Taking a Break and a Carol Remake

 I'm going to take a break through New Year's. I found more photos of the house building and it will take me a while to process them for upcoming posts. In the meantime, I wish you the best Christmas, and here is a little poetry for you!

Have you ever wanted to do something and your family just won't cooperate? I wanted to try singing the Christmas Carol, "Ding Dong Merrily on High." I think I first heard it on the '94 Little Women movie. Anyway, I found some music for it and put it in the list of our Christmas Carols. It met with, you know, those things people do when they are uncooperative.

 1 Ding dong, merrily on high!
In heav’n the bells are ringing;
ding dong, verily the sky
is riv’n with angel singing.
Chorus: Gloria, hosannah in excelsis!
Gloria, hosannah in excelsis!

We did okay on the first verse, the chorus was a bit acrobatic but with practice not unattainable.

2 E'en so here below,
let steeple bells be swungen,
And io, io, io,
by priest and people sungen.
Chorus

Here then was a mispronunciation of "io" (which as I understand it is Latin for Joy)...but when it is said as "I-owe" then the confusion starts. I did explain the pronunciation as "ee-oh but then references to Old MacDonald were brought up. Not to mention the archaic past tenses. 

3 Pray ye dutifully prime
your matin chime, ye ringers;
may ye beautifully rhyme
your evetime song, ye singers.
Chorus

Nobody understood "matin chimes." So here I proposed we just leave it at the first verse, but the question was  where does it say there were bells at Jesus' birth? There were plenty more Scripturaly accurate carols to sing instead of ding dong bells. 

Just singing the chorus was out of the question because it takes too much breath to get through it. 

So you see why this song didn't make the list. And I think we need up-beat songs between the slow ones so we don't fall asleep by the 4th verse of some of the others (I won't say which).

But at least the tune could be salvaged, and the next morning I re-wrote the words to be more up-to-date and realistic for modern people:

Ding Dong Merrily I Buy

Words by Elizabeth Humphrey 

 

1. Ding dong merrily I buy;

The cash reg’sters are ringing!

Ding dong! Verily the door

Is throng'd with Cred’tors singing!

Chorus:

Oh, you owe! Oh, you owe!

Oh, you owe! Oh, you owe!

2. E’en so ev’ry year

The credit cards are swipen!

And I-owe I-owe I-owe

Before the presents ripen!

Chorus:

Oh no I owe! Oh no I owe!

Oh no I owe! Oh no I owe!

3. Pray you dutifully Prime

Your frequent Am’zon orders!

Please come beaut’fly on time

Fedex and UPS drivers!

Chorus:

Oh no I owe! Oh no I owe!

Oh no I owe! Oh no I owe!

Bass Descant:

Credit Cards with Higher Int’rest

All Year Long I Owe I Owe I Owe

 -

Perhaps we have become a bit jaded, but the rewritten carol has been put back on the list! If you want to see the original carol, free sheet music can be found at this site, along with other classic carols. I printed many songs out and the music is clear and easy to read. 

I hope my readers have a great rest of the year!

-Lillibeth

 

Making it Work for RV Living part two

 

We were happy with this rig and felt like it served us well. I have a post with a few more modifications and some things we learned in living in it full-time. 

One thing my husband just reminded me of, is always check the awning before you buy. Don't believe the salesman if they say it doesn't need to be seen, it's okay. This one was awful! There are a few things you might see & smell when you open an awning. Mold, , water stains and dripping old brown water, strong vinyl scent, and ripped shreds of vinyl blowing in the breeze. We meant to have it replaced but never got around to it.

 

Under the TV shelf there was a tall, narrow cupboard, rather useless. We saw that the back of this space was a panel with screws, so we peeked inside. Aha-- the water pump. The nice thing was that the pump was a short little thing (and not something we would be using, as we were hooked up to the site water). So we modified that cupboard to make a shelf above the pump, giving us a few more inches to hold things. 

Speaking of site water, you can't have full pressure water going into an RV. You have to have a hose fixture that will let you control the pressure/opening. And of course, always buy the heated hose!

I had to add "Command hooks" everywhere. I didn't want to mess up the walls but we had to have more storage. Thankfully the wallpaper was never damaged by them and they removed cleanly.

There was a huge storage bay under the bunks, and on the other side of the RV. Still there was a storage place needed for all the shoes, boots, and winter coats so we built an outdoor "closet" which was just a narrow shed.

These photos were from right after it was built. We ended up wrapping things and putting coats in bags to hang so it wasn't so pretty when you opened the door! It wasn't spider-or-mouse proof, but with no food in there there wasn't much attraction for mice. It was more often lizards that were attracted to the shed. Still, we didn't want them getting cozy in our things.

We blocked up many passages  in the camper used by mice. This isn't because we had bought a bad RV, it is because no matter how fancy your RV is it will attract mice. Look at every plumbing or electrical chase as a mouse-road. Best to get them all plugged up (we used steel wool) before you have an infestation and a huge clean-up job to do.

RVs are stickers and cardboard inside. Unscrewing things multiple times (like panels to electrical units and such) usually strips the screw-hole. Things scratch up easily, but some things (that I supposed would be ruined) are surprisingly durable.

Though the "sleeps ten" bit was encouraging for our family size, RV water heaters aren't very big. They are "on demand" but only really effective if you use the propane rather than the electric. If we felt that we were running out of propane and needed to use the electric more, we couldn't get many hot showers in a row.  After-dinner mega-dishwashing had to be timed just so or there would be a long delay while we waited for the water to reheat. 

Some propane companies have a smaller (100 gal.) tank they will bring out for RVs. Frankly we should have had a full-sized one because there were times in the winter when the propane truck could not make it out to us, and we were precariously low.

When it rained, if the RV wasn't exactly level everywhere (that is, if anything was warped) there would be a leak at the slide-out. If it snowed, it was a constant battle to keep snow and ice off of the steps and out of the entrance (I needed a fresh stack of towels every few hours to soak up the mess). And in the winter there was the winter insulation skirt that needed to be put around, and fetched when storms blew it away. 

I will never recommend that people live in RVs through the winter. As a matter of fact, I will never recommend that people live full time in an RV at all, unless they have a metal-or-post-and-beam shelter to park it under. If I could advise myself from the future, I would say "Build a GARAGE with a living space in it and don't try RVs!"

I'm trying to remember more tips about living in an RV full time. Maybe more will come out in future posts! 

Making it Work for RV Living part one

So now we had an RV all our own, and obviously we had to modify it to fit our family. I was advised against this from a friend, who was sure it would devalue the RV to add to or take from; but with as many of us as there were, and with our lifestyle, change was necessary. We did these things over the months to make this RV work for us.

 The first thing I did was to clean it. It had been cleaned by the sellers and looked great, but I felt better putting shelf paper down in all the drawers and shelves. I also removed the bullets and crayons in the cracks by the couch (obviously this had been a family hunting season camper). 

 One of the first to go was the DVD player and TV screen. As luxurious as it would be to have them, we homeschool and needed a place for BOOKS!

Next was the microwave. We needed kitchen storage and we don't use a microwave to cook with anymore. Another modification was to not use the gas oven/stove. Partly because I don't like the smell of cooking with propane in a small space, and partly because it seemed to be the favorite haunt of mice. So we put a board on the top of it for extra counter space which was sorely needed. I used slow cookers and a toaster oven for a while in place of these things. Probably not a good idea for the electrical system.

We had the repairman out many times to fix and replace (I'm so happy there are mobile RV services, we didn't have a truck to haul this thing to town!). Electrical problems, water problems... I can't remember now if there were heater problems too. It wasn't because it was a bad quality rig, it is just when you live in one full-time things can get worn out faster . For instance, the electrical system was overtaxed. Partly because the electric line, a beefy thing, was too long to do the power we needed (sorry I can't explain that better). Also because it was asking too much of a holiday camper to be running cooking appliances 3x a day every day for a large family. It could have handled a vacation, maybe, but constantly wasn't a good idea.

 The other modification was the beds. Though the ad said "sleeps ten" it meant ten very short people. The queen-sized bed (which in an RV-speak means short queen) was half on some structure that covered one of the storage bays, and half on an indoor under-bed storage box. There were built-in drawers on each side. We took took out one of the drawers, then took out the storage box under the bed. We sold the mattress and made the space into a twin-xl-daybed.

 Before

 

After. 

Yes it was ugly. And sleeping against that thin wall was COLD. But it made a much longer bed. 

We lost a lot of storage with this modification (you can see the remnants of the storage box above) but there were other advantages. The extra nice one was the floor space! No more crab-walking around the bed!

There was room for a portable crib and a dresser of sorts. (The mini blinds were not in good shape, so we took those off and made some curtains to go in their place. We don't like mini blinds anyway!)

The "dresser" was really just a frame to hold bins. It was one of the first woodworking projects one of my sons built. He also took the wood from the drawer and made a little cart for the kitchen, sort of a mini "island" for some extra space.

Since we were not going to use the camper as a traveling vehicle, we were not worried about adding such furniture to it. If it had been for going on the road, we would have built-in all additions, and made them of lighter materials.

There will be more things I learned about RVs on Friday's post!

Thanksgiving Reading

 image from Graphics Fairy

I just wanted to pop in here to talk about Thanksgiving Day. 

I have been reading out loud for school some books by Governor Bradford and Edward Winslow. Not easy reading, between the language structure and the gobs of business letters. Once you can get to a point of understanding it, though, it is quite interesting. I cannot summarize it well enough, but I will point out a few things that struck me.

Since the time in school that I had learned that the Pilgrims were not the first to make a settlement on this continent, their story has not loomed too large in my mind. They were just one group of many, but of course important because of the principle of freedom of religion they brought with them etc.. In those first-grade  school books they are associated with the construction-paper turkey, funny hats, and some rock they stepped on. And the story of Squanto is told, of course, still teaching us the usefulness of fish fertilizer and corn crops.

I am reading these books for our school history this month to try and find that "First Thanksgiving" feast. I  know that there have been many days of "Thanksgiving" announced by our nation, that were not strictly about the Pilgrims and their harvest, or even food. Was the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving feast  (with turkey)  real or just a legend? We've read up to the year 1623 and somehow we missed it. But I have noticed that the Pilgrims practiced a lifestyle of thanksgiving, when they had something to eat and when they didn't.

We have read of only one good harvest between 1620 and the summer of 1623. This was after barely making it to land (with no mast or sails left), losing half their people to illness that first winter, having a weakened group of workers, and taking time to build a fort for defense.  When the colony did manage to have enough food from that one good harvest, a shipload of un-supplied (and rather useless) men were brought from England and dumped on them to feed. This happened more than once in their story, and of course it always took the harvests and food storage to feed the extra people. The Pilgrims had to beg passing ships for bread, or trade with the Indians for food. Often they had to leave what they bought from the Indians because through various problems with their boat they could not carry it home. Once, another colony miles away somehow mismanaged their own food supply, nearly starved, and had to be supplied by the Pilgrims.

To top off the food problems, the promises of support and supplies from England hardly ever came through. Their main sponsor was a liar, and other sponsors would back out. It often seemed like they were going to be abandoned. If there was still someone sympathetic to their cause back in England, there were enemies  who tried to blacken the colony's name by writing letters of slander. They dealt with two-faced, unprincipled, criminal men and shysters. They wrote home to defend themselves, but it took so long for letters to get across the ocean and I cannot imagine how frustrating it must have been.

Through all their trials, even when extreme measures had to be taken, they would thank God for the outcome. They were often discouraged, and admitted it. They must have felt hopeless many times. Yet, they had an attitude of thanksgiving, giving thanks to God and looking for the good, or at least the lesson learned.

This thankfulness also made them a forgiving, or at least merciful, people I think. They helped out that liar, who abandoned them with hollow promises of supplies, when he was in want. They cared for, fed and defended a neighboring colony of people who were not honorable to the Indians, which behaviour by default would ruin the Pilgrim's honest reputation.  They kept care of Squanto, even though he turned out to be a disappointment to them and a detriment to their peace with the surrounding tribes. 

(You can read about Squanto here for yourselves. I'm glad that Squanto helped out with the corn, but I'm sad that he wasn't quite the friend through and through we all thought he was. And I'm upset that we don't hear more about Massasoit's right-hand-man Hobbamock [you can read about Hobbamock here], who should be getting a lot of credit in history books for his help. I don't remember hearing about him in the early curriculum that I went through. I think that history writers for little kids must think that "Squanto" is more fun to say when you are five or six... maybe they decided that since Hobbamock's name means "devil" that they wouldn't include him. Anyway, at least this year my children are learning about a loyal man named Hobbamock!)

I think we finally found when the Pilgrims had an "official day of thanksgiving" in 1623,  but it was after fasting & prayer (it was amazing to us that they announced a fast, when they were regularly starving as it was). There was a terrible drought at the time, and they were petitioning God for rain. When He sent rain, they declared an official Thanksgiving. 

 It is lovely to have a feast to celebrate the concept of Thanksgiving, and have a time set aside to be thankful. We say a prayer for the food and feel thankful for it. We are thankful to gather with our family. I know that this "thankfulness" for our meal would mean more if we had to suffer as the Pilgrims did, and it is worth remembering what they went through. For ourselves, perhaps we need to recall the trials we have been brought out of by the Lord's mercies, and thank Him for that specifically.

 There is a great lesson in all this, and it is one I am still learning. I hope someday I can be a thankful person in everything and at all times!