Maggie May

Maggie May
Maggie May

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Tricks We Have Discovered for Full-Timing Storage

Please please...no comments on our housekeeping from the peanut gallery but I thought I would post some photos of our storage solutions since we have some RV'rs following our blog. The first photo is our kitchen cabinet. It contains all of our glasses, cups, wine glasses, dinnerware, casserole dishes, and storage containers. In the bottom cabinet to the left sits three colorful collapsible mixing bowls from Target. They are great for mixing, storing, serving and microwave use. We also use the collapsible colander, measuring cups, loaf pan and muffin pan. Attached to the inside of the door is a gizmo that holds a few spices. We also use these "gizmo's" in the bathroom cabinet to secure our medicines. Our goal is to have to reposition very little when we move to a new destination! The second photo is our kitchen table. We use the toaster oven almost daily because it is actually bigger than our "Easy Bake" oven that came in the motor home. On top of the toaster oven is our spices and a trivet/basket. The trivet/basket is a homemade carved gift from our friends and it serves as a trivet for hot plates or a basket to hold produce or serve bread. On the bench seat to the left are two metal baskets for holding produce. I plan on buying another Ikea magnet to mount the produce baskets on the wall. There is storage under the bench cushions which houses our dogfood, juice boxes for the grandkids and our winter clothing in Space Bags! The third photo is of a little wooden table that slides under a chair or sofa to serve as an end table, sewing table, card playing table and serving table as well as a magazine rack. Sorry, it's a lousy picture. Under the front window sits two containers from Ikea which house the kid's toys when they are nearby. They both fold flat for storage when they are not in use. Next to the toy boxes is a hassock that I found at Target. We have two of these that we prop our feet up on, and they both open to serve as a tabletop and store games, cameras, batteries, WII controls, etc. The fifth photo is my Navigator chair. You will note that on the huge dashboard we have a rug with a rubber backing on it to protect the dashboard from the sun and to give Maggie something to grip when she tap dances across the front "picture" window. That is Maggie's bed up on the dash so she can watch the world go by. I chose to keep my Navigator's Chair facing out because I liked to watch the bears in Ocala. When we have company I turn my chair around so we have more "conversation" space. The three-shelved desk housing my computer and radio is called an Air Desk. We have two of these and they are MOST USEFUL without taking up much room. If you look closely at any of these photos you will notice that we have 3M Command Strip Hooks hanging everywhere. They hold keys, purses, bear whistles, hats, towels, coats, wash cloths, dog leashes, etc. The list is endless, and they do not leave a mark on the wall when they are removed. The sixth photo is a shoe bag that we have hanging by the front door. It is not the decorator's dream; however, it is extremely useful to hold umbrella's, hand sanitizer, bug spray, fire lighters, dog coats, whisk broom, etc. It is super useful when we are traveling or parked! The seventh photo is one of our under the sink cabinets. We found the cardboard magazine holders from Ikea and turned them on their side to use as foil, Saran Wrap, bag holders. We added extra racks wherever there was vertical space in a cabinet. The eighth photo is a magnetic strip from Ikea holding my knives and a few utensils. It is great. It freed up a drawer and it keeps the knives out of the reach of little hands. The magnet is strong and holds as we drive down the road. The magnet is attached to the wall with heavy duty velcro. Go figure. I plan on purchasing two more magnets for other spaces. They are great. Hanging from my Range Hood are three magnetic boxes that we purchased from Ikea. They have lids to hold some of that little "stuff" that goes flying when you are driving down the road. When I purchase the additional magnets I will use these metal boxes to store sundries in the bathroom. You can also purchase small metal spice containers at Ikea to hang on these magnets. The ninth photo is my side of our closet. I have all of my shoes in plastic containers and these are my clothes for the Spring/Summer season. The winter clothes are stored in a Space Bag under the dinette bench. The tenth photo is our "photo board" where we rotate photos on and off so we can enjoy current images of our grandkids. My laptop computer rotates through our photos while it is sleeping so we have an ever changing view of our family and friends. The next photo shows two crochet type door hangers that we bought at, you guessed it, Ikea. They house or bathroom sundries and they all stay in place as we drive down the road. The following photo is our Ikea clothes hamper and my sewing stash under our bedroom vanity. Following is a bedroom cabinet which houses a few plastic bins storing tools, wrapping goodies, bags, labeler, makeup and medicines. Again, the storage boxes keep "stuff" together and keeps small items from flying all over the place while we are moving. These are just some of our ideas that we are now using. More to follow....."Life Is Good Today."

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend at Elijah Clark State Park

Thankfully, our precious Kinley has made it through another week without an illness. They have a Nanny who began work last Monday so I didn't get to visit with Kinley last week. Thursday week I enjoyed Graduation ceremonies with Phil's Kindergarten class. After the ceremonies I checked him out of school early and we enjoyed a day together with banana splits, Chuckie Cheese, bookstore, and Toys R Us! He is such a pleasure to be around. Naturally, I picked up a sore throat and cold while being with the kids at the Primary School, so I spent last week trying to recover. Phil was one of five children honored for Advanced Reading. This Mema is sooooooooooo proud. Last weekend, Lincoln was the ring bearer in cousin Meghan's wedding. Doesn't he look innocent in that little Jon Jon suit sneaking a peek at the beautiful bride? We have a packed full campground for the weekend and everything seems to be running smoothly. Thank Goodness. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll try to post more often......Have a bad case of the Lazies but "Life is Still Good Today!"

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Week of Granny Sitting with our Grand Daughter

After a quiet weekend together Brandon picked me up on Sunday afternoon to go spend the week with Kinley. She has had a sinus infection for about six weeks, gone through every antibiotic to no avail and is just recently coming off two weeks of antibiotic injections. The doctors have said she needs to stay out of day care for about six weeks so her immune system can recover. She is the perfect little baby, and such a joy to be around. I don't receive gold stars for cooking and cleaning for the kids while I was there last week, but this "Mary Poppins" Memaw had a blast playing, talking, rocking and singing to Kinley. Her other Grandma is with her this week and I am invited back next week. Yea Buddy! "Life is Good Today!" It was good to return to our motor home and Billy on Friday. On Thursday before I returned on Saturday, Brandon and Lori gave me a gift certificate to Sports Academy to buy the Kavu pocketbook that I have been lusting after for a while. What a great Mother's Day gift. We had planned to all be together on Saturday for Mother's Day; however, Lincoln has a cold that we cannot expose to Kinley. Brandon and Lori visited with Kinley on Saturday and Brandon cooked some Soy Chicken for us on the grill. On Sunday we met Caroline, Sam, Lincoln, Phil, Beverly, Kim, Mack, Meghan, Edee, Leslee, Carle, Kelly, Whit and Kevin at Zaxby's in Washington for another Mother's Day celebration. Thank you and thank you for the beautiful flowers Caroline. We are so thankful for our wonderful children and grandchildren. This morning Maggie took a walk and saw a huge doe right near our motor home. She was not afraid of us at all....this time. Just a short while ago I was peacefully reading under the awning when I noticed that Maggie (off leash) was stalking something. I looked up and saw the big doe right behind our motor home and looking in our direction. She stared for a while and than began to make a dash across the street into the forest. Maggie took chase and I took chase after Maggie. The deer slipped in the pine straw and leaves and Maggie was only a couple feet away. The HUGE doe recovered and stood up and turned around and bowed out at Maggie. The doe stared at the two of us and made loud noises. Maggie was still only a few feet from her. Thankfully, after much blustering the deer turned to run and Maggie intelligently decided not to give chase. I had no idea that a deer would defend herself any other fashion than running. Spaghetti for dinner and a quiet afternoon is on the schedule for the remainder of today. "Life Is Good!"

Friday, May 4, 2012

Historical Elijah Clark State Park

This morning Billy and I started "moving" a bit earlier than usual because we were scheduled to chaperon about 90 school children enjoying a tour of Elijah and Hannah Clark's homestead followed by a picnic in the park. The tour was fascinating for me to hear because the park has on display Hannah Clark's original Walking Wheel and her loom. I eagerly watched a demonstration on how the wool is gathered, placed on the walking wheel, dyed, and then placed on the loom to weave. The wheel and loom are in working order and are actually utilized. Why am I interested? My sister and I each have our Great Grandmother's and Great Great Grandmother's Walking Wheel; however, we did not understand exactly how they worked. Learn something new every day. In the park last year we enjoyed seeing the twin yearling almost every day. They should be full-grown now so we would no longer recognize them. We were told that triplets were born this year, but we have not seen them until today. Near Elijah and Hannah Clark's cabin the mother deer has nested down one female deer alone and two males a short distance away in the brush. We were told that at dusk Mom comes out and gets the female to nest them down together for the evening. On Sunday they popcorn at the cabin and in the late afternoon they place some additional popcorn in a basket outside for the Mom deer. Each and every Sunday they Mom comes up to the cabin and stomps her foot to let folks know she is present, then she tips the basket over to enjoy her popcorn treat. Also present in the park is a litter of fox, but Mom has recently moved them to points unknown. We were looking forward to going to Dothan, AL on Monday to attend Micah and Lisa's wedding reception. Billy is sporting a kidney stone so we have had to cancel our plans in order to get in to see a DR as soon as possible.