Daily life...

Daily life on the road.

So there are some things that have changed about our daily lives now that we live in a camper. (Caution, no news here, just a slice o’ life for those who may be interested.)

Making new friends:

Today Alan came in from work and announced that a family with a boy Aiden’s age has come to stay in site #53 for the next three days. (And they are from Colorado Springs!) The boys, who at home might hem and haw about it, raced to their bikes, pedaled over immediately and introduced themselves setting up an intricate play-date schedule for the next three days! I sure hope their parents didn’t have anything planned!

Another couple from Colorado came by and introduced themselves this morning. By noon they had come by again with brochures about the water taxi that could take us to the best shelling beach, prices and recommendations. By 6 pm they had brought by 10 squash, some sweet potatoes, shrimp, lunchmeat, broccoli and salad they had “left over”. Amazing!

Generally speaking, people in these places are outstanding and friendships seem to form quickly. (That and no one cooks, they all go out to eat. Every night. I mean EVERYNIGHT. Got a restaurant, I got your cliental. The local fish joint was filled to bursting by 6 pm on Tuesday night.) It’s amazing!

Learning:

We are doing the same Math that the boys were doing at Meadow View. They really like it and it’s challenging. So that is about the ONLY thing that is the same.

We take our social studies from the history of the area around us and mold the learning around the Colorado state standards to the extent that it is pertinent. Yesterday we did hands on learning about Newton’s Laws of Motion at the Imaginarium.

Sometimes they write blogs, do comic life and work in some workbooks all in our laundry rooms, picnic tables or the local Library. Tomorrow we are exploring the Pine Island Library. Education is everywhere!

     As we watched a group of Tom Turkeys hassle a group of ducks and their ducklings the boys broke out into a spontaneous narrative in which the ducks were the colonists and the turkeys were the British soldiers! Even the kid goats that seemed to be on the periphery were given roles as the natives, here before the ducks OR the turkeys! It was a great example of how they are learning and thinking even while I toss and turn, worried about their learning. Assessments aren’t all paper and pencil!

     Jacob fights me tooth and nail but still, I win…most days…

Down Time:

Why do I STILL not have down time?

We all love TV, it’s our major vice, or should I say WAS. Now the TV choices are up to the campground and they range from pretty bad to hideous. (The ONE exception being the KOA in Mass. The TV choices were FAB!) So, while we’ve been lucky enough to get all our episodes of Duck Dynasty shows we are now relegated to 6 year old re-runs of America’s Funniest Videos. (Listen I don’t care if it is a crotch shot from 2007, it’s still damn funny.)

Cleaning:

We clean every day, often two or three times a day. 200sq ft becomes messy in a hurry. Not having the little conveniences we once had, like a dishwasher and a garbage disposal, or counter space, makes it a process to get and keep anything clean but also makes it super important. Dishes and cooking require us to assemble the side table, get the water heater going, wash, rinse and dry the dishes, put them away, dismantle the side table and pack it away. Clearly, I love my paper plates. Earth friendly, not so much. I love that I can sweep and vacuum our whole house in less than 5 minutes! I also discovered today that I can plug the vacuum in at the far end of the boys room and still reach to the end of our room, our house is as long as the vacuum cord!

Laundry:

We have a new definition of “clean”. Showers are every other day due to the daily pool use and because laundry is so dang expensive, shirts worn twice, pants three times. Undies of course are the only exception to the rule! My new favorite invention, our current laundry room has a card reader! Wahoo! No more hoarding quarters! Needless to say, the days of separating whites and colors, or even having “WHITES” has long since gone out the window. We have varying shades of grey! All new incoming clothes must be colored! The boys have continued to grow at an astronomical rate.  Ever since the song “thrift shop” has come out though, getting them to get the basics from Goodwill or the local thrift shop has been a snap! It’s cool, because Macklemore said it was. Thank God for pop culture! Also, living in Florida means there are no “short pants” issues every six weeks! They wear board shorts and voila! We had a traumatic incident in which I threw away Aiden’s soccer t-shirt from his team “Orange Crush”.  He begged “Mom, it’s the only thing I have to remind me of my team!!!” Dear God, he’s so sentimental. Guess who went and dug it out of the laundry room garbage? He’s not wearing it, just keeping it. Fine, it’s 3 square inches of your allotted space pal….

Food:

From the beginning we have been avid about buying from small, local producers. It’s been great buying from roadside stands in just about every state. The Amish stands in Pennsylvania are still my favorite! Down here we have a fabulous stand just down the road to get our produce from. When we splurge we buy shrimp right off the docks in the fishing village of Matlacha. Having lots of fresh mangos and pineapple is a major plus to this lifestyle! I have learned to deal with the tiny fridge/freezer combo. I don’t like it, but I’m dealing with it. We have a Berkey water system so ever day we use it to fill about 10 empty water bottles and put them in the fridge. We could drink out of the faucet but I know we won’t. We’ve tried everything and I have given into the washing and filling cycle of water bottles. At least I know we are hydrated! We’ve given up soda unless we are at a restaurant so we use a zillion different kinds of flavorings, everything from Yahoo to orange crush. God help you if you take the last of someone’s favorite! Overall, it’s the lack of space to prep any food that makes me nuts. Maybe that’s why no one in this place cooks?

All of things together have taken some getting used to but we feel really comfy in this life. Some of it is a little reminiscent of “the olden days” but we have more than we need. We are getting into the swing of things here at Pine Island, visitors encouraged!

Happy Travels,

Laura