Coming Home

How will they feel about being back in a trailer after living in beautiful homes for three weeks?  Will moving back to the trailer depress them? Can a trailer ever really be home? Has the novelty worn off? Are they ready to find a real home?

 I know folks wondered if we'd have doubts about living in a trailer after all the fun we had this month. The answer - NOPE! We LOVED seeing family in OR. We LOVED living in beautiful homes. The thing is, living in the trailer allowed us the flexibility to house-sit. It allowed us the flexibility to stay an extra week for our grandblessing's ultrasound.

  

We drove up to the Trailer and all felt, "Home! We're home."  We spent yesterday unpacking, restocking food, filling propane...and smiling. Today, we drove by our old home to pick up some mail which had inadvertently slipped through the post office.....I wondered how it would feel.

 We loved this neighborhood and house - but I didn't feel like breaking down and begging Michael to get us back into a "real home." ::snort:: We were content to come "home" to the Caboose.  O.K. I did consider begging him to buy a portable hot tub. LOL

I found it interesting this afternoon to see a discussion on a sister-friend's Facebook timeline comparing tiny homes and trailers. Someone commented,  "A tiny home could become a home, but a trailer will always be a retreat." Um......nope. Ours IS our teeny tiny home and we love it.  Only our favorite things surround us.  Cleaning takes a fraction of the time. We're learning empathy for those who live a mobile lifestyle...and those without "stationary" homes. Living a simple life is much easier.  We were able to not only live on our budget last month (which is 2/3's less than our active duty pay), but save over $1,000. Family closeness happens naturally from sunup to sundown. In short, we live here. We do everything we did in a stick & brick (S&B) house. This is home as much as any of our other addresses have been. For now - this is the season of rest God ordained for us - and we're loving it.

In the past three weeks we packed our bags and moved them to new homes or different rooms 5x.....and several commented one of the big benefits of our trailer is traveling without packing and unpacking. Does this mean we live in a giant suitcase? I figured this out immediately - but it would appear the rest of the family has come to dislike packing as much as I do. ::snort::

A new purchase is sure to make the trailer even more "home like." We've had camp Wi-Fi. This means it's not secure AND it's not very dependable. I could blog, load photos, stream at 3 - 5 a.m. otherwise - we headed to the lounge, shower-house or laundry for wifi.  I worried about state parks with no wifi when we began traveling again.

 

It wasn't cheap - but considering all the options: Sprint Karma Go (sprint map shows sketchy in many parts of the country) buy a 60 gig data Verizon plan , or lease an unlimited Verizon line on eBay - this is the one that made us the most comfortable.  Even with our up-front cost, this will pay for itself in 2 - 9 months when considering the other Verizon options. Our monthly cost will be $70, as opposed to $120 - $410..... we assumed a grandfathered contract. The owner and us did this in a conference call with Verizon. It's all on the up and up. We realize Verizon could cancel these contracts - but at this point they simply raised the price and we're happy to pay their fees. Our contract is directly with Verizon....and we have reliable, fast wifi once again.

We enjoyed a couple of skypes this weekend and will begin Japanese lessons tomorrow.

Yes, a trailer can be home. 

Note Michael's transformation from military member to civilian. The beard is grown. The hair may lay down in a week or two.....I'll have to do a side by side soon.