Our house is officially 'on the market'. This will surely mean a person or two will be coming through our home soon. I will write a post sometime on selling your house with kids, but for now, I will talk about our practise runs.
We started out with a few overnighters. The set up/pack up was intense in such a short time, but it helped to get us familiar with those processes.
The common theme so far is to pick nights where it is pouring with rain or there are gale force winds. We got up to about 6 nights in the van where we had yet to experience a calm, dry night. I was beginning to think that caravans attracted rain or something.
But just last week we switched to going away for four nights at a time. The first night was calm and still! Imagine my surprise! Everything left outside was still dry when we woke up! Joy of joys!
I am now slightly hopeful that I won't spend the entire two years of travelling with wet shoes! I should be so lucky...
Four nights away is a much better indication of the flow of our soon-to-be normal life.
So many questions answered; How much washing? How long does boiling all your hot water for a day take up? How do you keep clean without a ready shower? (Mostly I cheated and went home, as we were staying only 10 minutes from home).
Is it hard to cook in the kitchen? Will kids in a van go mental in 5 minutes flat?
All the essentials. Except one.
The biggest mental hurdle we face is sleeping configurations. This wouldn't be so complex if we didn't have a baby. I mean, it sleeps 8, we have 7 people. It is just that babies need to settle at night and then STAY ASLEEP. They also nap during the day and need a place to sleep which is relatively undisturbed.
Our c'van has a set of bunks, a double bed, a queen bed and a dining table which makes a small double bed (kid sized double).
We have tried it all. It's like playing musical beds.
I think I have it sorted now. But we shall see.....
- Us on the Queen. Michael on the double in his porta cot. The girls on the table double. The boys on the bunks.
Who knew bed allocation could be so perplexing!?
I am so glad we had decided to do trial runs. It is the little issues that need ironing out. We now have a good idea of how to organise the clothes and where they go, and how much space per child we have for their clothes. We have a fairly good amount of space for our pantry items; The fridge can be cram-packed; and we need to bring more teatowels.
We are home for a few days now, before we get out of the way of a house that's for sale once again. It sure is nice to still have a hot shower/bath waiting for you! And don't get me started on how much I love our dishwasher! :)
For now, we are living in limbo land. A hard place of not being home full time and not having left yet.
But the adventures are still happening.
We are still seeing those glimpses of a life without timeframes and dead lines. A life where the open road will take us where our whims dictate.
Until then, I will enjoy my few days of hot water on demand and power points that don't need a generator. Then I'll enjoy the few lazier days of a life meeting interesting new people wherever we camp. Getting treated to surprise pancakes by folks I'd known only a week. And finding pleasure in collecting sticks and dandelions with my children. And then having to wash up. Ha ha.
Sara
