Welcome To my adventure with my family

Life is Better When We’re Simply Together

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  • Little House Tour #1

    Little House Tour #1

    Hello! The little house is finally here and most of the bits and pieces are in place enough to start sharing it with you guys. We’ve been in here since just after Thanksgiving so the month has been a whirlwind of projects, from ripping out the original toilet and the bulk of our kitchen cabinets,…

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  • Bed Time!

    Bed Time!

    Hello! It’s been a true grey PNW winter so far, though the temperature has mellowed enough that Spring feels right around the corner. Of course Spring this year will bring us a little more than April showers, May flowers, etc. which means we’ve got a lot of work to do before new baby D-Day arrives!…

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Latest Articles

  • Delicious Downsizing

    Delicious Downsizing

    It is midway through January and I’m poking around in pantry which, in tiny house parlance, means the wire IKEA rack of pull out drawers, two apple crates turned on their sides, and a (mostly) hidden stack of costco-sized granola bar boxes behind the chair upon which I’m currently sitting. I wrote about how a…

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  • Farewell 2022!

    Farewell 2022!

    So I saw this article about slingshots a month or so ago and it seemed an apt metaphor for where we’re at as our family shifts from this calendar year to the next. I am currently teaching 8 and 9 year olds, so slingshots during our nature walks have been a constant request that I…

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  • It’s Been a Minute

    It’s Been a Minute

    2018 bowled me over, 2019 brought change, 2020 and 2021 were Pandemic Panoplies, and 2022 is in its final days. So much has happened and yet so much is also still the same. The Big People remain the same crew, though Stella is indeed bigger at 6 years old. Our two massive tiny house cats…

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  • Do I Need to Have a Brand in Order to Post?

    Do I Need to Have a Brand in Order to Post?

    Stella is off to summer camp, which means I actually got BORED for the first time in… a long time. I’m a big list person and, like most days, I made for myself a to-do list and got to it during the wee hours. Turns out, when one is not interrupted by the need to…

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About Me

Hi, My Name Is Val

For the past 10 years, my husband and I have been living small, first in an RV, then a park model tiny house, and now a sailboat. Our daughter joined us 7 years ago and has had a pretty magical, nature-filled childhood thus far. Simplifying our lives, valuing experiences over things, and living sustainably are all key factors in this lifestyle choice and the three of us have all reaped the benefits. I began journaling as a kid and blogging almost 20 years ago— writing is definitely a way I process! In the past few years, my posting has waned as blogs turned to social media and then those accounts became more and more specialized. I wanted to write about my adventures, but I found it too challenging to focus solely on one aspect. I also felt the pressure to portray “a way of life” rather than just my life as it is, messes and all.

So this time around, I’m just going to write about what is true for me, sometimes for me and my family, as we move through the world in this unique way. Living small, sometimes on a boat and sometimes in a tiny house, is a big part of our lives but it’s not the only thing. Don’t look here for tutorials on boat repair projects or reviews on which is the best composting toilet— I’m just going to share a window into my world.