Family, Fun & Camping

This is my mom in the van we camped in during my childhood. I absolutely love this picture. It feels like a picture right out of a late 60’s magazine. Mom getting the camper ready for lunch with the family. Is it not the cutest?? When I bought Effie I had all of these little day dreams of what camping with Effie would look like. Me getting the camper ready for lunch with the family. Cool fall mornings with lots of coffee. Watching the leaves fall while sitting around the campfire. Cool evenings eating chili around the campfire. Camping with family and making memories. I love my alone time in her but I was imagining all of the memories Effie had to offer. Several months ago I started planning an October family camping trip. I wanted to see how many family members I could get together at a campground and […]

Feeling Fall 2020

Hello Fall. It’s nice to see you. I love your cooler temps and the beautiful colors you bring to Kansas City. I love the smells your season brings be it an outside fire or all things pumpkin spice. I love this tree just up the street. It’s always the first tree I notice changing colors in the neighborhood. I have continued to eat whole foods and posted my second half of September but was fighting a few blog issues with my post. If you missed it you can now check out my blog post for Day 16-30, Whole Foods. I kept the whole month pretty simple as it reminds me that eating this way is not difficult after you discover what simple meals and staples works best. This year, I love that the fall season means that we are that much closer to this particular year being over. There. I […]

WW BBQ Box Winner!

Congratulations to Kim who seems to love my little Vintage Travel Trailer and kebobs!! Love me a kebob too Kim! After reading through all of the comments, it looks like a lot of other readers enjoy them as well! I’m going to add that to the weekends menu. Yum! “Love your Effy!My favorite thing to grill is kebobs.” Kim Thank you all for your comments and yummy ideas of different things to toss on the grill! I saw some great suggestions and I plan to grill many of them! Winner was randomly selected through “Pick Giveaway Winner”, a plugin offered by WordPress. Have a great weekend! “love the life you live, live the life you love”

Day 1-15, Whole Foods

(Edit: I posted a blog today, then lost the original post and things went all wonky on me!) I’ve been over here eating whole foods for several days now and I thought I’d post the first 15 days. Besides, who wants to read a post with 30 days of food?? Not me! You may not even want to read 15 days of food, but here it is! But first, did you enter the drawing for the BBQ Box? You can find all of the details in my End of Summer Give Away post. Entries will be accepted up until midnight tonight! Winner announced in a blog post tomorrow morning at 8:00 am CT. Good Luck! I am loving all of your BBQ ideas!! Mike and I did a Whole30 (30 days of whole foods and very little processed) for the first time in October, 2015. We both felt great after […]

Day 16-30, Whole Foods

Well……while I feel mentally great about my decision to eat whole foods for 30 days, my body doesn’t feel much different. A little maybe, but not much. Eating this way doesn’t feel like much of a chore and I know I’m only doing my body good, so I’ll continue through the month of October and take this a month at a time. I’ll explain more in my next post this weekend. September was filled with camping trips and organizing over here. Also, I’m now caught up on all of the doctors appointments I’d been putting off. I have clean teeth, had an all over dermatology check, I have an updated prescription for my glasses and I now have contacts!! I can see!! It did take me 3 weeks of trying daily to get my contacts in, but I finally did it! What have y’all been up to? I have a […]

End of Summer Give Away!!

I’m taking a little break from the blog this month, but I miss you all so I thought I’d do something fun! I haven’t done a Give Away here on the blog in F O R E V E R . . . . . . . I love this little corner of my world and I so appreciate EVERY ONE OF YOU for reading, commenting and hanging out here with me. Many of you have been with me for a long time and I appreciate you sticking with me through all of the ups and downs that life has tossed my way (and your way). Your support means so much to me and I hope that I’ve been able to offer you support as well. I feel very fortunate to be a WW Ambassador as they do an awesome job of making us feel appreciated for posting to Social […]

All of My “ist”

Since March I had not been to see any of my “ist”, until recently that is. My last hair cut was in March. My hair felt so damaged. I finally booked an appointment with Anne, my daughter, my cosmetologist. How many of you have been avoiding your “ist” because of Corona? I had and I decided to hit em all up! The oncologist, the gastroenterologist, the optometrist the gynecologist the dentist and next week the dermatologist. Yep, hittin em all. How about you? You seeing all of your “ist”? Fun Stuff I’ve got two camping trips planned for the month of September. My mom has been saying that she wants to camp with me since I bought Effie, so we’re going to give it a go. My mom has a birthday in September, and since camping is one of those safe things we can do, I’m celebrating my mom and […]

Present. Mindful. Happy.

Hi friends and Happy Monday to you all! I’d love to be enjoying that cup of coffee at the lake right now, but I’ll be there again soon enough! I’m sharing a lot here today. I hope with each post you leave feeling encouraged to continue on your own journey, motivated or inspired to try something new and that you leave with a smile on your face. I continue to learn just how crucial all aspects of life are to my health, physically and mentally. My mindset plays such an important part of my overall health as I know it does for most people. I’m focusing on that more and more as I find myself seeking out creative ways to spend time with family, friends and spend time alone on a walk or at the campsite. I’m learning how mindfully being present in those moments with either family, friends or […]

Hi! It’s Me.

Yowza! When I’m not getting here regularly it means one of two things. One. Things really aren’t going well and I don’t know how to put it into words and share. Two. Life is going surprisingly well and unfortunately the blog falls to the bottom of the priority list. It’s Two. Praise the Lord. It’s Two. Life is full and good and I’m doing all I can to make each day feel as normal as possible. Now, that’s not to say I haven’t lost my sh*t a few times over the last couple of weeks with people I disagree with. All of the emotions swirling around right now with people, including myself, can bring out a nasty side. This uncertainty in what our future looks like with the virus, race relations, our countries leader, can be super stressful for all of us. It ain’t easy, I know. I have to […]

Effie, Lari and Little Red

Hi Friends! This post is looooooong. I’ve been enjoying this little trio of mine, Effie the travel trailer, Lari the truck and Little Red. I could say 1,000,000,000 times….Follow your dreams. Chase your dreams. Make them happen. Little Red came first in 2016. I remember friends asking me when I bought Little Red, “Where will you kayak?”. I didn’t have big adventurous plans of rapid rivers or any risky outings. I imagined the great views the kayak might bring me while also getting in a little upper body workout. I had quiet little plans of paddling out to a spot I wouldn’t be able to enjoy otherwise, and floating. I imagined a thermos of hot coffee with me on a cool morning, or a cold drink on a hot afternoon, maybe I’d read a book, maybe I’d just stare at the water or the sky, I just knew I would […]