Spotify. Yes. Please.

Without spotify I would go insane.  Seriously. True statement.   When I put it on “shuffle” and it has well over 10,000 songs of wonderful sounds to my ears.  I have EVERY type of music in there (almost)…..   and I just have to skip if I don’t want that exact song right now.

 

 

It’s so much better than Pandora because it has ONLY the songs that I myself have picked.  I have a story to go with each song on there.   THE SONGS bring me back to a place in my mind/heart that usually makes me dance a little dance… and smile a happy smile….

We need to dance.

The kids and I.

Dancing is critical to our survival.  To our sanity (or just my own sanity) —

It gets “OUT” their extra energy very quickly with a dance session… and it eases all stress if there’s something happening that is a tad bit not enjoyable…

Oh yes, music.  Thank you for always helping….

When there is no internet connection and all I have is the radio… I get quite sad.  I love the radio but I’m done with it.    I live in a world of spotify.  I love it.  *Sigh*  Thank you Spotify for being so AWESOME.

 

The most difficult part of travel is not having GOOD music when we want good music….  Spotify rectifies that for me but only if I can get us near WiFi 🙂 😀

Here’s a throw back Thursday for the blogging world…. —  Back at the duplex in Lake Havasu City… we were having a dance party to “I hope you dance” — and it makes my heart happy just to see this and recall that day. 😀

 

*Blessed*

 

The best day of my life..

They played this at the school.

ALL THE TIME.  Graduation type song.   Video is insane.  Words are good though.

TODAY is the best day —  It’s all we’ve got…  😀

 

 

 

Clap along —-

Because I’m HAPPY

 

 

FEEL GOOD TODAY!

RVing with Kids (The human ones)

So the question is —- Am I an adrenaline junkie? Do I enjoy this? The planning is fun…. the stressful moments actually doing it all is not always so much fun. Travel with 3 kids. Driving with 3 kids. Camping with 3 kids. Hiking with 3 kids. Yes. (in hindsight) I loved every single planned/unplanned bit of chaos during the first time around (when we drove from New York to Arizona 11 months ago)…. and so far I love every second of it….. so I must be.

The first time we drove across America….. it was interesting to say the least.  I think NOTHING went as planned other than the route and the destination.  Kids loved seeing new things.  Kids hated sitting in the car for hours on end.  Meeting new people every time we stopped was part of the adventure. Mechanics are incredibly nice to you and talkative when they want your business… 😉 —– The first time we towed a 20 foot travel trailer and it took us almost 2 weeks….    People told me THEN that I was crazy for wanting to go on a long road trip with kids….

Now it’s time to make the trek back across America….  The kids have no concept of time (not REALLY) and can not fathom how long this trip is going to take us….  AGAIN.  I know they’re going to ask me (just as they did on the way to Arizona….) “ARE WE THERE YET?!  HOW MUCH LONGER?”   The second question isn’t possible to answer for them because they don’t understand when I tell them it’s only 25 more hours to drive (which might take a week)…. I will just keep telling them to look on the map and consider how far we’ve gone and how long it took us to get this far already….  maybe they can wrap their heads around the idea of time a little bit more by the time we get back to New York…..

They are excited about the trip again.  They are excited about their “NEW HOME” (temporary home on wheels) and they LOVE their new SPACES inside the motorhome.   They have already helped me put up the map (where we tracked our route last time) and they have spaces for their books, crayons, papers, toys, dolls, blankets, etc….   They make the trip exciting for me… but I know they’re going to lose the thrill of it all fairly quickly……

 

 

 

 

 

ORANGE CURTAINS!

Orange curtains.

Blue curtains.

Plaid curtains.

Quilt cut up to fancy some curtains.

Curtains from the thrift shop depicting an image of a farming family in the 60’s.

 

ORANGE and green flower curtains lovingly and diligently time consuming-ly (not a word) hand sewn from my grandmother (my Nana) before we left NY 12 months ago (she made them for my ‘other’ home on wheels – a 20 ft travel trailer).

THEY MIX WELL…

 

With the brown/blue stripe shag rag rug

next to the “SUMMER TIME” rug

which overlaps the tried and true light blue “comes free when you buy the camper rug”

not far from its cousin the red rag rug on it’s way out the door….

 

Want to know what mixes even MORE WELL than those things mentioned above???!!!!

 

Mixes even ever so wonderfully with the blue towels on the seats (to prevent the inevitable yelling that would encompass the camper after something is spilled because children do actually make a mess sometimes).

The other seat covers (a bright colored stripe/flower shower curtain) and sage green sheet help keep the front seats as clean as possible because I too happen to enjoy myself a beverage while driving and if that said coffee spills on my seats I won’t be as joyful as I would be if it spilled on something easily toss-able.

To help the blending of wonderful sights further I added a beige/maroon paisley design shower curtain to help with some privacy when parked and hidden away……

 

I have cups. There are no 2 cups that match. NEVER. Not happening.   I have dishes.  Sometimes (EECH… they actually do match because they came from my mother who passed away and who did not have the odd ‘NON MATCHING’ thing that I have)  But I like orange.  Orange cupcake bins. Orange spoons.  Orange scrapers.  Orange “POO gloves”  (I really did write on my orange gloves and label them “MY POO GLOVES”).  Orange CURTAINS.  Orange shirts.  Orange blankets (I wish).

Blankets.  Pillow Cases.  Stripes. Blue. Pink. Red. Polka dots. Satin. Cotton. Velvet. Cotton. Cotton. Cotton. Retro pillow cases. Do they match the blankets?  WHY would they?

Let me explain my dishes while we’re at it.  We have a plethora of a selection of napkins and paper plates.  Everything on sale happens to fit in my drawer.  In the drawer below the fridge the children are able to choose their own plates and napkins based on their moods at the time and we are always up for a NEW set of paper plates and go through napkins like it’s no ones business so if you have some… send them our way.. the more color/variety/selection … the better… 🙂  ****WHO KNEW?**** (She’d be so easy to please!?)

 

I realize that the colors/decoration scheme is not for everyone because so many have seen and just are taken aback with it.  I may appear disorganized and crooked but it is entirely organized and put together to the highest level of awesomeness that a large portion of the rest of the world just can not appreciate.  🙂

BUT I JUST LOVE MY ORANGE CURTAINS 🙂

Ready. Set. Go.

Step 8 – Climbing, Catching, and Finishing Touches ….

Tea Party!!! (Simple things = the best bits of happiness … REALLY)

The kids decided they wanted a tea party… however we had already given away all our MUGS… so we had a solo cup tea party inside the Motorhome….
They had so much fun. It was beyond simple and something they’ll remember forever… they have asked me already if they can have another one… I promised them we would once we got on the road….

Then my oldest has always been a ‘catcher’ of critters… anything… he catches it and shows me… He’s caught so many lizards and crickets it’s not even funny… 🙂 Proud moments I suppose. 🙂

He’s also my CLIMBER… OH MY GOODNESS he’s my climber…. Since he was born and could crawl/walk/climb…. he’s been climbing….
He climbs walls… He puts things together just to climb them…. He climbs trees WAY TOO HIGH and people stop to ask if he needs help to get down… (he doesn’t… he just loves to climb) —- He even climbs vertical light poles (again drawing a crowd because it’s a bit out of the box for most people to see a boy his size scaling something without any struggle)….. he climbs on the playground (on top of it where you’re not supposed to climb)… Well he’s already climbed the motorhome and loves to climb the ladder… I have to constantly watch him because he will indeed get right up on top and say “Hi Mom”… (hasn’t happened yet but I don’t put it past him to TRY)….

Then I had a couple friends help out with a couple different “this doesn’t work” issues… and miracles are wonderful. This motorhome is put together so nice. It’s clean. It’s working well. It’s ready to go…
We are just lingering with a few more finishing touches….. last FEW things…. 🙂
EEEEEEKKKKKK 🙂 🙂

 

STEP 6 — Awning adventure, Strawberries, OUR MAP, and MOVIE NIGHT!

Step 7 — Packed with solar christmas lights and all

We have just about everything packed…. kids are comfortable with the set up… they know what to touch.. what not to touch.. we’ve talked about emergency exits…

The kids even helped me cook on the mini grill.. just for fun… 😀  And per usual… they had to share strawberries too 🙂

Moved sleeping bags 15 times before deciding on a final location…   So funny…..

I’m almost ready to say.. we’re 95% packed
We are… dare I say… we are almost ready…..

🙂

STEP 3 — Packing STUFF in …..

When I stand and look at our house….. and spin around… looking at our new motorhome…. then back again at the house…. I once again have the surmounting feeling of having too much STUFF (how did we collect this much STUFF after coming 3000 miles across the country with hardly anything?!) *answer: almost everything was from donations and the rest of the things were on sale..

I need to fit all their “STUFF” into a teeny tiny space again…..

So basically have spent copious amounts of hours pawing through everything (again) to figure out what we are taking with us and what we will donate or sell back out to try and get some more spending money/gas money for the trip….

I took pictures along the way so I’ll share them as the changes unfold…. (basically I would put something in one spot and then realize NO… I need THAT spot for this other thing…) or I would pack something in and a day later, go and take it out because my gut says “DO YOU REALLY NEED THAT?!” The cabinets were full of the last guy’s stuff (who I bought it from) because he was so kind to leave all his things in it for me to handle (keep and use)…. I took everything out.. thought about what I wanted and what could be given away/sold and then put half of it back in…..

Making sure things don’t fall down/fall over/clink and clank/break/come loose while driving is another part of this adventure…. When I packed the crock pot… I stuck all the extra napkins I have inside it so it would keep the lid from banging…. likewise with my other ceramic dishes….

I have sleeping bags for all of us which have been moved around more times than I can count…… I have extra towels for all of us (and extra kitchen/wipe towels/cloth napkins) for all of us because when they get super dirty I can just toss them along the way and not have to worry about a mounting pile of dirty clothes every single day….. To follow up with that idea I am probably going to “let” the happy hooligans wear all of their FINEST PLAY CLOTHES (stains, holes, etc) and when they get messy this time… INTO THE TRASH they go (they’re not worthy of donating at this point but will serve an EXCELLENT purpose of clothing along a camping road trip across America… 🙂 🙂

I have packed in some of their good clothes too but unless we’re going out to a fancy park/dinner/event….. they’ll stay packed away……………

Why We Do Hugs. A LOT.

My children are growing up at warp speeds.

 

Their little chubby baby toes on chucky legs under a baby blanket are now morphed into a pair of young child’s running, climbing, kicking, twirling and dirty/happy feet.

 

Time is fleeting.  Anyone who has children will tell you.   “They grow up so fast, so enjoy this while you can”.  so oh my… we do.   We do. We DO.

We do HUGS.  And I mean a lot.  We do hugs when they’re upset, we do SCOOP UP and coddle while twirling away the tears from  a minor boo-boo.  We do hugs in the store when it’s too crowded.  We do hugs before school.  We do hugs as soon as we see each other after school.  We do hugs while playing outside. We do hugs when they’re in trouble. We do hugs before bed time.  We do hugs during family movie night.    We do hugs while cooking, while cleaning, while packing, while attempting homework.   We do hugs at the dinner table… multiple times during a meal.  We do hugs while we dance. We do hugs while we brush our teeth.  We do hugs while laying sprawled out on the floor building massive towers out of Legos.

My most favorite HUG of the day though has to be the FIRST one of the day.   When their little sleepy eyes come walking out wrapped up in their favorite fuzzy blanket…. Their eyes are searching for me.  When they find me, they smile a little hidden smile and some days rush over while others they meander on up onto my lap.    They KNOW that EVERY SINGLE MORNING they will be getting a “good morning hug” from me.  They know if they try to skip out on this particular hug that I will hunt them down and GET that HUG out of them one way or another (my oldest sometimes plays this game when he wakes up and isn’t too groggy still because he actually enjoys the chase/play part of this all).  I honestly LIVE for this hug.   The hug that I feel like I NEED in order to get myself through the day.  The hug to start all other hugs in motion.  The hug that says we are beginning a new day and I want to start fresh (just in case yesterday was a rough day).   This is by far my favorite hug of the day because it marks the start of the day.  I awake before the children (ALMOST) always……   I am usually awake before the sun comes up and happily downing my first cup of morning coffee.    I wait and preoccupy myself with reading a book (How many people ACTUALLY read REAL PAPER BOOKS anymore!?!!??) — Or checking emails, FB, Blogs, News, Research, or just lay and breathe and take in all the quiet (the “calm before the storm” I call it).  Either way… that’s my ‘down’ time and ‘me’ time.   And I welcome the “start” of the day with those precious faces every single morning.

I spent 2 mornings away from the 3 Happy Hooligans when I had offered to volunteer on an Island off the coast of Maine in 2013…..   I truly missed those morning HUGS more than words can ever describe.

Being a mother has changed me in ways that I never deemed possible and I enjoy every single challenging and exhausting moment of it.   You know what makes it all worth it in the end?

Those hugs.

 

 

Who is the last person you HUGGED ???   Go Hug Someone Today.  (Not a stranger on the street though please… I mean someone you know who you haven’t hugged in far too long)…..

****Have you ever seen this guy? Or someone who copied his idea? He held a sign up that said “FREE HUGS” and gave away hugs…. HOW MANY OF US would feel truly blessed with a free hug today?? ****

Go Hug someone today… Someone who needs it… Someone who thinks they don’t need it.. but hug them anyway.

 
Happy Day —-

Cheers ~