Today is my birthday, which coincidentally also marks our anniversary of living on the farm. A year ago, we purged A LOT from our larger house in town to be able to move our family into this 2 bedroom trailer on the farm. And, the trailer has definitely been an adventure. There have been moments when I feared that living in each others' pockets the way we do might drive us entirely batty, but if I'm being honest those moments have been far fewer than I really would have guessed.
Typing this blog post from my outdoor living room
I'm guessing that's because (unless there's ice on the ground or we're experiencing a torrential downpour), we don't really spend that much time in the trailer. We are an outdoor family.
Still, as we near the start date for construction of the new house (this month -- fingers crossed!), we are all getting pretty ready for it. The trailer just doesn't support our farm life very well, but the place we plan to build is tailored to our lifestyle and should make farm stuff much more doable. We look forward to things like a sink that is more than 3 inches deep and a dishwasher. John looks forward to a surface to call his own -- I caught him standing up at his dresser typing away on his laptop the other day. Girl 1 is looking forward to some quiet reading at bedtime, without fear of being pelted in the face by sweaty socks hurled at her from her pesky little brother's top bunk. It'll be nice not to have to shuffle through jugs of almond oil and castor oil in the bottom of my closet to find that missing flip flop. You know -- the little things we're looking forward to the most.
All in all, I think we're faring better in our small place than naysayers expected at the outset. And we will look back at this phase with fondness -- especially remembering the special times crowded elbow to elbow around this tiny dinner table. It has been a fun year, indeed. And, if I had to choose between living forever in our old house in town or living forever in this trailer on the farm, I'd pick the farm EVERY SINGLE TIME. And I'd bet the rest of the brood would give the exact same answer.