furniture for the thing.  I'm still not entirely sure what is on that moving truck since we sold and gave away so much stuff including furniture. It will be like Christmas when we actually do get to open that truck and boxes.

In all it's having a real shower I miss the most. The shower in the camper is good to rinse but not enough water comes out to actually de-soap or de-shampoo so we a trek down to the public bath house for showering. Besides if your use the camper one then you have to empty out your grey water tank that much faster and I'd have to find somewhere else to put my dirty clothes hamper. Some camp grounds have nice laundry and bath houses. This isn't one of them. But it's cheap, it's on the water for fishing and on the beach for swimming. Priorities, people, really. who needs clean clothes and bodies when there is salt water to be in?

 I thought it would be washer and dryer I missed most and those are a close second. I'm almost to the point where I think I don't need a dishwasher - it's kinda nice having the dishes washed, dried and put away without having to empty the dishwasher hours later and sort clean vs dirty dishes.  I do miss counter space and wish I had a full size dish drainer not the 'it looked good at Ikea' wall one that isn't intended for any of the dishes sizes we have. Not having a washer/dryer or storage space to store dirty clothes it's dramatically changed my view on clothing -  every day they need clean underwear. Aside from that, if it isn't visibly dirty or smelly it can be worn again. Some of the family are better at staying cleaner than others. Especially when there is salt water and sand to be digging in.

Blogging is a one way conversation

A personal soap box if you will.  Some people pick a topic and choose to educate their audience... this blog is really just my way of venting. One of the main reasons I stopped blogging was that those near and dear to me were feeling distressed by the blog and felt one of 4 things needed to happen:

1. I needed to stop telling the world my thoughts - people might get the wrong idea about me
2. They needed to get on the email and tell me I was wrong and why
3. They needed to get on the phone and call and voice their concerns to me or
4. Call others to try to fix what ever my blog was about

So from this point forward- and I'm pretty sure I wrote this before and look to the right at my disclaimer- This blog is just me venting. If reading it renders distress or an overwhelming need to fix me PLEASE read someone else's blog.  I can come up with a few suggestions if you need them. I can even tell you it's my blog.

That said we can now return to our regularly scheduled venting/therapy session...

Life still goes on and I think I am now qualified to write 'professional beach bum' on my resume.  We are going on 4 weeks at the beach now and honestly it's not as bad as the rest of the world seems to think it must be. Don't misunderstand- it's not a cushy life - but it has some advantages when it isn't raining.  The kids and Larry have fully embraced the lifestyle and love to catch fish, shrimp, crab... and this weekend they added clamming to their skill set.

Clams- I am not a fan.  The boys like them just fine, Sonia described them as " chewy salt water"  which I thought was  a pretty accurate description. Said chewy salt water will be chowder for tonight's dinner, tho....

Yesterday was Sunday -  and another fail for the search category.  I started looking at it like jury selection- Larry and I each get a certain number of 'rejection' cards. yesterday we were both willing to excuse that juror/church..

The other day I went for a walk on my own at the beach. Alone- to clear my head and pray and as I was walking I was praying and asking God for a sign - I looked down and saw a shark tooth. I was thinking a friend who has stories upon stories of signs from God.. and I  heard " you don't ask for signs" And then I  asked " what was that a sign of?"  I forgot to specify. I guess it was a sign that God is still present in my life, still hears, still cares. Even when I'm convinced my soul is going to shrivel and waste away if I don't find a good church and fellowship here, God is here. I have a tooth to remind me.

We have peeing ghosts again

If you know my peeing ghosts story we've been friends practically forever. But it goes back to our Mansfield house- we bought it and started rennovating the kitchen. And I'd often be the first one there and honestly it had a pretty eerie vibe..  But I started noticing that there were puddles in the middle of the floor. The floor around it was dry so I decided (in my hyper spiritual days) that the house was possessed and athe ghosts were peeing on the floor and started praying over it.

 God heard me and shortly afterward he sent aa hurricane that downgraded to a tropical storm just before it hit our location. And thus revealed I did not have peeing ghosts, I had a leaking roof which was running down the walls and a pooling up from the low area of the floor.

I am much smarter now and when there were large puddles on the counter of the bathroom I thought I had sloppy kids. Until another downpour came and I could see it running down the walls.  This camper is SOOOOO being sold if I have any say in it.

But the new thing we learned today is that thunder is loud and that not all lightening is as close as it would appear..  But when you are camping on a island surrounded by a storm it all seem rediculously close..

And I hae kids way oversenitive to loud sounds they didn't produce ( because if it's their noise they have no problem) pacing in the camper with their fingers in their ears.

We're at the library now. I told them it was a tornado shelter.

Sunday Sunday..

The absolute worst part of moving is not the actual moving of stuff, the leaving friends behind, the backbreaking actual moving, cleaning and the frustration of finding somewhere to live. No believe it or not the part I like least about moving is finding a church.

I have a feeling this will be a weekly blog theme for a bit.

You see we are not Catholic, Southern Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal or anyother just find the nearest parish/church and go. We are not liturgical people, much to my father's dismay. Our last church was officially an "evangelical free" church but we'd go to community churches, interdenominational churches or pretty much any church that has reasonable music and bases their beliefs and teachings on the Bible..

I'd like to say we're not picky but apparently I might be. We've been to slain in the spirit churches where the congregation lined up like communion to be slain - people were falling everywhere and wondering why Larry looked so uncomfortable much less still standing, to all african american attendee churches, to a church where the pastor was preaching until the spirit told him to stop. Not sure at what point that was because at 2:00 we bailed... (it started at 10:30 or 11..)  to one where we were told to go to different stations and feel the spirit while music played - one was rocks, one was water - I dunno- to appreciate nature?? We've been to Baptist churches and didn't know to know give our real address on the new person card- because putting a real address or filling that card out means that they will be at your door Wednesday night. I have a whole collection of mugs from baptist churches because it seems that the first time you go you get a mug of candy.  We even attended a Southern Baptist church for 3 yrs because our options were that limited.. I mean really I don't think I'm THAT picky. But I guess we weren't real Baptists since I rarely went Wed night and we all know you need to go Sunday School, Sunday service, Sunday night and Wednesday to be a real Baptist. If you didn't know that I didn't either for the first 2.5 yrs we went there and then I just didn't care that much being a yankee and all...

Anyway, we've kissed ALOT of frogs. And we(I)  thought (I)we'd gotten a method down to find a new church  - and the advent of internet and websites helps alot- but sadly we are still in the frog kissing stage.

Let me take a moment to say once again, I loved our old church. I understand that no church will ever be like it. I'm ok with a few basic requirements. But if they wanted to open a venue I'd be first in line to go.

Church fail #1 - we went on recommendation of a friend we knew from our old church and BSF. I thought if someone was going to be particular about their church this would be it. We get there (late, it was an hour away!) and go the the 'I'm new here' booth to ask where the kids go. Up through 5th grade has the kids' program and were escorted there. 6th and up go so service with adults. There was a point in my life when I believed in the family integrated church... I'm past that now. And while my kids have learned alot listening to our 'adult' sermons from our beloved church it was nice they had an option for the kids that included small groups.  But back to this fail- the sermon had a summary of some TED(?) talk and was a book report about "The Scarlet Letter."  I felt like I was back in the Episcopal church except there were probably 800 people there.. and the liturgy was more than 5 minute. There was referenced to bible verses with out actual reading of those verses ("the bible says to love each other" sort of reference-) and there was 1-2 verses actually quoted.   While I'm sure there were people that need this sort of church.. I really felt like I was in a self improvement seminar with a casual wave to God.

Church fail #2- less a fail but don't see us going back was a recommendation from a realtor we started working with.  On paper and in the website it looked good - I mean they even had "growth groups" which was our beloved church's code for small groups - except they had only 1 for adults and it was monday nights (which we were told from our monday night group it was the hardest night to hold small group on..)  And it was a odd mix. I think it was modeled more on Bethel Church based on their music selection being only from their church. But we go to their "new person" desk - check in and again - only have stuff for kids k-5th grade.   They lost Larry when the  music said to move to the right and move to the left and jump and the congregation was doing it - kinda like the Charlie Brown or Tootsie Roll or whatever that dance is these days..  And the pastor subscribed to The Rock pastor's method of having people repeat words which well, in style points- that's just not us.

I find it ironic that when we moved to what we thought was going to be a drought of Christ followers there was many Bible preaching, very alive churches but here in the Bible belt this seems to be a rare fish.

Still fishing. Still find frogs. Although the fishing and catching snapping turtles is probably a better metaphor to use.

Speaking of fishing.. apparently Larry really loves this whole beach fishing thing. As do the kids. I tell him "my people don't do these sort of things" but they've all learned how to use cast nets and catch shrimp. (pictures at 11:00)  What almost amuses me is the sign that says to leave the alligator alone. THAT would be a better analogy- when you catch the alligator when you're fishing for fish.. apparently you just cut your line and move one. And that's what we're doing - cutting the line and moving on..

That's a cast net.

Joey and the 'kid sized net'

If you're wondering - Shrimping with a Cast net is a low tide, night time activity. This event is taking place about 11pm, good thing we homeschool... the kids would love to cast net all day long, however you can't see what you are catching and they've caught all sorts of things that they weren't trying for- Jelly fish, pencil fish, fish fish, crab and frankly I'm ill equipped to deal with the accidentally caught stuff. Like I say- often  these days- "my people aren't made for this" I'm not sure what of "my people" I'm referring to but my parents weren't sea/water/beach people and I really never acquired a taste for this sort of activity.

living head on shrimp. Their eyes glow orange.

brushing off the dust of this blog

Sorry I know it's hard to see through the haze of dust here. It's been a while since I've had THIS much life upheaval that I needed a regular outlet. I'd call that a good thing. Mostly.

And boy have I had material to write about but my computer died a painful death about day 4 of the adventure. While it's been touchy with the power cord for years it appears that all the moving it around was the kiss of death. So it hit low priority to hack into my account because I don't remember logins or passwords for anything...   And it's not first in line for technology failure in my life. My first link to the world my cell phone was first in line. IS first in line. Back in may it stopped backing up. It ran out of memory because I'm a spaz with pictures.. I needed to get pictures off to free enough memory to update and I needed to back up the pictures which it wouldn't do....

This is the point where my brother would point out this must be inherently because I use an apple product. And this is the point that I will point out that for 4 years my apple product worked very well..

Back to the current life. Actually let's back up about 6 weeks because that really sets the stage for where we are now.

6 weeks ago (cue music and blurry screen)

We were still in CA. Our moving truck arrived and we had just found tenants for our home. Our home was in the middle of getting new plumbing so that it wouldn't have another plumbing leak while we were renting it out AND it was finally getting the backsplash for the kitchen and new paint.

We hired help. This should have gone beautifully. I should only have needed to finish packing because we were also hiring cleaners.

HOWEVER

the painters. I don't even know where to go with them. I spend 2 days chasing them around wiping up paint they got on everything, including carpet, cabinets and even the rabbit. I kid you not. Supposedly they had a license to paint. I do not believe them at all.

the cleaner spent 3 hours was surprised when I said yes to her 'do you expect me to vacuum?" I could have and did spend 3 DAYS cleaning... and finally gave up.

the movers- I had a perfect system - I had triaged all the boxes - the must move, vs 'if there is room on the truck' move us boxes. The hired movers put everything on the truck, buried 10feet deep.  We got the first 1/2 the truck filled with about 1/4 of our household items. As we realized this we started taking everything else apart to the smallest component including all the particle board stuff that will never make it back together again. seriously not sure why we bothered moving it.. but it's on the truck.

The truck itself - ever seen those mini tractor trailers with "ABF" on the side - that's what all our stuff went into. The theory is great- we fill it, they move and store it for us until we have a home. The jury is still out. Right now I'm saying 'never again' and I'll just let the military move us. HOWEVER will will have to pare down our belongings.. we were several thousand pounds over our weight limit and that would have cost us if they were moving us. I have my suspecions about what put us over our limit and 90% sure that of our 6 person family 1 person and all his heavy toys put us well over that limit. I mean really - have you ever weight a gun safe? And he left a TON - technically probably 3 tons of crap in CA.

Now this all is the normal moving stuff. Where the crazy part ratchets up is that we bought a motor home. A 35 foot used motor home. For a great price - so low that we should have known it was a run for the hills sort of deal. Larry is never one to run from a challenge and took it on.
We bought the extended warranty for it - the kind you add on and hope they cover what breaks - thinking 'well, at least it will get fixed when it breaks'

However unlike homes or cars when they break no one is on any sort of urgency time table to fix said thing.

So we picked it up in Jan. took it camping one weekend and  found out that the hydraulic parts weren't' working. brought it to a rv fix it place who took custody of it for 2 months.  between the "repair" and the extra things Larry needed onto it to tow the car and stabilize it so we didn't kill ourselves driving it.. it was 2 months and not. cheap.

Then he spends 2 weeks doing more add on repairs to add an inverter/welding stuff on the frame, batteries, etc... this is the last month- last weeks- last day we were in CA.  When I say that that RV has become a sore spot with me I am not exaggerating.  He thinks I over react. I can tell you I don't over-react I just slowly simmer forever until I hit a boil over point. It's been at a hard boil for a while now. I was ready to drive it into straight off a dock into the water yesterday... (spoiler alert: hydraulic parts have been repaired twice now and still don't work)

Have to run. Will be back-  Wild offspring have hit their boiling point and I need to go run them for a while outside of this 35 foot cabin.. so off to 100% humidity, the smell of low tide and sweat that can't evaporate even if it tried.