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Week 1: St. Louis or Bust!
Our first week on the road
I can’t believe we did it! We sold our house, packed up our van, and left everything and everyone we know. It was a lot more difficult to leave than I thought it would be.
Table of contents
The House
Ok, let me fill you in on our experience and adventures so far.
I think by the end of this adventure we should be Airbnb pros. 😂 Our Airbnb seems to be in a safe neighborhood but we are in a cul-de-sac and there is way more traffic than you would expect.
The house itself is on the smaller side which isn’t always a problem but the way this one is laid out makes it feel crowded.
All the bedrooms are right next to each out and the doors are loud, so loud that every time someone opens and closes them they wake up everyone else. There is only one bathroom on the main floor and there is a door to it from the hallway and from the master room. Every time a child gets up at night to go to the bathroom I wake up.
The house is more run down than it ever came across in the pictures. The backdoor screen is broken and the screen on the front door is ripped. There is a nice deck out back but it hasn’t been taken care of in a long time and the furniture out there needs some cleaning.
There is a large basement area with a room of toys for the kids which is really nice but you can see a ton of water stains on the ceiling panels. Even though it works for us, we are glad we are only here for 2 weeks.
I find that having a house that is large enough for us and functions well for us directly correlates to my stress level.
We also have learned pretty quickly that we can’t treat this like a vacation where things are chaotic and you let the kids eat treats and stay up every night. LOL
We have to create routines and a sense of normalcy or it’s stressful for everyone. Simple things like unpacking the clothes and putting them into a dresser is helpful because I hate living out of a suitcase and never being able to find anything.
The St. Louis Science Center
Our first adventure when we got here was to go to the St. Louis Science Center.
The science center itself is free so it’s a really nice day that doesn’t cost a lot. There are some extras you can pay for. We did purchase tickets for their extra, limited-time, Sue the T. Rex exhibit, which we got discounted with our ASTC membership.
They had a neat area outside where you could see a lot of different plants and there was a section on farming. The kids were able to see how to milk a cow and they sat inside a harvester.
There was a whole section on dinosaurs which Eli enjoyed reading about. Sometimes it’s difficult to learn about dinosaurs in settings like this because the belief behind how old the world is and when dinosaurs were here differ from our Biblical perspective. But we are able to use these opportunities to teach our kids the truth.
We were also able to watch a science experiment where the scientist created different colors of fire by using different materials, like copper. It was a fun show!
The science center seemed on the smaller size for others we have been to, but it is free, so all-in-all it was a fun day.
Fitz’s Root Beer
Yesterday we found a really neat soda bottling company, Fitz’s Root Beer. Fitz’s has two locations in the St. Louis area. They are a restaurant and also a bottling company.
They make their own root beers and you can watch the process of bottling them right there in the restaurant. While we were watching a very nice gentleman gave all of us a free bottle of their famous root beer.
We didn’t try the food though the menu looked amazing, but we did try their famous floats. There were so many options and they were huge and delicious! We also bought a few flavors of soda to try like pumpkin, coffee, orange, and rocket soda.
If you are ever in the area I definitely recommend checking them out! I love finding unique local places like this.
Making Adjustments
Though this has been an adjustment — and I’m sure it will continue to be — it has been a blessing.
Having fewer responsibilities and less things vying for our attention means we have been able to really pour into our kids. I sometimes think we don’t realize how busy we are and how many things we are juggling. We’ve taken away a lot of those things and found we have had time to read to the kids, play games, do crafts, sit and play toys, have tickle fights and more.
I have already witnessed how fast time goes and how fast they grow up. I’m so excited to just be able to spend the next however many months or years making memories and pouring into our family unit.
This adventure won’t always be easy and I’m aware of that but I believe it is absolutely worth the challenges and the hard things.
