Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
“If it would help, I could get you a bacon press.” I am poised over the hot frying pan, waiting to flip a quesadilla. Waving the spatula at him, I give him my best stink eye. “What?” “I thought you said you wanted to keep up the minimalist lifestyle?” “I do, and having a […]
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Four-hundred and fifty square feet has defined our living quarters for the past year. Less space when we are on the road with the slides pulled in. Front to back, the motor home is forty-one feet. It is less than half of the size of our former home, which was a considerable downsize from the […]
Read MoreWhat I didn’t tell you in my last post is that we put an offer on Option #1 immediately after viewing it. It has everything we want and more. We had driven to this community and looked at houses before, but they sell fast, so when we found out this one was sold conditional on […]
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“We love the Bluffs!” my friend exclaimed when I told her we were house hunting. We are looking for a small bungalow in an adult retirement community, outside of the city. So far our options have taken us forty-five minutes and an hour from family. Today’s destination is an hour and a half, and overlooks […]
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It is easy to engage in surroundings when vacationing: all travellers belong, having escaped (even if momentarily) their scripted lives. We project friendliness onto strangers – mothers meeting outside our day-to-day – have new things to discuss. Dare to confess concerns, or approach the personal, and the shunning is immediate. Only peripheral conversations are expected […]
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“Fasten your seatbelt,” Ric told me fourteen years ago when I first agreed that we were a “couple”. He wasn’t kidding. We’ve barely just settled in after a six month journey across North America and now we are looking for a home. We’ve narrowed it down to one of three. Option #1 is in a […]
Read MoreThe hockey game blares from the front of the bus with a confidence I am not feeling. Yesterday, I had two cracked and very infected teeth extracted, and my jaw is in intense pain. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” the dentist told me. Apparently, I had clenched so hard that I split my back […]
Read MoreThe buzzer on the dryer startles me and I jump up, eager to change over the wash, only to find I have forgotten to start the washer load. I feel a tug of annoyance at myself. I am not functioning well today. Have been awake since well before 4:00 a.m. and am wired with non-sleep. […]
Read MoreThe familiar barren landscape of highway 402 confirms that we are home. It is clear that winter has lingered well past her time, and spring is only beginning to stretch her wings. We have just driven close to 1,000 miles to get here – partly to avoid the approaching storms, and partly pulled by the […]
Read More“How would you sum up Nebraska?” Ric asks me as we’re pulling out of the West Omaha KOA site. “Windy!” “Exhaustion,” is his response. We had committed to staying an extra night because of the winds. Yesterday an alert went out to advise drivers to stay off the roads. A multi-vehicle crash on I-80 was […]
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One Woman's Quest II 