Organizing food

Okay. So I know this sounds boring to men. But women are addicted to looking at other women's houses and seeing how things are organized. I had a system at my house down to labeled cabinets. I pinned things on pinterest when I looked into buying a boat. It's a thing.
I have not actually organized my food locker yet. It's a mess in there. It's impossible to organize because of it's shape as far as I can see now. But I may talk my husband into building me cubbies that fit like a puzzle against the back wall to make it easier.
Anyways... I was just tossing things in when we moved on board. But it got crazy quickly and my husband wanted baskets. So we found nesting baskets to put stuff in. Then I discovered that while they make it easier to compartmentalize some things... they do not work for everything. And things get lost behind them. And they are a hassle to take out when I want things on the bottom. But I am still using them.
Then, we found cockroaches. Quick google search and people swear they love cardboard. So my list of to-dos today went out the window. I sat there today and put everything in ziploc bags and wrote directions for those box side dishes or meals or anything on the bag and tossed the boxes. Then I took the papers off cans after writing what is inside the cans. Hope this helps.
I still have cardboard items on the boat. But it should take me like half an hour tomorrow to redistribute these items.
For those curious... here is my food locker.

Still Here

We are still here, living on the boat.
And blogger has an app! Just figured this out. I am a real genius, aren't I?
Well, I promise more and better blogs in the future.

We Live On a Boat

Okay, technically we got here on Friday night. But I just charged my iPad and my cell phone does not like the blogger website...
So far, it has been great. A good, slow pace from the crazy business of packing/cleaning the house. We still have tons of stuff to do...
But to tell you about our moving in process. Moving away from the house was long and exhausting work. Driving down was terrible since I stuff the car as full as she could go. Everyone was tired of being in the car by the end. Even though we were starving, we agreed the best thing for everyone was to order pizza just so we could avoid the car.
We haven't even finished unpacking. We only have a little left to do, but it has been nice taking our time. Though I think as soon as my son's Disneyworld birthday adventure is over, we are going to buckle down and try to get the boat ready to sail so we can get some practice in. Well, more like my husband can teach me visually what he has been telling me.
We are planning two or three day trips and coming back to this marina then heading out and south towards the end of the month. Though we haven't officially decided where. We were planning on heading to the Caribbean since November is the best time to go, but we have relatives saying to stay in the states for a year so I personally can get my "sea legs" so to speak. We are still talking over all of the options.
Oh, and the coolest news... We had a dolphin come and swim around our dock the first day we got here.

Hell Week

Okay, so maybe Hell Month.
I have not sat down properly and done "nothing" for quite some time.  I am always doing something.  Actually, I haven't been able to do any of my crafts which I adore in a while and I have a list of people waiting for me to get crafting for them.  I figure I will do this on the boat when things calm down and they can just wait.
But in all seriousness, for the last week, I have been going nonstop.  Staying up late and waking up early to get my house cleared out.  I have been doing what so many liveaboards have done before me and have looked at all of my belongings- well, not all, I still have stuff to go through- and had to decide if I needed it or wanted it so bad I was willing to let it take up space on the boat. If not, then I needed to decide if it was going to be sold, donated, or trashed.
A few things I have learned from this experience-
1) I am NOT the person with the most attachments.  I mean I should have known since I was raised in foster care and most of my belongings would not even make it out of the house it was bought in.  If it did, it rarely made it to the next house.  In fact, I still have one teddy bear as the only item that started the journey with me and has made it this far and it's only missing a nose.  I am keeping that.
2) We own a lot of things we NEVER use.  We keep a lot for "just in case."
3) I need more storage bins.  I have some.  I have tons in fact.  I am selling most because they "grow mold" on boats or "might grow mold" and we just don't want to chance it.
4) I am more attached to my son's toys than he is.  In fact, when I told him to pick out his absolutely favorite toys in the whole world, he picked out some cheap McD's toys he hasn't played with since he got the happy meal since they were on the top of the toy box (we were cleaning out some of the broken toys a few weeks ago and he hasn't looked in there since). I am the one who is blinking back tears as I put dinosaurs he spent hours with every day for months when he was two into the "sell" pile.
5) Babies either have very bulky toys or small toys that my daughter has long ago deemed "boring."
6) We love to read but love to own books that we plan on not reading for months. I am still convinced we need to get rid of more and just buy some on kindle when we are sure we will read them.
7) People say they love my furniture.  They do not.  Only people who do not need my furniture love my furniture.  Everyone has bought the "organizing" stuff such as cubicals and shelves.  A friend who just moved bought my couches.  My beds and dressers? Nope.  People are just saying "that is really beautiful."
8) A yardsale would be so much easier than selling online.  However, I do not have a free day available.
9) Kids (all kids, even those who are not yours) will undo all the organizing you are doing while trying to sort through your junk, treasures, and trash. Work quickly.
10) I am deeply afraid even when we get to the boat, we will still have too much stuff. Seriously.  I have a lingering fear that I will need to give away my sewing machine as soon as I am done sewing some new sheets or that a game station will have to go or that one of my new tubs I bought just for the use of doing laundry while not at a marina will be taking up too much space.  I bought a second one here just for the use of storing the clothes we are keeping.
11) My husband and I are annoyed with each other.  Funny thing, this is a highly stressful situation.  Though we have both done it more times than the average American, we are stressed out to the max.  He is still working full time and has to get sleep since he is on meds that require sleep... So I have a limited amount of time with him to sit there and say "this needs to get done, that needs to get done, did you tell so and so this when you saw him, and help me go through this pile of our movies" since I know he wants to spend time with the kids (which also helps me out).
12) As much as we are annoyed with each other, my husband and I are actually not fighting a lot.  It's a lot of "snap at you for this." Spouse just nods and apologizes because we know we should have/could have/really wanted to. "I'm sorry.  I'm just really stressed.  I cannot wait for this to be over.  Can we buy more time during the day but not for when we are leaving?" Spouse agrees full-heartedly and accepts apology.  Those who know me personally know I am the snapper.  I get as much of my emotions out as possible so I don't bottle though I do bottle when I think the person there may not be able to handle my "Portuguese ways." That's the "Eskimo" me taking over.
13) My son loves to tell every person stopping by to buy items "We are going to live on a boat. Are you buying this?" and pointing to something I am in fact keeping such as my cloth diapers or knitting needles.

There you go.  I am sure everyone goes through this.  We are moving away forever in one week.  Just one week.  So maybe this month was more like Marine boot camp and this week will be hell week since I still have tons to go through and a list of things to fix for the house on top of a birthday party for my son.

We are boat owners!

Well, we did it.  We bought our boat.  She is tiny and big at the same time.  Crazy, right?  Well, she is tiny space wise.  Only the dogs can really run around and that is on top of the boat.  But she has tons of storage space inside.  I have tons of ideas as to utilizing that space as well.
Though, physically looking at the boat has really made me realize that I can only pick the things that are really, really important to me.  And staying on the boat for a few days has made me realize that some of my treasures such as pictures will need to be sent to family for safe keeping.  Also, I need a whole new wardrobe.  As a girl, feeling wet and dry at the same time is not nice, especially when you have not been in the water.  I get that it's humid, but it's so much more humid than where I live now! Like crazy humid on a boat.  But I got some tips from some other women who sail so yay!  Hopefully for Christmas my gift can be all new clothes.  I won't need much since you only want a weeks worth anyway.
We had so much fun on the boat though.  The dogs loved it.  They were able to come and go as they pleased.  Though they weren't really going since they couldn't get onto the dock.  One dog did take a swim, but he did that once and hasn't since so cross your fingers he learned that sea water is nasty tasting.  The kids had fun too.  Though I can't wait to go back with toys and games for them since we brought next to nothing this trip.  We stayed on the boat longer than anticipated so the baby had one toy and our son had his DS and we brought the ipads with all of the kids apps available, but they mostly had fun climbing and figuring out how to reach stuff.

My husband had a blast too.  He is aching to get back to the boat as soon as possible.  At this moment, he is trying to decide when it's best for him to give his 2 weeks notice.  We have two options we are considering but haven't actually had some free time to talk yet.

Getting Nervous

Okay, I will admit it. I am a control freak who likes to plan things. But my entire life has been crazy from moving in a days notice as a child to having the Navy tell me I am supposed to be on a flight that left two hours ago to move across the country. As much as I love to plan, I have to just jump in with both feet to get the process really started.
Well, we are jumping. Tomorrow my husband is going to one appointment for his knee to see what they found, then heading to get his second letter from a doctor for medical school, then asking for time off work to drive up and see the "perfect boat" we found.
After a lot of research, we found the perfect time to sail down to Grenada is late October to early November.
This gives me 2-3 months to work with.
I have 2-3 months to finish a fence, sell everything we can part with, figure out how to organize a boat, make simple changes to the boat such as making sheets and fitting a comforter, selling/renting our house out, finding new homes for most if not all of our pets, get everyone's shots done, throw a birthday party, and say goodbye to some good friends.
Ugh. My head is swimming. On top off it all, I need to learn how to sail, figure out how to chart a course, and actually pray this boat is as perfect in reality as it is on the Internet. I have been researching organizing tips for small spaces like crazy and looking at how other families baby proof their boats. Oh, and I still need to order my son's curriculum.
Planning must be done. I need to make a big checklist and just start doing things.

He Found A Boat

Seriously, it has been so long... So many plans have been made, changed, and gone back to that my head is spinning.
NOW, our plan is to move to St. George, Grenada (in the Carribbean).  They have an excellent school there that is perfect for my husband since he does not want to be a specialist in the medical field, just a normal doctor who can see anyone.
Well, someone else was joking about it and the plans to see the world.  I brought up that buying a boat may be cheaper than traveling down there and renting a place there.
Well, he went online and found his perfect boat.  It's within our means, it's very nice and up to date according to the ad, and it's on this side of the continent.  So I guess as soon as we have the money we are going to be going on a road trip to see this awesome boat.
It's a 36 foot monohaul and CAN sleep six.
I asked if we were going to wait to see if he got a reply from the school and he mentioned the idea of just sailing away if he doesn't get in.  I bet that last part is a joke though.
Well, cross your fingers everyone.  This blog may take off as well.