Small Apartment Living

We finally have Internet in the apt so I can actually blog again!! This was the view from our apartment window in the fall. Small apartment living is definitely its own experience - and I'm sure our perspective on it is quite dependent upon three things: the young ages of our children, the fact that we moved from something EVEN smaller, and that we are holed up during a particularly snowy winter. Having said all this, this is not actually a value judgement one way or another on our current living situation - simply factors that make a big difference. So what is this life like right now. Well, while the place is a bit roomier than our bus, it is NOT custom built to suit our needs or our furniture sizes. This makes the arrangement of daily life somewhat more cumbersome and awkward. But we simply are not going to run to Target or Lowes for that perfect fitting dresser or bookshelf only to leave here in six months! Also, the kids all share the big bedroom here. This causes many an issue since they were so happily given their own small spaces in the bus. I find many more squabbles here when privacy is not respected - which is more difficult to do with a curtain. Perhaps I was also better at reinforcing the importance of personal space in the bus - or maybe it just became extremely obvious to them - but they seemed to encroach upon each others' space less in the bus.

So why did we choose this space? Well, primarily there was a good feeling about it when talking to the landlord on the phone. Honest. Secondly, when I stepped out of the car to see it, it smelled exactly like the dairy farm I lived on in Germany...like cow manure. Also honest. When I showed it to the kids at a later date they said in excited voices,"This place smells like Germany!" Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!! :) Also obviously big on the list of pros were the price and the inclusion of heat, hot water and snow plowing with the prospect of a long, heavy winter. But MOST OF ALL for the space to run and the view.

It is amazing how important aesthetic is...as I am coming to learn. Until now I have been trying hard to incorporate the perspective of "live where you are" and find gratitude in whatever it is. But now that gratitude includes, not only seeking out aesthetic where you choose to live - in whatever ways you can afford it - but also creating that aesthetic for yourselves. When I am finding the walls cave in on me from the noise level or chaos, looking out the window and seeing that horizon adds just a moment of breath, space and calm.

This I hoped would sustain us through the long days of winter.

And so far it has proved quite the right temporary space for us!

There is certainly all kinds of sledding and snow play to be had right out the kitchen window. There is a pond for skating a cornfield away.

We live right on a main thoroughfare. While in the beginning the semis in the middle of the night blazed by so fast I sat straight up in bed thinking we were re-enacting Metallica's "Enter Sandman" music video, we are all quite used to it now and I think this will prove useful for our summer sojourn on the road. Also, I can lay in bed in the wee morning hours listening for how fast the cars are going by and the number of plows and make an accurate guess of whether there is a snow day to be had or not - a skill I am quite proud of!

Even the man who does not love the cold and the wee fairy girl have gotten in on the fun. She now sleds all by her self and has demanded I buy her real ice skates, not the double-bladed ones that strap to your boots. Yep, two years old ladies and gents!

Is the snow getting old? Not gonna lie, when combined with the zero and negative temps that have occurred this week, it does make it difficult to love it as much.

So what happens when we cannot go out? Well, the best thing we have found is that we can go to ANY library in this area and take out and return books and they will return them to the appropriate library for us!! This means: a) we take out a zillion books every two or three days and they gorge themselves on literature and b) we can swing into any library we are near and drop off/pu books. It is an AWESOME arrangement that more people should be aware of.

Other things currently occupying our time (the short list):

chin videos, learning the "sid shuffle" and other group dances, science experiments, DIY videos on YouTube involving how to flip a fedora onto your head (et al), whittling,

stuffed animal plays, baking, owl crafts, song writing,

dot to dots, Harry Potter book discussions (always), hernias, editing movie trailers,

gymnastics/aerial tricks with Daddy, learning the keyboard,

beat-boxing, Phoenix chasing and, of course, the ever-popular Legos.

The distance to this apartment from all the other places we need/like to be, however, is...well, not precisely a total negative as I can see the benefits, but a major adjustment. It has been good to have some distance to focus, and to appreciate where we were previous to here, but MUCH of my time is spent driving in circles. While I can see now how this has trained the baby to be perfectly happy on extended car rides - something that will come in handy this summer in the bus - I am NOT excited about all the money we spend on gas or the fuel that gets used. I will not get into all this now, though, as it is part of a consumer rant for another blog (the consumers being us ourselves!).

So, the plan is still remain here until the spring, fix up and move back into the bus and, when school ends in June, HIT THE ROAD!!! PREPARE YO-SELVES!!! HERE WE COME!!!! We have much fun in store for you all so STAY TUNED!!! PEACE, THE RODEO