I don’t think Photobucket liked the fact that we were getting too big for our buttons and therefore tried to reap the rewards.
Soooo…the beloved FYBF button has been moved over where nothing will ever harm it again. But you do need to grab the new code over from my sidebar.
Okay, that’s all! As you were!
Now, for the fun stuff!
Welcome to Lisa’s life. Blogging over at New Life On The Road, Lisa and her family have been experience domestic family life in a motorhome.
Meeting her a couple of months ago at a World Vision function, her story completely captivated me and I’m glad she’s agreed to share it here today as our next FYBF Featured Flogger.
Feel free to follow Lisa over on Facebook and Twitter.
Raising Five Sons and Still Living {Sane} in a Motorhome!
Never ever in my wildest dreams would I think that I would be raising five boys, let alone living with four of them in a Motorhome. Our oldest is now in the navy, and our second oldest is also getting ready for the navy.
David and I got married over 18 years ago, and we decided we wanted a big family, mind you that was before they were walking and talking!! Fast forward to now and we wouldn’t change anything about our family.
But there is one thing that I do hear all of the time, when we are out and about with them all. And at first I never knew what to say……
“Oh you poor thing you only have boys, that sure is a hand-full. So when are going back to try for a girl” Then I would sometimes also hear “Oh the gates to heaven will be open for you because you are raising so many boys” !!! {can’t remember how many times I have heard that one!!}
At first I used to nod my head and smile.
Then I used to reply with “Oh You know they don’t come on Express Order” or “Gee aren’t I lucky that they are all healthy”. Now days I just roll my eyes and say that I was very blessed.
But seriously who cares what we have/don’t have….as long as they are happy then I am happy. And that is the secret to all co-existing in a Motorhome together. Mind you when it rains outside, and there is Mud Piles that are calling out to our youngest son (who is now 8) then those are the days that I second guess our decision to live our way of life.
We also get asked a LOT “How Do You Live in a Motorhome with Four Boys” so I thought I would share
5 Tips to our Motorhome Happiness:
1. Never ever stick to a plan, cause each day is a new day and its all different….so be flexible and go with the flow.
2. Find somewhere to escape to when it is raining – Libraries, Science Centres, Art Galleries, Museums, Shopping Centres, Indoor Rock Climbing….all these places are now our best friend
3. Walk. To anywhere you like, find a place where you can walk for hours on end and discover what’s around you. Best way ever to help them sleep better at night, and to help with their energy levels
4. Make the beds into Cubby Houses. We have a queen sized bed which has been transformed many times into Caves/Cubby houses!
5. Re-arrange the Book/Toy Cupboard. We have a very small cupboard where we keep the Art n Craft supplies along with their books and a few toys. Every time I arrange that cupboard they all get into the mess and rediscover what was already there!
Watching their creativity side come out is the biggest hi-light of our “new life on the road”. And at the end of the day if they are really truly happy, have had at least “one favourite moment of the day” experience to share with us…then surely my job is done.
So even if I do get told “Oh you poor thing” at least I know that my boys are turning into fine men and it was meant to be!
2. Sign up to the awesome Digital Parents community ( if you haven’t already done so). DP was created by Brenda Gaddi who happens to be the creator of FYBF. She’s also created 4 gorgeous kidlets. In case you’d like to know. Or maybe not. But we’ll share that info just the same.
3. Add your post URL to the linky. Please only link up one post.
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Wow, that’s quiet a story, and no doubt a very interesting family to talk to. I don’t know why there is such a stigma attached to “only” having boys. But I wouldn’t change it for the world, a lot of little girls I know can be very sneaky and less transparent than boys, that’s a huge generalization. But anyway, I’m off to check out Lisa’s blog. Thanks Grace!
natalia familia recently posted..the secret to cooking for kids: chili
Thanks Natalia, its great to connect with you. I am so not sure why our society thinks its sad to have all boys.
I would be interested to hear what Mum’s of all girls hear?
All we ever wanted was happy healthy children, and we got that so I am happy. Have heard from friends that boys teenage years are easier than girls teenage years
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
Yer, I think there are always pros and cons to every situation. But I agree with you, our boys were born prematurely, 13 weeks early, and I feel completely blessed that they both survived that and are thriving now. At no point was I sitting in the NICU over those 3 months wishing I had had a girl. There are more important things to think about, whether your kids come into the world healthy or not. xx
natalia familia recently posted..the secret to cooking for kids: chili
I love this post – hubby and I spent a glorious year living in our van travelling Oz and we met some amazing families and parents who home-schooled their kids on the road. I have so much awe for this! The kids we met in the caravan parks were always so well behaved too! We have kids now and I personally don’t think I could live with them in a van for any long stretch of time so I really take my hat off to Lisa!
Alisha recently posted..doop….doop…..doop…doop……soup!
Thanks Alisha. We are homeschooling and at the moment here in the Wollongong area and we have meet some incredible Children/families. We are loving that we can connect with so many other wonderful people that we would not have meet if we had stay living in our House.
After this year we don’t actually have to be in One Spot for so long, I am so looking forward to those times.
So good to hear you got to travel around Australia, did you enjoy a town/city/area that you would go back to or recommend?
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
I’ve been a follower of your blog for a while Lisa! Lovely to meet you. I still find it strange having my eldest lad living out of home… 18 years goes by so quickly! 🙂
carmen recently posted..10 reasons family life is like Roller Derby…
They sure do grow far too fast! Did you eldest move far away or are you able to see them regularly? I love it when all my boys are home together 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
Wow! That’s super impressive. And inspiring. Hubby and I want to do the year-long campervan tour when the kids are a bit older. Thanks for sharing your story, and thanks to Grace for hosting!
Emily recently posted..Cooking is ripe for the creation of blends
Thanks Emily. Your kids and Hubby would love it 🙂
Incredible what they can learn from life, and from other’s. We are so looking forward to exploring more of Australia as we travel, slowly but surely we were experience everything this amazing country of ours has to offer.
Be great to Bump into you guys sometime.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
What an adventure! I’m truly amazed at how you do it Lisa 🙂 I would love to try living in a caravan for. While.. Don’t think I can do it a lifetime though :p
Ai Sakura recently posted..How to Clean & Remove Tough Stains from Clothes + {Vanish Fabric Stain Remover Giveaway}
Funny how we get used to our new way of life. I don’t think that I could ever do a normal house again 🙂
And yeah there are times I wonder what we were thinking, and then other times I am so grateful for all the experiences.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
What a wonderful experience for your family! We did the same thing with our two kids, touring Australia with our caravan, but only for 6 months – it was way back in 2001. The kids are now 19 & 16 and still talk about it, it is one of best family memories.
Janet @ Redland City Living recently posted..The Aftermath of Gel Nails
Gosh that is so good….another family with travelling memories. I wonder if your two kids preferred the caravan compared to going back to a house? So good that they had those times together to create and remember, and something to look back on.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
This whole life on the road thing is very cool
Leanne @ Deep Fried Fruit
Leanne @ Deep Fried Fruit recently posted..Day 1383 – The Great Pool Heist
Thanks Leanne, we wished we had done it years earlier 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
I have been following your blog for a while and envying you greatly! Good on you – I am not sure if I would be brave enough to take my brood on the road!
Regarding the boys – people can be so ‘rude!’ Well-meaning comments often leave a sour taste. I have 2 girls and four boys in between them. Before my youngest girl arrived, I too used to be subjected (and my young daughter), to the ‘poor thing’ comments.
Personally, boys are so easy-going and lovely to raise. They are what I thought girls would be like pre-children. I adore raising boys. I also adore my girls. Boys are easier!
I always thought it was cruel of people to subject my eldest daughter to the ‘poor yous’ and used to tell them so! She bosses them around – poor boys!
Jody at Six Little Hearts recently posted..Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding
Yeah people often say things without thinking – I get so many different comments about it. Sometimes I can brush it off, other times it cuts deep.
Yeah of course we would have loved a girl, but we wouldn’t wish our boys away no matter what.
We do have friends who are raising girls that are the same age as our boys and they say that we do have it easier 🙂
Good on you for having such gorgeous children, we wanted six when we got married but we settled for five!
And think about how well your sons are being raised, with your eldest daughters help, love it.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
Thanks Grace for the intro, and Lisa – lucky you! You are raising a beautiful family! We have two girls, and I really hated it when people tried to pressure me into admitting that I had a preference for a boy for the second one. I didn’t have a preference at all, and I really felt put out that people were so rude about it. People still sometimes comment about how it’s a shame I don’t have one of each, even though I feel so blessed that my girls will grow up with sisters. (I would have felt blessed any which way it had turned out).
We spent a year travelling around North America in a campervan, and another time spent 3 months travelling around Europe in one and we loved it. I dream of packing hubby and the kids up one day and setting off again. So you are living my dream. My one tip for campervaning – park somewhere flat… 🙂
xx
Danya
Danya Banya recently posted..Things JJ Said
Thanks Dana. Its weird how people think we all should have the “Pigeon Pair”. What about being grateful that our kids are happy n healthy.
Funny how many times I have heard “Oh so when are you going back to try for that girl?” Like it can be ordered in the post or something.
My boys are growing fine and that’s all that matters.
And your girls sound like they have the most incredible childhood – its good when siblings are getting along. Being there for each other and giving support, now that is what makes us Mums so very proud.
And your tip about parking somewhere flat….yeah we nearly fell off our bed once because it wasn’t flat 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
So late to link up Grace… ah well not to worry!
Seana – Sydney, Kids, Food + Travel recently posted..The Scenic Railway, Katoomba in The Blue Mountains – A Must-See For Tourists, Sydney Locals.. And Us!
Sounds like an awesome adventure! I think with the boys/girls thing, people just feel the need to make a comment no matter what you have – after we had a girl and then a boy, everyone was amazed when we announced our third pregnancy, because they all assumed we’d stop now that we had one of each! And now we have two boys and two girls, you’d be surprised at the amount of people who ask us what we did to get the ‘gender of our choice’ – diets, my husband’s underwear choices, that kind of thing! I’ve had to explain many times that it just turned out that way…
Lisa@Circle of Toast recently posted..Life and Death At the Library
How cool is that – two boys and two girls….gosh I so would have fun telling everyone how it happened! I would make up the most out there story, mind you I would burst out laughing because I am not good with stories 🙂
You know I think that we end up with what we are supposed to have!
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
wow!!! what an adventurous life! So inspiring. …but seriously…. did people actually say “you poor thing?” Some people are seriously a little strange
Tahlia @ the parenting files recently posted..weekend cooking : 5 meal ideas for one
Yep Seriously they do….lost count of the times they have said it {and many other things!}
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
Goodness me, not for the faint hearted! Our family spent nearly a year on the road in a campervan back in the 70’s but it was four of us, and both kids were still sponge-bathable in a trough!
Twitchy recently posted..Lazy or Crazy? That was the choice.
Sounds like a great way to travel, and a great way to bath the kids 🙂
We are now used to this way of life and can’t imagine any other way, actually I think that we will be still living in a Motorhome or something smaller even when the kids are grown up
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
As a fellow mumma to (two) boys and whilst I didn’t grow up ‘on the road’, I was a ‘third-culture kid’. For someone who grew up ‘living life in a suitcase’ (lets just say 14 different schools in three different countries by the time I reached uni!), I love what you are doing! What a wonderful way to grow up, all the better for it I say! Nothing teaches you to adapt then being a ‘kid on the road’ 🙂 And you have such fine young men to show for it! I cant wait to follow the rest of your adventures…thank you Grace for introducing Lisa x
WOW – Maddy your education would have been the best, living life in a suitcase {kinda like a backpack} with going to so many different schools and three countries, now that is the way to really live 🙂
We sure are glad we are now living a new life, mind you wished we had done it sooner.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
I love the idea of doing this but not sure I have the patience for it. Honestly it’s a battle in our modest four bedroom house! I suppose it would be nice not to have to worry about paying a mortgage! I hope you write a book one day!! Emily
Emily @ Have a laugh on me recently posted..Why I’d ride a camel, and confessing I have nibbled on rubbers!
We sure save money on a lot of things – no power, no water, and yep no more house mortgage, with such little space we no longer have stuff for the sack of it.
We also sleep in the same area, so I reckon that if we were ever to move back into a house we wouldn’t like separate bedrooms.
Guess we are used to the lack of living areas, and we are getting used to each other in many ways!
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
I just love your story, Lisa. I wish I had it in me to do it, instead I will live vicariously through you 🙂
Renee at Mummy, Wife, Me recently posted..Three things I have learned from my three-year-old
Thanks Renee, welcome along for the ride 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
I wondered what had happened to the button!
I think you are amazing Lisa. I would so love to do this with my girls, but on my own it might send be crazy! We live in a very tiny house as it is and you have to be so organised or it is chaos, but one of my good friends has been travelling around oz with her hubby and their two girls in a 4wd and caravan that she designed all the cupboards etc inside and it is so cleverly done and they are all so relaxed and calm and loving life, it looks amazing X
Author Bek Mugridge (@bekmugridge) recently posted..Nuts about Nutworks & Macadamia IceCream
Would you believe that there are many travelling families out there and some are single Mums that are travelling Australia 🙂
I meet one the other day at a homeschooling meet up and she lives/travels with a 3 year old and 8 year old in a Campervan. Its really well set up and she loves being able to move around.
Incredible to think how many families are hitting the road!
Lisa Wood recently posted..Happy For Him
Wow what an amazing way to live. Your boys must have a very broad outlook on life, kimx
Kim@spiritedmama recently posted..Ever dream of running your own business?
Sometimes they are cool with all of our lifestyle, and other times they are not so flexible! But they are learning to look at life differently 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Passes With Flying Colours
This is such an adventure Lisa, and wonderful memories for your kids!
Seriously, I don’t know why people feel the need to feel sorry for any parents who have all boys or all girls. Aren’t all our little ones a blessing?
Thanks for sharing your story 🙂
Lisa@RandomActsOfZen recently posted..5 Good Things For You
Thanks Lisa – we are loving our new way of living.
And yes so very true – our little ones are perfect the way they are 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Passes With Flying Colours
Not sure what was going on (suspect my end and my new computer) but it has taken me several attempts to link up and then even more to leave a comment. I’m hoping to be back to blogging business next week and would love to feature on the Mystery Case blog at some stage.
Mystery Case recently posted..Five in Five with Tam Locke from Arty Farty Fotos
I think it would be really cool living in a motor home and being able to travel where ever you want to, but at the same time I get very claustrophobic so I’m not sure that it would be for me. I cant believe you do it without a plan, I would’ve thought it would take immense planning, but then again I am a total over planner.
Toni @ Finding Myself Young recently posted..Boys and their toys
I am the kind that likes to go with the flow and see what happens…Hubby is the planner.
With your Claustrophobic how do you go with travelling in planes, and what happens when you need to get in a lift {just curious}
Incredible how much changes with living in a Motorhome – little space means less stuff but more travelling.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Passes With Flying Colours
Beautiful story Lisa. I’ve traveled 30,000 with a caravan & hubby – 15,000 with 2 x 5yr olds = fun for 10 weeks but I was glad to be home.
We also lived in a stationery caravan several times (longest for a yr with one 7 yr old – not so much fun).
Trish recently posted..Master Chocolate Cupcake Class ~ RedBalloon
Sounds like a lot of fun with your Caravan/travelling. Its good to get home, and that’s what we like about our Motorhome – its our home on wheels 🙂
I think that a stationery caravan would only work if there was lots of places to explore, especially if your seven year old was just as active as our 8 year old!!
And thanks for the kind words.
Lisa Wood recently posted..Passes With Flying Colours
This sounds like a huge eye-opener. The idea of doing something completely different one day appeals to me, big time.
Robomum recently posted..Australian Idiot – Guilty
Its sure is something a lot of parents are thinking about/looking into!! And there is so many families travelling Australia – Single Mums. Married, Single Dad’s – there is a huge combination out there 🙂
Lisa Wood recently posted..Passes With Flying Colours
Wow, I have nothing but the upmost respect for you, for raising 5 amazing kids and for living in a motorhome with 4 of them. That is truly inspiring, I really don’t know if I could do it and I only have 1!
Hats off to you. It sounds like you are giving your family some amazing and never to be forgotten experiences.
🙂 x
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