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.