There are many reasons why I decided our family needed a New Life, and what better way than to get by living in a Motorhome. I have shared before that our family needed something different to happen as we were falling apart. We were all living and existing but we were not a family.
Our Family Are Not Your Average Family
Our boys are loud, they fight, they scream and they really are very boisterous. If they don’t get what they want, then watch out! They also let me know when they are upset with me…so yes I am not the Perfect Mum but then I have never ever said that I am.
I came home from work one day and I just knew that we were losing our boys. Our older two had their own life, and never ever joined our family for anything. The other three were so busy with school, after school activities, and were drifting apart. Even David and I were too busy for each other.
Yep our family was not the family that I thought we would be when we got married and started having children. Damn no one gave us the instruction booklet to tell us how to raise our sons…so we were drowning in life.
Home is now wherever our Motorhome is!
David and I did agree on one thing and that was wanting to travel Australia. We wanted to show our boys more about life, and tp see if they could grow close together. David wanted to travel Australia for 12 months in a TENT!
Now let’s clear something up right here right now. I. Am. Not. A. Camping. Girl.
Can you imagine camping with five boys around Australia? Not my idea of a fun time.
So the compromise was buying a Motorhome from eBay.
Our number one main reason why we sold our house was because we didnt want our kids to go to highschool in the area that was not far from where we lived. We had sent our older two to the Highschool and we heard what was going on, and that was in a private highschool! (scary stuff).
Here is an video of kids in that area where our boys were going to highschool. This was our number one reason why we sold – these could easily have been our boys!
Here are 17 Reasons Why I Bought A Motorhome:-
1. I wanted to live “Outside The Box” and teach my boys more about life experiences. Instead of living in a house, cleaning all day long, I wanted to show them a different way of living.
2. A Motorhome seemed like a great way to have a roof over our head. Where we get to live outside the box. Yes I should have done a bit more research and brought one that was a bit bigger, and one that had four bunkbeds. But I so love the history of our Motorhome.
I was searching for Harmony for our family.
Harmony for our family to get along!
3. I liked the idea of keeping dry while travelling. As well as cool. I don’t think that we would have coped living in a Tent for long periods of time. Well maybe we would have, but I guess that we will never know anymore!
4. David is very clever with building so I knew that he would transform our Motorhome from being old/worn out to a “New Life”. That is how this website was born.
5. I wanted our boys to realise how fortunate they are. They live in a “Lucky Country” and I wanted them to realise that by living and travelling they will experience more then reading in a class room.
6. Our Motorhome is small. That is perfect for us, as we don’t have to spend all day cleaning. All day cleaning a HUGE old Queenslander for our boys to come home and trash it within five minutes. How come my boys know how to make a mess but don’t know how to clean it up?
7. David and I get to spend more time with each of our boys. That was one of our main objective of purchasing a Motorhome – we wanted quality time with our boys. We knew (after losing our older son to his career) that we have limited time with each of our boys!
Our youngest is able to play and explore all day long!
8. We have been on a huge learning curve. One where I have been reading lots of self discovery books, personal development books, and how to be more happy. I don’t think that I would have changed the way we are raising our boys if we were still in a House. Even renting a house – we still were living a life where we not being good for each other.
9. We get to clean up the House quickly, and then we head out the door to go to the beach, the local attractions, the parks, the lookouts in the area or the shopes. We try to spend more time “Being” instead of “existing”
10. We are discovering new places that we didnt even know existed. We have been exploring local places such Wappa Dam, Dunethin Rock, Bli Bli Castle, Barrumundi Fishing Park, Maroochy River, and Peregian Markets. We used to drive past most of these places, but never thought to experience them!
11. Our boys are learning more about each other than they thought possible. Being in such a small space they have to learn to get along – there is no other option! They still fight, and still are really loud, but they can’t continue from one end of the Motorhome to the other end as there is no where to go!
These lounges are my all time favorite – David did such a good job with making them…they took forever because the steel has to be strong enough to withstand anything and everything when driving down the road!
12. We have learnt to dream bigger. Our boys have seen how much has come into our life since we lived in our Motorhome. Winning a trip to Melbourne, organic soap pack, Donna Hayes DVD, $30.00 on the lottery at New Years Eve, a coolmat (more about that soon!) and many other things that will be coming our way!
13. Since we moved into our Motorhome, and got rid of most of our stuff, we have realised what we do need to live with. We only need clothes, and things to cook with plus somewhere to sleep. When you think about it – all you need is water, food, clothes, sleep!
14. We are learning (the hard way) to treasure the most important things in life. We no longer worry about the small things. We want to focus on the bigger important things in life. Our mindset has changed, and we no longer have time in our day to be worried about things that don’t matter.
15. I am learning about having more patience in life. Instead of wanting things done like yesterday, I am learning to appreciate what we have, and say thank you for all that we are going to have.
16. Both David and I are changing our parenting skills. That is a on going learning process, one that I think will change from week to week. We are learning how we want our boys to know that we care, and that love them.
Here is our boys! They wanted to play “Restling” games – everytime I asked them stop (incase they got hurt!) they kept on telling me that they were only “Pretend Playing” and all was fine….gosh this picture doesn’t look like they are fine!
17. We were be forever travelling. We have the bug. If we don’t have our Motorhome (For whatever reason) we will have something to travel in. We don’t have a set date to stop travelling…..nor do we want to return to a HUGE house again. Maybe a small apartment or a small townhouse. One where we don’t have to worry about the yard and the maintenance involved with all of that.
These are 17 reasons why we bought a Motorhome. There are at least another 100 reasons why we brought a Motorhome. It was mostly to help our family become a family!
We love our New Life, our New way of living. We so wished we had thought to do this years ago!
Would You Sell Everything And Live Outside The Box?
Cheers
Lisa
New Life on the Road
Well I couldn’t do it, but that’s why I follow great families like you guys to see how it works. You never know if one day you’ll inspire me to give up my house for a life on the road.
Love the pictures of the boys wrestling. They’re right though, that’s exactly how boys play!
Steve recently posted..How I Met Your Mother
Hi Steve,
Its funny how rough our boys play – yet when I step in they tell me off 🙂
I couldnt do a big house again – such a waste of time…with cleaning it all! i could easily live in a small place over looking water – as long as it had a bath tub!
Cheers
Lisa
Oh, this is great. We did 9 months in a jayco and 4wd. Around Australia. I really loved it and really miss it. It was the last time I was truliy relaxed. We skipped Vic and Tassie so might just have to go around again. This time I’d like a bus, but maybe with a tow vehicle.
Love the couches too!
Jill. GoingAnyway recently posted..Equivocation, landlines and first time obedience
Hi Jill,
Oh I so love your blog! I jumped on over last night and was showing hubby what you and your amazing family is doing! Love that you are travelling with your family and back packing. How incredible your stories are.
We cant wait to head to Western Australia – and then we would like to do Thailand next.
Looking forward to following your journey.
Cheers
Lisa
I think what I like most about your blog is that you’re so transparent about learning as you go. Love it!
Mick recently posted..Travel Photo: White Sand Beaches in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Thanking you heaps Mick for your kind support.