I never posted these pictures from before Ember was born, so I thought I'd post them now. 

Lots of sanding, painting, washing, and organizing!

With a baby in the house - especially a baby in cloth diapers - we go through laundry detergent like it's going out of style. 

I met someone recently who shared this recipe for homemade laundry detergent with me. It uses all natural pure soaps, although it's not an organic recipe (I hope to experiment with one in the future). 

Well, the Nomadic Powers have actually moved into a place. And signed a lease (VERY hard for us to do). A short-term lease, but a lease nonetheless. Can you believe it? We moved in in September, so we could have a couple months to get settled before baby came. A 2-bedroom townhouse, one office and one bedroom. It's been working out great so far, plenty of room to spread out while we figure out this whole parenthood thing...

We had planned on living in Harvey when we found out we were pregnant. Then we still planned on living in Harvey, convinced that we didn't need to actually live in a place to have a kid. We talked about where she could sleep, where we could change her dirty diapers, etc... Maybe we could build her a crib on the bunk. But would that look too much like a caged animal at the zoo? These are the conversations we were having.

So we decided that in the first few months of Ember's life, it would be best to live somewhere stationary, to have plenty of room to get used to becoming parents without the additional learning curve of living on the road. And maybe we would revisit that idea in the future.

Well, she turned 2 months old yesterday, and this morning we did just that - talked about the possibility of moving into the RV when the weather gets warmer. I'm still processing everything, all the details of being a mother, wife and homemaker in a 21-ft RV, with limited space (probably an understatement) and a whole new set of challenges. But we can't escape the fact that we constantly feel like a fish out of water - regardless of the city in which we live.

I'm sure we will be chastised for even thinking of attempting this lifestyle with a baby - I fully expect that we will. But I feel like we've been making decisions that are "expected" and culturally acceptable, and are realizing more and more each day that we don't fit in to that mold. And we both are energized by the fact that we could be raising our daughter to live a simple lifestyle focused on family, travel, and experiences.

I'm not sure how long we would actually live in Harvey full-time, but I'm excited to make that our goal for a little while. We have several pieces that still have to fall into place, so nothing is set. But the thought of shooting for that is enough to excite me. :)