The reality of living in 300 square feet.

I have all these super amazing pictures that I can't wait to share with you all. But right now they're all on the iMac and Matt is working this morning, so I can't really get to them. But I promise, we have done some really amazing things in the last two weeks. The redwood national forest, San Francisco, and visit from my super fabulous sister.

But, like I said, I can't get to my pictures right now. So you all have the great pleasure (or not, because it's probably pretty dry and rambley) of learning about what life is really like living in such a teeny tiny space.

First of all, let me say that for the most part, it's actually better than I was expecting. We still have a couch, a kitchen table, a fridge, sink, oven/stove, shower and toilet. And a queen sized bed. (Now it's like you're reading a craigslist ad for an apartment.)

I'm pretty good at organizing, so storing our stuff hasn't been a huge issue. all the kids blankets go under the pull out couch during the day, the TV goes in the storage under our bed when we're driving.  We pretty much have to strictly follow the rule "a place for everything and everything in its place". We have plenty of room for books and games and lego. Obviously just the downsized stacks of books and games and lego. The rest are in storage back home.

So for the most part, it's fine. But once in a while we run in to....problems. Like how there's one toilet for 5 people. And one of those people is recently potty trained. And how the clothes closet opens up right into the bathroom and also our bedroom. It's pretty much the definition of bottleneck when people are trying to get ready in the morning or for bed. Lots of people have had their toes stepped on and fingers shut into doors and cupboards.

The kitchen table turns into Oliver's bed. It's actually pretty easy to make into the bed. Not so easy to turn back to the table. At least not easy if you're under 6 feet tall. There's a weird angle and you have to perfectly latch the table to the wall. Anyway, it's usually Matt's job. But last week he had to leave at like 6 am to get to a conference in San Francisco. It was St. Patrick's day, and in our house we have a Lucky Charms for breakfast tradition. So I made the table (I thought), poured huge bowls of Lucky Charms and milk, and everyone sat down to eat.

Then, the table buckled, fell from the wall, and spilled Lucky Charms and milk EVERYWHERE. Sawyer was trapped under the table where it fell on his leg. I saved him, dropped the table, and scraped up our lovely hardwood. Sawyer was upset because his leg hurt and he was covered in milk. So he took his pants off. I was trying to clean up the floor, but the stupid marshmallows were expanding in the stupid milk and getting everything sticky and pastel coloured. Sawyer was so upset by this point that he peed. Like a whole freaking liter. All over the floor. And cereal. So now the floor was covered in milk, cereal, marshmallows, and pee. Everyone was screaming, myself included. Let me remind you that this is a very small space and it's virtually impossible to clean a floor so small without just being right in the mess. Eventually I got it all cleaned up. And then Hayden pipes in with an ever so sweet "am I EVER going to get to eat breakfast?!" I managed to get them each a small bowl of the remaining Lucky Charms, and went to take a shower. Yuck. Then I realized that we had gone swimming the night before and the only clean towel was used by Matt that morning and was soaking wet. It was a super fun morning.

So yeah. Sometimes stuff like that happens. But so far, the good has outweighed the bad. (Except for on Tuesday, when Matt was hooking up our sewer hose to the drain, it backed up on him. Yes. The black water tank backed up on him. Like everywhere. It took a few hours and a whole lot of bleach to get it fixed. But we had a very kind RV neighbour who took him to the RV store and helped get everything we needed.)

But we're still happy. Today we are going down to the little shops near Avila beach to find the bookshop and the ice cream parlour. Life is good.

-Jessica