I started having a Word of the Year in a particularly trying time in my life, and the habit stuck. I find myself seeking the Lord the end of December, on what His word for me will be. It's so very accurate and prophetic too! If you used to follow us on the 4 little Ferguson's blog, you will remember these posts. They still make me cry! 2013: RESTORATION 2014: Balance 2015: Inwardly 2016: GUIDE I wasn't blogging at the time, but our word for the year was GUIDE. Boy, did the Lord guide us, as He spoke to use loudly in the sale of 3 big things in 3 days. Even more so, as we took the leap, and sold our house and worldly goods to hit the road.. HELLO 2017, and finishing our second full year on the road. What should our word be? Show me, Lord! I am thinking journey, travel, adventure, bold, bravery, courage.......ready to stretch myself as a leader and get myself out of the comfort zone I find so cozy, continuing to travel and explore. I crack open my FAVORITE devotional, "Jesus Calling", and what do you know! The Lord has a message for me...A confirmation in fact! :) I LOVE how this devotional is written as if the Father Himself is speaking to YOU, His beloved!!!! AND the scriptures listed, get you digging in God's word, which is very important. I highly recommend it. I got mine at Hobby Lobby on the sale rack, but saw them on Amazon too. I like the soft leather cover one I got! Traveling, journey, adventure...becoming my one true self in Christ Jesus and also in my life and business. WOW, it's all in there! This was IT!!!!! So here it is: The Word of the Year for 2017 is "Courageous Journey". Moving beyond ME, and allowing me to be filled better with HIM, as we travel and grow. The best things happen when we are uncomfortable. That is when we are stretched the most! His power is made perfect in my WEAKNESSES, not my strengths. Empty me of me, Father and fill me up with you, that I may overflow with love (and skittles and sunshine) to everyone I meet on our journey this year! Ready, set, go. Let's do this thing!
What's your Word of the Year? I'd love for you to share! (I always welcome your comments, they are so fun to read!) :) Hugs, T
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We had our second annual Horse Barn Christmas and I loved it. Such a humble little structure, so simple. No gifts, just a babe in a manger, surrounded by 2 Charlie Brown Christmas trees.... Good fun, amazing friends came to visit, and family; loads of fun! We actually celebrated Christmas eve instead of Christmas day....Drea always buys me the BEST stuff to decorate the barn with!!! Loved the theme and colors again this year! Dressing Christmasy is HARD when its a very warm 84* out, but we did our best! ;) I had the HARDEST time getting a shot of the boys...... I just don't know WHAT was going on?! s Ornery Papa!! Praise the Lord he is feeling SO good! And back to his mischevious ways ;) Because we were having a feast later, we made a bunch of appetizers for an easy snack lunch, while we made all the supper preperations. It was fun to have our new friends stop by and enjoy with us, then it was off to the breathtaking candle lit service before dinner.... It just doesn't feel like Christmas until we can go to one of those...... Then it was home to finish dinner prep and out to the barn we went.....all these photos are from Drea. I got my big camera out and then didn't even take ONE pic. Jeepers! I am fired! I had a slide show uploaded here, of all the great photos Drea took, but the website is SUPER grumpy and not letting me post!!! The next morning we attempted to sleep in, ha, and then had a leisurely breakfast and just chilled the whole day, reading and playing games. Super nice! Well, thats enough photos for one day, hope you all had an amazing Christmas and Happy New Years!!!!
Back to life and back to reality....UGH. My kids have had a HARD time getting back into our school routine. Who am I kidding, this MOMMA has had a hard time too! Can't we keep living in the Lala land between Christmas and New Years, and keep eating all the leftover amazingness, and watching Christmas movies in our jammies? NO? Darn. Hugs, T I asked the good, the bad and the ugly about year 2 on the road....... We all decided there really is no ugly, other then the RV carpet, so we will go ahead and do our tradition around the dinner table of sharing the Good, the Bad and the Blessing of our day, or in this case, year. Here is what the family said about 2016: Dale: The Good - I loved being able to travel the Northeast this summer and pin them on our map. I really enjoyed Wisconsin and the awesome river we played and fished in there. I loved being in the mountaints of Tennessee, that was really amazing. I'd like to go back there again sometime. Or maybe we should build a cabin there someday? Hmm, tempting. The Bad - My bad was definetly when I blocked traffic in New York because I couldn't make it under the low bridge that wasn't marked on the map. An hour and some city workers later, we finally got our rig turned around and heading the right direction. That was interesting to say the least! I also hated that I locked the trailer keys IN the trailer. Thank goodness for a hack saw to cut the locks. The Blessings - The blessing of TIME. Being able to be with the family as much as possible and enjoy life together, instead of just grabbing windows of family time here and there. I love that I get to work a business with my wife every day. Our job doesn't feel like one because we just share our passion for doTERRA and living healthy. Natural products, things from our Father and Creator. Pretty awesome. Tonya: The Good - There are so many incredible places within the US to go and see and do, and the beautiful thing is, even though we have almost been to every state, we could go revisit each place and see an entirely different part of the state, and have a new experience. I adored going up to the New England states! I have wanted to go up to Maine since I was in highschool. It was as beautiful as I imagined and I would go back tomorrow to eat another Lobster Roll! YUMMO!!!!! The Bad - The carpet of our RV is cream and despite our no shoes policy, it is GROSSSSSS! May be time to look into adding wood flooring in here. Ew. Also, I super duper was hoping to see Montana yearly, I ADORE going west, but with an east coast run all summer, it just wan't possible. Next year for sure! The Blessings - Oh where to begin? Having my best friend home with me all day, a dream. Doing life real time with my kids in school and play, such a privilege. The fact that our view changes weekly? Breathtaking. There is not a day that goes by that I don't give praise and thanksgiving to a Father in Heaven who not only heard the cry of my heart to restore what the locusts had eaten in our home, but to give us a life we never even dared to dream up. What a HUGE blessing from our incredible Savior! Destiny: The Good - I loved when we traveled with Papa to California to be on tv. We had a great trip and I cannot wait until we go to the West coast again this summer. My favorite part was seeing the Hollywood sign and walking around seeing the different stars on the sidewalk. I really had fun at the Great Lakes too! They were so crystal clear and we had a blast playing the water and exploring. The logging trail in the upper penninsula was neat, and so was picking wild bluerries on the side of the road. The Bad - I don't have a bad. Well, I guess this isn't bad, but I AM ready to have an apartment in our home town, so when we go there we can hang out in our room and decorate it. The Blessings - I love seeing new things, I love that we live a life beyond ordinary!!!! Tylan: The Good - I loved that we got to hike to the top of a waterfall out east. It was AMAZING! I love going on adventures with my family. I like climbing the cliffs and jumping in the freezing water! The Bad - Some places it just rains and rains for days. Sometimes we get bored of the things we have in the motorhome., but at least its a good time to play family games. The Blessings - I love that we go all over the USA and meet people. We make new friends everywhere we go and I like that part. I also am glad we are a close family. Avery: The Good - I loved swimming in the crystal clear lake and I liked hopping in that freezing cold river we found. It was shocking! But, we got hot cocoa for doing it and a cupcake! That was so fun! The Bad - I can't think of anything. This is fun. :) The Blessings - I love that we are all together as a family and we can be together everyday! I love that I can look out the window and new things all the time. Paxton: The Good - I loved when we got to swim under the water in Wisconsin and saw all the fish under us. I liked how the river current pushed us really fast! I also liked when we visited the BIG battleship. The Bad - There is nothing bad. The Blessings - The blessing is that we can travel wherever we want. I like that daddy and mommy stay home and don't leave for work. I love going new places! Have a safe and happy New Year everyone! Thank you for being a part of our journey!
Here is to MANY more adventures in 2017......so glad you can come along with us! :) Love, the Ferguson family xoxoxox Today, is a travel day! That means we need to get up early, get the RV "tore down" and hit the road ASAP. Sometimes we travel 3 hours, sometimes 10. 5 is about my limit, but we do what we have to do, to get where we need to go for class! Dale does the outside stuff, like loading the car into the trailer, packing up chairs, putting in awnings. He also checks tire pressure and all that jazz, as we have found ourselves on the side of the road with a flat tire or MISSING tire, that's a funny story, FAR too many times this year. The kids and I clean, and work on the inside stuff. We move the Berkey water filter up on the counter, clean windows, vacuum rugs, open up shades and curtains. And then, when it's ready, put the slides back in.... Living room slides OUT, for when we stay somewhere..... Living room slides IN, for when its time to hit the road! BIG difference, right?! We feel so thankful to have enough room to function going down the road, and then enjoy open spaces when we stop. A lot of the RV's we looked at, were soooo tight when they were "in", that a family of 6 couldn't function going down the road. That is because most people that live in RV's, are retired folk that sit up front the whole time. We'd love to help the industry change that, and be a part of designing a new Family Friendly Class A RV Pipe dream! :) Once Dale gets back in, we work on final details. Sliding doors locked. Decor fixed and laid down so it doesn't go sliding off as we make turns. Back slides get put in, see how the bed touches the dresser now? If you want to see the RV all opened up, go back on over to the RV Home Tour post. Use the categories on the side to navigate there. Dale starts up the rig and let's it idle a bit to let the air pressure build up...... While he does that, we do final details, like getting all 3 diffusers going. Using oils aromatically like this, can really change the ton of a travel day, or home. We usually do something super happy like Wild Orange and Peppermint or Citrus Bliss and Spearmint for their uplifting qualities. We have 1 in the back, 1 in the kitchen, and a cute cup holder one up front by Dale and I. I love that they are not chemicals, rather pure essential oils being put into the air of our home! Course, I don't always get the front seat! It's a pretty popular spot! Probably because it has the best view, AND a nice recliner feature with foot rest that pops out! There is a step cover that you put out to keep people from falling down the stairs too! Pretty neat! When I do get the front seat, I will often bring up my lap desk and work on editing photos and blogging our adventures. So travel days can be long and boring, or fun and exciting or bits of both. We pass the time by playing games.....Trash is always a hit! Have you played? Check out this post from our other blog and learn how to play Trash with your kids: https://4littlefergusons.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-play-trash-the-card-game/ Everyone must read an hour to earn an hour of media....we try to be a bit more flexible on travel days because they can get long, but screen time is still my least favorite activity! Lunch is always a bit of a challenge, but you get good at using arms and legs to hold things on the counter while making a big corner. I have dove for many a lunch item! We usually to keep it simple like a pasta salad, or sandwiches. Often, we use leftover Mexican food and heat it up for burritos in the convection oven. Remember, bread lives in the microwave oven, so its always all over the counter too, during cooking time. Well, that's it from here! We are almost to our location, and then it's all hands on deck to get set back up again!
See you next time! Hugs, T It was an AMAZING summer of East Coast, and Northern US travel, but now its time to buckle down again, and get back to school schedule. We are starting a week earlier then usual because we will need to take a week off in September to attend doTERRA's awesome convention! If you used to read our old blog, the 4 little Fergusons, you know we call our school the 4 Oaks Academy based on weeks of praying and asking the Lord to help me name our school something meaningful and from Him. Our goal and desire is not to raise scholars, or athletes, but DISCIPLES for Christ. Placing HIM at the center of our hearts and home, schooling within these RV walls, working always towards meeting this goal and purpose. This is our 3rd year to Homeschool, except now we call it "Road School" because come on, that is way cooler! ;) We ADORE the curriculum we selected from My Father's World. If you are interested in reading more, head back over to the 4 little Ferguson's blog and search homeschool. You will find a plethera of posts on this subject matter. https://4littlefergusons.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/our-homeschool-curriculum/ I may not have a cute classroom to decorate like when we had our home, but the world is our classroom now, and I am thankful all our curriculum fits neatly in the cupboards above the couch. I adore doing life with Dale! People always ask if we drive each other crazy being together all the time and the answer is no! We have always enjoyed each others company, we were the sappy couple calling for I love you's several times a day when he used to work outside the home. We are best friends, soul mates, and that only strengthened when we realized the cost of a marriage lost then found, broken and then healed. It really makes you appreciate life together! School is no exception. Dale is WONDERFUL with the kids and is a big help in dividing and conquering. I am so thankful the Lord allowed us this opportunity! One of the main reasons we picked My Father's World curriculum is because it was "one room schoolhouse style" meaning in the morning we do all the activities together as a group, then divide out for math, science and English etc. Well, when I was home alone with the kids doing this, it took some major work to block out the times to where I could have 2 do independent study, while I worked with the other 2. Now that Dale is here, we do first part all together, then we divide up and he works with bigs and I work with littles. This year Destiny is an 8th grader, Tylan is a 4th grader, Avery is a 2nd grader, and Paxton was supposed to start Kindergarten this year. Funny thing is, he passed it already because he did it 2 years ago with his sister for fun. And last year, he did most of 1st grade with her too. For that reason, he will finish the second half of 1st grade and do a good review this year, while also doing everything possible with his 2nd grade sister. I am finding in homeschool, the actual name grade is not nearly as important as allowing the child to learn at his own pace, even if its ahead of the game a bit maturity wise! :) We started the school day with a Pinterest Breakfast find from my friend, and fellow homeschooling momma, Monica Hoy.... PB&J Banana Dogs In true Pinterest Failure fashion, the jelly did not squiggle out cute like hers did, rather BLOBBED everywhere. Oh well, kids loved them anyhow! The kids buckled right down to work.....we always have a few kinks to work out week one, but it really went well overall. We ended the day with this....... I adore RV parks with a view! What a sunset from our awesome Creator.
I am working on a post in the days and weeks to come, kind of "a day in the life of" and walk through our morning and school routine a bit more thoroughly! Any other questions or items you'd like to see covered on here on this subject? Happy Back to School, everyone! Hugs, T Well, Minnesota. I owe you an apology! We feel like we MISSED most of it. Due to class scheduling and lack of open RV spots, we had to drop in low, rather then starting North and working our way down, like we had hoped, and giving it a good go. Good news? We WILL be back!!!! :) The morning of Paxton's birthday was a travel day, so he opened his gift on the road...PERFECT, 8 hours of a NEW Adventures in Odyssey, just what the kids ordered for a travel day! As we passed through the area, we decided to make a stop at the Mall of America! Why not? we were right there! It was bigger then we could have imagined! Birthday boy picked to go see the Lego store and eat some PIZZA while we were there. The coolest part of the Lego store, HAS to be the HUGE lego sculptures towering above you on the ceiling beams........ Fun facts: The lego creations seen below, took 160 people, 3 months to make them. The robot took 8 months, and got shipped in in 2 pieces, then assembled in store. It weights 11 TONS and took over 2.9 million pieces!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its hard to capture size on camera, so pay attention to the people below the lego sculptures for size idea, as well as my family standing on the balcony to see the robot. The attention to detail is amazing. My favorite was Christopher Columbus and all the things in his "office"...... When we walked by the American Doll store, the birthday boy graciously agreed to sit ouside with daddy and Ty and let the girls go explore the TWO story store. We don't own any American Girl stuff, but it sure was fun to look and dream. They still have Samantha! The AG doll I BEGGED for forever! Too expensive then, too expensive now. ;) After a few more hours of wandering and riding the glass elevator and all the escalators a few times, it was time to hit the road again, we had several hours to go. We found a beautiful forest rv front RV park to stay at. It was very stormy and rainy alot of the time, so we laid low, played games. We also got a chance to see a matinee, The Life of Pets, which was DARLING and later went into Cabella's for Paxton to pick out a present he wanted and use his birthday money from Aunt Kasey. He found a camo vest, toy hunting knife, compass, that came together in a play set. We try to limit "stuff" and focus on experiences for birthdays and holidays now, thus the movie, but at his age, STUFF is still pretty cool too! :) We've already seen hours of Ninja, hunter, super hero play. Good thing too, with all the rain. By the time we got back to the RV and made dinner, it was getting late, we were able to throw this little beauty together in about 20 minutes! EZ Beef Gryos: *1 pound beef flank steak, thinly sliced and seasoned well with Greek seasoning, salt, garlic, pepper and dill *olive oil *1 cup each diced tomatoes and diced cucumbers *1 cup feta cheese *1 cup homemade dill ranch *"Flat Out" soft pita style bread Slice steak, toss with seasonings. Heat oil in skillet and fry up meat until cooked through but still tender. Remove from heat. Cube tomatoes and cucs and assemble.... On flat out bread, layer dilled ranch dressing, meat, cucs and tomatoes, feta cheese and more dressing drizzled on top. Enjoy! Paxton got to pick our dessert, so ice cream it was. We found a cute little local place on Trip Advisor and headed the short trip into the tiny town we were staying in. No indoor seating, so we sat in the dark and sang happy birthday to him out there, Check out the "SMALL" cone.....it was like $1.50. Dale got a mocha twist, medium for like a dollar more. We all agreed my Dole Whip Yogurt was the best of the night! So delicious in fact, that we decided we needed to go back one more time before we left town. Priorities! This time, for fun, Dale and I got a large to share. Have you ever seen such a thing? Yes, we split it. Yes, they provided a cup. And YES, it was just as DELICIOUS as the first!!!! Well, that's it for this trip.
See why we owe Minnesota another go at it? We will be back and we can try try again. :) Hugs, T We headed over to Alma Center since they had a really nice KOA that could fit our big rig. We went into town to see some local sites, and saw all these flags and cars along the way. Our curiosity got the best of us, and we decided to pull over and see what the fuss was about. Turns out, we were at the location of the Barefoot Water Skiing World Championship!!!!! No WONDER it was so hard to find RV parks! We always seem to manage to do that...in town just in time for a rodeo we weren't attending or the week before Bike week, etc. Haha! Kids had fun trying to spot all the different teams represented. We saw Korea, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden and Australia to name a few! We headed into town for some authentic Mexican that got good reviews on Trip Advisor, called Cinco De Mayo. Best Chimichangas we have had yet! On our way home we decided to do some exploring of the area..... We pulled over to check out the HUGE dam. They call it the Black River, but its very very golden brown. The force of the water coming out was terrifying and powerful. It was so loud it was overwhelming to the ears! On the other side, it was perfectly still, like glass. Great use of nature to produce energy but I felt bad for the people that build big cabins with windows to see the river that now see the cement buildings and barbed wire surrounding the dam. One of our favorite places to stay is a KOA, because of how beautiful and well kept they usually are, as well as offering great things for us to do while we are there! A favorite in particular, is the bouncy pillow. We do family relays (if no other kids are around to get hurt or scarred for life) or just sit like adults and let the kids go wild. We wanted to see our sweet friend, Miss Ruby, while we were in the area. We met Ruby down in Texas of all places, and hit it off right away. She lives in Wisconsin and loves to RV too! She treated us to a fun date to the Cranberry Museum and showed us around the local bogs. Warrens, WI is the Cranberry Capital of the WORLD! In fact, they produce enough cranberries in one year, to give every man, woman and child in the WHOLE WORLD, 26 cranberries. Crazy right?! The museum was SUPER well done! The kids did a great stopping at each display and reading about how Cranberries grow and are harvested. I was proud of them, we have made some good improvements in how we "museum" in the year and a half on the road. They also loved the scavanger hunt at the end..... Our stop wouldn't have been complete without some cranberry purchases and cranberry ice cream from the gift shop, of COURSE! I had Cranberry Cheesecake ice cream and it was DIVINE! Our time with Ruby wasn't over yet, she took us out to the actual bogs to show us where they grow. You know, cranberries are only flooded like the commercials in the fall for harvest. They are flat and carefully maintained all year long, then there are natural gravity waterways that allow them to flood when the time is right. A field must be surveyed perfectly level, or the water will flood one area and not another. The old huts you see are from the 50's when the Ho Chunk Indians used to come help with harvest.... Bye friend, bye Wisconsin, we WILL be back!
Thanks for all the fun! :) Hugs, T First of all may I say, Montana is still sitting very securely as my #1 favorite place in the whole world, er continental United States. But northern Michigan, and Wisconsin are edging in!!!!!!! This last part of our trip has been SOOOOO beautiful and amazing! Wow. Wisconsin is our #45th state in our journey so far. I have to tell you, I cannot fathom that we have been doing this for a year and a half almost. It literally feels like we left for summer vacation a couple months ago, and never went back to reality!! This photo is missing the Wisconsin pin, but it's on there now! :) I'd love to see your family experience the gift of TIME, and FREEDOM. How about having some extra OPTIONS? Options are a beautiful thing. We are always looking for passionate people to run this race with! And I promise, if RV life isn't for you, you can live at home at still be financially healthy with doTERRA! :) Jump over to the Financial Opportunity tab to read more..... That was a Bunny trail, but one I am so so passionate about, aaaaaaand we are BACK to Wisconsin! So, what's the FIRST thing you do as soon as you get your RV set up for the week at your Wisconsin RV park? You go find CHEESE. You ARE in Wisconsin, after all! We dropped down into WI from the Upper Peninsula. Our first stop was Peshtigo RIver RV Park in Crivitz, WI. Turned out it was one of our favorite ones yet! Probably because of THIS little beauty just a hop skip and a walk away from our spot. With no essential oil classes on the books until later in the week, we pretty much spent all day, every day, HERE. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ And it. was. AWESOME. We floated. We fished. We ate lunch on a picnic blanket. Kids Crawdad hunted. We fished and floated some more. We pretty much spent 3 days alone on this river. AMAAAAAZING! The last day, was warm enough, we did a family swim in the strong current. Strapped on some goggles and headed under, letting the current push us like some amazingly fast swimmers! We could see the fish and rocks below us in the golden water, and it was CRAZY and CREEPY and AWESOME all at the same time. I also want to note, for memories sake, that this trip was when Destiny asked if she could start menu planning with me, shopping for the ingredients and making supper by herself once a week or so. UUMM, Yeah. My kids have always loved to bake and help make food, but out of all of them, Destiny was the least interested. Until now! She selected and made our favorite Creamy Tacos! (https://4littlefergusons.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/mrs-bs-creamy-tacos/) Destiny also made a Peaches and Cream pie for dessert! Mmmm! (https://4littlefergusons.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/peaches-cream-pie/) She was SO proud, and I was too. My little girl is growing up, and its really really special.... After this we had a weekend worth of classes in Medford, with Miss Linda, and our awesome growing team there, so it was time to head out. We immediately loved the FEEL of Medford, reminded us of home in the midwest. We also loved being parked at the little county campgrounds, all by our lonesome. Medford is a precious, little, quaint town. We rode our bikes to the grocery store, visited the farmers market right on the fair grounds Saturday morning, and had some amazing fresh Wisconsin cheese brats, sweet corn, thick slabs of tomatoes, cucumber salad with a watermelon eating contest for dessert, thanks to our farmers market finds. No pics, just was present. :) That's good too! I have pretty much eaten my weight in cheese since we got here.....SEVERAL TIMES OVER. I adore a good high quality cheese, and I haven't tasted anything like what I am eating here. Oh, and the CHOICES! I know we must have looked like tourists in the grocery store staring, slack jawed, at the local cheese section that LITERALLY WENT ON AND ON AND ON in the back refrigerator section of the store! The smoked string cheese is the winner so far, with buffalo curds a close second! After this, we headed to Alma Center and Black River Falls, then Warrens. I think the hills and forests really surprised us! We were imagining Wisconsin to feel like Ohio, flat farm lands. Nope! Tons of valleys and big green hills, you can see farms along the side of the road with their crops stretched up the hill at an angle to the very top. This is so full of photos already, I think I will continue tomorrow instead of packing more in here....
See you again, soon! Hugs, T So I have to be honest, I had NO idea there was such a thing as the U.P. I had no idea you could drive the strip of land you see on the map, arched above Michigan and Wisconsin, called the Upper Peninsula. Maybe I was passing notes during that part of class? haha :) I quickly learned just how RURAL it is!!!! NO cell reception, and it was like a civilization of its own. I also learned, that if you live there, you are called a Yooper. Most of the year you get around on special snow mobile paths and the restaurants open just for you and are PACKED with folks with the same idea. If you stretched all the groomed snow paths into a "highway" of sorts, it'd reach from Florida to Washington!!!!! Driving these is all the rage here, in fact under almost every speed limit sign, is a speed limit for ORV's for the winter months to come. Pretty cool, right!? There is this beautiful bridge you take to get to the UP, and you will see Lake Michigan on your left and Lake Huron on the right. We weren't in the UP very long, but we did have a TON OF FUN!!!! This first thing we did after a day of leisure, was go to the Soo Lock's. The Soo Locks makes it possible for ships of all sizes to cross the 21-foot drop between Lake Superior and Lake Huron every day and night! It takes a whole team to make this happen, and it was fun to watch them zoom around on their little cars to prepare for this ships safe passage from one lake to the next. From the Soo Locks website: "These Locks are legendary in the maritime world and have provided safe passage and a vital shipping connection within the Great Lakes for nearly 160 years. They are a wonder of engineering and a living, breathing history lesson. They provide a flight of fantasy as one imagines the highs and lows of a life spent on the seas. Nearly a million people come visit each year!!!!" So, we wanted to go see more water. Apparently, in the UP, there are no major roads winding along the water like other states, nope. You take old logging roads through the forest to get where you want to go. It. Is. AWESOME. And bumpy. And dusty. And LONG. We traveled a 18 miles this way, in fact.... Just when we thought the bone rattling bouncing was NEVER GOING TO END.... We spotted water! Ahhh, beautiful and worth it! We spent the rest of the day here just relaxing, looking at pretty rocks, playing wave tag, eating free hot dogs for National Lighthouse Day, and napping in the sun on the warm rocks, which quite amazingly, were very comfortable! It was so so breathtaking there! Please take a minute and watch these slide shows....the water is so stunning! We also got to go up into the Lighthouse being restored! It was so neat, and it took a tight 63 step spiral staircase to reach the top. I can't imagine running up them during a storm to relight the light!!!! I was so dizzy from my slow climb and ascent that I was crooked for 5 minutes afterwards! No lie!!!! Afterwards we went to the other side of the shore and relaxed..... I cannot get over these stunning rock shores of all colors! Make sure you look for the photo of the stones dry vs. wet!! WOW! On the way home, we saw some people along the road picking something. We pulled over to see what they were doing, and low and behold, the entire area was covered in Wild Blueberries. The nice couple picking, gave us solo cups and turned us lose on their treasure. We spent a good half an hour there picking 5 Solo cups of AMAZING sweet blueberries! What a great snack after a fun day of play! The kids all collected their FAVORITE rocks to take home during our day here. Well, we live in an RV, there isn't room for rocks. Or is there?! Hmmmm. What about creating a "Zen" sink? Ok ok, its not really zen. Doesn't that mean lots of different elements like wood and water and light in a special order? No matter, it reminds me of that, so I am calling it my Zen Sink. Very relaxing and fun to watch the stones turn vibrant colors as we wash our hands! And no, I am not worried about germs lurking in the rocks, our all natural, AMAZING smelling, On Guard soap will take care of that! :) Best soap I have found EVERRRR! No antibacterial at our house anymore.....too hard on our hands, our bodies and the environment! As the sun set on another fun day, I just looked around and gave thanks to my Heavenly Father. He knew just how to bless these kids of His, knowing our "Dream Come True" better then we could've ever dreamed up. I honestly can't imagine a more fulfilling life, then this one, with the ones I love most. We are so settled, content and happy with this new, simple, wandering journey we are on. Free to explore or stay put, rise and sleep when the body dictates, explore what interests us, and skip what doesn't. No stack of mail to sort, no lawn to mow, no phone ringing off the hook....just life, out loud, wild and free. Sigh. Thank you Lord! Goodnight, blogging friends! Hugs, T We left Ohio and crossed into Michigan and drove a few hours before we found an RV park to stay at in Monroe, with a cute lighthouse theme. First thing, a man drove up on his bike and knocked on our door. Turns out it was our doTERRA friends, the Janssens, who had recognized our rig as we pulled in! What are the odds of being at the same RV park at the same time? They also are on the road most of the time for their doT business! They blessed us with lots of tips, advice before we went our separate ways! I love how the Lord works to bring people together. :) Our first full day there was a VERY special birthday! Avery turned 8! Little bitty peanut is growing up. Her Momma is apparently having to grow up too, since I celebrated my 35th that day as well. Sigh. 35 sounds REALLY grown up! Avery Lyn was the best birthday gift a momma could ever ask for, so it was still a day of celebrating! :) If you followed the 4 little Ferguson's blog, you know that on birthdays we don't do tons of gifts, or big parties. Good thing, because we have had to simplify our traditions even more, now that we live in a small space. However, birthday girls, or boys, STILL get to be the Queen or King of the day!!!! Everyone has to do your chores for you, and you get to pick where we go, what we do and what we eat! There is always a LOT of talking and discussing what sweet treat they will pick since momma is a Sugar Nazi a lot of the time. We found an AMAZING farm to table restaurant called Public House. Everything was simply fantastic! After some free Strawberry Cobbler, we headed back to the RV for a swim before bedtime. Before we headed into Northern Michigan, we did some classes, met some new friends at a park for a mini oil class and playtime. Would you believe 4 little Ferguson's reader, Lauren wrote me about my Instant Pot, and we ended up talking oils. When I asked her where she lived, because I was wishing I could get her to an oils class, she names a town literally 2 hours from where we were parked. WHAT?! God is so good and He always works things out to the littlest details! She is an avid oil lover and now joined my doTERRA Dorothy team!!! I am thrilled the Lord brought us together like this at just the perfect time. :) Next, we got to stop and see my friend from our Central Christian highschool days. Meet Tara and her beautiful family! One of my kids' favorite things about living on the road, is getting to make new friends in every state! :) Paxton is still talking about his new "fwiend", Landes. We headed towards Indian River and got all set up and went into Makinac City for dinner. The locals told us the food was just as good as the Island, but cheaper. Score! We are cutting the fat this summer in order to pay off some recent debt from shed house, rv sales tax and surprise tire purchases, so we decided to skip the $100 ferry over to the island this year. We WILL be back and we will get it done! This didn't stop us from having a really nice time in town walking through the quaint little town with lots of window shopping, fudge and fish dinners. We also dipped our feet in our first and favorite Great Lake, Lake Huron. We loved the Lake so much, we decided to pack up the next day and spend the afternoon there. Michigan was having record breaking highs of 90* and the next day was supposed to be a high of 74*, so it was perfection! I want to post all of these seperately, but I know that I can't. Please take a minute and watch this slide show. The water was crystal clear and shallow FAR out into the water! Absolutely a highlight of our trip.... Everyone kept talking about Bumpy Cake, so before we pulled out a few days later, we made sure to go find some! OH am I ever glad we did! We always try to eat the local culture and explore what the town is best known for. Apparently this originated in Detroit and has swept the southern region of Michigan with its popularity. Its a fantastic, moist chocolate cake, with "logs" of buttercream down the top, and then covered in a lovely chocolate glaze. It was, roll your eyes up in your head, good! Tomorrow, we pack up and head up to the "U.P."!
Stay tuned..... Hugs, T We have been through Ohio several several times in our year on the road, but this is the first time I get a chance to blog it! Dale and I both grew up in the Mennonite church, so it's fun to be in Amish country and back to our roots. We could actually "feel" a change when we left the East coast and entered this area closer to the midwest again. We spent a few days in Holmes County Ohio, enjoying the farm scenery and some Amish baked yummies. While we were there, it was recommended to us we accomplish 2 things: See the worlds biggest cuckoo clock, and eat at the Park Street Pizza place in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Well that sounds easy enough! First of all, Park Street Pizza has the most DARLING decor and cool atmosphere....tall ceilings, lots of texture, metal and old stuff used again as new. Wood farm tables and funky colored metal chairs scattered here and there. The attention to detail here was lovely, as they grow their ingredients locally. Fresh ingredients totally changes the end result! Soft, chewy crust, tons of flavor and herbs used in the sauce, real pepperoni. Even the parmesan cheese on the table had extra seasonings in it. Oh and don't skip the breadsticks and salad! WOW! Gooey and cheesy bread and fresh, amazing, colorful salad, with yellow tomatoes, purple carrots. This place has bumped our #1 pizza place in Waynesville, NC down to #2, and our NY style pizza in Hallstead, PA to #3! Even the bathroom was amazing and I took a photo for future inspiration when we finish our home base. Haha! What can I say, the sink and subway tile work was incredible! OH, and about 7 different sized beveled mirrors in all different shapes and sizes, hanging from jute twin. DARLING! I liked this cool orange light too. Our apartment colors are dark grey, white, orange and this gorgeous robins egg blue that was inspired from Papa Don's fence next door. The neighbors that bought his old place, let us take the fence with us. Dale hopes to make it into a sliding barn door, or coffee table, or some part of our home hub, when we finish it......SOMEDAY! We wandered around town and enjoyed some flea markets and farmers markets, before heading home to drop off our fresh fruit and veggies, and head back to the cuckoo clock. Troyer's Country Market has the BEST homemade ice cream! The black raspberry was roll your eyes good, and this day, they were also offering fresh peach milkshakes. Great prices, and great treat! Here is Avery showing you the small cone, that wasn't small at all! By the time we got to the cuckoo, we had missed the hour "show", so we hung out and walked around waiting for the half hour. Calling this place "Little Switzerland" is so accurate, every wood detail on every single store front felt like the Swiss Alps all the way! We found our spots on the lawn a few minutes before show time.... If you follow RV Oilers on Instagram, you got to see a video of the clock. Great music and cute little wooden figures that dance and play music. And the cuckoo pops out too! Lots of history here, this clock took 12 years and $50,000 to build! It felt into disrepair though, and was recently fixed up and brought out to its new place in this town. All play and no work makes Tonya a lazy girl, so the whole next week was spent teaching classes and business bootcamps in Findley and Alvordton area. Love our growing doTERRA Dorothy team there! :) This job that doesn't feel like one, is SUCH a blessing! I love connecting with my Dorothy girls all over the USA. Look out doTERRA, here comes OHIO! :) When we are in Ohio, we always stay with our friends Luke and Anna, on their beautiful property! Our kids have a ball with theirs....Lane, Ashlyn, Liam and Alivia. The baby, Alivia, was sleeping for this photo, but here they are! Every day, the kids would disappear and play HARD! They all get along so so well, what a blessing! Schaffners have this amazing property with a huge pond, a giant swing set, and all kinds of places to enjoy. Check out the beautiful views.... You know how you just click with some people? That's how it is with the Ferguson Schaffner crew. We didn't plan on eating together every day, but it just happened! Remember Pepsi Chicken from the blog? Still delicious! Make it. Thank me later.... https://4littlefergusons.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/pepsi-chicken/ The kids played in the pond just about every day, and one cooler afternoon Anna got out water colored water balloons for a good ol fashioned balloon fight! Dale was working on his fly fishing skills everyday, and even managed to snag a large mouthed bass. Yup, on a fly fishing rod no less! The kids played games, cards, and the girls were constantly chasing the baby kitties around to hold them. Lots of evenings were spent outside talking, while the kids played together on their giant swing set....I will load all these photos to a gallery slideshow for easier viewing! :) Please check them out! When you see the donut picture go by, wipe off the drool and know they came from a bakery an hour away. Its called Rise N Roll, and we were too close not to go back again this trip, and get their famous Caramel Cinnamon Donuts again. Sweet Dale got up early one morning to get us some to share! We could of spent a lot more time here, but we try to leave while people still want us to come back! hahaha!!! I loved my time with this sweet Anna girl!
And just like that, after a wonderful worship service at church, it was time to pull out, say our goodbyes and began our journey just up the road a few hours, to our 44th state, Michigan! We'll be back Ohio! Until then....... Hugs, T We left Maine on someone's very special, 13th birthday! She had already done all her celebrating in Kansas, with a surprise limo ride birthday party with friends, and a purity ring date as well with mom and dad. She knew it would be a low key day, but in true Ferguson tradition, would get to be the Queen of the day and pick out what we ate for supper and dessert. First thing she asked for was a cup of coffee. I said no, dad said yes, so she got a half a cup. Haha! I told her she has to wait until she is 16 or more to enjoy that again. ;) Today, we continue with the New England States.....after Maine we headed to Connecticut. We had more adventures, not with low bridges, but with no gas stations that sold diesel that we could fit in. AND, we may or may not have gotten trapped in a windy hilly bridge road with no way to make the turn in a small neighborhood we ended up in. Dale says GPS is the devil and much prefers map study. He is such a champ, and figured out a way to get us out, avoiding a mailbox, telephone pole and a truck and house, and even managed to turn around a 7- foot rig so we didn't have to back back out. Needless to say, we planned to do the same as last time. STAY PUT in the spot we fit and hop in the car to do our state exploring! We got in kind of late afternoon, so we set up, relaxed and then read some reviews on Trip Advisor to decide where the birthday girl wanted to eat. She picked Chinese. Well, in a town filled with sea food joints, italian bistros and gyros, I was afraid we'd end up at some nasty buffet. BUT, thankfully, the #2 place to eat with Thai food at the Lazy Leopard, it got great reviews, so off we went. The entire family groaned when we took our first bites. The depth of flavor, selection of spices and attention to detail, with fresh everything, made this over the top amazing! Dale and Ty both threatened to lick their plates. Dale got his 5 star hot, and told them to make him almost cry, and loved it. Crazy! I got a spicy Basil Shrimp dish that they said wasn't too hot. OH MY. I sneezed it was so hot, blew my nose, and felt the sweat beading up on my forehead, but I ate it, because the flavors were soooo incredible! Afterwards we walked around downtown for a while and check out the sites. We spent the entire next day at the pool and just RELAXED! That is nice to do, we are totally into down time. Plus, RV Parks have such nice amenities for us to take advantage of like game rooms, bike paths, hiking trails, swimming pools and more, so there are times its just as fun to stay put. So for the remainder of our time in the New England states, we decided to stay parked in Connecticut, while we visited Rhode Island and Massachusetts for day trips by car. Sometimes traffic was CRAZY bad, and as far as the eye could see. Made us glad for wide open spaces back home in the midwest! Did you know in Maine, they served Lobster Rolls with cold meat, and hot butter? Oh my gracious, it was AMAZING! So naturally, when I saw Lobster Rolls in Rhode Island, I had to get some. Told you I have a Lobster Roll problem.... When the man at the cash register asked me if I want my sandwich served hot with butter or cold with mayo, I said cold with butter. He literally gasped. "We don't EVER do that," he says. OKAY. OKAY. Hot with butter is fine. Guess what? Not as good! Funny, right?! Who knew it was such a state to state thing! One of the highlights of our time, was the Cliff Walk. 64 privately owned properties with a 3 1/2 mile walking trail behind it. These properties include several Vanderbuilt homes that would make your jaw drop and so much history. Some parts of this walk is rugged rock to climb over, some parts are in a tunnel, some parts are paved; all really cool and pretty! We sat and just enjoyed the beach below for a while, before turning around to hike it all back. I have never seen such an interesting beach. There were some rocks that looked like those fancy show dogs with the long hair! Haha! And, during low tide, there was this spongy, bug filled, rotting crust that your feet sunk into, every step of the way. The regular shore line was rocks and rough sand. VERY different! Next time we go, we want to take the $100 tour through the mansions too! By the time we walked a good chunk of the 3 mile long trail, we were hot and ready to head back the hour home to our RV. Have you ever had Dell's frozen lemonade? Apparently, its a "thing" in Rhode Island, there are stands everywhere!!!!!! Its a light, fine, white {no dye thank goodness} ice of fresh squeezed lemonade that is really tart and delicious. We pulled up to the stand to see a big CASH ONLY sign. Guess who dug out enough change from the center console to get us each a teeny one. Haha, everyone had a good laugh at the counter! It was worth it thought, very refreshing for the hour ride home. I try to plan ahead easy suppers on adventure days, and this day was no different. I still love to try new recipes, so I am weekly digging out recipe books, or on my kindle looking up Instant Pot recipes. {That's a whole nother blog I could do...} But this one was a repeat from last month, because it was worth repeating! YUM! Check it out. Went perfect with the fresh corn on the cob we bought from a farm stand and grilled when we got home. Did you know they also stocked Humble Pie? Humble Pie IS a thing! Who knew! I have never eaten it before. ;) Dale however, does alot. Bahahahahah! Ok, so real Humble Pie is apparently, Peaches, Raspberries, Blueberries with a hint of lemon. It is AH STINKING MAZING! Hopefully, that's the only Humble Pie I ever have to eat...... Enjoy! I made sure to over season, and you won't want to miss the extra flavor the cheese on top adds. I also went to an olive bar to get the best kind of olives, not the jar kind. I did green feta stuffed ones, marinated in italian dressing, and the marinated kalamata. It's all about fresh ingredients! Tomorrow, we leave the North East, and end our "East Coast Summer" leg of the trip. We are heading towards Ohio for a week of classes there. Then on up into Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota! We have never been, so we are super excited!
Hugs, T While up in the New England states, we quickly discovered, that the smartest thing we could do, was to stay put at the RV park we fit at in Maine, and just drive our car on day trips to all the different states near by. This blog is about New Hampshire and Vermont. One of the perks of the east coast, is that in an hour or two, you can be in the middle of an entirely new state! :) What a concept! The views were beautiful and we were sure to hit small towns and window shop, as well as disappear into the beautiful mountains, trails and waterfalls in the area. We stopped at a farmers market, then Jeb's General Store, and checked out all the cool Maple syrup products and picked out a little maple leaf candy of pure maple syrup to try. DEEELICIOUS! I love all the old covered bridges, the rickety cemeteries along the road, and how all the houses have these super narrow double front doors. The local grocery stores aren't chains, rather these little bitty mom and pop stores along the road. LOVE that! New Hampshire is home of the oh so beautiful White Mountains, so we were sure to go explore up there too. We ate lunch at a little pizza joint in Vermont and enjoyed the views before heading to find a swimming hole or hiking trail to explore! This was, by far, my FAVORITE part of this road trip. We found the coolest river spot where no one else was, and just had a ball. Sophie was hopping from rock to rock, the kids were splashing and cooling off. Then as I hiked up the hill for a shot of them playing, I discovered that the river split above and actually was flowing over an entirely separate rock section at the Y, making another cool waterfall place to play in. Everyone headed up, and before long, the dares were flying. Avery dunked her head in, and soon was all in. Well, if she did it, then Destiny was going to go completely under and swim in the ice cold water as well. The boys, at the very end as we walked to the car, decided they would NOT be one upped by their sisters, so they dunked in too. BRRRRR!!!! It was so cold, but SO refreshingly beautiful. All the pics are below in the slide show, take a peek.... Time to head back to camp, and get some cold, tired, smiling kids to bed!
Tomorrow, we would pull out and head 4 hours to enjoy Connecticut.... See you next time, T We are so excited to be pinning more and more states on our map this summer, as we travel the New England states for the first time. We have been to like 39 states now! First up, Maine! I have been wanting to come here since my Junior Year in highschool, when our family took our RV up the east coast for an entire month that summer. It was AWESOME! We didn't make it up as far as we had planned, so the desire to see Maine has stayed with me. I tell you, the HARDEST thing about traveling the east coast this summer is..... A) the low bridges we already mentioned in NY B) finding RV parks that can house us. And if we do find an RV park with a big rig site, most do not have full hook ups, because they are by the river. So no draining your grey and black tank without unhooking, tearing down and driving somewhere! Grey tank is anything that goes through the sinks, shower or washer. You can imagine, as a family of 6 that hand washes dishes and showers regularly, it can fill up quickly! It's just different rules, because west coast water front still does. So interesting how all the different cultures live and do things! There also seem to be an abundance of quarter showers. I am not even kidding, you pay a quarter, get 5 minutes of water. I had only seen this ONE other time in the year we have been on the road. So, in general, people warned us that they aren't as friendly out east, but we sure had no problem making friends everywhere we went. Don't get me wrong, we got a grumpy server or two, and if you wave they look behind them like, what? but for the most part, people were super nice. That seems to be the culture of RV life though. Everyone is so friendly and you are like part of this cool secret family. I ADORE IT! If you are visiting the New England states, they will call you a "Flat Lander". Isn't that a hoot? And they don't say "R's". I ADORE IT! Like Bar Harbor, is Bah Habah. Eeek! I could listen all day...... When we first set up at an RV park, we go explore it's amenities. This one had a river front area with a beach and fishing area that was fantastic. Almost every RV park has a picnic table for you to use outside your site, so we utilize it for dinner alot, in these cooler temps! I know it's no secret that Dale and I are TOTAL foodies, and totally love eating our way across the USA. {Yes we both gained 10 pounds this year, but never fear, doTERRA has an incredible line for this. So we do shakes for lunch and Slim and Sassy oil on our tummy, to keep things trim, so we can keep eating and we are back to our pre travel weight!} haha :) So one of the things we always do is see the local culture and eat the local fare, of the towns we stop in. Whatever they are known for..... Well, Maine is known for Lobster Rolls, that you better believe that was my FIRST order of business when we arrived. Ah-stinking-mazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! The clam chowder was divine too! After dinner we walked around town, it kind of turned into a blustery evening, but still so beautiful. We must have looked like tourists in our shorts and tanks, because everyone else seemed to know to wear pants and bring jackets for evening on the coast, even though earlier it had been 90! We froze, but still hit the beach as you see in the pics below. Did you see sweet Avery falling in those photos? Hahaha, we laughed and laughed that it was caught on camera, shocked face and all! They LOVE playing "Wave tag" whenever we are at the beach, and she bit it bad, when running backwards. She just giggled and jumped back up to play again. Day 3 we decided to road trip from Maine to New Hampshire and Vermont instead of trying to find another RV spot. So we loaded up waters, camera, and Sophie and hit the road! We drove through Old Orchard to check out the sea side amusement park. We just drove through, and then hit up a Lobster Roll stand. What!? I have to stock up on them while we are here! Breakfast, lunch and dinner would be ok, right?! On that note, I need to go eat supper!
East coast summer, to be continued.... ~T :) Travel days are usually enjoyable and relaxing, with everyone quietly playing, reading or sleeping as we go. Some travel days are just, well, LONG and BORING! Especially when we get a late start. That happened to be the case as we were heading from Virgina to upstate New York. The RV was stuffy, and the AC units were struggling to keep up in the extreme heat. So, when we started to pass signs for the Hershey Chocolate factory, I looked over to Dale and nodded my head towards the exit. He smiled and a plan was formed. We came to the Hershey's factory last Mother's Day, on our first ever RV trip...we loved their free little Chocolate World ride, and decided that would do the trick to break up a long day. The kids were SO excited to have a break from the road and at such a happy place no less..... After riding the cute free ride, we went shopping for CHOCOLATE. But alas, after seeing the hour long line snaking around the store to check out, we bailed on our plan. I am not kidding you, peoples carts were OVERFLOWING with candy and chocolate. This was supposed to be a 30 minute break, not an hour long one. Plan B was to go to the Hershey food court and hit up the Bakery. Turns out, that was a smart choice, and one we will do again. Mmm! Fresh chocolate cream filled cookies, iced cocoas and so much more. Each person picked a buddy to share their treat with. See those smiles? Ahh, chocolate makes everything better on travel day. We hit the road again, and drove until it was almost dark. Once we realized we weren't going to make our destination in time, we pulled over for dinner and hit up a pizza joint we were still talking about from last year....Tedeschi's Pizza in Hallstead, PA. We got another photo like last years, so we could do a side by side comparison of how everyone has changed! :) Pizza hasn't changed a bit, still GIANT, and still delicious! This puppy costs $12 base price. WOW. Go. Eat. Thank me later. We found a Lowe's to park in for the night, and planned on attending church the next morning with our friends the Vissers. Kristina and I met on the 4 little Ferguson's blog and have been friends ever since. I just had no idea I'd be seeing her several times a year, and our kids and husbands, would grow so close. What a blessing! She is one of the leaders in our doTERRA team now, so we have lots of excuses to go see them. Here is the photo we took of them as we left last year! Aren't they wonderful!? We have a growing, thriving team in their neck of the woods, so we were coming to do some Business Bootcamp trainings for them. We adore helping people grow in their oil knowledge and move towards financial freedom too!!!! Great things are happening in NY! :) Ray and Kristina always have SUCH fun things for us to do when we come, and this time was no exception!!! First up, a lakeside BBQ, bonfire and fireworks show.... The beauty of New York always takes my breath away, and its so nice and rural too. People imagine it ALL WRONG! We ended the night with fireworks and S'mores! The next day was a scorcher, even for them, so we decided to hit what they call "The Falls." We took a truck and one of those off road Rangers and headed down to the river. We packed up a ton of food, as several of the Visser extended family were joining us, and headed down. We packed cast iron pie irons for Pie Iron Pizza for an easy lunch by the water. I love those things! We use them all the time when we camp for breakfast, grilled stuffed burritos, even dessert. You can use crescents, pie filling and powered sugar and make one heck of a funnel cake like dessert. We only had 6 pie irons, so we got right to work getting them on the fire right away... There is no sound I love more, then the sound of running water. I have already put in my request to the Father, to be privileged to own such a property someday! What a dream! We just sat with our chairs down in the water and relaxed. The kids had a ball splashing around in the water. Adults too! :) Before we knew it, our days in NY were over. We ate together tail gate style before heading to the final bootcamp, and pulled out the next morning to head to our next stop on East Coast summer: MAINE! I have been waiting for YEARS to go to Maine, like 17 years! Bye, Visser crew! Bye, awesome NY Edition DoTERRA Dorothy team! Thanks for being amazing hosts. See you next time.... So one of the trickiest things we found about the East coast so far, is the LOW BRIDGES. We found this out quickly as we headed into town to get a new rv tire before we got on the road, and found a bridge that was low clearance. We couldn't go under it. We couldn't go around it. SO what could we do but back up? That seemed simple enough except all the traffic backed up behind us didn't get the memo. Thank the Lord for some nice city workers that came by and blocked traffic with their truck and directed traffic until we could have room to back up. Phew! This east coast stuff is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure!
Hugs, T When I last left you, we had worked our way through our home sweet rolling home, right up to the kitchen and dining area! So there is food storage above booth, as well as school boards flanking either side of it. This gives the kids a visual during our school year to know what comes next on the schedule. The papers taped up on the window box, are our timeline from last year, walking through the Bible and History together. I will have to do a school post when we start the next school year! Gotta have little pops of home! I adore this pillow from my good friend, Kristina. It lives on the bench in the kitchen and reminds me of the land of Oz, where we come from. :) Now, lets head down the hallway to the bathroom and master bedroom! One of the questions we get asked most is about privacy, and I always tell them we are good to go. Pictured is one of 2 solid wood doors that close on either side of the shower room, as well as functioning to separate the master bedroom, from the kids room. You know how fun and freeing it is to be on vacation and enjoy your marriage perks fully? Yup, that's pretty much life on the road. Woot woot! ;) As you head past the fridge, you will see our Vision board. Making our dreams and goals visual and committing it to prayer, has been really moving and exciting! See the second wooden pocket door there? That's where it closes off the bathroom and bedroom.... So when you first walk in the bathroom area, this is what you see. To the left is the shower, to the right, the toilet room, and straight ahead, this sink space...... Its a really nice, open, bright space thanks to 2 skylights. These cabinets are super deep with tons of storage space! It has heated floors so in the winter, it's LOVELY!!!!! We are thankful for a second sink and toilet behind this door...AND .it's also a great place to hide away all the kids towels. Toilet is tucked behind the door area of this shot. Again, nice and bright, just wish they had put an AC vent in here, it gets warm! It has heat, but no cooling. Strange! The master is very spacious with tons of storage, but very very hard to photograph. You can walk around the entire bed. In our old RV, we had to sit on the bed to make it because there wasn't walking space. You walked in to the foot of the bed in that one. That gives you an idea of the different set ups of RVs. This one is pretty much wall to wall cupboards and storage too, which we are SO thankful for! Dorothy/oz themed pillow #2 is from my friend, Brittany from Kansas. It goes perfectly with the bedding. She is also the one that made our Ferguson Family adventures pin board we track states on. Love it! We use this set of cupboards beside the bed for a coat closet and doTERRA storage, as well as school paperwork. This is to your right when you walk into the bedroom. To the left of the door when you walk in, is Avery's closet, pictured below, as well as lot of drawers for the kids clothes. It also houses the TV. It used to be the box kind of tv, but once we got a flatscreen, Dale made it hinge thing {that is a super technical term, I know} that pops the TV up, so we have more usable space. Movies, dvd player, and oils hidden away in the TV box area...... Kids bedding when not in use...lives up in this set of cupboards. They tear down and roll up their bedding each day, with the exception of the fold out bed. It can stay made except the bulky top cover. Here is a pic of Dale and my side of the closet. We use drop down metal hangers to help save space {and be able to fit more clothing options, YESSSSS!} and shoe racks to make the floor of the closet more functioning for my shoe and apparently, my Chucks addiction. ;) Destiny, Tylan and Paxton shares the other side. It looks similar to this one, extra space, shoe racks and all. See that grooved cabinet to the left of the closet? Guess what is in it? EEEK! a washer dryer combo. Let me tell you, I ADORE this thing. I think they should make a set of these for homes. Each one would do a load from wash to dry, and no wasted time when you forget to move a load to the dryer! Do you know how FAST a momma could get her laundry done?! We load it up, go about our day as it washes AND dries, then come back an hour or so later, dump it on the bed, so the kids can fold and put away, and start the next load. I am telling you, GENIUS!!!!! See that On Guard Laundry soap? Oh man, I love that stuff. That bitty bottle does 64 loads! It's that concentrated and amazing! We have been so pleased with every natural product we have tried from them. And no more chemical filled clothing! Once I found out my All Free and Clear got an F grade because of cancer causing agents on the ECW.org website, and its ingredients caused developmental delays in children, I threw it out! Gross. Everything in our home is now homemade from essential oils, water and vinegar, or bought from doTERRA's cleaning line, and I am saving a ton of money. LOVE it all, and it all smells amazing! We are a 42 foot Class A diesel RV, pulling a 24 foot enclosed trailer. We are a BIG rig going down the road! But it works so well for us!!!! Another question we get a lot is why do we pull a trailer and what is in it? A cool car? Haha, Dale wishes! WHY do we pull a trailer? Because we don't want to pull our car 4 down and wear out the wheels. We don't want an open trailer that leaves bikes and car exposed to weather. Sooo, what's in it? Well, its our Garage, per say. It houses our 6 passenger car, 6 bikes, 4 scooters, a bin of outdoor toys, a broom and mop, a grill, a massage table for aromatouch sessions, and more. Sweet Dale built me some shelving above the car, so we'd be able to have some bins of swim suits, games, Christmas decor, doTERRA paperwork and blessing bags etc. We also have our Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling for next December! :) Dale can't be without fishing gear, so it has a spot on a side wall. Everything has to be safely secured so we don't damage the car paint as we bounce down the road! Thanks for coming over! Hope you enjoyed your tour of our home!!!! :)
In the future I'd like to do a travel day post and a "day in the life of" post. Is there anything else I should cover? Any more questions I can answer? Leave me a comment! Hugs, T Stop number 2 on our East Coast journey, was in Asheville, North Carolina area. Wow, the beauty of this place just doesn't quit! We had a terrible time finding an RV park to accommodate our 72 foot rig, before a holiday weekend, but thank the Lord, we called JUST after a cancellation, and got this little beauty... A spot with a VIEW!!!! :) We spent lots of time wading, relaxing and picnic-ing here. There is no sound I love more, then a gently flowing river.... We ate some AWESOME local Southern fare, as well as the best darn ice cream cone I have ever had, at Jack the Ripper ice cream shop, where they make you a fresh warm cinnamon cone while you wait. Um, holy amazing!!!!! We were blessed to attend the Highland Christian church service with our friend Sarah, Sunday morning. This is a church where kids are not only included, but welcome to be a part of the entire church service. Their motto is "We will not lose another generation...." They had a kids church up front before the main sermon, provided a craft that went with the message to work on during service, and had stations all around the room kids could sit in, or play in, while they listened to service with their parents. Before you came in church you could file through a line and get a toy, puzzles, scissors, glue, markers and paperwork to color and work on. It was super low key and super Holy Spirit filled! Wow, Pastor Jason BROUGHT it!!!!! We have absolutely adored visiting different churches and worshiping with them this past year on the road. We also took several scenic drives through the area, as well as catching the Blue Ridge Parkway. STUNNING doesn't even began to describe what we saw..... Sorry to have to offer a cell phone image only. We didn't know we were going through, or I would've gotten out my big camera! We woke up July 4th with an entire list of local, small town festivals to chose from! SO FUN! Before we left, Paxton wanted to participate in the Fishing Derby at the RV park. Guess who took all but one prize? Our littlest fisherman, Paxton! Papa Don would be SO PROUD!!! Daddy sure was. :) He won $10 and a bag full of goodies. Then it was time for a drive through the mountains to catch a small town parade..... As you can see from the photos, we also had family members participate in the hula hooping and watermelon eating contest. Overall, the day was just a ton of fun! And the weather here is so lovely, we didn't even sweat miserably in the heat. We couldn't end the day without bbqing burgers and catching some fireworks..... Hope you all had an amazing and safe Independence Day! God bless America, land that I love!
Hugs, T It's going to be an EAST COAST summer! We are excited to be working our way up towards Maine, then over to Michigan and Wisconsin. We have been to 37 states so far, and the best time to go up that far northeast is summer, so off we go! We want some more pins on this pin board! Our first stop was seeing some dear friends in OKC, then off to Tennessee we went. Oh my, it is BEAUTIFUL! We stayed at a small RV park when we first pulled in, and had a fun lake side church service the next morning. Then worked on making up some more Blessing Bags. These have been such a hit this past year on the road. We have gotten hugs and tears, crazy looks and many thanks! Here is what we chose to include in our blessing bags: (we find the Dollar Store to be the best place to find these items!) *gallon ziplock *water bottle *a protein (we did some pb jars, some chicken salad packets with crackers) *applesauce AND a spoon *granola bar *gum or hard candy like jaw breakers (no Jolly ranchers, they melt easily and make a huge mess, trust us!!!) *travel pack of wet wipes *mini shampoo, lotion and deo *mini toothpaste and a toothbrush *chapstick *comb and hair band *couple of bandaids *safety pins *small paper devotional (found online) *$2, $5 or $10, up to you. We did a variety! The kids SO enjoy finding people to give them to! We figured whether the people we see on the side of the road really need our help or not, our job is to GIVE, abundantly and freely. That's what we are responsible for, giving. What they do with it, and what their true need is, is up to them. They answer for their actions, not me! We are tightening our belts this summer, in order to focus on debt reduction so we can GIVE more freely, we are trying to focus on mostly FREE things to do in the areas we stay. That means we did a lot of hiking and swimming, or playing games out on our picnic table, this trip, which was great! The Smoky Mountains are absolutely stunning and the weather was perfect. And no bugs. :) We hiked 5 miles! WOAH. These travelers have gotten SOFT. Ouchie, but holy amazing and worth it! Check out the above photos of what we got to see on our trek through nature. The whole time we were hiking, Avery and I asked the Lord to protect us from Bears. There were a lot of warnings and signs, and even no dogs allowed signs, that made us nervous! Dale said, but I really wanted to see one! In my head I just thought, "Ok Lord, maybe from the safety of our car we could see ONE?!" We stopped at the little grocery store on our way home to get a few things for supper. While I was inside, Dale helped a group of ladies in the parking lot, to get their car running again. It took a long time, but the kids were so tired from our big hike, they just lounged in the car and ate bagels from the grocery bags. Dale got it running again, and of course, wouldn't take a dime from them, so the Lord blessed Dale with his hearts desire: Seriously! We watched this guy bumble across the road and walk alongside it up into the woods.
How cool is our Father in Heaven!!!! I love how He blesses us with the "little" things that make us feel loved and heard from. Today we are settled river front, in North Carolina!!! I am also working on a Day in the Life Of post as requested by so many of you, so stay tuned! :) ~T Why hello there, it's been a long time since I have blogged something. I have to say, while I am not ready to jump two feet back into blogging our lives, when the time is right, it will all take place HERE. For now, I am having too much fun living life without blogging it! :) However, I DO try to keep you up to date on our adventures on Instagram and our 4 little Fergusons travel page on FB. Come on over and like and follow us! We love making new friends! So, welcome to our shiny new website, and RV Oilers blog! Where we muse on oils, family, adventure and everything in between. I am so glad you are here! Much has taken place this past year on the road, and I hope you enjoyed Our Story tab to get you caught up on how it all came to be.... You know, when I wake up in the morning, with nothing but our schooling, adventure, and a day of leisure awaiting us, I just grin. "This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it, thank you for my MANY blessings, Father," I murmer, then go right into my prayer time. I pinch myself as I pray, because I just can't quite believe this is my life yet. There are so so many things to be thankful for.... I love that on a Sunday night, I am no longer filled with that feeling of dread, or anticipation of the busy week to come. Of school and homework, projects and events, activities and errands, phone calls, or a list of to do's a mile long on our country property. The last 4 years leading to this one, have been tough! Time spent in the Refiners Fire always is, isn't it? It is painful. It feels lonely, as if our Father has forgotten all about us. He never does though. He always waits, right outside the door, anticipating the MOMENT when He can pull us out and plunge us into clean, cool, refreshing water. We had to go through the past 4 years of famine, to get to the green luscious lands. The bountiful harvest part, the cool water part.... First financial discipline, leading to the breaking down of walls keeping secrets, our marriage broken before Him, then restored to better than before. Next, 2 Daddy's fighting cancer at once, one winning his battle by going to see his Jesus, another winning fight after fight here on earth. It was brutal. Life shattering. Exhausting, to say the least. But when we keep our eyes on Jesus and do the hard right things, He blesses that obedience many times over and He gets us through in His loving arms. Not only does He give us every tool we need to do our job and take our journey, but he walks through the job with us, helps us every step of the way, and THEN, when it's all done He REWARDS us as if we did it all alone. That is amazing, and THAT is the God we serve! Amen! So when I look around our little apartment like RV, treasures here and there from our latest adventure, pillows just so, no clutter, no mess, no chaos, no stacks of bills and mail to sort through, just sunshine streaming through the windows, my husband and best friend by my side, and kids outside shouting and laughing to each other as they ride bikes back and forth, waiting for us to join them on a bike ride, I think.......
This. Is. IT. This is our bountiful harvest part, the kind where the store houses are so full, you have to build new store houses to hold all the blessings. Wow. Thank you, Father! You have restored what the locusts have eaten. You have given us our best dream come true! Our new life makes the old one I loved so much, pale in comparison! Our dream of travel is happening NOW, not when the kids are grown and gone. Making memories all as a family, all together, like I only daydreamed about, as we were running to and fro, living life as you are "supposed to". I like living outside the worlds standards of normal. I love it. I wouldn't go back. We have zero regrets, just JOY and hope to do this a long, long time! Our word of the year is taken from Isaiah 58:11. "The Lord will guide you." We ask for His guidance as we travel the US, and share the good news of Jesus Christ, and the Creator who made things to be used for our benefit. We commit our travels and our calendar to HIM, the one who knows better than we do, our path and journey! We cannot wait to see the great things He has in store. So, what questions do you have about our travels? Our RV? Our life on the road? What do you want to see on here? Give me your best ideas in the comments and I will do my best to create blogs to answer those questions..... Blessings to you, as you click from tab to tab on our shiny new website! Hugs, T |
Tonya Ferguson
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