Our marina is a neighborhood within a neighborhood. When people ask where we live, I still pause slightly before answering. According to our mail, we live in Charlestown, a Boston neighborhood. According to my mind, our neighborhood is Constitution Marina itself. There are around one hundred boats with full time liveaboards here, including nearly a dozen kids.

There’s no such thing as a typical day in our life. Schedules vary according to season, homeschool routines, Alex’s work schedule, and our own ever changing whims. This is a fair representation of how we roll.

Here on Goblin, we’re enjoying a quiet, low key summer.

Kinsley has always adored playing with small parts. Sorting screws, bolts, and other hardware, picking up pebbles when we go for a walk, pouring dried beans, the smaller the pieces the better.

There are years when spring bursts upon us all at once. We move quickly from winter coats, long underwear, beef stew and electric blankets, right into shorts, popsicles, pools and gardens with barely time to catch our breath. This is not one of those years. A day or two of warmth followed by rain and gray. One more day of sun and three more cold gray days. We are doing our best to celebrate the little things, regardless of the weather.

Books and games, games and books. If we brought all the ones we love, Goblin would be riding a few inches lower in the water.

Goblin came with a microwave. The thirty year old machine has sat, unused, hulking in the corner of the galley, taking up space since we moved aboard. I stored baking dishes and measuring cups in it but otherwise, it was a dead space corner of the kitchen.

My kids don’t close doors.

I hate winter. No, that’s not exactly right. I hate having to get up and go out and get things done during the winter. The gray days and cold weather drag at me. If I could get away with doing nothing more than baking and snuggling under quilts with a good book, I might change my opinion of winter. Unfortunately, I have two kids who disagree with my plan for full hibernation.

We’re finally prepped for the winter under our bubble.