The Lundy 5

Menu planning winners!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 02:00:00 +0000

***And the winners are... (of the Recipe Book Megakit) Heather and (of the printable menu board) Taly! I'll email you the details. Congrats! Read the original post about our menu planning board!
... I created this in Photoshop, printed at 8x10 on photo paper, taped it to the cabinet, and just added real sticky notes and this week's menu!

I used the Recipe Book Megakit and the Urban Grunge Megakit from DSP. Super easy and such a fun project! (If you need help with digital scrapbooking, DSP's your place!)

New River Gorge

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 29 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

We made the annual Memorial Day kayaking trip to the New River Gorge. This is one of the first kayaking trips of the year for the Dayton OAC and we were happy to reconnect with our friends from Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania - in West Virginia. Oddly enough, though we were camped two miles from our very favorite spot, the New River Gorge bridge, we never made it down to the bottom. Allen kayaked the Meadow, New, and Gauley rivers, while the kids and I enjoyed the perfect spot he found the first day on the Meadow. Cliff jumping and rope swings! I sat in a kayak and took pics, and was the safety boater in case they needed me. They didn't (beyond a slight belly-smacker that took Matt's breath away). Videos at the end!

Jack the dog did some swimming and exploring too. He didn't seem to want to jump though.

Lizzy pretty much stood on this rock all day and called it fun. She does that.

She did try the rope swing a few times.

Josh and Matt though, no fear. They loved it!

We went to Dirty Ernie's Rib Pit, a tradition when we hit the NRG. Our Ohio State shirt from 2005 still hangs close to the ceiling!

Back at camp, Jack was showing off his jumping skills.

As usual with the OAC, there were more boats than people, and more dogs than boats...

Josh and Matt decided to see the inside of an Etch-A-Sketch. Aluminum by the way. They said it was safe, because they read something. Let's hope.

For the potluck meal, I tried (and we loved) the Cheddar Bacon Ranch Bread!

Yes,that huge black thing IS a dog, not a bear. Porter's the most lovable giant animal ever.

And we learned how to make an upside down fire. It starts at the top and there's no need to add wood, very convenient!

Allen had a great time kayaking all four days. He took the boys on an easy section on the last day and Matt loved it while Josh survived it. Matt seems to be the one member of the family hoping to join Allen soon.

Videos from the kayak:

Josh jumping

Matt jumping

The boys jumping together

Josh on the rope swing

RVing map updated

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:00:00 +0000

We've updated our RVing map with locations, pics, and links. We're finally gaining momentum in 2012 (the green line). :)

View Scrap The Map in a larger map

West Virginia

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We still love the bigger, badder west, but we've missed the green of the east and the Smoky Mountains. You can't see as far, but you get a new view from each hilltop. We enjoyed the drive through North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Four quick hours of pretty scenery, Robinson Crusoe on audiobook, knitting (for me), and real old country stations (for Allen & the kids).

Even the Walmarts are surrounded by woods instead of city noise!

Green Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:30:00 +0000

We stayed at Green Mountain in Lenoir NC and met up with the Hensons again. We had a beautiful site in this pretty, hilly campground with a big deck for our porch.

We had no cell and barely a sniff of wifi, so we worked in the clubhouse. Allen, Matt, and Kyle went kayaking on the Watauga. Since the pool wasn't open yet, the kids found a great spot to swim in the creek. Well, in the culvert anyway.

The boys caught fish with their bare hands. (They were trapped in the creek from a flood.) I'm not sure how many they "saved".

We were introduced to the local NC drink Cheerwine. It was similar to cherry coke and the kids loved it.

Josh organized his arsenal. I don't recommend going into his room uninvited!

We spent a little too much time at Krispy Kreme. We also checked out a local group that is practicing "being church" instead of "going to church" which is something we're really pondering.

Krispy Kreme

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We took a field trip to Krispy Kreme to see how donuts are made. Okay... two. Okay, fine... three. Okay? Geesh! It's educational you know. And so so so yummy getting donuts fresh out of the giant pit of fat and under the glaze waterfall! Man did we ~~consume~~ learn about some calories!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm...

Tim Hawkins said they taste like a baby angel, and that's really a great description! So sweet and soft and fluffy and they melt in your mouth. Hm, wonder if there's a Krispy Kreme near us now...

Tallulah Gorge

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Tallulah Gorge is one of our ~~most excruciatingly painful~~ favorite hikes. We ~~survived~~ loved it last year and ~~were forced by Allen~~ wanted to try it again. The gorge is beautiful with many waterfalls and blooming trees, but there are around 600 steps down and then 600 steps back up! Plus the bouldering at the bottom to get to the sliding rock. But yes, I ~~grudgingly~~ admit it is worth it!

This year we were met by a copperhead, not my favorite thing to see on a hike, or ever. Lizzy almost stepped on it, and very nicely screamed to alert us. We gave him space and moved on. On the way back, it was more interesting. Allen almost stepped on it and his Spidey sense went off (yes, he has that). He looked down and saw the same ~~icky~~ snake coiled up now. As Josh started to step down, Allen yelled and pushed him out of the way. Crisis averted. Allen, the ~~darn~~ the snake-picker-upper, has said (after our begging and yelling) that he won't pick up poisonous ones. But he did use a stick to move this one off the trail for the next hikers. He wishes he'd done that on our way down river to avoid our almost-crisis. I wish that, and every, snake would just drop dead and be done with it. I don't care if they're good for gardens and eat bugs. I wish bunnies would do that.

Back to the hike, we had a lovely day and all slid down slide rock, the boys a bit more often and fearlessly. It was much warmer than last year, but the water still took your breath away, which makes for fun pictures. After lunch (frozen PB&J sandwiches are so great for hikes!) we headed back to the steps and then more slowly up the steps. So many steps.

This is Oceana, where Allen took the kids "the hard way", which they prefer.

More pics...

Meal planning

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Back when we lived in a house, I'd cook whatever I felt like at the time, pulling from the shelves, cupboards, pantry, big fridge, or two freezers. Now with our small home, even smaller kitchen, cooler-size fridge, and shoebox-size freezer, we have to be more intentional. We do weekly meal planning and shop only for those meals. (And we save a lot of money not buying the extras!)
Each week, I used to sit down and ask for meal suggestions, then grab the recipes and write out a list, then try to remember what else we might need, but that got old quickly. Now I've done all that work in advance. I have 5 weeks of our favorite meals and their shopping lists printed, and I keep them nearby with my recipes. We just choose a week that sounds good, grab that list, and go shop! If we get bored of these menus, we'll just add more. But it's so convenient to have these menus AND the shopping lists already printed. Now we're happy campers (literally)!
I wanted a pretty way to display our menu and saw many on Pinterest, but they were too elaborate or had too many parts. I just needed to see the week's menu and have a place to note things we ran out of that weren't on the shopping list. So, being a good digital scrapbooker, I figured I'd do it myself, digitally! And it was even easier than I thought. I created this in Photoshop, printed at 8x10 on photo paper, taped it to the cabinet, and just added real sticky notes and this week's menu!

I used the Recipe Book Megakit (which is on sale for $5.99 Wednesday 5/16 only!) and the Urban Grunge Megakit from DSP. Super easy and such a fun project! (If you need help with digital scrapbooking, DSP's your place!)

Something really cool is we have an actual cookie sheet close to this on the cabinet to hold magnets and recipes, so it fits right in. It's so pretty I may have to put it on the outside of the cabinet door instead of the inside!

This was my lame system before. Just printed straight from Excel and I'd use stickies to cover other weeks, mark off meals, and write down any "extras" that I needed to add to our list.

I wanted to get a picture from the side so you can see how it's really flat except for the sticky notes, but this Recipe Book kit is so good it still looks like a real cookie sheet! It's just photo paper.

I used a chalk type font (pencilpete) in bright colors, printed all 5 menus at once, then cut out. I used small dots of poster putty to adhere the menu so it's easily removable. I just swap these out each week, picking whichever looks good to us at the time.

Here's the spreadsheet for the menu plan, with the shopping list for each week, plus an "always check" list of things we'll probably need. I just double check before I go and mark off what we don't need. Then when I start shopping, I already have a head start. :)

Ready to make your own menu plan?
Want to win the Recipe Book Megakit to create one (or great scrapbook pages or recipe cards)?
What about a printable blank page like this that's ready for your menu?
Okay! Share this post on Pinterest (or repin this), Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or your blog and leave a comment here for each (with your email). Use the links below this post for easy sharing. Each share will count as an entry for the random drawing! The first winner will receive the megakit and the second will receive the printable menu page. I'll draw next week. Good luck!
***And the winners are... (of the Recipe Book Megakit) Heather and (of the printable menu board) Taly! I'll email you the details. Congrats!

Do you do meal planning? Please share any tried and true tips, especially for menu planning for RVs!

Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The campground had a nice Mother's Day breakfast, service, then lunch! They even gave roses to the moms. In lieu of a vase (of course when we lived in a house we had 18 extras - that we never used), a ketchup bottle worked just fine. (As a matter of fact, I *might* have forgotten to take the roses down when we moved from South to North Carolina, and they didn't even spill!)

The kids surprised me with ~~a little~~ a lot of chocolate! They know me so well. I treasured these, right up until I ate them all, the next day...

Happy Mother's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and their grandmom! We love you and miss you already. So glad we got to see you more this winter and spring!

I used this lovely Hundred Percent Gorgeous plopper from DSP's We Are Family CD.

Carolina Landing

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Carolina Landing is one of our favorite Thousand Trails parks. Not really the amenities, and there's nothing nearby, but the people are so friendly and the Friday potlucks are so yummy! We arrived on a Friday and were happy to learn the potlucks were still on. It was nice to see Miss Lois and others we knew from last year. Of course they remembered Matt especially. He has a ~~mostly rotten~~ way of embedding himself in your memory. The roads are a bit iffy, but we liked our spot. And the pool wasn't open yet, but the lake is never closed. Even Jack the dog got to swim!

We did have some trouble, though, trying to get towels and swim suits to dry on the clothespine, in the rain...

Orlando

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We stuck around Orlando a bit longer than most snowbirds, so the always-completely-full-active park turned into a peaceful haven of rest - well, except that it was way too hot already in May!
But we ended up with a shady, triple site surrounded by jungle that was perfect for relaxing and cookouts - well, except... :)

Party!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Five RVing families got to have a start of the summer party at Cici's thanks to some other great RVing families! There was a contest on Facebook for pictures posted of the super moon and since we were at the pool with four other families, one of them took the pic with all the kids together. There were great pictures of the moon posted too, but we all begged for "likes" on the picture and said the kids would get ice cream with the cash prize if ours won. Lots of people "liked" it, but alas we got second place. BUT the Mulac family decided to give a second place prize, so we won! THEN the Thomas family, who won first, generously donated their prize to us as well for a party instead of ice cream! Throughout the voting and the prize giving, our nomadic family spread across the country was so supportive and fun!

And the pizza buffet and ice cream with lotsa toppings was indeed a great way to kick off summer!

See?! :)

2 year nomadiversary

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:00:00 +0000

Happy Nomadiversary to us! We've been on the road for two years today! How better to celebrate that (or really anything) than cake?! The Grands came to visit and even brought Uncle Ryan, who drove down from Pensacola. Our cakes so far have been themed and this year we chose the Arizona desert where we like to take drives. The kids say you have to use your imagination (and pretend this truck is a Chevy instead of a Ford). Last year it was our truck & RV in the Mojave Desert!

So after two years, are we tired? Ready to settle down? No way! No end in sight for this traveling family!

Free book! Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

**Nook is now $7.99 (Sunday) and Kindle is now $6.59.

I just got this awesome tip about a FREE book in my email from one of my favorite authors, Lisa Wingate. ❤ I was so excited I actually leaned in to block my monitor so no one else would see it! (Yes, I felt silly when I realized there was no one here.) But then I read please share this with your friends! So, my friends, I'm sharing this with you...
Blue Moon Bay is FREE on Kindle or Nook on SATURDAY May 5th only!

I know! And you're welcome. Why she'd want to give away her work I don't know, but shhh, let's not say anything people. Who are we to question the creative mind of a writer? Just go get your book on Saturday! (If it's not free, check your calendar.) Today's only Thursday. Yes, I had to look.

$0.00

Blue Moon Bay

FREE on Kindle and Nook

Saturday May 5th!

At Amazon.com / Barnesandnoble.com

** Download yours this SATURDAY, May 5th. Word is that the free book giveaway begins and ends at midnight PST and is only for 24 hours. For that time, the price on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com will be $0.00. No coupon code required. Anyone can download. **
If you miss the FREE day, all is not lost! The ebook will be selling at a special discount price for a limited time afterward.

Yes, if you receive her newsletter, you got this tip too. But hush up, I just want to feel special for a little while. If you read Blue Moon Bay, let me know what you think!

Circle Trilogy deal at Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:00:00 +0000

There's a great deal at Amazon right now on Ted Dekker's Circle Trilogy books. I personally enjoyed this fascinating Christian fiction trilogy and wanted to pass along this deal. You can get the first book for only $3.40 or all three books for $11.99. I don't know how long the deal is, so watch the price if you order.
If you do get them, let me know if you enjoy them!

Black - The Circle Trilogy, Book 1 (The Books of History Chronicles) by Ted Dekker
$3.40 Kindle Edition for Book 1 (It's now $7.63 today, May 5.)

Or get all three books in the Circle Trilogy for a low price!

Black, Red, AND White - The Circle Trilogy, Books 1-3 (The Books of History Chronicles) by Ted Dekker
$11.99 Kindle Edition for the whole trilogy

Enjoy!

RV cat palace

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:00:00 +0000

RVing cat owners, check this out! An outdoor cat playland for your RV. This was so brilliant I had to stop and ask this couple if I could take pictures. It's genius! He took a wire storage cube bookshelf, zip-tied the pieces together, then hung it outside the window. Instant cat door to a tri-level cat palace.

Their cats were lounging like they owned the place. And they're cats, so we all know they do.

Fresh air, sunshine, lofty view, protection from the dogs, snakes, squirrels, lizards, & birds (who are in turn protected from the cats!) I hope our dog Jack doesn't see this. He might not think being tied to a picnic table is so awesome anymore. Of course he does like the first few yards of chasing those squirrels... maybe not the abrupt ending through... He might learn, if he weren't so busy watching for another squirrel...

New Smyrna Beach

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We finally had a beach day! We met the Grands at New Smyrna Beach and had a wonderful time. They have the perfect beach umbrella setup, so we had it all - sun, shade, and (thanks to Grandma) food enough for an army! There was kayaking, boogie boarding, swimming, sand castle building, walking, running, sunning, hiding from the sunning, and lots of eating.
This ~~little~~ big guy welcomed us when we arrived.

There were some surfing races.

Lots of flipping.

This is a moment of dreams. Pure bliss!

Our camp, with Matt's name in the sand, spelled incorrectly at first...

The boys.

Allen doing his thing.

Where was I? Taking the pics of course, and resting happily in the sun, and even swimming some - though I was finished when the waves turned into giant walls of fish. Ew. More pics...

Our glorious site

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:00:00 +0000

It's all about perspective, and mine has changed considerably as we've been on the road. When we pulled up to this campsite, my eyes lit up! I mean just look at this peaceful, glorious, beautiful... well... patch of dirt. I seriously stopped to take a picture before Allen backed in. Um, he was not super happy to wait. But I had to take it because, look! This is all it takes to make me happy. No mansion, log home, plush hotel room. No pool, hot tub, nearby park. Not even a level, landscaped, concrete site. Just some dirt, surrounded by bushes, and maybe some shade trees.

While this site makes me happy, the fact that it does makes me even happier. Yeah, life is good.

Hoop skirt

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:00:00 +0000

I got a new skirt, but not just any skirt, a twirly rainbow skirt! My friend Brenda gave me this Hip Mountain Mama rainbow spinner skirt and I love it! (So sorry though, I don't think it's available anymore!)
So what did I do first? Well yeah, I had to spin!!! But it was too windy!
Then I needed a new profile pic, but this was too boring.
So I pulled out a hoop and Lizzy took pics. Apparently I make horrible, scary faces when I hoop! So this one had to do. But it was too boring too.
So a quick Topaz Adjust filter in Photoshop, and done.
Still boring, but I just need to work on not making stupid faces when I hoop.
And fyi, totally not a good skirt to hoop in if you plan to hop through it. Just sayin'.

RV thingamajig, aka clothespine!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:00:00 +0000

I want to tell you about this thingamajig, but I don't know what to call it. So I need your help! Please leave a name in the comments if you can think of one. Thanks! :)
Allen made this thingamajig for us today. It's a 2x4 that hangs off our RV ladder on the back and it has holes to hang clothes to dry on hangers (or we can just throw towels over the board, etc). Clothesline, clothes board, drying board, hanger board, laundry board, 2x4 laundry drying assisting utility, see? I have no idea. It'll be handy though! It'll store inside the bumper. It'll be painted white. It'll be great for pool towels. It just needs a name!
What would you call it?? And yes, we have a back door, in the back bathroom. And yes, it is bright turquoise. :)

Update: Current name contenders... clothespine and the Lundry stick. :)

Update #2: I think we all like clothespine best! Just descriptive enough and just redneck enough... So clothespine it is! And now, if you find yourself in need of a clothespine (because who doesn't need a clothespine?!), I know who makes them. ;)

LED hooping at night

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Fun LED hooping at night! The next thing we need to work on is night LED photography, followed closely by not making weird faces when we hoop!
So pretty. At night no one can tell how awkward you are, they just see the pretty lights. :)

Happy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We enjoyed a quiet Easter, just hanging out together. We had a very yummy brunch, complete with initial pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Mmmm, bacon.
The kids chose baskets from on top of our shelves (yep, just un-Velcro and tada, Easter baskets!) which the Easter Bunny filled (and then hid) much to their delight.
Then we visited the Grands to ~~do some laundry~~ spend some quality time. Instead of a traditional egg hunt, we thought we'd try a scavenger hunt and they loved it! They worked as a team and ran all over the house and yard. We had to do it again and make it much harder for these clever kids. Then they designed one for the adults and did a very impressive job with their clues!
We had a yummy dinner and headed home ~~after the laundy was finished~~ after a great day. I tried to take our traditional pic of the kids on the stairs, but they're a bit too big! Of course our stairs now are much smaller than those in our old house. We hope you had a happy Easter too and took time in the midst of the silly fun to seriously celebrate what Jesus did for us. Matthew 28:6

More families

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We're still in Florida and have enjoyed hanging out with other RVing families, although most of us are finally pulling out and heading north. This (third) stop in Orlando, we reconnected with the Hensons, Sparks, Shriers, DeMichiels, Sommers, Perkins and were so glad to meet the Andersons and Hartogs. We also met some fulltime families at the pool that we didn't even know online, Tammy & John Harker & their 6 kids and Katie & Erica. We're hoping to run into many of these families again somewhere up north!
We had some fun potlucks, lunches, breakfasts, snacks... wow, our lives really do revolve around food eh?! There were also ballgames, swimming, hot tubs, and great conversations. Of course the kids got to play, play, and play some more! They can't wait to see their old & new friends again. It's great to have fun, caring, helpful neighbors, if only for a season. Even better to know we'll see them somewhere down the road.
This was a breakfast at the Hensons one morning.

Weavers

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

At Thousand Trails Orlando, we got know to know (and love) the Weaver family. They're a traveling family band with 8 kids (ages 11-23) and they're awesome! They "only" have 7 kids with them now though because Jimmy left for a job in Pigeon Forge (*sniff*). We heard another RVing family called Weaver Believer Survival Revival was playing a bluegrass gospel concert at the campground clubhouse and we figured we'd go support them. We didn't realize how good they'd be or how nice!The kids spent quite a bit of time together over the weeks we were in Orlando and Wauchula. Trips to the pool, hanging out, Stevie leading my kids down the dark road of airsoft wars...
We also caught four concerts AND the bug for playing bluegrass. They're all learning guitar and mandolin and we're keeping an eye out for a banjo and fiddle. I might even learn bass. (Watch out!)

Here's our favorite song, Dueling Banjos. Jimmy & Sam are amazing!

Unclouded Day. Jimmy & Sam again.

Jimmy is just amazing! He'll definitely be missed, but we look forward to seeing Stevie playing lead next time we see them.

The best part is they're traveling too, so we'll catch them again down the road!