My kitchen scares me. . . . and not for the reason you may think. No, I am not afraid of the pressure cooker, nor of trying new recipes or using spices. To my knowledge, there are no spiders. I am pretty adept at finding my way around the kitchen. So, what is so scary? As you'll know from previous posts, I "kon-maried" my house over the last year or so and then sold the place and moved into an apartment. I drastically reduced my. . .well, my everything. My kitchen has been purged of the useless, the less-than-ideal, the i-can-do-that-with-this. Yet I still struggle to deal with all the STUFF in my new, smaller kitchen in the apartment. True, it's about half the size of my kitchen in the house I just sold. . . but, it's WAY bigger. . . .like triple the size. . . of the kitchen that I will end up with on Vera Louise. I have made some realizations in the two months since moving.
Join me in what I hope will be an inspiring journey, as I try various minimalist approaches and work at ways to reduce not only the STUFF in my kitchen, but also my TIME spent there (and at the store!). One look at my Instagram account and you can tell I am a foodie. I love the variety, tastes, textures, aromas. . . I love food. Eating the same thing for several days in a row works for me, as long as it's a good meal, like African Chicken Stew with Spaghetti Squash or Butternut Cottage Pie. But even cooking these staples meals once a week causes a tornado of dirty dishes and clean-up. I eat a (mostly) Paleo menu, with the occasional 21 Day Sugar Detox or Whole30 thrown in for good measure and course correcting. All three of these are typically labor intensive ways of eating. I will not utilize conveniences/packaged food that is not within my eating values So, I need to figure out how to be more efficient, do more with less, and develop SIMPLE meal plans. Follow this blog, category: Minimalist Foodie, as I undertake this exciting and scary journey. Upcoming Topics:
Let's get cooking,
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Hemlock Cliffs was the highlight of the trip (well, except for that whole buying a skoolie part!). We had a bit of a challenge navigating the gravel roads in Vera Louise, but with a little determination and an illegal parking spot, we made it to the trail head! There had been PLENTY of rain, so the forest was lush and the falls were, well. . .falling. We started at the "end" of the loop trail (read: went the opposite direction of the crowd) and had a mostly peaceful and quiet hike. There were people hanging around at each waterfall, of course, but mostly it was just us during our hike. . . well, except that woman who kept yelling at her kids and not letting us pass. . .but that was luckily limited to a few minutes at the end of the hike. We sat out on a double mission this day. We wanted to hike and see the falls (and start our training for some longer hikes that we are planning) as well as get some good pictures of Rose to give her grandmother for Mother's Day. (stopping in to visit her in Illinois would be our next stop, and put us there on Mother's Day). Otherwise, my budding photographer might not have let me use the camera. We took a leisurely pace, stopped to play, and took plenty of pictures. We had a little picnic lunch, err. . .snack, at the big fall. It was a great day! We had a magnificent hike and would recommend this spot to anyone passing through southern Indiana with a few hours on their hands. It is not far from I-64. It's an easy drive, unless you're in a bus that you just learned out to drive two days ago. ;)
Happy Hiking! A week ago, my daughter (RosePetal) and I drove to Kentucky to pick up our new bus, Vera Louise. It was quite an adventure. We learned a few things along the way (more on that later) and had an amazing time. I must admit, I was a little (okay, a lot) nervous to be heading out to another state with my kid, to drive a vehicle that I had not yet seen/heard in person. . .but also a type of vehicle the likes of which I had never driven. The sellers picked us up at the car rental place and took us to Vera. We looked her over, got our lessons in solar panels (henceforth - The Solar System), composting toilets and air brakes and were on our way. On our way down the road two miles to our lovely campsite at Natural Bridge State Park. That first drive was super scary. It was raining. The roads were narrow and hilly (we were at the bottom of a gorge, after all). But, we made it and enjoyed getting to know our bus.
Once the fire was dealt with, we went on to Hoosier National Forest and hiked at Hemlock Cliffs. I will create a separate post about our hike. Then we stopped to spend some time with family. A couple of RosePetal's uncles gave Vera a good looking over. She meets with their approval. :)
Sunday was the hardest day. We (I) drove all the way from south central Illinois to Kansas. This was by far the longest drive, including two cities and Cubs V Cardinals traffic. There was the added fun of driving straight into the sun all afternoon. I did have to stop one time just to cool off and hydrate. It was a little nerve racking, but we made it home. I am one happy bus owner. RosePetal is already wanting to move in Vera full time. See you on the road, Jules #veralouise #buslife #manifestthat #visionboardlife |
Jules Warner - AuthorThanks for reading my ramblings. Archives
October 2017
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