Laziness at Elijah Clark State Park

Guess we stayed away from our Blog for a really long spell this time. I have been real lazy and enjoying every minute of my laziness. I spent three days babysitting Kinley and had a blast playing with her. She is such a happy sweet baby. We had Kinley come spend the night with the us, followed up by Lincoln and Phil spending two nights with us. Yea! Fun in the Sun. We have played Putt Putt, played in the lake, hiked the trail and Phil went with Big Daddy to the driving range 2 times to try out Phil's new golf clubs. Lincoln and I road the "beep beep" up to the Visitor's Center to buy and ice cream and then on to the playground, all the while pretending to be big bad pirates. Ain't life fun????? Billy and I bought a Blue Lagoon raft to anchor down in the lake. It holds 6 people and has two coolers for beverages. Red Neck Yacht Club! Just had to share this photo of our Grandson, Jackson. He is featured in the advertisements for his uncle's new Yogurt shops opening near Tampa. They will be visiting us a week in July and we can hardly wait. Tonight we went to our regular Wed. night pizza buffet with the other campground hosts from Elijah Clark State Park. You can bet that we all returned home with a full stomach. Thanks for not giving up on us...we're still here and "Life Is Good Today."

Our Grand Daughter's 1st Birthday Celebration at ELijah Clark State Park

After just a little bit of planning we enjoyed a fantastic family birthday celebration on Saturday. The theme was Hawaiian complete with hula skirts, leis (a real flower lei for the birthday girl), swim in the lake, shark shaped watermelon with Swedish gummy fish swimming in blue jello, flip flop cookies, a low country boil, birthday cake, bubble stuff, balloons, sidewalk chalk, water pistols, beach balls, corn hole, and a great loving family to boot. A good time was had by all. Billy and I awoke on Sunday morning sore from head to toe from walking up and down these GA hills. We will cherish the memory of the fun we all enjoyed for a long time. Jackson skyped us last night just as we had picked up the phone to contact him. It was great to be able to "sit at the kitchen table" with him as he ate his dinner last night, and we ate cantelope along with him. Can't wait for his visit in just one month! Be careful what you wish for because we are socked in with rain. No problem, with new Paula Deen recipes in hand I went to Bell's grocery store yesterday and bought produce to make some down home country dishes! So sit back and enjoy a few pictures with us. "Life Is Good Today!"

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."

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!"

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!"

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.

HOW NOT TO RV

HOW NOT TO RV by Jennifer Flower is a free Kindle upload, and a very funny book. I even think that folks who do not RV fulltime will enjoy this book. Allow me please to return to our week stay in Caroline's front yard. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, we had a blast with Caroline, Sam and the boys and cherish every minute that we are able to spend with them. However, their friend, "Big Al," who lives a short piece down the road from them raises Black Angus cattle and they pasture close to Caroline and Sam's house. Our first night out of The Forest, we were serenaded by "Big Al's" cattle mooing, baying, and making strange loud noises throughout the night. I noticed on the following day that the cattle were again not out to pasture all day. We were serenaded once more on the second night so I inquired what in the world is "Big Al" doing to his cattle. They informed me that he was weaning 150 calves, and he couldn't let them back out to pasture until they were completely weaned from their MAMMAS! So our nightly chorus highlighted the Mammas calling for their little ones and the calves calling for their Mammas! We stayed at Caroline's for a week, and those unfortunate cattle were not let out to pasture once. Just thought it was funny because I have never given any consideration to how you wean a calve. It was hard enough to wean my two children. There is a big hay pasture in Caroline's front yard, and the owner decided to mow it down on Saturday before Easter Sunday. Most of Caroline's Easter guests were sneezing and poor Kelly's eyes were so swollen that she looked Oriental. On the following Wednesday the farmer got out into the pasture and raked his hay up into rows. Then he spent two full days bailing baling it up into bales. Lincoln enjoyed each pass of the tractor with the baling machine (whatever it is called) on back spitting out bales of hay about every 25 yards. The photo below is of Phil, cousin Lily, and Lincoln climbing on a bale of hay. They are all so cute. I promised the kids a huge game of Hide N Seek around the bales when we visit the next time.

Billy and I are still somewhat busy sprucing up the campground for Memorial Day weekend. We surprisingly had almost all of our waterfront sites full with weekend guests this past weekend. We are still immensely enjoying our unlimited supply of water, and Billy grilled dinner for us outside tonight and we did not have to rush to cool the grill, clean the grill and put it out of bear's reach or scent. It still seems strange to us to not be "bear aware" at all times. Our refrigerator/freezer saga continues. We had a repairman out Sunday to look at it, and he has had to order a part that will not arrive until May 7th or 9th. MEANWHILE, yesterday out of the clear blue sky the freezer managed to freeze once again. Whatever! It is under factory warranty so we just want it to be dependable. On that note, allow me to close for now and go to our refrigerator across the street for a soda. "Life is Good Today" as always!