Before we decided to travel, we had become convinced that we had outgrown our 1000 sqare foot home, with 3 bedrooms and 1 bath.  Somehow it all seemed to make sense to get rid of our stuff, and move into a  320 square foot trailer to solve that problem!

When people look at our trailer, invariably their first response is "That is a HUGE trailer."  We've learned to reply "Yes, but with six people in ~320 square feet, it's a very tiny home."  

We do have two bedrooms.  The master bedroom is open to the bathroom, which makes it feel a bit more spacious and high ceilings prevent it from feeling too crowded.  The children's bedroom, or bunkhouse, measures approximately 6'x8', and has two bunkbeds, with floor to ceiling drawers between the bunks. 

The first thing we did when we picked up our trailer was to remove the cabinetry between the bunkbeds.  The engineers who designed our trailer either didn't have children, or didn't expect anyone to actually live in this trailer with four children.  There were four drawers, about six horizontal inches of hang up space, and a narrow cupboard with a wire laundry basket.  We managed to find a plastic unit that fit in the space and provided a dozen drawers the size of plastic totes.  So, each child has their own bed space, and three drawers.

We had a lot of adjustments to make to our new roles and our new lifestyle.  I was working 4 12-hour shifts each week, whereas at home, I'd only worked a few shifts each month.  Mike had to take on the housekeeping and primary parenting roles.  He also had to learn to juggle cooking, cleaning, laundry, homeschooling three kids and keeping track of a two year old.  (Quite frankly, I think I had the easier adjustment!) 

I told my husband before we set out that proper nutrition did NOT include alternating hot dogs, macaroni & cheese, and Hamburger Helper, he would have to learn to cook.  I have to say, thanks to his hero, Alton Brown from Food Network, he does an admirable job with the cooking, and has found that he actually enjoys it!

One of our big concerns was back to the old socialization question.  Would our kids have friends while we traveled?  At home, with the usual round of activities - church, homeschool co-ops, scouting, ballet & gymnastics lessons - this had never been a concern, but we had to give up all these activities to travel.  We've been pleasantly surprised to find a number of mobile workers who travel with their families.  Some enroll their children in local schools, if they are in one location for an extended periods of time, but many homeschool.

I must admit to suffering a bit of homesickness around the holidays.  We were strangers, in a new city, 3 days drive from our nearest family members, and even further from our home and friends.  I had to work Christmas day, so we celebrated Christmas early.  We ended up going grocery shopping at Walmart on Christmas eve, and it was funny, because everyone else was in a hurry, and under pressure, and we, being done with Christmas, were very relaxed and laid back. 

So, we've adjusted, made changes, and been thrilled that we made the decision to follow our dream.

Welcome to my first attempt at a weblog.  I've never been good at journaling, but I'm going to give this a try!

I'm Dawn.  I've been married to Mike since 1990, and we've been blessed with four terrific children!  We began exploring schooling options when our oldest approached school-age, and felt the calling to homeschool.  We've been at it ever since. 

In the early spring of 2003, we made the decision to pursue a long-time dream.  So after months of research, we bought our "rig" and sold almost everything we owned, and in October of 2003, we loaded up the kids and set out on our GREAT ADVENTURE. 

The plan: Dawn would work as a traveling nurse to finance this adventure, while Mike took over the majority of the responsibility for homemaking tasks, as well as educating our children.  We've been at it for two and a half years now, and are loving it!  

It was always our plan to build a webpage to document our travels, but since we are 2-1/2 years into it, without a webpage, this is my attempt to accomplish that goal.  It is my plan to spend the first few entries, reviewing the highlights of the last 2-1/2 years, then to start a "real-time" journal.