Oh The Sacrifices

So I went a little crazy today. On a rampage if you will.

I went nuts in the house and decided that if we are going to live on a boat, then we have to get rid of a ton of our superfluous belongings. Well... Nick and I had already come to this conclusion, but I decided I was ready to take action and begin the purging process!

A couple of weeks ago, I had already gone through all my clothes and bagged up half of them. Nick didn't have much to begin with, and well Addison... that girl owns more clothing than Nick and I combined. However, she grows so fast that she has already outgrown most of them. Score!!

Today I set my sights on clearing out as many cupboards as I could. Come to find, I have way more lotion than necessary (oops) and enough shampoo to last me at least 6 months (another oops). Seems I forget to look under the sink before I go buy more shampoo. Mistake number 1! How can I possibly fit 10 bottles of lotion on a boat??! I can't. Ha! Looks like I have plenty to use before I need to buy another bottle of moisturizer!

The few items I will have a hard time parting with will be the things my dad built for me. The most near and dear thing he built for me would be the kitchen set I received for Christmas when I was 4 or 5 years old. I don't remember what year it was, but I instantly fell in love with it! It's yellow with a ton cupboards and painted paint can lids as the stove burners. It has a silverware drawer and a separate island countertop. It's amazing! Addison has it in her room right now. That's probably the only thing I will be upset to have to part with. I will try to get someone to hold on to it for me. I want to keep it in the family! Anything else is pretty trivial.

As for my baking equipment... well. I suppose I can part with my kitchen aid mixer. It's gorgeous, but it takes up far too much room. Shame, really. I guess a pastry blender is going to have to do, because there is no way I am going to discontinue baking!! That's one of the few things I am good at! (I am a perfectionist... I know. That's my saving grace when it comes to the science of baking though.) But the cookbooks I am not budging on. Those are coming with us!

What makes me laugh, frankly, would be the comments we receive from people about our desire to be liveaboards. People that haven't met me ask Nick what I am going to do with all my clothes. They ask me what we are going to do with the dogs. They are coming with us! How are we going to raise Addison on a boat? Plenty of people have done it! I had an interesting childhood, I'd like Addison to have the same. What's wrong with going against the grain and doing something that's not considered the "norm"? Riddle me that!! What are we going to live off of? Well... I'd rather not answer that question, because I am not entirely sure at the moment, but I am sure we are clever enough to think of something!

So I guess the moral of the story is that we are not your average, "run of the mill" people. We strive to make ourselves better, like most others, but in a different way. We see life in a different light. We want to be explorers, pirates, sailors. Naïve? You may think so. I'd prefer to think of it as a love of life and the desire for an intricate relationship with the world around us. I want to share that desire with my daughter. What's so bad about that?