Caledonia's Maiden Voyage

She's finished! Finally.

I first introduced her to you here, then you got to see some progress here, then she sat neglected for quite some time. We did have some stuff going on to be fair, pregnancy, baby, moving house, winter etc etc.

I am so pleased with my design and the interior work and Rene is rightly proud of his hard work on the plumbing and electrics. He began with no prior knowledge and he just figured it all out and got her working just fine. What a buzz.

We've had so much fun fixing up our vintage camper, getting her working just right for our family's needs. And we finally took her camping last Friday! We didn't go far and are blessed to live very close to a couple of great state parks with camping pads. Everything went 100% smoothly and was so much fun.

OK, I'll start with a refresher of the before.

You get the gist. 

Finally, I am honored to introduce to you, our beautiful wee home away fae home, Caledonia.

I love this mat.

bathroom (oops I need to get more hooks for the curtain)

bathroom storage

shower curtain

view from bathroom

kitchen

open bins (for shoes and misc things we want to just throw in there)

drawers 

tilt out trash

Sink unit

upper cabinets

Slide out pinteresty type pantry thingy

Poor, pathetic cushion cover, my first attempt. I will make a better one some day. I've learned what not to do now!

loft as daytime storage

Main daytime hangout stage, which is storage and a bed

My fav. Pic of a Peach tree, with little colorful leaves still learning how to bloom, and a field of heather beneath it.

it folds down

to a table with storage

Bench also turns into a table

Bench also turns into a bed. 

twin

or queen

Loft also becomes a bed

and has a rope ladder which the kids like to use as a swing (I'm glad we reinforced all studs!)

We still have to make the lights pretty, but Rene got them all working beautifully. 

I still want to decorate the exterior, but we got the most important bit done

I guess I'll leave it with some action shots. :) 

Don't judge me

Stop the judging already! Jeez, you people. 

This drawer made a great fridge with some added ice packs

Just because she's cute

Mmmm Stir fry

She's plenty cozy and comfy

You guys, *this* is the life!

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How to take a nap, by Ally (2 years old)

I'm Ally (though as of late I occasionally prefer to be called Alasdair, which I pronounce Ash-der because otherwise it's just too many syllables for my developing mouth. I do tend to alternate between which name I favor and I like to kick up a bit of a fuss if you don't correctly anticipate which is my current choice, and I am fully within my rights to do so because I am two years old and being fickle comes with the territory). But I don't really need to introduce myself for I already did as much in my previous guest post which you can read here if you so wish.

My mum asked me to write another guest post and I was going to turn down the offer, since I really don't need the extra attention: I get more than enough of it around here. But when she mentioned the subject was naps, well I couldn't resist. After all, I am quite the expert on napping.

Naps are very important to a two year old. We have a lot of growing to do and new brain connections to make, plus dreaming aids us in our quest to make sense of all the new visions we take in on a daily basis. And frankly, living in such a big world is plain exhausting.

The problem is, we don't always *want* to nap, especially at whatever time our mothers decide we ought to be napping. If I figure out my mum is scheming to set me down to nap I will simply resist all her efforts, and I suggest you do the same. Naps are certainly important, as I stated above, but there are various activities competing for top priority, such as: scooting chairs around to stand on to reach those exciting things we only find on high shelves,  pulling out all the pots and pans from their designated places and scattering them all around, drawing scribbles on walls and lobbing shoes down the stairs (you haven't tried that? I recommend you do! It's highly satisfying to watch them tumble and bump, landing in ever random positions).

So my number one piece of advice with regards to taking a nap is:

Go, go, go, go, drop.

Just keep living life, exploring, learning, causing trouble, then whenever the urge to sleep and grow grabs you, simply drop, wherever you are, and have a nap. Don't waste time trying to communicate to your mother that you're tired, and don't bother trying to find your bed. Just succumb to the forces of sleep and drop on the spot.  Allow me to demonstrate with some examples. 

One day I had been trying to explore the dining table. I unplugged the floor lamp and was busy scooting chairs around. It was great fun. But suddenly, I felt compelled to rest, so down I went and took a few Zs. 

\

On another occasion I was playing with toys, then I wandered into the kitchen for something to do, but my train of thought was interrupted by a sudden need for sleep. I hit the deck and had a delightful snooze.

Of course, it's much more convenient if the urge should happen upon you while you are in a carpeted room, as I find those floors are much more suitable for soft slumber. In this instance I had been attempting to put on a baby carrier in order to wear a doll on my back but my efforts were interrupted by a short siesta.

But sometimes I prefer a firm surface to lie on, so I improvise with whatever's nearby

Just out of the bath and yet to be dressed? Don't let that stand in your way! 

If you wish to make it really epic, position yourself at the bottom of the stairs, disguised as Spiderman recently murdered by a sith. Your mother will have the fright of her life when she first spots the disturbing vision, but alas you'll sleep through her hysterical reaction.

Don't limit yourself to floors, convenient though they may be. This is a free country! Nap anywhere you want, 

On your baby sister's chair:

On the couch, with your jacket on:

Coloring at the table? Go, go, go, drop!

Eating at the table? Don't let it stop you.

You might want to carry a pillow around with you, you never know when it might come in handy.

If you insist on sleeping in a more traditional location, like a bed for example, I suggest you keep a remote control close at hand, in case you should wake up with a desire to watch Blues Clues.

In conclusion, napping is fun and essential for growth and balance, and it needn't affect your day to day operations. Just remember, Go, go, go, drop. And one final pearl of advise, if you want to have the best kind of nap possible...try napping with a sibling. Trust me, it's the best.

Brothers are pretty awesome to nap with.

Baby sisters might be even better. 

Mum wants me to add a disclaimer about how she makes sure to move us to a safe place to finish our slumber after taking cute pictures, but I don't think I need to mention that. She just worries too much about what people think of her (issues much?)

So there you have it. How to take a nap. I trust you've learned a lot and will have none less than the most wonderful excursions to the land of nod from now on. Thank you for listening. Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.  

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Snow day disappointment

I'm still just a wee lassie inside. A spark ignites in my spirit when I see the fluffy white stuff fall from the sky like shreds of cotton candy dancing on the breath of angels. Ahhhh. 

I cherish the days I awake and peer out my window to find that God has painted a snowscape in my back yard.

It makes me want to just open that window right up and dive on in with my mouth open. 

I'm not the only one.

The child in me watches the weather forecast with excited anticipation when it warns me of an approaching winter storm. I have visions of snow angels, icicles and hot cocoa. 

But the mom of six in me braces herself for a day where any hope of productivity is shoved aside for a day of seemingly unending putting on and taking off of snow gear and clearing the floor of coats, boots and melted snow. 

It goes something like this:

Child number 3: "Can I go play outside in the snow?"
Me: "Sure. Find your boots and coat and hat and gloves and snow pants and I'll help you put them on"
Child number 3 a few minutes later: "I could only find one glove and one boot and no hat and I don't like the brown snow pants, I want the pink ones but I can't find them"

I spend 5 minutes grunting and chucking boots and snow gear all around the shoe closet until I finally find all the required items. Then I wrestle with a wriggly child to put on all items. I lean back against the wall and sigh as my task is complete and child number 3 looks fit to face the unwelcoming elements of Nebraskan winter. 

But child number 3 doesn't want to go out alone. She asks child number 4 to join her.
I repeat the stages above of looking out all the gear and putting on all the gear.

 Children 3 and 4 go out to play in the snow.

Children 1 and 2 think it looks like a lot of fun so they ask to join. I say yes, but can you please put on your own gear. They agree. But a couple minutes later the story becomes, "I can't find my snow pants.", "Where's my other boot?", "My zipper is stuck" etc etc. Before you know it, I'm up to my elbows in the dreaded shoe cupboard again, sweating it out, throwing rejected footwear aside where it accidentally falls into piles of melting snow which has been trampled in by children 3 and 4 who have decided it was too cold outside and they don't want to play afterall. 

Child 5 wants to fit in, so even though he's not going out to play, he still wants all his gear on. 

So into the shoe cupboard again I dive. 

But he looks so cute, it's worth it.

By this time, children 1 and 2 are playing outside and it looks so temptingly fun to children 3 and 4 who watch the scene out the window from the warmth of the indoors, that it causes them to forget the harshness of the bitter wind chills against their young tender skin, and they decide they want to give it another go after all.

So back on with the snow gear, boot by boot, glove by glove. And of course, dressing one child's hand in a glove is an epic adventure in itself, because the tiny fingers are ever reluctant to go into their designated space, so it always takes multiple attempts with children whining and me sighing all the while. I finally get all twenty fingers in their places, four heels pushed all the way down to the soles of the boots, four sweater sleeves pulled back down to the wrists after riding up arms during the putting on of coats - just in time for children 1 and 2 to come inside for a break. Leaving a trail of melting snow, discarded hats and dropped coats in their wake. 

Meanwhile, child number 6 continues to just be adorable (if messy). 

Oh well, enough blogging. It's time to make lunch, clear up some more snow which has been trampled in while I typed this, then probably spend another half  hour getting the kids dressed up for another 5 minute excursion in the snow. But they'll remember it all fondly, and that's the point (I remind myself).

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*wipes dust off the monkeys blog*

It's been a while, but I want to get back into keeping up with this blog. I enjoy going back over old posts to reminisce and since I'm dreadful at disciplining myself to keep a journal, I figure this is my best shot at archiving the movements of our wee family.

I see the last post was when we had just moved in. We've been here like half a year now! We haven't done much upgrading yet, other than the bathroom which isn't finished yet and I look forward to posting about when it is complete. We've done a wee bit of painting though. Lemme dig out some pics..




























Those are all from October, because everything from Nov on is stuck on my camera right now. So, this is my attempt to update the blog but I have no pics to update with. Ah, well it's a start.


I must confess, as everyone pessimistically predicted, we haven't finished the camper nor worked on it for a long time. She's looking mighty fine, but isn't functional yet. But we are determined that we'll have her flying true this season.





No recent pics, but here is a recent video. Valentines Day, 2013. If I told you Rene and I hired a babysitter and escaped for a passionate, romantic rendezvous with dinner, dancing and lurving....I'd be telling a lie. We'll have that some day. But for now we're soaking up something even better:





hmmm if the video doesn't work, try clicking here

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