My Journey To Nomadic VanLife

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Why Blog? Why Not??

Everyone needs an outlet..  my primary outlet is, and has been, my best friend. She’s the world’s most perfect BFF (I may be a little biased). I’ve been blessed to know her for over 29 years. Recently, amongst one of my rants, she suggested counseling. …

That AMAZING Feeling

You know the one I’m talking about. When you’re so close to or have accomplished something that makes you happy. When I woke up this morning I got that feeling for the first time in a long time. Let me explain.

One thing that anyone who know me knows it that I like to have a clean house. No, not the magazine, museum clean house, but the picked-up, lived-in, clean house. It’s been hard to accomplish lately with so much that’s been going on in my life. You see, my mom died on May 17, 2011. I had made a few trips down to California in the months beforehand, but that trip I stayed almost a month so that I could get things taken care of. That included my sister, niece, and nephew. In that month, we came to the decision that she and the kids would be moving up to Oregon and staying with us for a while. So began a very long, very busy, very emotional, and very, very cluttered period in my life. At that time, my husband’s eldest daughter had just found him on Facebook also. And, after 26 years, she wanted to move here to Oregon and get to know him and this side of her family.

So here we were, my family, my sister and her kids, and my new step-daughter – 9 of us. Living in a 2 bedroom trailer home. Yes, I said 2 bedroom. A lot has changed in the last year. My 2nd daughter, Tori, moved out in July; my step-daughter, Ruth, moved back to Indiana at the end of September; my husband and I separated at the end of November; my sister’s boyfriend moved here from New York in December, the they and the kids moved out at the end of January, leaving {finally} just my 2 boys and me in 2 bedrooms. Due to some issues, my sister and her kids moved back with me in June of this year. So now we have a total of 6 people, 5 dogs, 1 cat, 1 fish and 1 frog in a 2 bedroom trailer home; luckily there’ small dogs. ☺

Throughout all of this, I’ve had my mom’s and sister’s belongings piled in our 2 sheds, on top of what I had stores out there already. This summer I was finally able to start going through tings. That meant clearing out the boxes and boxes and more boxes of stuff that lined hallways, walls, corners of the trailer and front patio. After my ‘revelation’ the other day, I got down to business and changed the way I was getting things done. The result? After just 1 day, I woke up this morning and it happened – I felt “that amazing feeling”. And it truly is AMAZING.

Today Is the 1st Day…

..of the rest of your life. Have you heard that before? I have. I’ve even said it many times. I said it again yesterday. It was kind of a revelation to me. Here’s how it happened: ME: I’m SO tired of being the victim. Other …

The World’s Meanest Mom

When I was younger my mom had an article she had cut out and posted in plastic on our refrigerator door. I remember thinking “yeah, ok mom” when I read it.. each and every time. But it still hung there. And I read it many …