I had a toasty Saturday cruising the town, I headed up toMcKinney for their weekly farmer’s market at Chestnut Square.
I didn’t spend all my money at the market, just picked up a bunch of lavender (which I’m attempting to dry and it’s shedding all over our dining table, but gosh it smells good) and some yummy mango drinkable yogurt from Lucky Layla Farms.
Here are some more pics from the day…
Chestnut Square………
Downtown McKinney…
I also stopped by Jacob’s Reward Farm to pay Cindy a visit and got to say hi to her new alpaca boys. They are less then a year old and just so darn cute, still a little skiddish, but will soon warm up to their new home and barnmates. You can check out some funny videos and her updates on the farm on her blog, http://www.jacobsreward.blogspot.com/. She’s even started recording a podcast, so check that out too. She’s a wealth of knowledge and it’s been fun to pick her brain on some things. I hope to visit her world again soon and give Jeff the official tour.
Crissa’s Closet , a women’s consignment shop run by Hope’s Door, Plano women’s shelter. Designer clothing at less then $10, and your cash goes to a good cause, who can beat that? Much of my excess clothing that was weeded out last year has made a home there too.
Currently reading: Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest’s Most Controversial Season, next up are Truck and Population: 485 by Michael Perry, just finished Farewell My Subaru by Doug Fine,http://www.dougfine.com/ , (a must read!)
Take it easy, stay cool, I think we’ll be hitting the 100 degree mark here next week, thank God for air conditioning………….
Alright, I’m back to the blogging world. Today’s goal is to get some photos from the past few weeks uploaded, so I thought I’d start with our recent trip to Arkansas. We headed up to Hot Springs last week to stay for a few days and explore one of our favorite states. Our stay at the Lake Hamilton Resort was, well, interesing. You would definitely want to hang out there if your decor preference leans towards mauve and lots of it! It was a little outdated, BUT it perfectly fit what we needed for a few days. It was clean, very roomy, allowed pets and offered free breakfast every morning, so no complaints here!
We started the trip off with a visit to the Mid-America Science Museum . I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, we all had fun with the hands on projects. Parks and Jeff could have stayed for hours just trying out the earthquake engineering (Lego and Lincoln Log play for big kids!) Then there was the sand pendelum, that was my obsession, it was just so meditative…….. sand………moving………sand……Anyway, we headed up to Petit Jean State Park the next day to do a 2 1/4 mile hike down to Cedar Falls. The falls were roaring! It had been years since Jeff and I had enjoyed the beauty of that place. Parks had a great time on his “adventure” and Jeff even braved the slick rock to take him behind the waterfall. I decided I would just be the dog sitter at that point, and let the explorers do their thing. It was a great workout and just felt so good to get OUT! We also drooled in the museum of automobiles there on Petit Jean mountain. Great collection which included Bill Clinton’s Mustang, one of JFK’s family cars and some of our favorite classic rides. We rounded out the trip with a tourist stop at the Hot Springs Duck Tours. Jeff and I had never ridden the ducks, so we thought why not!? Parks had a good time when the duck hit the water and it was a needed break from a very hot and humid day on the town. Next day’s travel was to West Monroe, LA for a quick visit and to drop off Parks for a week visit with the grandfolks-then back to TX for work for Mom and Dad-ugggh……… Vacations go so darn fast!
Check out the flickr photos from Petit Jean State Park here, Hot Springs here, and our short visit back to West Monroe here. Also, I uploaded some fun birthday party pics of Parks from last month at the Frisco Horse Park. Goats and horses aplenty! Check out the party pics here.
More blogs to come soon- maybe even a book post, we have been making more time to read lately……………
I started really getting into photography after my son was born. It’s become a fun hobby and I would like to improve and learn some new skills over the summer. I’m always on the lookout for seminars or workshops for amateur photographers, so let me know if you ever hear of one! Right now, I just enjoy getting out and shooting and seeing what I come up with. My best buddy Leigh Ann turned me on to a really cool website full of giveaways and photo tips: http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/ She has some other categories as well, like cooking and homeschooling, but since I do neither of those I just focus on her photo stuff. Ree’s funny and laid back and non-intimidating-my fav things in a woman! I’m very lucky that my dude Parks loves getting his picture taken, so he’s a very willing subject. Here are some photos of my little wildflower being silly in the wild bluebonnets.
By the way Happy Mother’s Day to you mom’s out there! I count everyone who’s ever held something under their wing, even you doggie moms!
Here are some blogs I try to keep up with of other moms I truly love! (I’m sure I’m forgetting some, please forgive me!)
Gotta love some Tracy Chapman when you just feel the need to stop pretending that everything our lives is perfect. I’ll just keep it real and let her do the talking ………..
All you folks think you own my life
But you never made any sacrifice
Demons they are on my trail
I’m standing at the crossroads of hell
I look to the left I look to the right
There’s hands that grab me on every side
All you folks think I got my price
At which I’ll sell all that is mine
You think money rules when all else fails
Go sell your soul and keep your shell
I’m trying to protect what I keep inside
All the reasons why I live my life
Some say the devil be a mystical thing
I say the devil he a walking man
He a fool he a liar conjurer and a thief
He try to tell you what you need
Try to tell you what you need
Standing at the point
The road it cross you down
What is at your back
Which way do you turn
Who will come to find you first
Your devils or your gods
All you folks think you run my life
Say I should be willing to compromise
I say all you demons go back to hell
I’ll save my soul save myself
Written by Tracy Chapman http://www.tracychapman.com/ (if you haven’t checked our her site in a while, click on it-you can color her web page!!!!!)
I’m trying to catch up with some happenings from April- maybe I’ll be done by July! Parks got a really cool bubble blower from the Easter Bunny, so we had some bubble fun that afternoon. It must have been a really humid day(imagine that) because the bubbles just kept hanging out in the air. It gave me time to take some photos of them floating around doing their bubble thing. The sunlight or the bubble mix was just right because they were crazy iridescent, no Photoshop edits I promise! Aside from the fact I don’t have PSE on my computer at this very moment, I’m not skilled enough to do anything cool without hours of staring at the computer clicking around wondering what might happen. Just plane jane nature at it’s best. Anyway, Parks was more interested in making the bubbles and then whacking at them with the blower, some form of bubble fighting I guess. Such a boy! You can check out the pics from that day on flickr here.
So, though the experience might not be as thought provoking or entertaining as a 30 Days episode with Morgan Spurlock, we are happy to report that have made it to our one month mark living in the RV! Probably the only major thing I have regretted is not labeling some of our storage boxes better. We made sure not to load the bus down in the beginning, but now I can’t remember where some things might have ventured off to. But for the most part, we haven’t missed extra clothes, shoes, and other random stuff. Just another reminder of what is TRULY important………………..
So, I sort’ve have an addiction to e-newsletters. Ok, I DO have an addiction to e-newsletters. I sign up for them all the time, mostly because I know I’ll lose touch with a lot of really cool websites that I run across. Because of that, my email box is full of stuff I’ll never get a chance to read that just go straight to trash. BUT, there is one that I read every time it pops in my inbox. It’s the Local Harvest update for my Plano area ( I’ve added Boulder,CO to that list just for laughs and giggles.) I totally recommend checking this website out and signing up for an email notification of events around you, like farmer’s markets, gleaning groups, CSA’s, and local farm happenings.
Anyway, there aren’t a ton of events or postings that show up around DFW, but a couple of weeks ago I noticed a posting that was right up my alley! Cindy from Jacob’s Reward Farm in Parker had invited some of her shareholders and friends to an Easter egg hunt at the farm. I quickly emailed her to check things out and she was so gracious to have Parks and I come as visitors. The weather turned out perfect and Parks got his candy fill for the day. He didn’t want to leave, he could have just chilled with the chickens all day. (Well, he mostly heckled them……especially after one laid an egg!) We got to see their sheep, Shadrach and Zacheaus, Lucy the ewe, the baby lambs and the alpacas too. (Forgive me, I can’t remember all their names. ) After some of the guests had left, he was able to feed the donkeys, Aaron and Moses. He loved every minute of it.
Cindy also showed me her cool knitting studio. I’m not a knitter, but I sure do have some friends that would have totally gone crazy! Maybe I’ll go take a class w/her one day. Check out her website here, http://jacobsreward.com/index.htm and her blog, http://www.jacobsreward.blogspot.com/ where she posts all kinds of fun things happening at the farm. Parks and I will definitely have to go back and maybe next time drag Jeff there and put him to work!!!! Footnote-Poor Jeff was slaving away that day at our storage room organizing it so we could actually get to stuff!
Click on the lamb pic above to see photos from the farm hunt, for eggs that is.
I apologize I haven’t been updating our blog with more then just a couple of sentences lately. We’ve been crazy-busy packing and moving our belongings into storage so that we could finally call our bus home for a while. And no, before you get too excited wondering if we have hit the road, I have to tell you that we are staying put in TX for now. This is where we’ve been placed for the time being and I’m guessing there are many reasons for that (not that I know all of them). But what I do know is that this transition to smaller living has been easier then I ever dreamed it would be. Having only owned one vehicle between the two of us for almost a year, selling alot of our “stuff” last summer, and just knowing that this move would get us closer to our goals just prepared us for our jump into tiny house living.
This is our third week in the bus and the time has really flown. We’ve both been amazed at how natural it feels to be living this way. I think I’ll just list some reasons that we’ve come up with so far:
Living in such a small space requires everyone to do their part, so there is no being lazy about anything. It makes us take responsibility for everything we do, whether that’s taking care of the dog, making sure items are picked up and put away everytime they are used, taking out our small bags of trash and dumping the recycling when it gets full, and monitoring our use of hot water (we only have a 6 gallon hot water tank). We are so much more aware of the requirements of simpler living. Either use it, reuse it, recycle it, or don’t buy it in the first place! This bus has great storage, but there is no room for excess. RV’ing is the perfect example of conserving resources like water and electricity and I will talk more about that in a future post. It has been a joy for me to be able to work by natural sunlight in my new “office.”
Another major thing we’ve learned is that this life all about living purposefully and realizing that everything you do and what type of attitude you have doing it affects the people you live with in a major way.We also get outside so much more then we ever did living in our duplex. Yes, we had a backyard, but we also had everything we needed inside too, so the yard was never a very enjoyable place to be. Now, out of necessity, the outdoors becomes your kitchen, your play area, and somewhere to get some fresh air and exercise. Marley’s happier when she gets exercise, and so are we, because after working desk jobs all day, we need the walks way more then she does. Parks loves to tag along with his bike and is loving our little patio area. It’s the perfect place for him to hang out with his trucks and rocks, his dream!
So, that’s in a nutshell what we’ve been experiencing so far this month. Of course, the summer may bring a whole new twist to this experience, but as of right now we will enjoy this cooler spring weather while we can. I’ll also be adding some more pics to the bus set, click on the pic above to see the current set of photos I’ve posted on our Flickr. Just wanted to at least get a quick update out about the move. I also have some Easter egg hunt pics from Jacob’s Reward Farm in Parker, TX still to post and will blog about some other topics I’ve been wanting to chat about.
Young artist at work….Parks drew this picture of a “monster” the other day, it just made me smile, so I thought I’d post it. I love the little feet and the eyes and the sweet ideas of a 4 year old mind…..
