Are YOU Self Aware? Hands UP!

The FIRST title of this post was  - What I've Learned about Myself while Living Alone for the Past 3 Days - but, well, a tad wordy - right?

RIGHT!

I had an interesting conversation this morning that led to a very profound - ah ha - moment for me.

It was all innocent enough. I just mentioned something in passing - with just a bit of jest - when the person I was speaking to gave a very formal, serious, anal (hate that word but anyway), and annoying response. As I was driving away the first thing I thought was - jerk - and the second was

That was EXACTLY the kind of answer I've given.  H E L L O   M I R R O R.

HUH.

Now, I could NEVER be accused of the 'life of the party' or the 'leader of the pack' -- I could easily be considered very reserved, serious, rigid, and anal - ouch - in most situations.

Just like the person I was speaking to today I bet. I thought - hey - LIGHTEN UP.

So, at least I'm somewhat self aware - right?  I'm just a straight shooter kind of gal. There's room for all of us isn't there? Maybe I should LIGHTEN UP!

This mornings exchange led to an afternoon of reflection. Living alone these last three days, with Derek and Cassia off galavanting to the big city, has given me a chance to figure out a few more things about myself. Here's my list:

5 THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I am the LAZIEST and most DISORGANIZED person that has EVER walked this earth: yup - without a husband and 3 year old here to motivate me I quickly - and I mean VERY QUICKLY - grind to a halt. Dinner? Dishes? ugh. In my defense I did do 2 loads of laundry - but really that was just so I didn't sink too low - I mean - it's not like I did much more then put the stuff in the washer - right!

2. I have a completely UNHEALTHY relationship with email, facebook and pinterest. Get away from me! No - come back! I LOVE you! I HATE you! It surely doesn't help that between fb and pinterest there is something new about every 5 seconds! How many hours a day can you actually waste spend on the internet? A  L O T

3. I have TOTALLY underestimated how much Derek does around here! Am I alone on that? Don't most moms think that the family ship sails on coarse and stays afloat because of THEM. Just be glad the animals and the plants are still hanging on. I fed them - really I did! They were only wilting a little itty bitty bit.

4. I don't like the HEAT nearly as much as I thought I did - dry or humid - who cares - HOT IS HOT. ENOUGH already with the 40ºC + temps. I am totally done with having a constant layer of sweat on my body. Can we turn it down please!

5. I could NOT live this life without THE LOVES of MY LIFE - Derek and Cassia! Get home soon! Hear that! GET HOME SOON! You guys are the reason I am here - and boy, are you two a WHOLE LOTTA FUN! I guess I forget to realize that while you're here.

So that's it.

At least I KNOW myself - right? Or do I? Is THIS me or just my PERCEPTION of me?

HUH.

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: So, how self aware are YOU? I'll tell you MY result if you tell me YOURS! 

The PRINTED Word

To know me is to know that I  LOVE books..... and well, magazines!

And therefore, one of my most favourite places in the WORLD - actually it takes the #2 position following HOME is the LIBRARY. 

For me, libraries and garden centers are the best places to be this side of heaven.

Cassia and I have a standing date to visit our local library in Lytton every Wednesday. We work, we have lunch, we go to the library. 

Not only do we go for the books and magazines, our library has a great little play space for Cassia complete with soft carpeting, oversized stuffed animals and animal puppets. It is hard to keep her still once we get there. Shoes and socks are off and she is in - well - little girl heaven.

Cassia among the colourful turtle and alligator. Funny that they have a LARGE alligator after our trip to Florida last winter and coming up close and personal with the real thing.

A classic - Old McDonald's Farm with little animals attached.

 Although shy at first, Cassia has  taken a real shine to Georgia - perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that she lets Cassia sit on the counter and scan the books. Georgia is also a local artist and illustrator. 

We never go home empty handed. In fact that is a HUGE understatement. We are almost always at our limit of 40 books. Wednesdays are like Christmas because that is the day the books we have ordered come in.  We also order movies - feature films mainly - from the library. 

Taking out books, magazines and movies from the library is a VERY good way to make life simple and frugal. I USED to have a HUGE magazine addiction. I don't even want to think about all of the money I have wasted spent over the years on magazines of all kinds - cooking, baking, home design, gardening, etc. The good news was that I was learning - the better news - they all now come free from the internet and the library.

My library stack on the left and Cassia's on the right. This is the amount of books we each have out at any given time.

As you can see, the topics covered on my side are all over the map. Homesteading, cooking, gardening, essential oils, natural beauty products, food for kids, native plants of BC and fiction. There is also the memoir by Ashley Judd that I am reading RIGHT NOW. An odd choice I know. It all started innocently enough. I was scanning our library shelves and came across Wynonna Judd's autobiography. 

Hmmm - I thought - I had been a fan of the Judd's music back when they were BIG and I had heard about their crazy family - maybe I should 'get the facts'. Well, get them I did and CRAZY doesn't begin to describe the things that family has gone through. Once completed, I recalled that Ashley had also recently written her own - All that is Bitter & Sweet. Well - may as well get the other side of the story - so I ordered it in. It is a truly fascinating read - not only because Ashley gives WAY MORE details about their childhood but also the advocacy work she does now with AIDS/HIV groups. Learning about the sex slave trade in Asia and Africa is a truly eye opening experience. 

It left me feeling so very thankful yet so very disgusted all at the same time.

My love for reading has always existed, I recall winning a book reading contest back in grade 3. However, it wasn't until University that I began my love for learning. I am interested in more topics then I could possibly list here. Right now I am also really enjoying Lemons and Lavender by Billee Sharp - an eco guide to better homemaking and The Home Creamery by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley - I hoping to make our own yogurt and cheese this summer! Maybe a Sunday Cook....

I also read a great deal of fiction - every night without fail. One of the author's missing above is Erica James. She is my absolute favourite author right now. Sadly our library has a very limited selection of her books. Do you have one? Could you send it to me? I also love Westerns - Louis L'Amor and I are like this. I'm currently making my way through Dana Fuller Ross's Wagons West Series. Unfortunately, I'm stalled in Utah since the library does not have the complete series, if you can believe. 

I've also just picked up Neil Pasricha's books The Book of Awesome and The Book of (Even More) Awesome. Again they were on the shelf and I thought I'd give them a flip. I took them home since they made me laugh - funny little things that he talks about like 'That one really good pen that never gets lost' or 'Neighbors with Pools' or 'The Sound of Rain from Inside the Tent' and my personal favourite 'The Smell of the coffee aisle in the grocery store'.

pure FUN! 

Kind of like a Seinfeld episode!

I did not realize until I got home that they were from the blog 1000 Awesome Things! Great, now in addition to reading two really thick books I have an entire blog to waste fill my time!

Where or where do I find the time to read? I MAKE it - no ands or buts. 

One of the other great things about pinterest, is that I have a 'library' board. Every time I see a book I may want to read I pin it. The next time I'm ordering books from the library I just open my board and start searching. 

LOVE IT!

Right now Cassia is signed up for the 'Read to Me' program at the library. Every night after Derek reads to her she colours a picture - 7 pictures coloured and she receives a sticker from Georgia. After six weeks of reading and six stickers her name is entered to win a prize. 

I hope by starting Cassia early she will enjoy a life long LOVE of reading, learning, books and libraries as well.

Oh - and I KNOW that you can read books on the computer and the new tablets but they are NOT for me. The actual paper is for me!

Do you make use of your local library?

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Are you a fellow blogger? Are you looking to get some help with your blog? It's day TWO of the 5 Days of PR for Bloggers with Cassie Boorn. I signed up, but sadly I'm already behind. There is still time if you want to get on board and work with the rest of us to make some really good in roads into sprucing up and offering up your blog.

Sunday Cook: Berry Popsicles

Another Sunday Cook is upon us. Today, COOK is very loosely used. Who the heck wants to cook in this heat?! Not I!

And thank goodness that

BERRY SEASON HAS ARRIVED!
Berries are VERY popular in this house and we are thrilled to have native berries here at the park just begging to be picked. We have both Saskatoon Berries and Black Raspberries. The park is filled with Saskatoons but there is only ONE raspberry bush at ONE of the sites. We collectively hold our breaths each night hoping that a camper doesn't park in that ONE site and find our berry stash. So far so good! No one has found our bush, campers have parked in it a few times, but thankfully they miss the raspberries!

The Black or Whitebark Raspberries. 

We all help in picking - ours go into the bowl - guess where Cassia's go!

With the temperature at around 40ºC (104ºF) here today, we certainly needed something to keep us cool. I would have made homemade popsicles this summer but this task was put on high priority when Cassia and I were reading one of her books about colour the other night. There in the ORANGE section were three yummy looking popsicles. Pretty soon I was promising Cassia popsicles (boy was she surprised when they weren't orange!)


Just like many things - popsicles can (and should) be homemade. Why oh why would you want to buy popsicles full of sugar and artificial colours. Not us. Ok, ok - everything in moderation right. Well, sure - I do have to confess a complete soft spot for Creamsicles - orange colouring and all.


But with all the berry picking that has been going on - BERRY POPSICLES were the flavour of choice.


So, here we go.....

This is the first Sunday Cook without much of a recipe. It's really quite simple.....

Collect your fruit - for ours I used fresh Cherries that we just purchased from Hilltop Gardens - our local fruit stand (you'll be seeing lots of pictures from there this summer), and the berries we collected. I also added some frozen berries.

Place them all in a blender....

and blend!

Pour in the molds - add the sticks as my little assistant is doing here - and freeze.

That was for a straight on berry popsicle. Inspired by some the popsicles on my pinterest frozen treats board I decided to make a creamy berry popsicle. Again I just went by feel - I read a few recipes and then opened the fridge and went for it.

In a bowl I mixed yogurt, honey, fruit and.....

creamed coconut. 
On our last shopping trip I decided to go this route instead of the canned coconut milk. I've been reading some not so good things about the can lining. I do have several recipes pinned to make homemade coconut milk but it's still on my to do list. I thought this was a good fill in for the time being.

I didn't stir the mixture too much so that the berries and the yogurt would still somewhat separate.

VOILA!

And just because I am a COMPLETE crazy women I also made chocolate. Derek thought he was ahead of the game when he took some of his chocolate almond milk and poured it into the molds and froze. Hmmmm - not so great - none of us were impressed. 

No problem - a bit of research on pinterest and I found this recipe for Homemade Fudge Pops - it seems to have been making the rounds on different blogs so I went back to the original post by Brown Eyed Baker for the recipe.

If you LOVE FUDGESICLES you'll LOVE these! 

Promise!

Cassia was pretty impressed with herself - she had HER chocolate popsicle and then somehow talked me out of the rest of MY berry cream popsicle. 

Melts a mom's heart!

The last 48 hours or so have been pretty smoky here in the valley. Apparently most of southern BC is under the smoke of the fires in the USA. At first we thought it was a local fire. By this evening most had dissipated. It was actually much worse then the pictures show.

Thanks for stoppin' to see what today's Sunday Cook had in store. 

I hope you give the popsicles are try. There are so so so many options as far as flavours. Next up for us either orange or pineapple - or maybe I'll mix them. 

Then again, Kiwi were on sale......

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: If you missed the link above for my 'frozen treats' pinterest board here it is again (if you are ever looking for me that's where I spend too much a great deal of my time). I have a ton of links pinned not only for popsicles but other yummy frozen treats and desserts, such as homemade ice cream (another item on my TO DO list), perfect to beat the summer heat and for entertaining. 

Beat the heat - make your own Iced Tea and Lemonade

Because our job is so physically strenuous, especially in the mornings with the raking, cleaning and lifting, Derek and I not only need a high protein diet, but in this heat we need WATER!

And LOTS of it with temperatures hitting the high 30s (90s) this week!

Both of us naturally drink a lot of water - which is good. Especially since it is alkaline water thanks to our new pitcher. But after a while water is well, a tad bit boring - right?!

So come summer I pull out all the fruit teas that I won't drink hot. I don't know how but I seem to have a collection of them passed on to me by others.

What? Just go and buy iced tea? 

Nope - no way! Why?! When it is so easy to make yourself and not loaded with all the sugar and chemicals that companies seem to LOVE to add to anything and everything these days.

And cheap! Way cheaper to make your own!

I bet all neatly packaged with a great marketing campaign and this bottle of acai berry that just cost me a few ¢ would be a few $ in the store.

I make all kinds of iced tea flavours from fruit to regular orange pekoe. Either start with boiled water, add a tea bag, some sugar or honey, and a lemon slice and you are done. I put mine out in the sun. You can even just start with cold water and let the sun do the rest. I make batch upon batch in recycled mason jars and then move them to fancier drinking bottles.

The middle jar is a mango pit. I thought I try to get everything I could out of the mango I cut up - so mango flavoured water it is!

Since I picked up a new bag of lemons on our shopping trip last week, I thought fresh lemonade was in order. I used the recipe from The Idea Room - it worked great.

Same deal - much better, much healthier and much cheaper to make your own then to buy it pre made.

There are many great options for making your own flavoured iced teas and water. With most of North America heating up the flavoured water recipes are quickly hitting the internet, both facebook and pinterest. Here is a link to Habitots and The Yummy Life for more ideas.

Cassia's (and Derek's) way to beat the heat! 

Our little water girl! 

LOVE the heat! Do you?

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: We picked up a bottle of eucalyptus essential oil the last time we were in Chilliwack. I was happy to see this post on facebook today letting me know all the things I can use it for. Essential oils are wonderful tools for the home!

Where are we traveling to next winter?

It has been a few months now, since we arrived back in Canada, and Derek and I have FINALLY decided on our trip for next year!

Oh - did you believe me when I said that I wasn't going to think about it for two months! Sorry - but, really, that just isn't me. You see I am the recovering worrier in the family. I could not rest until I had a plan - even if it was for 5 months away.

Remember way back in April when we were questioning Where do we go from here? Well, I guess number 3 it is!

I'm not sure why this destination wasn't an obvious choice from the beginning - after all, it has been a trip we have talked about before, but for some reason it kept being the 'one day' place. It has been on our minds since I first found Bodes Well - have you been to visit this site yet? HUGE inspiration!

Have you scrolled down yet? No! Good!

Oh you just did didn't you!

Well, let's just get it over with then! We are beside ourselves excited to say that the Wood Clan is headed to

***CENTRAL AMERICA!***


Yup - that's right!

Canada
United States of America
Mexico
Guatemala
El Salvador
Honduras
Nicaragua
Costa Rica 
Panama

source

WoW!!!!!


Just think of it - all the great people, landscapes and FOOD! 


Food - all the awesome, yummy food!


I know, I know, we also said that we were done RVing and complained about last winters 10,000 miles. Well, I guess this trip will put that one to shame! 


We are so excited we could leave now - but alas we have 3 months left still to work. Which is ok - since I OBVIOUSLY have my work cut out for me in the research department. 


On the one hand it seems almost undoable - right? But then I found Live. Deliberately. the Dennings family blog. Now, if a family of 7 can take on Central America than surely we can! Their site is going to come in VERY handy I can tell already. If you have a minute here is one of Rachel's really great post entitled What if My Whole Life has Been Wrong.


And safety? You are worried about our safety - right?!


Well, how about read this first - Uhhh, Mexico...Where's all the Danger? - another post by Rachel about their experience in Mexico. I think the same thing could be said about almost all countries, and certainly the ones we will be visiting.


WoW!


Oh - and by the way, we've scrapped the idea of a C Class Motorhome. A trip as large and as long as this will require something much more compact and fuel efficient. We are NOW looking for a B Class - so essentially a camper van. If you know of one please let us know!


And so, in addition to letting you in on our frugal way of living over the next few months, I'll keep you up to date on how our plans are coming along for our big trip. So much to think about - border crossings, wifi, where to stay, what to bring, etc. 


Up until a week or so ago we had decided on Mexico - but why stop there - right!


WoW! I can hardly wait!


Big News - right? Right!


Teresa


Today's Interesting Link: I've also been spending some time on Nomadic Matt's site. Matt has a GREAT site - he has been EVERYWHERE - well almost. Most importantly right now is that he has been to Central America. Thankfully he goes through each country providing travel tips, prices and places to visit. Take a look.

We're Roamers and We don't work for Stuff.

Roamers - huh. I never thought of us that way. I was talking to a couple tonight at one of our parks and she asked where we live etc. When I mentioned that we work the five months and travel the rest, she said...

'You are Roamers.'

I said 'Well, nomads.'

Getting in my truck I wasn't quite sure how to take the word Roamers.....

The other night I was talking with a camper from Punta Gorda. I had seen the address on his self registration envelope. I was happy when he came out of his camper to talk to me because, not only do I love to talk to fellow travelers, but particularly if we have been to there home. After a conversation about traveling and where we go for our winters, the camper said....

'Aren't you a little young to be doing that?' (This is a fairly common remark from others that I'm working on answering in an even - not getting my back up - tone.)

I said 'Well, it's more of a lifestyle choice then a work versus retirement situation.' (As I patted myself on my back for my restrained answer.) 

First, I did have to set him straight a little bit about our ages - I mean - we aren't THAT young - most people guess we are in our early 30's - strangely enough. He then went on to tell me that he retired at 53 and so has been able to travel quite a bit after working. 

Later as I was driving from Skihist to Gold Pan I had time to reflect on my conversation with the camper from Punta Gorda. I realized that this may be the only time in the recent past and the future that there is something called 'retirement' and retiring as early as many seem to be able to do these days. It is the baby boomer generation that is either retired or soon to be retired. Retiring in your 50's with a good savings account balance and pension does mean that you can venture out and do all the things you may have not done while working and raising children. 

BUT

This phenomenon probably won't exist for our generation and the ones to follow. The chances of us even being able to retire, let alone early, is pretty slim at best. Therefore, if we don't fit LIVING into our lifestyle NOW and travel there is a really good chance that we never will. 

AND

As you know if you've spent a little time reading our blog - Derek and I have no interest in working to collect stuff.

We don't work for stuff.

We work to eat, raise Cassia, travel and to have freedom. We do buy STUFF but not too much of it and only what we need - although we do fit in the stuff we want too. We live frugal but we certainly don't do without.

We sure had a great time ROAMING around Apalachicola, Florida last winter.

Park News!

We had a busy FIVE days here at the parks. The long weekend of course is only for three days but it seems that campers start a little earlier every year in order to get to the campgrounds ahead of everyone else. Our parks are stop-over campgrounds. We don't get a lot of people that stay more then one night. They stop in for the night on route to their destination. This is both good and bad. We like it because it means that our park is pretty quite with no loud parties. On the more negative side is that in the mornings the park empties out and we have A LOT of sites to rake.

I've been procrastinating, but I have to write a report tonight regarding some campers that we are having problems with. A few weeks ago I had to get the police to deal with them. They returned this weekend having not learned a thing from that experience. One of the more challenging aspects of our job for sure!

BIG NEWS!

Derek and I have chosen our destination for next winter and are PRETTY DARN EXCITED about it. I was going to write about that tonight but after the weekend and shopping day in Merritt yesterday I'm pretty tired. So - I'll really working on getting that post up over the next day or two.

It seems that summer has FINALLY arrived here in the Thompson Canyon plus 39ºC expected for the 

weekend! 

Happy July 4th to all of our American friends and followers!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Speaking of roaming have you checked in with Kevin and Ruth lately? They are posting great pictures of their travels in England - PLUS they are headed to Prague on July 23rd. I can't WAIT to see all the great architectural pictures they'll be sure to post.

Sunday Cook: Frozen Fruit Squares

Welcome to Sunday Cook, I have a very yummy dessert for you today!

But first!

HAPPY 145th BIRTHDAY TO CANADA!

Today, Sunday July 1st is Canada Day.

I cannot BELIEVE timing sometimes. Last night on my way to and from Gold Pan Provincial Park - where I travel to once during the evening to clean, empty garbages and register campers, I drove by a man walking along side of the highway.

No big deal - right?

Wrong.

I knew he was what I call - A WALKER.

I had wished that I had waved to him.

This morning, Derek, Cassia and I were over at the day use area across the highway to look around and empty the garbages. Just as we were leaving who should appear! 

Yup - THE WALKER.

His name is Bram and Bram is from Holland.

Looking pretty good for 71 years I'd say - Bram that is. You can see the gear that he pulls behind him.

I call these people walkers because that's just what they are doing. No bicycles for them. Last year we had one walker stay at Skihist for the night. The next morning as we were driving up she was walking down. I stopped so that we could talk to her too. She was about the same age as Bram - walking from the Shuswap area to Vancouver. 

WoW! You have to admire them.

We spent some time talking with Bram. He has walked ACROSS CANADA - from Halifax. Now, I don't think he has walked the ENTIRE way - he buses it at times. Amazing non the less. He averages about 35 kms per day. 

The neat thing about talking to Bram today was his love for Canada! The main reason is because at the end of WWII, when he was 4 years old, it was the Canadian Troops that liberated Holland. Now - you may not know this but both my parents are from Holland as well. The fact that the Canadians liberated Holland also had a HUGE impact on my mom, 4 years older than Bram. So much so that she immigrated to this fine country back in the 60's. While in Ontario, Bram even went in search of Veterens to talk to and thank, he says he talked to a few in Oshawa. 

WoW! 

We had a great little visit. We took pictures of him, he took pictures of us! As we were headed out he came over and gave us a little Delft Blue dish to give to my mom. So nice. I know that my mom would want Cassia to have it so we passed it on to her. One day I'll share both her Oma's and Bram's stories with her!

Sunday Cook day - let's get too it.

Todays recipe was actually in keeping with the theme of Canada's Birthday because it is red and white - Frozen Strawberry Squares. I didn't want to steal a picture so if you want to see what I mean visit She Wears Many Hats for the original recipe.

Sadly, when I was in Lytton this week to pick up some strawberries they were really bad - and I mean bad! So, I had to go with my back up plan of using the frozen berries we keep in the freezer for smoothies.

So, here we go.....

Frozen Fruit Squares

1 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup almonds, chopped (other chopped nuts can be substituted)

1/2 cup melted butter

2 egg whites

1/2 cup granulated sugar

10 fluid ounces whipping cream

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries, crushed mashed (or other berries)

I've been on a nut kick lately - I LOVE snacking on them at night. So - I had almonds on hand - a quick chop and they were ready.

Place flour, brown sugar, nuts and melted butter in a bowl and stir.

Here's my cute little assistant stirring for me.

Until this consistency. Spread in an 8" x 8" pan. Bake at 325ºF for 20 minutes. Stir a couple of times. Cool. 

Beat egg whites and granulated sugar until stiff.

Beat whipping cream until soft peaks form. I put my glass bowl and beaters in the freezer for a bit. Do you do this too? My mom always did that so I do it too!

Yummm - fresh whipped cream.

Here are the frozen berries - I just chopped them up.

Hmmm - seems I had a blueberry thief!

Gently combine beaten egg whites, whipped cream, lemon juice and berries. 

Once the crumb mixture is cool, evenly press 2/3 of it in the 8" x 8" pan to create crust.

Spread the berry mixture over the crust.

Sprinkle remaining crust/crumb mixture on top.

Freeze for 3 - 6 hours.

Cut in squares and serve.

Man oh man is this good! I HIGHLY recommend trying it this summer. 

We were all pretty impressed with me tonight!

I like this recipe so much I think I'll start coming up with different versions - hmmmm - how about chocolate! 

We don't always buy ice cream, although we all LOVE it and would LIVE on it if we could. But it is a bit expensive and well, we don't HAVE to have it - right? Derek and I did own and run an old fashioned sweet shoppe - The Mortlach Sweet Shoppe - where we sold REALLY good ice cream - MacKay's Ice Cream from Cochrane Alberta.

So, it's not like we haven't had our fair share - I mean - we did have to sample - right?

The Frozen Fruit Squares seem to be the perfect substitute!

{And Richard if you are reading this - I DID get your last 2 comments in my email - they just don't show up here on the blog - I have NO idea why. Anyway, thanks for those - I TOTALLY agree - it doesn't really matter how much it costs to raise a child - the experience is PRICELESS! Thanks for putting that into perspective. I checked your blog but didn't see a way to get a hold of you! :) T}

Enjoy!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: I just came across this site today - Dessert Now, Dinner Later. It seems like a fitting link for today's Sunday Cook and my kind of blog. Although it sure looks like there is a whole lot more there then just desserts!