Let’s go RVing!

Hey there all! I have to apologize for the later than usual posts this week – we’ve been traveling and with the time change I was posting later. And we were on vacation, so there’s that. ;)

Every summer for the past few years we rent an RV and take a trip up to Wisconsin for hubby’s work with drum corps. Most of our vacations/trips are tied into his work – sometimes it’s because it’s the only way we’ll see him that week and sometimes it’s because it’s a fun spot that we like to visit.

We took a four day trip on the RV up north this week and loved it yet again. I grew up camping every weekend and I still love the thought of it – but not sure I could do it now. One word: bugs. More specifically: mosquitoes. Seriously.

I guess you could call RVing “glamping” cause you have all the comforts of home and yet you still get to sit by a roaring fire in the evenings and roast marshmallows. It is the perfect combo for me! We LOVE it. It makes travel easy too – lots of room to move around, you can grab what you want to eat out of the fridge whenever you want, HELLO – no potty breaks cause you can just GO, and our favorite part – it’s easy to take this guy along:

The cats are jealous.

This year my husband had to work during the day every day, so the kiddo and I took off on various adventures. I find great joy in exploring and finding little local treasures wherever we are. Even the smallest towns have an old little movie theater or a great diner – it’s those kind of places that I love to check out. And the local HomeGoods too, that never hurts. ;)

We were based in La Crosse, WI again this year and I wanted to make sure to check out the top of Grandad Bluff this time. The views did not disappoint!:

It was an easy drive up (it’s actually a mesa) and there’s a small park up there where you can check out the view.

I’ve always wondered why this area of Wisconsin wasn’t flat and it turns out it’s a very small chunk of the state that did not have any glaciers go through. I find that stuff fascinating. The city is down in a valley and there are these beautiful hills everywhere around it:

The next day we made our way to the Mall of America. I actually wanted to go here:

Young and the Restless fans, hello! But the Bub wasn’t into that (what?) so we headed on:

The mall is a good two and half hours from where we were but it was worth it – we spent about five hours at the indoor amusement park and then did a little shopping and eating.

The park was actually really fun – he could ride everything and it wasn’t busy at all so we had our run of the place:

The weather was CRAZY up there (and at home too) – but worse there. Two nights of storms and downpours:

Our RV was moving a little too much in the wind for our liking and the rain on the metal roof is SO dang loud – so we didn’t get great sleep on the trip. Our bed felt amazing this morning. :)

The flooding was unreal – this was our view of the Mississippi from the back of the RV at the campsite:

It’s not supposed to be that close. :)

Both my husband and I would check out the back window all night both nights because we were so afraid the water would get too high:

I heard from a reader that there’s terrible flooding in Iowa too – hope everyone is safe and doing OK. Looks like you’re finally getting a break from the rain today!

Here’s a look at our ride for the week:

I can drive one this big but prefer not to so we rented a small car for me to use instead. It was SO worth it.

The last day we were planning on visiting a water park at the Dells but it was pouring, so instead the kiddo and I took a trip to a cave in Minnesota:

This is something I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do so I was so excited I could barely stand it. It’s called Niagara Cave in Harmony, MN and it was literally in the middle of farmland. I kept expecting rolling hills or something, but no – it started from a sinkhole in the ground on a farm:

The farmer was losing pigs and found them (alive) down there. ;) He discovered the cave in the 1800’s.

It was totally awesome: 

It was an easy one mile walk and I loved it. It did get pretty tight in a few spaces, but it wasn’t so bad because it was so tall above:

I’ve been planning a trip down to the caves in Indiana and Kentucky so it was a cool surprise to visit one up there. I can’t wait to do it again!

We had a lovely few days exploring and relaxing – and we got to be with my husband which was the best part. :) It’s SO good to be home though – my goodness I love coming home to our house.

Have you ever been RVing? Do you enjoy it? My dream is to take a trip out west to Wyoming soon. I did it as a kid on a girl scout trip and it was the best trip I’ve ever been on.

Have a great weekend all!

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If you visit: Race weekend!

Goodness. Four more school days people! I’m not sure we’ll make it in this house! Even the dog was moody this morning. We are so looking forward to the long holiday weekend!

I’m a proud Hoosier and this is a HUGE weekend for Indianapolis because of a little race called the Indy 500. :) I find many people visit Indy and are surprised with what we have to offer – it really is a fun city. When we hosted the Super Bowl a few years back I shared a few of my favorite spots. Those were mostly indoor activities and restaurants, but the trees are green, the sun is shining and if you’ll be in town with kids this weekend our zoo is a great spot to visit!

We LOVE our zoo. I’ve not been to many others so I can’t compare it much, but we think it’s pretty awesome. There are two sections to the Indy Zoo – the White River Gardens and the animal exhibits. White River Gardens is one of my favorite spots in all of Indianapolis:

Throughout the spring and summer you can see the butterflies at the Hilbert Conservatory, along with hundreds of tropical plants.

That building itself is pretty awesome, but then you walk out to the gardens – my favorite:

It’s three acres of some of the prettiest gardens. There are fountains, shade gardens, gazebos, beautiful stonework, a lily pad pond, (yes, complete with frogs), and flowers! So many flowers!

It’s just gorgeous:

It’s a large space but they break it down into little “secret” gardens – all so beautiful. You just want to bring a book and sit on a bench all day:

There are a ton of little statues throughout – our favorites are the spitting frogs:

I took most of these pics a couple weeks ago when things were still growing in. It’s even more stunning now. There are flowering vines throughout that grow thick and cover everything so beautifully:

We were there to catch the tail end of the tulips in bloom:

At the end of the gardens is a huge lawn where weddings are held:

The pergola wraps around and is covered in vines in the summer – it’s one of my favorite areas in the gardens! I have a lot of favorite spots in there, if you can’t tell. :)

The zoo itself is full of fun stuff as well, but the big event this weekend is the opening of the new orangutan exhibit – we’ve been watching it go up and were so excited to finally get inside:

It opens to the public tomorrow but members got to see it a little early. I’ve never seen anything like it! The orangutans are able to go outside and climb up onto poles that go around the whole exhibit – they go across the wires right above you. There’s also a gondola ride that you can take around the whole thing – I’m sure it will offer some awesome views of the city! (And you’ll go right by the orangutans!)

This guy was going back down into the exhibit:

It is seriously SO cool to see them just hanging (literally) right over your heads! It’s fascinating to watch.

Inside you can get up close and personal with them:

It was so cool to get that close to them! I don’t know their temperament but from where we were standing they seemed like very calm, sweet souls.

There are so many spots outside to see them too – windows everywhere:If you’re in our lovely city for the race this weekend or live nearby and want to do a quick trip, don’t miss the zoo! It’s fun with the family or not. :)

I’m so proud of our city – there’s so much to do in Indy! Are you visiting for the race? Have you ever been? If you are coming into town be safe and have a blast!

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I work out

Some of you are all, well that’s a random title. And the rest of you are singing “Girl look at that body…”

:)

It will be in your head all day now. You’re welcome.

Today I’m going off course as I do sometimes to talk about life stuff. I’ve had a bit of an epiphany over the past four months or so and I wanted to share a bit of the journey with you today.

I know too many people right now who are dealing with the scary, nasty, despicable disease that is cancer. It’s hit especially close and it woke me up to the fact that I have one body and I want to take better care of it. Simple as that. (And in no way am I suggesting those with cancer do not. I just want to do better by mine.) I’ve never treated my body horribly, but I haven’t treated like the temple that it is. Laugh at that if you want, but it truly is! 

So earlier this year I was on a mission. I don’t do resolutions but this mission started suspiciously close to the beginning of the year. ;) But that’s what I do every year just because it feels like new start to me. Thing is, usually by March I’m kind of done and I go back to old habits.

Last summer I got in decent shape and had lost quite a bit of weight – and I don’t know what in the heck happened but by Christmas I was inching up to dangerous territory for me again. It happened SO fast. I was still working out, just not as much. And I was obviously eating anything and everything.

I was tired of it. Tired of doing well and going backward and tired of not treating myself better overall. And I had that epiphany -- I have a healthy, working body and I’m going to take care of it and take advantage of it. How lucky am I?

This time I’m sticking with it. It’s my life now – this is a totally different outlook than I’ve had before. I’m SO thrilled with my progress so I wanted to share little things that have helped me along the way.

First up is tracking what I eat. I’ve had the My Fitness Pal app on my phone for years and never really used it till a few months ago:

So here’s the thing. I still eat. I don’t eat great all the time either. We go out to eat a lot. I like margaritas. And tortilla chips. :) I’m still not eating as well as I should but I have made changes that have helped.

I say that to be honest but I also say that because so often I think we feel like we can’t lose weight unless we eat like birds and eat nothing but lettuce. I eat bread, (real) sugar, meat, ice cream and even fried chicken occasionally – but I don’t eat a lot of it. I know myself and if I restricted everything I love completely I’d be back to my old habits in no time. It’s not always about willpower for me – it’s about enjoying life. I enjoy food and refuse to give up all the stuff I love 100 percent.

I was hard core with My Fitness Pal for months but I’m starting to log in less and less. Partly because I know what many of the foods are as far as calories so I can keep it going in my head all day, but partly because I’m determined to just move more so the calories don’t matter quite as much.

Here’s another thing – don’t eat too little calories! I think anything below 1,400 a day is too low. I’ve lost weight just fine at 1600 to 1800 a day – but that’s based on my weight and some calculations. You need to figure out the calories it takes to sustain your current weight and then from there figure out how many to cut to lose weight. (That’s a post for another day.)

Speaking of moving – you need to find a workout that you enjoy. I’ve tried to become a runner so many times in my adult life and I’m just not one. Although I’m realizing how it works my body in different ways so I’m trying to incorporate it more.

But group fitness I’ve always enjoyed -- in college I did kickboxing and loved it. When I was at my lowest weight about 14 years ago (low weight because all I did was work out because it was how I dealt with a sad time in my life) I started it up again.

But for years after that I rarely worked out at all. A couple years ago a friend had mentioned taking Zumba and it sounded fun…but it had been a long time since I had been in a fitness class. I was intimidated. So instead I got the Zumba fitness “game” for Xbox and starting doing it at home:

Being overweight, walking into a group class you are clueless about, not knowing a soul – it’s not something many people can just do. And if you don’t know what you’re doing and feel uncomfortable, you’re not going to go back.

So this was my way of easing into it – and I LOVED it. After about six months of doing it at home (and seeing some results) I started going to the class. And once you find a class that you love, there’s no going back. It becomes almost an addiction – you WANT to be there. I hate missing class – what?? 

My instructor is now a friend and her classes are intense – almost like a Zumba boot camp. But I love that I feel like I’m dancing the whole time, not working out. The music is big for me – she incorporates some hip hop and top 40 that we know so it makes it so much more fun. Like I’m in da club. But not. :)

I started out with a little Fit Bit to track my steps every day:

It’s great – I wear it all day long now and it syncs to my phone. You’d be surprised how many calories you burn cleaning your house or walking up and down the stairs doing laundry. :)

The Fit Bit doesn’t track things like riding a bike or floor exercises (we do the latter in class a lot) so I ended up getting the Polar Fit as well:

This one is more expensive but tracks the exact calories burned (you have to wear the strap around your chest). Most times you’re burning more than the Fit Bit tells you so I like having both.

I think the biggest part of this journey is having support. You know the whole it takes a village to raise a child mantra? Well, I think it takes a village to lose weight. I really do. My husband is SO supportive of me running off to class each week. And I’ve made some wonderful friends throughout the process. About 25 of us did the Dirty Girl Mud Run this past weekend:

It was TOUGH (with five days of rain before) but we had so much fun. And now I seriously can’t wait for the next 5K. We even signed up to do the Indy mini next year – not sure where my head was on that one. It’s peer pressure – but the best kind. :)

Here’s another biggie for me – I have no idea how much weight I’ve lost. I don’t weigh myself anymore. It gets me down. Last time I checked I had lost about five pounds but what was months ago. But overall I’ve lost more than 18 inches in four months – that’s pretty amazing. That is encouraging to me – the scale is not.

Last night I remembered that I had taken some before shots of myself back in January. I never do that but I knew this time was different so I wanted to track the difference. Four months later (this morning) I took progress pics and when I put them side by side I almost cried. I couldn’t believe the difference! It doesn’t feel like much when you’re going through it but the pics made me realize I’ve really started to change my body:

I wore the same pants in the photos – I noticed the other day that they are starting to fall off when I wear them. WHOOT! I don’t really have a goal in mind – I’m just going to keep going and see where I land. Now I’m focusing hard on my arms and that middle pooch. I loathe that middle pooch.

My goal is not to be skinny. I want to fit and athletic and strong:

I do weight training with a friend once a week as well but want to try to start adding a day – weight training does wonders for your metabolism! It won’t make you bulky – it tightens you up and completely changes the way you look.

Even though I have more weight to lose I am in the best shape of my life at 38 years old. Seeing muscles develop is almost as exciting as fitting in my old jeans again. :)

One of the biggest areas I’ve noticed is the “back fat” – I am starting to get a little bit of definition in my back and I love it. And the side rolls are getting smaller and smaller:

I hate taking photos of myself but it’s actually really encouraging to see the progress!

But first, let me take a selfie:

Now THAT song will be in your head all day. Sorry. ;)

Just with DIY and decor I don’t think there’s rules to getting fit – you just have to figure out the way that works best for you. If you still want to eat your favorite foods I believe you can – you’ll just have to cut down and your progress may be slower. I think that’s just fine. I’m sharing my thoughts to encourage but take what works for others with a grain of salt – you need to figure out what will keep you going.

Do you struggle with weight and working out? Do you have a routine that you love to do? Do you run? If so teach me your secrets. :)

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Home, to me

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic lately, so bear with me today. :) I’m coming up on two big anniversaries of sorts – by next month I will be blogging for SIX years. Crazy. And next week it will be ten years that we’ve owned our home. I can’t even believe it. Ten years and six months ago this is what it looked like:

Having my child, marrying my husband and building our house – three of the most exciting times in my life. :)

So every once and awhile I think about what I do, this blogging about houses thing, and I wonder how important it is in the scheme of life. As you can imagine it can feel materialistic at times, because decorating is often about STUFF. Adding stuff, moving stuff, spray painting stuff.

Does all of that matter? No. But I’ve realized over my years of writing about our home and others that your home and how you feel in it absolutely does. It’s nothing compared to our health, well being and family, but to me home means SO much.

I say this a lot but I mean it with every fiber of my being – your home should be your haven. It should be the one place where you feel safe. Our homes are so much more than buildings and the stuff we buy to fill them up. I think people often confuse a love of houses with a love of things. It’s not that at all, at least not for me.

My first apartment out of college.

Sure, the things are fun. (Have you been to HomeGoods??) But it’s the act of fluffing and adding and tweaking that makes me even happier.

The fact that we’ve lived her for ten years is mind-boggling to me. Truly. Before this home the longest I had lived in the same home/apartment/dorm was two years. Well, I take that back – we lived in an apartment before this house for four years. But before that for my 24 years of life I moved at least every two years.

Our first apartment. I dragged that tree up the stairs by myself.

I didn’t mind it as a kid – I’m sure I did at the time but I don’t remember it. The only time I was sad about leaving a house was when we left this farmhouse. And when I was older and had deeper roots and closer friends I wasn’t changing schools when we moved, just houses.

I have no desire to leave this house. It makes me tear up at the thought of it. It makes me wildly happy that my son has been raised her since day one -- that’s how my husband grew up and the thought of it was so foreign to me. There’s nothing wrong with moving a lot – you gain a special set of life skills from it. But if I could choose I’d want my kiddo to live here till he leaves for college. :)

My dorm room for two years. Cat posters rule.

I have a deep connection to our home for many reasons – because everything about houses is a passion of mine, obviously. I could watch, read and breathe house stuff all. day. long. But it’s because home feels like a part of our family to me. It’s the joy of having a home base. That is so easily taken for granted! 

I went through a time of about eight months (that I touched on here) when “home” was my dorm, motel rooms and my best friend’s house. That stays with you forever. There were a few times in my childhood when things hit bottom and my mom was struggling to get back up – one of those time we lived in our friend’s basement. My mom, sister and I lived in their basement (we used a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom) for a year.

As a kid it wasn’t a big deal. It’s only now that I look back and feel sadness for those times. Sadness because I now know my mom wanted so much for us at the time. But I’m also grateful, I don’t wish any moment of my life away.

Our duplex after after the basement.

This little walk down memory lane is just to say that I think our homes matter. Sometimes working on them can feel trivial, but my goodness – it’s not. Home is everything. Home is what you make it. Home doesn’t have to be perfect – making it what you want is the JOY of it! Even if it takes you 30 years to get it the way you want, how lucky are you? So lucky.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about a few things “home” – my thoughts and recommendations on building a house, what I would do differently and the same and reflecting on some of my favorite rooms over the ten years in our home. Lots and before and after pics – my favorite!

Thanks for letting me look back today. :)

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House happy

Hey hey and welcome to this beautiful Friday! (At least here…hope you’re having a nice one too!)

I call these posts house happy and I’m not sure why because it’s not really stuff from my house. It’s mostly fun stuff from my Pinterest, Instagram, etc. that I like to share occasionally. I need to change it. Social media happy perhaps? Doesn’t have quite the same ring.

Anyway, it’s just fun stuff to end the week. :)

I shared this one on Facebook and it couldn’t be more true:

For real. Good mail is the BEST!

I learned that Siri has a sense of humor and she’s up with the latest:

Ask her who took let the dogs out too. :)

There are only 37 spots left for the upcoming Haven Conference this summer!:

Did you see that Chip Wade is our keynote? I LOVE HIM HIS SHOW. We are planning on having the sessions and speakers up online by April 1st – it’s going to be another great event!

Every year Target comes out with cute new gardening tools and every year I feel I must get new ones:

My dream has always been to have built in seating around a kitchen table. This is dreamy:

I pinned this one from Houzz but it’s originally from Southern Living. Gorgeous.

This mud room (it actually just looks like a little mud room “nook”) is just beautiful:

(BHG)

I wouldn’t change one bit!

I’m sharing ten awesome spring cleaning tips over at the Home Depot blog – there are some really good ones in there people! I use all of them and they all work great. :)

And finally, I haven’t meant to hold on out on this so long, but I wanted to share a picture of my BEAUTIFUL grandson:

I don’t share many photos of my son here so I won’t be sharing many of sweet cheeks either, but my stepdaughter said this was fine. He is seriously precious and cuddley and smooshy and such a good baby. We are SO blessed to have him in our lives and family.

There you go – some good, pretty, fun, precious stuff to kick off your weekend. :)Hope it’s a great one!

 

P.S. The pin it button is now on all of my photos but I ask you visit the original source to pin from there.

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