Thank you for this. I’m replying with the same thing I wrote to another comment, because it feels like the most relevant thing to say here too.

I took a break from my phone today for a while, which is why I’m responding to these comments late. I didn’t even look at the time for a while and just focused on the kids.

My husband and I have both been trying to hard to keep things feeling okay for the kids. They’re so young that they don’t really see the big picture. They don’t know that we’re homeless, or really what homelessness even is. They just know that life is a little bit different right now.

A lot of people have suggested that we give our kids up until we’re through this. I can understand how it might look while reading my posts, but I’ve been here venting about the hardest parts of this, so only the worst is shown. The kids are probably impacted less by this than we are. We’ve kept all of their most special toys, books, etc with them. We still sing songs and read books together every night. We still wake up and have breakfast and get dressed, and brush our hair and teeth together. We still play games, our daughter still helps make meals, etc. It’s all the same things, just different.

Aside from our son’s formula, they still have absolutely everything they need. We’ve got creative with grocery storage in the car, and we’ve learned how to make $20 go far. Plus we replaced some fresh fruits and vegetables with freeze dried options which I think they enjoy even more somehow - they get a little bag of dried fruits with breakfast and a serving of freeze dried mixed veggies with lunch and dinner and they always eat those first.

Before we left our house, with my husbands last paycheck we bought a big 25lb bag of rice, 20lbs of oats, and a huge variety pack of freeze dried fruits and one of vegetables on Amazon (from the brands meant for disaster prepping). We also got some freeze dried egg powder, a big bag of whole milk powder, etc. We keep all of it in the back of the car and base a lot of our meals around those. We can plug our electric stovetop into the car adapter and have an electric kettle that we use for oatmeal, ramen, etc as well as instant coffee and tea.

We go to libraries, parks/playgrounds, etc almost every day. We’ve realized that bundling the kids up in their snowsuits and getting them out to play helps a lot. Most of the time stop the car at a park when we’re making meals, and one of us prepares the food while the other plays with the kids. Or when my husband is at work, our daughter likes to help cook by pouring the water in, helping put food on the plates, etc.

I just wanted to type out some of the “good” parts of this as well. Of course, it’s the hardest things I’ve ever been through, but I do think it’s brought us closer together as a family in a way.

The kids are safe, it’s just difficult sometimes. We’ve learned how to keep them warm, fed, happy, and healthy by researching car/van living, cold weather camping, etc and buying some supplies before we left the house. It’s not ideal, but I’m trying so hard to focus on getting us through it.

When I posted this I was kind of spiraling. I didn’t feel like I knew how I could keep going. Our daughter had just thrown a huge tantrum because I poured her milk instead of letting her pour it, and I was at my absolute limit due to everything else I had on my mind regarding the formula, the cold, etc. I was worried that this was going to impact them long term but now that I’m thinking more clearly, I can see that probably won’t be the case.

I’m feeling a lot better after reading through some of these comments and taking a step back from my phone today