Winter in a Camper….

So what was it really like…..living in a camper….in the winter……in the midwest?!?!

Well the foam board skirting honestly helped. We put a thermometer under the camper and it was a minimum 20 degrees warmer under there than it was outside. There were maybe three nights when it was getting down into the single digits for that we dripped our lines (let the kitchen water faucet drip through the night) so that our lines wouldn’t freeze.

Our heater runs on propane (that we get for free, nice perk of the job!) and we have two space heaters so we were always warm and cozy. I honestly didn’t know how the camper would hold up, if it would be super drafty and we would struggle to stay warm. There was definitely mornings when the single pane windows were frosted up, but the camper was cozy. Thankfully we had no issues staying warm!

What did we do with all the snow clothes?! Why we hung them in the shower! No mud room. No place to put wet snow bibs, coats, boots, mittens etc…..so they went in the shower to dry.

What did we do?! We didn’t kill each other! I didn’t think we would but this was definitely the first time we were pressed to be together. We had a real routine with school and the boys. Chase and I flip flopped working or doing school with the boys, which took care of the mornings. Most afternoons our boys do quiet time, once Mac stopped napping (at 2.5 years when Merrick was just 2 months old!) this came into our lives and is still going strong. One hour after lunch where they are not together and they must be quiet. Later in the afternoons if it wasn’t snow play and sledding; baking, board games, puzzles, painting and reading were always big hits.

Game wise right now the boys love- Goblet Gobblers….a form of tic-tac-toe where you can eat each other. Ticket to Ride the kiddo version. And a mom favorite….Eye found it…an I spy type card game….where they sit and are quietly concentrating on finding a random object. One night we may have have introduced poker, the value of numbers with some cards and m&ms!

We brought back an old basketball goal from Tribune and rehabbed it. It is now hanging up in the barn. There were a few cold days that we went up to the barn, started a fire and played and the boys got to shoot some hoops.

There were days when time was what we had so we used it up. It didn’t matter if it took an hour for the dishes to get done. And didn’t matter if it took 30 mins for snack just to be prepared. The boys got to do grown up things. They got to do the dishes. They got to cut and cut and cut. Those “real” plastic knives have been great for them to really “help.”

They both learned how to do a few new things. Merrick has kind of started to “read,” that was a fun winter day. (Thank you goes to Bob Books and to the library on that one!) This winter Mac learned how to sew. He has sown a 4×4 quilt, mended a few things, made a pillow and 3 bean bags. He is attempting to learn to juggle with said bean bags. He picked up crocheting a couple of weeks ago. It was just stuff like this that helped pass the inside winter time. Winter was fine and all but we are excited for the spring and all the green to start popping out!