Moxie Family Adventures: minimalism

Goodbye Telluride, Hello MARSHMALLOW! (And we're all going nuts, BTW)

8/04/2016

Marshmallow gets prepped for take off!

Two weeks ago, Trav and I were driving a Land Rover Discovery and a 2013 Toyota Tacoma. Today, these are our wheels. She's a 1995 Chevy van with a blue velvet interior. She's got a TV/VCR unit that plays VHS tapes and she smells like a former smoking room at the Days Inn. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet "Marshmallow"!! (Naming credit goes to Vivian). Every single item we are taking with us to start our new life fits inside (or on top) of Marshmallow. The plan is that Marshmallow will take us to Maine, and then in October, to Florida. We are about to become very well acquainted with Marshmallow. I hope she likes us.

In typical Julia fashion, the launch that was supposed to happen on Monday is happening today (Thursday), but it's 9 am and Trav is still emailing clients and finishing billing and doesn't look like he'll be done any time soon. At this rate, we may still be here when our renters arrive. (We'll all bunk in together, I bet they'll LOVE that!)

The house is an echoey shell, everything packed and stored away. We've been sleeping in sleeping bags because I washed the bedding and put it all away 3 days ago. We have signs on 3 out of 4 bathrooms that say DO NOT USE because I scrubbed them to an immaculate shine and they're going to stay that way. Last night was our last night sleeping in this house we love. I was expecting to have some sort of ceremony or special moment or family hug or something but we were all so exhausted and stressed out there was none of that whatsoever. The kids tumbled like dirty zombies into their sleeping bags, Trav worked on property management stuff until super late, and I made a disgustingly sweet bowl of oatmeal mixed with a packet of Swiss Miss dry instant cocoa and ate it while watching Orange is the New Black, the episode where we find out why Crazy Eyes is in prison, and it seriously upset and disturbed me. It was not a good night.

Now it's the morning, the supposed morning of our departure, and I keep creeping into Trav's office, asking him if he needs any help and when he thinks he might be done. I know I am not actually helping when I do this, but I can't stop. WE NEED TO LEAVE TODAY!! We absolutely, positively need to be in Maine by the 10th because Trav has an important family thing and we have to be there. It's a 40 hour drive to Maine, and if we don't leave today we'll have to rush there and we'll be miserable the entire drive. I'm also trying not to think about the fact that Marshmallow's AC isn't working and Trav fixed it himself using some kind of epoxy, a technique he learned on YouTube.

I think that I'd be sad about leaving Telluride and all of the people and things we love here but I'm too stressed out to think about it. Maybe that's a good thing. SIGH. Until next time friends, we send heaps and bucketloads of love and appreciation and gratitude to everyone who has helped us, hugged us, and wished us well on our journey. Thank you, Telluride. We love you so.
(Now cross your fingers for us! xo)

Toilet Cleaning, Script Writing, and Sailboat Ownership

2/06/2016

When I'm scrubbing various nasty surfaces in my house I like to visit a happy sailing memory, like this one (Hud & Viv conked out in the cockpit after a day of adventuring) to keep me motivated...eyes on the prize.

Song lyrics for my upcoming musical. I still write the old school way-- on paper.

Ok, so the Mason 43 in the BVIs is officially ours now. Hooray! We are in the process of giving her a new name, "Moxie". (Some people say that re-naming a boat is bad luck but we're going to take our chances-- anyways, all the kids are doing it). Travis has been working like a fiend dealing with all of the details of boat ownership: insurance, renting a slip (a place to dock it), hiring someone to inspect and replace rigging, buying and registering an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) and a thousand other things. Thank God he's good at that kind of stuff because I am definitely not.

So what am I good at? Well,, I like to fancy myself a fairly decent writer of plays for children. Lately I've been obsessively writing my final script for the Young People's Theater, Max & Minerva's Magical Machine. It's about the joy and wonder of imagination in childhood and it's pretty much an amalgamation of every glittery, goofy fantasy I've had since I was a little girl.

When I'm not writing, directing, or teaching, I'm up to other glamorous endeavors such as scrubbing the bathrooms of our house. When we decided to take this sailing trip, we examined our budget closely for the first time since...well since EVER. We realized that if we were going to commit to a year plus of traveling we would need to trim the fat off our spending in a serious way. This fat included eating in restaurants, buying new clothing (for ourselves, not the kids, their bodies are growing, after all), and other luxuries such as our cleaning lady. "Cry me a river", you are probably saying, "First world problems!" I know, I know, you are absolutely right. We had been living high on the hog (by our standards), buying things we didn't need and spending money that we didn't really need to be spending. Instead of buying a $12 salad every day in town, I now make my lunch in the morning and bring it to work with me. I ignore the emails from Anthropologie. We stay put on the weekends. I clean. When Hudson first saw me roll out the vacuum he said, "Wow, Mom I've never seen you use THAT before!" Yikes.

Planning for this sailing trip has forced us to put everything into sharp perspective, to examine things much more closely. It's more than about just saving money, it's practicing a new way of living, of focusing on what matters, and also practicing the letting go of things. We feel good when we forego the temptation of an easy, yummy trip to La Cocina at the end of a tiring day and pull out the pans instead. We enjoyed the quiet togetherness of a Thanksgiving "staycation". We're realizing more and more that things we thought we needed were things that were holding us down. I love living frugally and minimally. I'm learning, I'm excited, my back aches from scrubbing baseboards and I've never been happier.