~ Steps...

Inside the front door is a green indoor/outdoor mat to wipe your shoes on. 
If you stand erect and let your weight pull you forward into one hefty lunge and you turn sharply to your right and follow suit you would now find yourself standing dead center inside my kitchen space.  From that spot, you can open the fridge and do a left side bend to grab the carton of eggs that I have to keep on the bottom shelf so they don't freeze on the top shelf.  At this point, after you brought yourself back to center, you can squat and reach forward for my pots and pans - grab what you wish... do you want a fried or hard boiled egg.  Spin to your right and you are now directly in front of the stove all set to make yourself breakfast!  Cool I KNOW!!

So, back to the front door...  5 steps forward puts you in front of the bathroom door.  10 steps and you have made it to the back door. 

From the bathroom door if you face to the left and take 5 steps forward you will find yourself at the foot of my bed.  Well, it's my daughters bed, that I am borrowing for the time being because it seemed like a good idea to sell our sleep number bed in the moving sale... stop thinking, it's over. 

OK, so the end of my bed is five steps from the bathroom door.  My bed is exactly ONE WHOLE STEP from my kids' awesome tree bunk bed ... they love it, they like to climb trees, so you know.

Yes, one step and the kids are right there.  (I'm sure somewhere there is a law prohibiting something like this, but please keep in mind this is a temporary camping type thing and "in the county there are no codes" and ignorance is bliss so I'm assuming we are OK.) 

So, from the end of my kids' bed to where I am currently sitting clanking away is another, you guessed it, five steps.  It's really rather square and even and straight and flat.  Cozy some would say.  Others may feel confined.

I feel ... well, that's all depending on the day to be honest with you.

Lately, I have felt like a big fat mess.  But we won't go there.

I think I'm supposed to write that I feel at home ... and I agree with that statement on many levels.  It's just that sometimes life is messy.  Fat messy.  Like a freaky, frozen, unusually cold winter, that you have decided to put your washing machine out in the uninsulated shed and now you are down to your last pair and have 15 loads of freezing cold laundry to do when it warms up, messy.  You get the picture. 

Anyway.  

It was neat the way we found this ground that will someday be our ending place.  Hubby was amidst his mid life crisis of being bored for the first time ever and searched his soul to figure out "what to do."  It led him to land. We had one day, really more of an afternoon, that consisted of a few hours that some friends entertained our kids for us so we could drive the country roads with "THE LAND MAN." He took us here and he took us there.  And then here and there. And then here and there some more.  (Well, really I think it was just here and there and maybe another there and then here, but I can't really remember ... well I can remember, I'm just dragging it out to make it fun like it should be.)  Then he said, "I have one more spot to show you."  He knew what he was doing, they don't call him "THE LAND MAN" for nothing right. 

When we pulled in we couldn't wipe the smiles of our faces.  Kids in a candy store I suppose.  Flat dab in the middle of nowhere... down an old dirt road.



Stay tuned!  I know someone out there is wanting to see pictures and I PROMISE they WILL COME... it's a process and I kind of am enjoying taking my time.  LOVE YOU!

~ For Starters...

So.  I figured it was about time to "get this thing started."  I am supposing that some out there are interested in knowing more about all of our happenings than what a "status update" can really portray.  And in the midst of bossing my kids to bed as I was washing up the days dishes the motivation set in.  And, now it's waaaay past every one's bedtime and some of the juices are flowing.  Oh, why do I let this sort of thing happen?  I will be grumpy in the morning now for sure.  My poor kids. 

So, if you are a visualist here is your picture...
It's dark. 

If you are a sensualist... (is that a word and am I using it right? who cares.)
It's cold. 

If you are nosey...
The real deal goes something like this.  I am sitting in my rocking chair less than 8 ft. away from my kid's bunk beds, it is dark as the only light on at the moment is one string of yellow Christmas lights that are atop the partition to the jon, and my ankles are cold.  Actually, they are feeling somewhat numb... It could have to do with the temperature.  Which is now a toasty 68*F inside and 20*F outside.  Personally, I need it a bit warmer indoors in the winter but all I have for heat are two space heaters so I have to get over it.  Last night I woke my daughter up at 11ish to spoon with me and tonight it's my youngest son's job to keep me warm.  I didn't spend time in the Army to marry my Ranger and learn about spooning for nothing right?  Praise the Lord.

Wait.  Let me back up.
I probably shouldn't be telling you all of this personal stuff about spooning with my Ranger husband without really developing some sort of bond first.  Some out there may even be wondering why and the world is she writing about sitting in the dark, freezing, by the light of a 100 twinkling 1/8" yellow bulbs anyway?  Get a life lady. 

So, let me do a little explaining.
Hi.  It's me.  All of "this" started about... oh... going back... probably about 12, 13, 14 years ago.  We were just dating and were eating lunch at Cracker Barrel out by Exit 4.  We started up a conversation about what our dream homes would be like.  Mind you, we were just dating so it wasn't an "OUR DREAM HOME" talk, it was a "What would YOUR dream home be like?"  Of course, I had a grandiose idea of some cutesie cottage with a four seasons porch on the back and a painting room and a big kitchen.  His had lots of garage space for old cars and motorcycles. 

FAST FORWARD like 3 years from that day ... Now we were married, sitting at another Cracker Barrel down in Nashville during a snow storm, waiting for a friend of mine to meet us for supper ... she was late because of the snow ... so we headed across the street to Applebees to have a drink.  This is all important!  Once again, for conversation sake (kill the boring silence of being married for a couple years) we revisited the dream home discussion.  The best part was it became OUR DREAM HOME!  And literally we held nothing back... Money was no object because we were for sure we were going to be rich at some point!  I still have the napkin in a journal.  It was three stories.  Had a fireplace on every level.  5 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, a winding stair case,  craft room, "dog room," library, jacuzzi/hot tub, and a three car garage with loft overhead.  Not too shabby huh?

So... FAST FORWARD another 7 years.... Now we have three kids.  We are both in our 30's.  Made it past 10 years of marriage and X number of moves with the military.  And we find ourselves in a hot muggy old Army house way down somewhere in GA in late July.  He is between "jobs" and just finished a very high paced, demanding, fun, excelling job and is now in a "waiting phase" to go into the next stage of his career.  This was somewhat daunting and craze stricken for him ... and me ... and sure as the wind blows it happened...

He decided we should become SELF SUFFICIENT.  Yes.  I am not kidding you.  It happened in ONE WHOLE DAY.  Just like that.  He fell in love with the idea of a dry toilet that he read about in a John Seymour book and I was already cloth diapering so WHAT the HAY!?  LETS DO IT!

OK, so listen.  There really is a lot more to this story, but it is late and I'm cold so my bed and blankets are calling... stay tuned.

Think of me and stay warm ya'll!