Wintering

This is my third winter in the trailer, and I get better at winterizing each time. Since I just survived a blizzard very comfortably, and the weather is unlikely to be worse this winter, I'm hereby declaring the worst of the winter weathered.

- I've gotten more efficient each winter at heating effectively. The first year I heated exclusively with the propane duct system, and it was a cold, long, less than pleasant (and expensive!) winter. Last year I switched to two electric radiant heaters (one in the kitchen, one in the living room) which did a much better job, but were a pain to trip over and were a bit on the expensive side to run. Also, they provided zero airflow so my sleeping compartment was still always frigid.
This year, Maggie and Cris bought me this amazing infrared heater which is AMAZING. It keeps the whole place warm, is thermostatically controlled, and the blower keeps the air circulating, helping keep the whole place peetty evenly warm (my sleeping compartment was still a few degrees cooler, but that's how I prefer it, so that's fine). Plus, the sensory experience of being able to sit by a stove is just amazing. ;) I think this is the final solution. (When I build my tiny house someday, I think I'll choose a hard - wired infrared or propane fireplace.)
- Still using my electric blanket. I won it at my family gift exchange the first Christmas I was in the trailer and it's still going strong. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's living in cold quarters.

- I didn't insulate the heated hose this time. I always end up ripping off sections of the insulation at least once to deal with frozen sections, and it never seems to make a difference. It hasn't this year, either - if anything I've had fewer issues than ever. I did have a section of the pipe freeze once, but without the insulation I was able to see immediately that the heat tape had loosened, and once I tightened it, it thawed within minutes. So far so good. It's been a huge blessing to have almost zero issues with running water this year!

- The problem spot continues to be the faucet. It seems there's just no good way to insulate it. I wrapped it pretty thoroughly with the heat tape, but it froze in the middle of the blizzard. I defrosted it with a couple pitchers of hot water from the big house, then (since I lacked any other good options and hey, it worked last year!) I wrapped it with a couple of kitchen towels and zip - tied them into place. I'll probably try to pick up a Styrofoam faucet cover as soon as the world thaws and see if that fixes the problem. If not, hey, kitchen towels for the win! ;)

- Also on my "to do someday" list is rugs. The place could be 80° inside but the floors are still icy cold. I could fix this at least a bit by putting up skirting, but I shudder to think about the wildlife that would attract. I think I'll just buy some cheap throw rugs to put down over the linoleum.

Winterized!

I didn't realize I'd signed on to work today (when MB asked me, I thought we were talking about next Monday), and I panicked just a little when I realized the error, because while it's a sunny day in the mid 50's right now, it's most likely going to dip into the 20's tonight, and I still haven't winterized the water line. I was planning on doing it next week, when I'll have some spare time thanks to Thanksgiving, but the cold beat me to it by a couple of days.

The first time I winterized the water lines after I moved into the trailer, it took me two days, an immense amount of tears (seriously, I sat on the floor with hoses and heat tape and insulation and just BAWLED) and I had to keep going back and forth to Lowes for a different this, more of that, an extra one of those. Last year (second time around!) it took me about four hours to get everything winterized.

Third time's the charm, because today I had everything switched out in just under an hour! :) While I'm not thrilled about the cold (who is?), at least now I'm ready to face it. I'm actually looking forward to the cold a little bit - laying in stores of hot apple cider, wearing cozy slippers and sweatshirts, and enjoying some pumpkin pie with family. I've been having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year; it's not that I'm anti-holiday, it just feels way, way too early to be thinking about Christmas. Which is odd, since I'm usually one of the first to fire up the carols and put out the holly LOL!

Some other things I'm loving lately:

- The triplets have been on a happy, well-behaved, affectionate kick. We still have our normal two-year-old issues, but the last few days have been remarkably pleasant. Nobody's quite sure what sparked it, but we're not jinxing it by asking! ;)

- My new phone. Galaxy S4. SO MUCH NICER than the old one I had. #thankful

The Day Off

- The weather yesterday was as gross as promised. I stayed up late Thursday night, got the new roster for swim hashed out (which involved writing half a dozen emails to make last minute arrangements, since one of my coaches was injured this week and another had her availability change unexpectedly), wrote another half-dozen emails to people I owed emails to, and generally got everything squared away to the point that I was able to do nothing productive yesterday. I stayed in my pajamas, slept in, and lounged around thinking and watching the tenth season of Bones and periodically opening the door to feel how wet and gross it was and thanking God that I had nowhere to go. Of course, today it's back to work. ;)

- I had a dream last night; it's a dream I've been having for over two years, and while I'm not going to share the details, basically it's a stress dream in which I'm put on the spot (in the same way, every time) and I fail, despite my best efforts. I will say it's linked to something in my life, and it's just plausible enough (though extremely unlikely) that my first reaction upon waking has usually been a near panic state while I figured out whether it had actually happened or not.
Last night I had the dream again, but this time - THIS time! - I rose to the occasion and I succeeded! I woke up and I was just hugely excited about it. :) Not quite sure yet how this will affect the situation it's connected to, but apparently my subconscious feels it's no longer such a threat. ;)

- So, Hurricane Joaquin... I spent all week trying to figure out if it was going to be a significant thing or not. Apparently there were enough people who felt that it would, because I went grocery shopping Thursday night and there was no bottled water to be had in my town. This annoyed me on some level because I only drink bottled water at home (I have serious doubts about the safety of my potable water system) and I'd be buying water whether there was a potential weather event on the way or not.
But seriously, though, quite possibly because I'm was just too busy between working all weekend to think about it, I didn't do much else to prepare except to take my awning in. I figure I always have a pantry of canned goods and an extra case of water, and in the event of a power outage the only thing in my freezer is a big container of red beans and rice from last week, which seems like as good a "storm meal" as any. The only potential disaster left would be a tree dropping on my place (which my dad and brother have declared impossible but which I don't believe for a second) and there's absolutely nothing I could do to stop it, so I wasn't gonna waste time worrying about it.
And of course, in the end Joaquin ended up being a non-event this far up the coast... in fact, the new forecast for Monday (which was originally supposed to be the day it reached us) says we might see the sun for the first time in awhile! :)

- We just wrapped our first session at swim, and I was telling my boss that I feel like we've hit our stride already. Considering that it took me about five months last year to get my feet under me, I'll take it! We're comfortably staffed (we actually have more people on the roster than last year, but about half of the coaches have really limited availability, so it evens out), everybody seems comfortable, I've addressed a couple if issues that had popped up and they seem largely resolved (or at least under control).
Aaand the best part is  that I still get to teach three times a week, all advanced kids (which is awesome, because I need the practice!). :)

- For the record (because I always wonder about it each year): I used the heat this weekend for the first time. (I'm in good company, the triplets turned theirs on last night, too.) I didn't bother to drag out the electric heaters but I did run the propane system for about ten minutes every four or five hours to keep the place between 60-65 degrees (which is a wonderfully comfortable range with my polar bear tendencies, lol). I left it on overnight with the thermostat set to 55, figuring I'd be snuggled under my blankets anyway and didn't care if the temp dipped some, but I don't think it ran. Still haven't dragged out my electric blanket (nor have I missed it yet).

My 27 Feet: Spring Uodate

Summer and winter are sooo different when you're full-timing. You're a little more aware of the weather forecast, and a little more grateful for nice weather when it comes. :) While spring took for-e-ver to arrive this year (I mean seriously! That was a crazy-cold winter!), it's finally here. This is my first springtime in the trailer, and I've enjoyed getting ready for spring much more than I "enjoyed" preparing for winter LOL!

Some notes for next year:

- I stopped running my propane heat two or three weeks ago, but turned it on at night with the thermostat set very low, just in case. Last week I realized it had been a while since I'd heard it kick on during the night, so I turned it off. For the season. Booyah! (I can almost hear the "ching, ching" of saving money! While I'm grateful for the heat, grateful for how easy to heat my trailer is compared to some other full-timers I know, and grateful for my BJ's membership that makes my propane so affordable... I'm so excited about not having to refill my tanks as often!)

- The one thing I have not been able to make myself give up yet is my electric blanket. Which I'm totally addicted to. :( I love slipping into a warmed bed, and even if I do overheat during the night, I generally toss it off over my body pillow and snuggle. (I swear, I'm such a baby.)

- The weather has been pretty mild so far, and I've enjoyed opening all my windows and screen door. It makes the place feel so much bigger! It doesn't do much to cool everything, though, until the sun goes down. Unfortunately, the way I have the trailer placed, parallel to the house, means I can't take advantage of the breeze very well. If I wasn't limited by proximity to the sewer/water hookup, I'd rotate it by 90 degrees and take advantage of the wind.

- I have run my AC twice, once for about fifteen minutes just to cool everything down before bedtime on a very hot day, and one day when I was sick with a stomach virus, became pretty light-sensitive, and wanted the windows shut. I'm going to try to wait as long as possible before I start running it (but I'm not very heat-resistant, so we'll see).

- One thing I have been doing, though, both for my own comfort and because I worry about the girls overheating in their cage while I'm away, is to run the fan system on the warmest days. Keeping the air moving really helps keep things inside cool (especially overnight, when I shut everything up) and I enjoy having the white noise to sleep to. ;)

- I am remembering, though, how hot it got last year. There's no helping it - I basically live in a tin can. I am hoping to get my awning unrolled this year to cool the air around the windows of the main living area, but other than that, I think "beat the heat" will be a relative term.

- Final note: I haven't taken down my heated hose yet, but only because I've been busy the past several weekends. However, it's on my to-do list this weekend. I've decided I'm not going to store it as-is, as was my original plan, but disassemble the waterline, insulation, foil, and heat tape and just store the heat tape. The reason for this is that, while my setup worked really well this winter, I had to make changes several times that required ripping open the insulation and foil. Now that I have a much better idea of what to do, I'm going to trash the ripped foil and insulation (both of which are cheap, cheap, cheap at Lowes) and put it back together again next year. Hopefully next spring I'll just have to unhook both ends of my hose, drain the hose, coil it, and store it. :)

Welcome Spring!

Today was the first day that felt like real, true spring. It's felt... springlike? before, but today I was able to put on a tank top (gotta soak up as much Vitamin D as possible!) and get outside to do some jobs that had been piling up.

First, I painted my stolen rescued pallet so I could finish turning it into a garden. I really wanted a vertical planter/plant stand, like this one:

And after trying in vain to create anything similar with my pallet, I gave up, so I'm pretty sure now I'm going to have more of a raised-bed type garden, like this:

Except mine will be cuter because I painted it! And also because I'll end up dressing it up with pretty plant markers and a trellis and the whole nine yards, because that's how I roll. My plants grow big and never produce any fruit, or limp along miserably before dying a painful death, but by golly their pots look pretty!!!

(Can you tell I'm not having good luck with my seedlings?)

By the way - I love picking out paint for a small project. Big projects are scary - they involve a big investment in paint and time - but little projects are cheap and fun and if you don't like the color, well, then for under $4 you can repaint.

I chose Valspar's "New Avocado" - it can't quite decide if it wants to be yellow or green, and that's just fine, because I couldn't decide whether I wanted yellow or green, either. :) So pretty! Maggie walked by after I was done and said if she'd seen the color in the jar, she never would have picked it, but once applied, it was just perfect. :)

I also spray-painted the clay pots I bought to make new solar lights for the walkway, and while I was at it, I spray-painted the wooden bunny silhouette I bought to decorate my front door with. Oh, and I also replaced the burlap stair covers I've had on the front steps since this past fall with new burlap, this time bright turquoise.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be just as warm and sunny, so I can finish off the outdoor projects and enjoy my new and beautiful yard. :)

On my to-do list for the next few days:

- Bring out the summer clothes (yay!) and pack away the winter clothes. And, while I'm at it, cut down my wardrobe by at least 1/3 (I'm thinking of trading it in for credit at ThredUp - anyone else hearing lots about this new site?)

- Measure my kitchen wall so I can figure out how much tile to order for my backsplash. I got to look at a very similar product at Home Depot last week and I loved it, so now I'm super excited about this project! Also measure my linoleum because I may also have found new, awesome flooring that's designed to be installed over existing linoleum (score!) so now I can get rid of my awful ugly tan linoleum, too. And once I get those projects done, I might as well replace the ugly (and also slightly chewed on. Ahem) tan carpet in my living room. :)

- I must. absolutely must. clean out and vacuum and wash my truck. It's getting pretty bad. :(

Randomizer

- I got my waterline unfrozen and flowing again! Thank goodness... I was getting really, really frustrated, but it turns out the thermostat part of the heat tape was incorrectly placed. I defrosted the line with a combination of hot water and a hairdryer, repositioned the thermostat, and we've been good to go ever since. I'm hoping this is the last of my problems this year. :/

- I have a test day/working interview with a family this week and, get this, they have one year old triplets. :) I kind of laughed when I read this, as they said most other people ran screaming upon the news, but I'm willing to give it a shot. It'll be a long day - I have Abigail that morning, then I'll be working for them until I have to leave to go teach swim, which, by the way, has been extended another class! I'm excited about this. :)

- Allen and I made a pact; since I've seen most of Doctor Who seasons one, two, three, and four (albeit in different order, so I watched them again in order so the character development and storytelling would make sense), we both watched them at our own speed, and we'll watch seasons 5-7 together. I can't wait. We might have cheated a bit and watched the season opener to season 5, and now all the kids walk around saying randomly to each other, "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans." "You're Scottish; fry something!" "And stay out!" But I really, really hope he finishes season four quickly so we can watch more!

- I'm really looking forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year on Friday. :) It's shaping up to be another crazy-busy week, and I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening with some friends, learning about another culture, and trying new foods.

- Spring fever has bit me hard. :( I found myself searching Pinterest for terms like "garden" and "outdoors" today; I added quite a few new pins to my "Outdoorsiness" board. I'm dying for the snow to melt and for the warm weather to return, to get my hands in some dirt, and to grow something. And to buy a birdfeeder - the birds on the bushes and field outside my trailer are crazy and I'd like a chance to get to see them up close. :)

Snowed In

So... snow. More snow.

So much snow that nobody went to school all week (kids might make it back tomorrow, but that's all, folks!) and I only made it out of the house today.

And you know, at first I was thinking, "Okay. This could be fun. Legit snowed in, no chance of getting out, I'm stocked on frozen pizza and hot chocolate and Doctor Who episodes, so... bring it on!"

And that worked really well for day one!

But then -

My waterline froze.

Grr.

A bit perplexed (because remember, we survived the stupid polar vortex just fine!), I went out and poured hot water on the faucet and the connector. This has always solved the problem before!

No dice. No water. Nothing.

I checked everything - the pipes leading to the faucet, the faucet, the hose, the connector - and I couldn't find the problem. Tried jiggling the waterline in case there was some ice buildup. Tried adding more foil tenting to the weak parts. Nothing.

I slept in the big house last night, feeling quite a bit defeated. In a bit I'm going to go out and disassemble, if necessary, my water system and thaw it completely, and then hope that solves whatever the problem was.

In the meantime, in between being stuck at home, trying to solve my H2O problems, and keeping the interior warm, I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who, so expect an update post soon.

My 27 Feet: Six Month Update (And Finally... Pictures!)

Today marks six months since I moved into my trailer full-time. Six months! Where did the time go? :) In some ways (all the good ways!) it feels like much less time; it definitely feels comfortable, feels like home. In other ways, it feels like a lot more time has passed - it sometimes feels, for instance, that it's been "winter in the trailer" f-o-r-e-v-e-r and that it was eons ago that I had those blissful days when I never had to worry about pipes freezing or water running or keeping the interior heated to a liveable temperature (and sometimes it feels like it will never be that way again). But I've now made it through the most extreme weather I'm likely to ever face in my current climate - the dog days of August and the record-setting lows of the polar vortex - so I also feel like I have a bit more perspective than I did four months ago.

So here it is, my six month update/advice repository/virtual tour. Yes, I said virtual tour, because I just realized while tagging posts that I never posted true "after remodel" pictures. I'm so sorry, y'all. But today is the day!

First, the six month update:

Cold. By far the biggest challenge/learning experience in the past two months has been dealing with the cold: figuring out how to effectively heat the interior, how to keep the water flowing, dealing with long periods of below-freezing temps, etc. I covered this in passing in various posts, but here are the Cliff Notes:

• After a couple weeks of coldish weather, when I realized I was going through propane to run the heating system like crazy, I did some research, discovered that at best I was losing about 30% efficiency due to the ducts, and switched to using an electric space heater as my primary heat source, with the propane heat turned on but set low, so that it would only kick on if the temperature dropped severely. While I did end up running the heating system almost constantly during the polar vortex (when temps didn't come above 25F for a couple of days at a time), for the rest of the time, the space heater keeps the place liveable and runs much less often than the propane system does. It also provides much more steady heat, where the propane system tended to fluctuate - it would heat the trailer very warm, very fast, but then let it drop pretty low before kicking in. Also: my heater is a small one, and says it can heat 100-300 feet (and it does... just barely), but next year I'm looking to upgrade to a medium/large model (I've got my eye on this one).
• I didn't get around to installing heat tape and insulation on the water hose until Thanksgiving this year, and I waited too long, and it was a huge stressful fiasco. I basically followed the example of Julie over at The New Lighter Life, and the actual install part was easy, but because I misremembered how long my water hose was, and then misjudged the distance between the porch and the trailer, and then (because I had been counting on these measurements to budget out money for the supplies) I ran out of money in the middle. There were a lot of tears shed, and a couple of mornings waking up with no water, and some self-berating, and if you were to ask me what the hardest/darkest moment of the past six months has been, I will easily point to that week. But eventually I got it all done, and it worked great.. until the temperatures dipped into the single digits during the polar vortex, and I needed to add a couple of work lights at the faucet and connector, which completely solved the problem.
• Also around Thanksgiving, I gave up trying to treat the trailer like a house and bought warmer clothes. And I'm not the only one - it seems like a lot of fellow full-timers had that "aha!" moment where they realized that you can spend lots of money trying to keep it toasty, or you can put on a cozy sweater and slippers and still be comfortable. Changing your mindset is an amazing thing.
• I got an electric blanket for Christmas, and I love it, and it makes me nervous. I have a love/hate relationship with it; on the one hand, I lovelovelove crawling into a warm toasty bed without waiting for it to warm up (or smothering in blankets!), but on the other hand I liked knowing that if someone happened in the middle of the night - the breaker tripped, or the propane ran out, etc - I would be woken up pretty fast by the cold. I compromise by keeping the electric blanket turned low, so that it does take the chill off but can't compensate for huge temperature drops.
• One thing I didn't do: I never did install skirting on the trailer, mostly because when I was winterizing I couldn't afford it, and I worried like crazy that I'd regret this decision, but now that the worst is behind us I'm actually kind of glad. Next winter I might try it, but I'm extremely nervous about critters taking up residence under me, and since all my pipes/etc are insulated and survived the cold just fine, I'm less worried.

Stuff. If I could sum up my feelings on this topic in six words, "Only what I need and love." Seriously, that's it. Before moving into the trailer, I would read all these articles about preparing for full-timing and every single one said the same thing: only take what you really need or truly love. And I guess I'm a little materialistic, because I would panic and instead go think about how to cram more stuff in my smaller space. Six months later, my whole attitude has changed.

• I need less stuff. (You probably do, too, but you also probably have more space to store it, so you don't notice as much.) And to that end, I've been whittling away at my "stuff" collection for awhile, and hope to continue that trend in this new year. I'm still keeping a tight hold on all things sentimental, mementos, etc, but everything else has to prove its worth or go.
• To that end, I'm trying to make small swaps as I go. For instance, I realized recently that I've never used any of the five cooking utensils I bought at the dollar store when I moved. Apparently a giant spoon, ladle, slotted spoon, spatula, and wide spatula aren't really as necessary as I thought they were. But the orange silicon "spoonula" I bought on clearance for $4 a few weeks later? I could easily use two more - I'm constantly washing it or wishing I had another. The huge cheese grater with three grating options I bought I'm hoping to replace with a much smaller grater that has one. Swapping out stuff that almost never gets used for stuff that I use on a daily basis.
• Ugh, I hate to even mention this one, because I'm not good at this at all, but... I am trying very hard to get everything/keep everything clean and organized. Because honestly, 27 feet feels a whole lot smaller when cluttered. :( No fun, but true.

And finally, one last thing I just have to mention... I (think) I have mastered baking in my oven! Fulltimers know this is no mean feat. I think it means I've arrived. ;) My top three tricks are:

• Preheat, preheat, preheat. I'll generally turn my oven on about 10 minutes early and it's made a huge difference in how well it works.
• Prebake or divide if possible. This is an odd one, but let me explain: if you're baking anything with layers (pizza is my favorite, but also anything with a crust such as pie, or anything thick like a cake) pop the crust in for a few minutes before adding toppings. If you're baking something like a cake, two thinner layers will bake a whole lot better than one thick layer.
• Reduce the temp. I've generally found that reducing the heat by five or ten degrees is the trick to even cooking.

So, that's my update and advice bit! Now... wanna see inside? ;)

Just to recap... this is a Jayco Jayflight 27ft Bunkhouse model without any slides or popouts. This translates out to about 190 square feet, so while much smaller than most houses, it's pretty big by "tiny house" standards. :)

I've tried to "match" photos as much as possible so you can see the before/after effect. I'm still working on different aspects (slipcovers, curtains, etc) so this is by no means a "finished" tour, but just an "as it is now." :) Come on in!





Before (taken the day the trailer was delivered)

After - I installed a small patio (hoping to make it a lil bigger this summer!), some décor (obviously haven't taken down the Christmas holly and bow lol) and got it all hooked up to water, electricity, and sewer.
 

Before

After - the boot tray is from Ollies (a steal at $4!) and is one of the reasons why I miss summer. In the summer, I just drop my flip-flops into a mesh storage panel on the back of the dinette booth as I come in. But in the winter my boots and shoes are too bulky and heavy to fit, and it's a pain getting them up and down into the closet.

 

Before - my kitchenette

After - cabinets were painted with darker gray, while the walls got a pale-gray coat. I also ripped out all the sconces. Someday (probably this summer, when I have a little more money) I'm going to tile my backsplash. I adore black and white kitchen towels and those in the picture are my latest find.

 

Before

 

After - more paint, and the upholstery got new slipcovers. There's storage under each dinette bench; one I use to store seasonal items, and the other is my crafting, sewing, and crochet storage. (Since I make money off of what I make, and I keep my profit margin high by buying on sale and storing for later, I don't feel bad about giving up this much room.) Pots and pans get stored under the oven, silverware, towels, and "handies" in the three little drawers, and cooking tools under the fridge.

I recently rearranged everything to fit better, and I'm really loving the new arrangements. Here's my "cookbook nook" (mostly cooking magazines, lol) and Ziploc/trash bag storage. The owl was a gift from Crisy. :)

My pantry! And believe it or not, this is cleaned out and organized. :) I think I finally have a good idea of space, and I'm going to start picking up wire/ mesh baskets, boxes, etc to further organize everything.

My knife set was a gift from my grandparents (as is 99% of everything in my kitchen) and all my bakeware was donated or gifted from my mom. :) In keeping with my "Only what I need and love" motto, I have 2 nonstick cookie sheets, a pizza pan, an 8X8 baking pan, and a gorgeous orange-scalloped "fancy" pan my BFF gave me as a housewarming gift. :)

 

My cabinets over the sink house plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, my crockpot, and everything else cooking-related that doesn't have a home. :)

I would really love to rip out the futon and replace it with more counterspace and maybe a small bench, but I don't have any place to store the futon and I'm too chicken to get rid of it. Mostly it becomes my catch-all for junk. :/

My dinette; one of the projects on my to-do list is to make new slipcovers and some pillows.
 

Before - this was the "master bedroom"

 After - now my living room. Sometimes if feels like I fall asleep on the couch more often than I fall asleep in my bed lol! The box on the left is my "charging station" for my computer, tablet, and phone. Under the couch and side tables is all open storage. On the left (accessible through the exterior side door) I store all my paint, brushes, painters tape, etc; on the right (accessible through the opposite exterior door) I store gift-wrap and all hardware, parts, tools, etc associated with the RV. And in the center (accessible from the interior by lifting up the center panel on the couch) I store bedding and my crochet box.

The girls. I rotate between putting their cage across from the couch and under the window; if it's across from the couch they scamper up the sides and try to sneak into the kitchen, and if I stick them under the window it partially obstructs the walkway. Can't win. :)

 

I look forward to someday getting a flatscreen TV with a build-in DVD player that I could mount on the wall (and eliminate the TV stand).

 

Before

 

Before - double bunks

After - my sleeping compartment on the bottom, and the top bunk was converted into a closet.

My cozy sleeping space! I was afraid it would feel claustrophobic, but instead I discovered I love it! (I need to make a new curtain for the window, though - hate the beige!)

  

 

My closet is giving me fits this winter. Winter clothes are bulkier and it feels like it all never fits. I'm working on a plan for a makeover involving a wall-mounted shoe rack and smaller, but deeper bins for clothes (or possible some build-in drawers!) but right now... yeah.

That's pretty much my place!

 

If you have any questions or anything you'd be interested in knowing about my fulltiming experience, please feel free to leave me a comment or drop me an email. :)

Celebrating Six Months

 So y'all, today is my six-month anniversary of moving into the RV. I have a whole long "six month update/recap" post written out, but I didn't get the pictures for it taken today for two reasons: one, I've been reorganizing and purging and cleaning over the last few days, and it just wasn't clean enough yet to photograph... ;) and also because Crisy and Dari came over for a playdate!

 

I made lunch - sloppy joes and chips - and Allen joined us to eat and chat for a bit. Then the girls headed over to the house to play, and Crisy and I made tea, washed and dried dishes, talked about hanging picture frames, read road-trip travel books, and generally enjoyed each other's company.

 

Maggie joined us a few hours later, reporting that the girls were making donuts and seemed very happy, and a little later the girls returned, announced by the sound of giggles. :)

 

Isn't Zinnia being so meek and obedient, posing for a picture? NOT! Dari has leftover sugar on her fingers from donut-making and my Z-girl is busy rectifying the situation ;)

 Dari loved on Zinnia for awhile, who was super-glad for the attention. :) Unfortunately, Cris and Dar had to leave so Dari could make her chemistry class.

 

After everyone left, I played around with some yarn (working on new designs for my etsy shop!) and then I might have taken a nap. :)

 

I'm hoping to get the pictures taken tomorrow, so look for my post in the afternoon. In the meantime, I hope you're having a great day - I am totally looking forward to the long weekend, and looking forward to filling it up with fun!

It's So Crazy-Cold!

People, it's so so so cold outside. Bitingly cold. Colder than it's been in years. Stupid Polar Vortex.

And yet, despite this, my pipes are unfrozen and the water is running in my trailer (albeit at a temperature that leaves you with no feeling at all left in your hands by the time you're done washing them).

Forgive me if I'm feeling a little victorious in a primal mastering-the-elements kind of way. Or if, during the last two nights, as I was getting up each hour or so, it might have crossed my mind a couple of times that I was essentially living in the Swan station. Either way, now that the worst is behind us and we're heading into a weekend filled with temperatures in the 50's and 60's - yay! - I'm looking forward to a full, uninterrupted night's sleep, getting back in the pool (though my swim school is still on winter break, I get to do assessments on Saturday, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to it - I miss teaching so badly!), hanging out with Abigail (!!!), and maybe knocking a few things off of my to-do list. Or not. :)

We Survived!

I am happy to report that my trailer and I survived last night (with a low tempt of 5F :0) unscathed, though I'm a little fried this morning from being up so much last night. I was so terrified something would fail and I'd either 1) burst a pipe in my trailer or 2) burst the pipe running from the house to the faucet, so every hour and a half to two hours I'd get up, run water until the temperature changed from "finger numbing" to "tepid" (meaning that I was pulling water from the house), check to make sure that both my heat lamps were functioning and still properly placed (since the wind was cra-a-a-zy last night!) and then fall into bed until the next hour. And voila! When the sun finally dawned, I still had flowing water and an intact plumbing system! :)

Tonight's going to be another cold one (though not quite as cold - low of 13F instead of 7F - whoopee! *insert sarcasm here*), and tomorrow isn't that much better, but by Thursday it should start to warm up and - get this - the weekend should be in the 50's. I cannot wait! I'm hoping to start working on some Valentine's Day décor. ;)

Hope you're surviving the cold wherever you are! Be safe!

Snuggling Through The Cold

It's been raining all night and all morning. My trailer is surrounded by a couple of inches of water, which will no doubt be a layer of ice pretty soon, as the temperature has already begun dropping and the rain just turned to snow. Can't say I'm exactly looking forward to the cold, but for once, I do feel like I'm pretty prepared. I have my pantry, fridge, and freezer stocked; I'm pretty sure I'll continue to have water no matter how cold it gets (although I have extra lamps and extension cords on hand, just in case I discover more susceptible spots); I have one full tank of propane and I'm still running off the other tank; my electric blanket and space heater are all ready to go; and, perhaps most importantly, I have a to-do list of things to do that are just perfect for this weather - stuff like washing a small mountain of dishes, cleaning out my microwave, crocheting up more stuff for my soon-to-launch Etsy shop, letting the girls out for a good scamper, catching up on my Bible reading, starting my 2014 reading list... and taking a nap. Cause it was almost 4 AM before I was able to fall asleep last night! Insane!

I'm thinking crockpot barbecued lentil sliders for dinner; it'll keep the kitchen warm and smell good all day. :)

Winter In The Trailer

Winter in the trailer is so, so different than summer was. I may have complained a little bit about my "tin can" being a bit warm when under the glare of the summer sun, and now I feel like a complete heel for complaining, because the challenge of 1) keeping the trailer heated and 2) the water flowing has been a months-long learning experience which I've only just gotten the hang of. So, in case I forget everything I've learned over the summerm or in the unlikely event that someone else reading this finds themselves in the same situation and wants some advice... here's what I've learned.

 

First off, staying warm: the most important lesson I learned this year by far was that it's easier and more economical to keep the trailer warm than to heat it up. I made the mistake of trying to "conserve" propane/electricity early on this winter by keeping the thermostat low and set on what I wanted the temperature to be. The problem is, the thermostat doesn't kick on immediately when the temperature dips below - there's a 6-8 degree "lag" - so by the time it did kick on, the trailer was frigid and the heater couldn't compensate. (Plus, the thermostat is located in the kitchen right beside the stove/oven - ??? - so if I did any cooking or baking or even washed dishes with hot water, it threw the whole system off.) Now I keep the thermostat higher and the heater runs a few minutes every hour (as opposed to hours at a time when trying to heat it up) and in general we all stay comfortable.

 

I also stopped relying on my propane heating system to be my primary source of heat after doing some research and discovering that, at best, my heating system was losing 30% efficiency, and stole borrowed an electric space heater from my family. The good part about living in a trailer is that even a small space heater is usually good up to 300 square feet, and the trailer only has 216. Although I started out using the space heater just to keep the girls warm, I now use it as my primary heat source and run the propane only when the space heater is unable to keep up. (I also learned later that running an electric heater vs. a propane heater helps keep the moisture under control - who knew?)

 

I've learned that winter in an RV requires a different mindset, and I bought warmer clothes. For someone who was used to lounging around the stick-and-brick home in cotton sleep pants and a tank, even in winter, this was a bit of an adjustment. :) But a good pair of slippers or fuzzy socks, a comfy sweater (I bought one for $20 earlier this year that has become my go-to comfy/warm piece), and fleece pants goes a long way.

 

And finally, after thinking about buying one, and weighing the pros and cons, and asking other people (all of whom said "do it!") I won an electric blanket at our family's gift exchange game on Christmas. And I joined the ranks of all the folks who love their electric blankets. It's worth it. :)

 

Now on to the slightly trickier part - keeping the waterlines unfrozen!

 

I installed the heat tape on my water hose in November, with technical advice from Dad and practical help from Allen; first we laid the heat tape and hose out together, and then wrapped both in heavy-duty industrial-strength aluminum foil, which did a surprisingly good job of keeping the two together. Then we popped sections of 1-inch self-sealing foam insulation onto the hose and sealed it up.

 

The heat taped/foiled/insulated water hose

 

On the trailer end, I purchased a foam elbow to cover the connection, which I was told would do the trick, and totally didn't. It seemed to keep up fine until the temperature reached the 20's, and then froze solid.

 

 

After numerous times thawing it with a pitcher of hot water, I got desperate and wrapped it in a towel, and amazingly, that seems to have done the trick..

 

Kitchen towel = water.

When I get some extra time, I'm going to make a DIY connector-cover out of a cool whip container, and hopefully that will solve the problem a little more gracefully LOL!

 

Since the water lines run from my trailer to the faucet, which then runs exposed under the porch (ten feet) to the house, we actually used two strips of heat tape, one for the trailer to the faucet, and one for the faucet. They meet in the middle and attach to an extension cord running from the house (I can't WAIT until we get the permanent electric hookup installed. Just sayin'.) In the meantime, I covered the connections with a Rubbermaid I wasn't using, because apparently Rubbermaids are what RV'ers use to cover everything from sewer hookups to water connections. Again... why knew? :)

 

It really does do a great job of keeping everything dry, though - even after an incredible rainstorm and a few days of snow, whenever I check, it's dry underneath.

 

 

After I wrapped the trailer-end connection with a towel, the waterline froze again, so naturally I assumed my towel-fix had failed. Except when I unwrapped it, the connector was tepid, not frozen, so I rewrapped it and went down the line trying to figure out where the problem was. And this time it was the house faucet. We'd wrapped a couple of loops of heat tape around it when we were insulating, and figured that would take care of the problem - and it did, till the temps dropped into the 20's and below. So a new solution had to be found. I tried wrapping it in a towel (hey, it worked the first time! :)) but that didn't work, so in exasperation I pulled up some of my fav RV resources and began reading. After only a few minutes, I was reminded of something I'd known, but forgotten - work lights produce heat, making them an easy solution for frozen bits. Duh! (I'd actually written this down on my winter plan, but somehow overlooked it.) My dad had a work light with a metal shield, which made it perfect for heating the faucet.

 

 

I placed it, turned it on, and fifteen minutes later I had water. It managed to keep up all night (even though the temperature dipped at least into the teens and possible into single-digits) so I declared the problem solved.

From the faucet to the house - everything is heat taped/foiled/insulated.

 

I guess we'll see how well everything holds up; I get a break tonight and tomorrow morning, and then look at the forecast:

 

 

Eep! Needless to say, I am looking forward to the weekend. And to springtime. :)

(Another) Randomizer

1. Right after we got back from Alabama, Crisy texted me to ask if she could drop some clothes off for me. I was kind of dubious, since Cris and I are not the same size (at all. not even close.), but when I got home I was amazed to see a couple big bags full of clothes, almost all of which fit me beautifully! (Turns out, they weren't her clothes, she was just passing them on. :)) And they were gorgeous! Cute cardis and adorable tops and some dresses that almost made me wish for summer again. I had so much fun trying everything on and mixing up new outfits - I've been wanting to shop for new clothes so badly, but it's totally just not in the budget right now, what with winter coming on and the holidays approaching. And this was like having my own private shopping spree. I was totally blessed and wasted no time in telling her so. Oh! And did I mention that, included in that big pile of clothes, was a top I'd been yearning for just recently?!? Yup. It's official. Crisy is God's messenger. :)

2. Speaking of holidays... OhmygoshwillChristmasnevercome? CanIdecorateyet? IsthatChristmasmusicIhear? (I know, I know. Some folks hate people like me, who can barely force ourselves to survive Halloween before we start decking the halls and trimming the tree.) I had originally scheduled my 2013 Holiday Bucket List to start on November 24th (the week of Thanksgiving), but folks, I'm thinking I'm not going to survive till then. Wrapping Christmas presents to schlep to Alabama dissolved what little self-control I have left. And also, I'm such a Christmas softie. Lately I find myself thinking about going to shop at Michael's or Ollie's because they're already playing Christmas music. And don't even get me started on the Christmas room at Wal-Mart - apparently how tired and broke I am, no visit to WM is complete without a spin through the decorated trees.

3. In a true case of "When it rains, it pours," I have three babysitting jobs this week and two next week. Yay! :) One is with a new family, so I'm excited about getting to know the girls and hopefully adding them onto my "regulars" list. Also hoping that as the holidays get closer, people will need me more!

4. Next week, Maggie and I are going to have our own table at a craft/vintage fair nearby! Maggie's been working on some refurbished pieces to sell, and I'm working on my collection of coffee cozies, as well as some gift tags, a couple of adorable message boards, and whatever else I can come up with this week to sell. Again, I'm really hoping to make a good chunk of change, as this will probably be one of our last, if not the last, craft fair we do this year.

5. Even though the weather has been pretty gorgeous, we've had some legitimately cold nights, enough that I feel like I got a decent taste of what wintertime in the trailer will feel like. It's cold. There's just no two ways around it, a trailer is colder than a stick-n-brick house. But, the good news is that even on the coldest days, so far the sunshine seems to heat everything up to a pretty liveable (if coolish) temperature by noon. And so far, I haven't woken up cold - my little sleeping compartment filled with my huge fleece blanket, down comforter, and second comforter keeps me toasty and warm! (Don't feel sorry for me - in some ways, this is my dream come true: I like to snuggle under a ton of blankets, and it's finally cool enough to do so comfortably!) In fact, one night I experimented with turning off the heat and just running the electric space heater for the girls, and we all stayed quite comfortable throughout the night. Nice to know, since I'm really trying to conserve as much propane as possible!
When I'm not sleeping, I'm wearing more clothes than I have in a long time - sweats, sweaters, long sleeve shirts, socks, etc. For someone who usually lounges year-round in tank tops, this has been a little bit of an adjustment, but really not too bad.

6. Speaking of cold weather... today dawned warm and sunny, and Maggie and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day to head off on an adventure after church. We drove up to beautiful Chesapeake Beach to have a picnic lunch on the piers, walk all around the boardwalk, and explore Nice 'N Fleazy Antiques, where we stumbled into their book room and spent the next half-hour squealing in delight with each new find. I love old books! We tickled the proprietors, who, it turns out, were watching us and found our reactions hysterical. :)

Randomizer

1) I had a few extremely, shall we say, hormonal days this week. I was tired from our totally-worth it trip. I had a horrible, awful, very bad, no good (and awful to boot!) day. I was struggling with a migraine for a couple of days. (Did I mention how bone-weary tired I have been this week?) None of those things should have impacted me as much as they did, but all combined kind of wrecked me. I'm not really a crier, but I told Maggie as we drove home Wednesday that all I wanted was to go home, hide in my trailer, and have a really good cry. Last night went much, much better, but I was still feeling weepy and strung out, so Maggie treated me to ice cream and a movie - "Barefoot In The Park." I laughed hysterically, felt much better, and woke up this morning feeling like my old self. :)

2) The girls are leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. First it was my hoodie, which got nibbled on while I leaned against their cage to watch a movie...

... then it was one of the pillows on my sofa, which was left accidentally within grabbing distance.

 

Not to mention the cord to the blinds, which Zinnia gleefully shorted by eight inches. Or the half-dozen balls of yarn I've lost to Zhiva, who has a passion for yarn like I do. I'm not mad, because really it's the fault of the humans who stupidly absentmindedly leave things within grabbing distance, but really - it's amazing how destructive they can be in so short a time.

Despite this, they continue to be my babies. :) I should post pictures because they've gotten quite big since the last picts I took!

 

3) After doing a bunch of research into winterizing my trailer (have I talked about this already? Somehow I feel like I have) I have decided that instead of spending $150 on a heated hose, I'm going to make my own with $6 worth of foam insulation, some heat tape, and, of course, duct tape. :) I'm also going to buy a couple of space heaters and switch to using them instead of my propane-based heating system. I've heard this runs a bit cooler, but as I prefer cooler temps this shouldn't be a problem, especially at night, where I'm really more concerned about the girls staying warm than myself. Hopefully this will keep my propane costs down!

 

 

My 27 Feet: 4 Month Update

Yesterday was October 16th, which marks four months since I moved and made my 27-foot travel trailer "home."

I'd never owned an RV before - heck, I'd never stayed in an RV before (except, apparently, when I was two. Go figure) - so I joined an RVing forum. And another forum for full-time RVers. And filled my bookmarks with websites on how to deal with every conceivable repair, disaster, or dilemma I might someday find myself facing.

With under 200 square feet of living space, I became a member of the "tiny house" movement, and by neccesity started my journey to (hopefully!) becoming a more minimalist person (in which the purchase of a teapot is a months-long decision making process, not because of price, but because I'm carefully balancing the pros - they're cute, there's nothing like drinking a whole pot of tea, I can multi-purpose it as a watering can when I start my seedlings - and the cons - it has to sit somewhere. I still haven't made up my mind).

I'd never lived on my own before, so I also became an independent single woman, responsible for my own dishes, meals, and laundry. Which wasn't actually saying much, but hey. :)

In doing something I'd never done, that I wasn't entirely sure would work, I became an adventurer. :) And if I got nothing out of the experience but this, it would have been worth it, because let me tell you - that "adventurer" label stuck good and hard to my soul. It changed the very essence of how I view life; I had no idea how often I thought to myself, "I could never do that... If only I knew how to... If only I could..." and I was delighted to discover, one day, that my first instincts had changed to "I could do that! ... I want to learn how... When I..."

And that's a powerful thing.

But now, on to a more practical update. :)

The Nitty-Gritty

Our homemade sewer/water hookup is doing well with no issues whatsoever. I leave the grey water tank open all the time and empty the black water tank about once a week. Now that the colder temperatures are setting in, I'm saving up for a heated hose to keep the water flowing.

Now that the weather has cooled, I've also been able to quit running my A/C constantly and have enjoyed the peace and quiet and the ability to use my microwave without blowing a circuit. :) Since I'll be running my heater on propane, and the A/C isn't draining my power, I've also been able to run my hot water heater on electricity, and it works so well - way faster than on propane. I love it.

I've only had to run my heater on a couple of nights, but so far I am very, very impressed. Unlike my A/C (which just runs continuously) it's thermostat-controlled, so I can turn it on before I sleep without having to worry about the temperature dipping or spiking. It normally only runs for less than ten minutes before everything is toasty again, and it stays warm for a long time.

Speaking of which - apparently it's going to be much easier to keep the trailer heated than it was to keep it cool. I ran my A/C pretty near maximum almost all the time this summer (except at night, when I turned it down a bit so I could hear myself sleep) and if I turned it off or down much at all, my "tin can" heated back up alarmingly quickly - badly enough that if I forgot to turn it back up, I called someone in a panic to fix it because I was afraid the girls would suffocate in their cage. But yesterday I came home and it was sixty-eight degrees; I washed a load of dishes, microwaved a burrito, and watched a DVD, and two hours later it was seventy-two degrees (without having turned on the heater). When I made apple butter during a little cold spell we had, the crockpot kept the kitchen heated for twenty-four hours. Don't even get me started on cooking or baking! Good to know. :)

On Space

I continue to be both blessed and befuddled by how much/little space I have, and where. I have a lot of storage - under the bed, under the kitchenette seats, under the living room sofa, and lots of cabinets - and most of the time, everything fits.

Here's the thing that I've learned, though: it's not necessarily how much space you have, but also how easily accessible the space is, that makes the difference between comfortable and going crazy. This is a good lesson to learn, and in some ways I wish it was one I'd known better before I moved in. For instance, I rarely feel like my kitchen storage is insufficient. Everything fits, albeit sometimes a bit snuggly (I do kind of wish my pantry were a bit bigger), and while I might occasionally have to climb a stool to put away groceries or rearrange my spice collection, most of it I can access just by opening up a cabinet door.

On the other hand, to access the big storage compartment under the couch (which holds extra bedding, some boxes full of mementos and keepsakes that I'm just not ready to part with, my tools and remodeling supplies, and basically everything that isn't needed on a day to day basis), I have to pull up the couch cushion, pull back the front of the couch, unpack the compartment enough to read whatever it is that I'm trying to retrieve, repack, put the front of the couch back in place (which is a little tricky), and replace the cushion (and any throw pillows, etc). Not impossible, but nowhere near as easy as opening a cabinet door. And the harder stuff is to access, the more likely it doesn't get put away right away, which means clutter and mess, which makes the space feel even smaller.

On the other hand, the small space means that it's easy to clean. Seriously, you start at one end, and in an hour you've deep-cleaned straight through to the other, dishes, new sheets, and all. I'd love to say that the smaller space also means less chance of misplacing things, but I've proven that to be untrue - I lost my cup of coffee yesterday and couldn't find it no matter how hard I looked! (Update: it was in the microwave, where I apparently stuck it for a reheat.)

Some other space-related aspects that I thought would be issues, just aren't. I was afraid my sleeping compartment would feel claustrophobic and suffocating after I installed my traditional mattress; instead, I love the cozy feeling, and I think I might have issues with sleeping "out in the open" should I ever move back into a stick-and-brick home.

I also get asked a lot if I go crazy living in such a small space - get "cabin fever" and just need to get out of the house. I can honestly say that I've only felt this twice; the first time, what I thought was restlessness was really loneliness, and evaporated as soon as I got a pet (more on this later). The second time was after being sick in bed for almost a week, and I think this had more to do with the fact that I was tired of being in bed, but didn't have the energy to do much else. Other than those two times, I've been strangely free of cabin fever, which is odd considering that when I lived in The Big House (aka my parents' house) I regularly "needed to get out of the house."

Your perception of big, small, and what you "need" changes so drastically if you let it; I was talking to my best friend recently about how we view our parents' houses. She's living in a nice apartment with her husband and son, and recently she went to her parents house and found herself walking around, marveling at how much room they had. She said she actually thought, "My whole pantry would fit in one of my mom's cupboards." :)  I recently stayed overnight in The Big House to watch the dog while my family was out of town, and I caught myself doing the same thing. So much space (especially in the bathrooms!)! And yet, while I can still tell that other people's houses are "big," I seem to be unable to tell that my own place is "small..." it just feels like "home."

I've also found that, ironically perhaps, I feel safer in my trailer than I ever did in my parents' huge house. It was nothing unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night having heard a noise, and fearfully crawl out of bed to investigate before I could go back to bed. Don't even get me started on staying in the house alone  - there are seven doors, and I was always afraid I'd forget to lock one. I was always trying to figure out whether that noise I heard was the A/C or refrigerator or someone trying to break in.

In the trailer, I have one door, and one lock. The heater kicks on and off. I someone were to mess with the door or step inside, the trailer would rock (as I've learned from personal experience). There are no closets to check, and I can see one end of the place from the other. Maybe it's being closer to nature? But it feels safe. ;)

Belongings

Being in the RV for just four months has fundamentally changed the way I view things. Similar to what I said about space, things that I thought were really important in the past just... aren't. You learn really quickly that everything has a cost; it has to have somewhere to live, has to be cleaned, has to be taken care of. And if it's not giving you much pleasure, then it's taking up space for something else that might.

A good example of this is my mug collection: I have four mismatched mugs - a small fox mug, a large Star Wars mug, an oversized mug with a lid, and a black and white mug. I thought about getting rid of them when I moved because they were mismatched, and I had a perfectly good set of mugs that matched all the other dishes my grandparents had given me. Now, I'm so glad I didn't. My big mugs double as bowls most of the time, and my fox mug makes me smile every time I see it. The pleasure and use I get out of them is well worth the space in my cabinet.

On the other hand, I moved in, prepared with a collection of different cleaning fluids for each surface, and I've already whittled down my collection to the bare bones. A broom (with an attached dustpan), a mop, a spray bottle (for vinegar cleaner), vinegar, baking soda, and one bleach cleaner for "serious" mess (and I haven't used it yet, so it'll probably be the next to go).

In one sense of the term, materialism is the privilege of those who can afford lots of space, but on the other hand it's true that your things own you as much as you own them. Like a marriage. :) You better be sure you like the things you're married to!

Entertaining

I always dreamed that when I got my own place, I'd fill it with people I loved, hanging out, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. Eating good food. Loving on each other. I also never dreamed I'd be living in an RV, so I was reluctant at first to invite people over. After having done it a few times, I can say that this is easily one of the things I like best about having my own space - filling it with people. :)

I love the times when my family comes over for dinner and sits together afterwards while I mix up mugs of coffee and tea and hot cocoa. I love when we have game night and my siblings and friends sit as we play cards while Zinnia gleefully hops from shoulder to shoulder. Is is cramped? Yes, sometimes. Do we sometimes have to choreograph getting from one end of the kitchen to the other? Mm, hmm. Do we laugh as we bump into one another? Yup. Are we happy to be together? Oh, definitely.

Which leads me to my next point...

What's Really Important

You know what's really important? I have a place to live. It's safe from predators, both animal and human. It's safe in the sense that it's not going to fall on my head. I have heat. I have safe running water. I have electricity. In the summer, I have - hallelujah! - the exquisite privilege of having air conditioning.

My pantry, freezer, and fridge all have food in them. I'm nowhere near starving.

The walls are a beautiful, serene shade of gray, the same shade as river rocks and the sky at dusk and rabbit's fur. All around there are pictures of people that I love. Everywhere I turn there are things those people have given me as gifts, reminding me of their presence in my life. And those people? That's what's really important. Not whether or not to own a teapot. Not living in a house or apartment or RV or tent. Not having a guest bedroom (although, in all fairness, that kind of ties in with having people around, so it would be kinda nice to have). Being deeply, gloriously happy with the blessings God has given me, and being used by Him to bless others? That's it.

What I've Learned About Myself

I am so much stronger than I gave myself credit for (I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me, Phil 4:13) and God is so, so much greater than I ever gave Him credit for (if God is for us, who can be against us? Rom 8:31). And that knowledge - not knowing how to plumb a hookup or balance electricity or remodel or paint or downsize - that's what I've learned about God, and that's what I've learned about myself.