"Home"

Saturday morning we woke up, made sure the camper was set up to drive, and we drove it out to New Song Mission to set up camp until we're able to find a more permanent home. I've been wanting to go camping again for quite a while, so it looks like I got my wish, sort-of. It all feels so adventurous until you have those moments when it hits you that you're not going back to where you came from. It's only moving forward from here. Not gonna lie, those moments can hit hard. This morning as I sat all alone in the little camper (well, alone as you can be with two curious little cats), I thought, "Wow. I'm really here, and I'm really doing this. Living out of a camper in the middle of nowhere, just on the other end of New Song Road, just a windy road's drive away from my new classroom at New Song Leadership Academy. And how exactly did I get here?" Crazy feeling, for sure. 

It literally took us the entire day to get set up, when you consider all the driving between Matt and Chrissy's house to New Song, hooking all the electric and water up, driving to town in Columbus (about a 25 minute drive from here) to eat lunch and then go shopping at Walmart to stock up on everything we'll need for at least a week or so, driving to Chrissy's mom's place to get some things out of storage, including more clothes, pots and pans, tools, and outdoor furniture, and then back to New Song. Then after we got all set up, we still had to drive 15 minutes to Matt and Chrissy's house to take David back since the camper only sleeps two. It was a late night for sure.

I think I got to bed a little before 1 a.m., only to be awakened by issues with my CPAP machine not being set up right, then two cats making a bunch of racket while RUNNING into our little bedroom because a storm freaked them out, then listening to a storm pound down on the camper and just imagining all of our camping chairs and things we left outside blowing all over the place. Somehow Mike slept through all of it, but I sure didn't. I think I slept about 2-3 hours total. 

I got up in the morning with Mike and checked everything outside to find out that nothing blew anywhere, it was just all a bit wet. Whew. Looks like we'll be okay!

However, I skipped out on our first week to attend church together because I was exhausted. Mike met the rest of the family (including David) at church, and I stayed back to sleep. Then Mike and David stopped to get us some lunch before coming back to hang out in our new "home" for the rest of the rainy day. We sat and played cards and drank coffee and just enjoyed a quiet day. We ended the night cooking hot dogs on the stove and eating some chips and potato salad. Now that the rain has passed, I'm looking forward to Mike cooking for us in the evenings out on the grill and the smoker. Bob (my new boss) also said we could build a little firepit, so that will really make it feel like a long camping adventure. 

Just pulling in to start the hook-ups.

After we brought back all the outdoor furniture, though we forgot the chair for the patio table, so we'll need to get those another day. We did get the kitty cage/table/fireplace, my egg chair, and the smoker, plus a small table top grill. 

Tight quarters for a bit, but it's definitely manageable, especially now that we're figuring out better ways to organize everything. 

All set up. We're pretty close to the road, but that row of trees behind us make it pretty quiet and comfortable.

We even have a dumpster right there, so trash isn't an issue. 

A closer look at the set-up for now.

One curious little cat. We put a harness on him, and it settled him down a little bit. 

We also got him a leash for the harness and hooked it up to the chair. Then he can get his outside time with me when he doesn't want to be caged. 

The view in front of the camper on a gray, cloudy day.

Trying out his new leash. LOL.

He wasn't quite sure about walking on that gravel. 

Enjoying dinner. 

Spazzie hides most of the time, so we likely won't get many pictures of her. She's happy, though, and seems to be pretty well adjusted now. She still doesn't like Boots very much, though. 

So, our house closes tomorrow morning, then we'll be jumping into the real estate world here to find just the right house that God has already prepared for us. We're getting to know the area a little bit more and have a little bit better idea of where to look, but so far we've only found houses a bit out of our price range. It's fun looking and imagining the possibilities, but I can't complain about our current living situation. I don't mind being a bike ride away from my classroom, and it sure is peaceful out here. Yesterday may have been the most restful day I've had since school ended. I think I'm going to try to soak it up while God has me positioned here.