It was our last official day in the RV when I started this blog post (so if you were waiting until the last moment to buy this thing, you're now going to have to purchase from a different state), and I was sitting with a cat in my lap watching the dawn light stretch the tree shadows long and slim while using my cell phone hotspot to access blogger because our internet decided our last week in the RV was the most appropriate time to crap out on us. Really, it wasn't wrong.

It's that time of year: the time when my favorite neighbors have already packed up and moved out and I proceed to start freaking out about our own move. The time when the Man goes into planning hyperdrive, and I start purging everything in sight.

Love is patient; love is kind... but all the togetherness of social isolation has some of us losing our minds. So let me give you a picture of what love can look like when you're trapped with your spouse in a small space for weeks on end…

One year ago today, I piled the kids and the pets back in the car (and what I considered to be as much stuff as could reasonably fit in an RV) and drove eight hours south to rejoin the Man and begin our RV adventure.

For those of you wondering how to pull off a festively decorative Christmas while in an RV, the answer is minimalism. I think. I'm still working it out.

Before we get any deeper into Advent, I need to do some November catch up on the blog. This is my favorite time of the year (even when I don't have time to update the blog). I love Thanksgiving: the scent of pumpkin candles, the nip in the air, that one vine full of bright red leaves (thanks for providing autumn color for me, Florida).

I used to think that, as a stay at home mom, there wasn't much difference between a regular day and a weekend. The same messes were made; the same messes were cleaned up. The early mornings continued, regardless of any attempts for late night fun. The same meals had to be cooked; the same laundry thrown in; the same discipline issues worked on. And then I started homeschooling.

I have always said that parenting five children is typically ends up along the lines of survival of the fittest. I have grown very good at being flexible and letting things go and knowing which things I should prioritize. But today, I faced the homeschool mom's worst fear: I was stabbed by a pencil. And suddenly, I realized that my parenting philosophies have shifted in the last few months.

I thought I'd come back and give you guys proof of our gardening labor this year. Some aspects of our garden turned out heartier than others. For example, our lavender plant is going stronger than any of us ever expected. Especially Littles, who was convinced that I'd already killed it before we even transplanted it over to the raised beds. Pessimist.

Our first week of school happened to coincide with a lovely head cold, but you know what they say about homeschool moms: can't stop, won't stop! Except I totally have stopped more than a couple times and pretended that the kids were at a real school instead of just rampaging on the other side of the RV while I took a cat nap.

Is it just me or is there something about parenting that makes you want to hide in your bathroom at the end of a long day and just get to read a good book and possibly poop in peace? Five minutes, that's all I ask of you. Just five minutes to regain my sanity.

I'm enriching the soil of Fam Camp one dumped French press of used coffee grounds at a time. By the time we leave here, it will have been transformed from a sandy wasteland to a rich, tropical paradise.

So, how do you fit 7 people and 3 pets into less than 400 square feet of space?

Telling people that you're living in an RV...with five kids...while homeschooling...is almost as much fun as telling people that your husband is deploying...and you're pregnant again...with twins.

The problem with being a slow processor is that when life happens at too great a pace, things pile up before I get the brain space to write about them. Then I feel overwhelmed and decide to never update the blog again.