I’m not saying my childhood was all rainbows and sunshine {though it was pretty fantastic}, I literally grew up next to some of the sweetest slices in Arkansas. I may not have been born in Hope like more prominent figures, but I landed in that small southwestern town the same year Bill started politicking.
Known for gigantic watermelons and our 42nd president, Hope is more to me than a tourist attraction map dot. When I think about the word hometown, I’m drawn to the first time I realized what it meant to me. When we were teenagers, our biggest dream was to leave that population sign in the dust. We were desperate to pack down our cars with dorm room bedding, shower shoes, and money from mom. We would light up the highway as soon as one of the few traffic lights turned green.
We were tired of a town that shut down at 9:00 and the same two restaurants every Sunday after church. Although folks on every Walmart aisle knew our names, it was just a tiny chapter in our much bigger books. Boy, were we ready to turn the next page.
On a hot May day in 2002, we threw our red caps into the air and we left. We parted ways for brighter cities that stayed up late, more places to spend our limited cash supply, and hordes of people who didn’t think twice about our back stories. It was different and new and we could be whatever we wanted to be. I didn’t think much about my hometown as I settled in a college life that was brimming with opportunity for change. That is, until I made that first trek home.
Driving south on I-30 from the industrial scenery of central Arkansas, a comfort crept in with each mile. Three lanes slipped back to the simpler two in Benton. I passed Arkadelphia and the trees began towering in the median. I spotted the Prescott exit and caught the first field of cows I’d noticed since I had left home. I remember thinking how funny it was for me to notice cows. Then I saw the brown sign welcoming me to the Birthplace of Bill Clinton.
I was home again. I was headed back to home-cooked meals in the place that raised me. I flew through time and saw myself sitting in the grass wiping watermelon off my shorts, dining on a club sandwich at Cherry’s Soda Fountain, and lining up to perform on the football field. I caught myself in awe of the town I was so ready to escape. You can go home again, and while that lesson first sunk in at a tender 18 years old, it has stayed.
Maybe Bill said it first 24 years ago, but I do believe in a place called Hope. My hometown is an important location for me, but more so, it’s a comfort I didn’t know I had until I left. Maybe the place I’m raising my bunch will provide the same. When my kids finally make their escape, I hope they’re just as eager to follow the winding road home.
Jessica Bauer is a small-town girl raising her bunch deep in the heart of Arkansas. She blogs at Life With the Bauer Bunch (www.thebauerbunch.com) to share stories and lessons she’s learned along the way. Her parenting strategy in a few words: “I figure it out as I go, I keep my fingers crossed, and I exhale when I feel like I get it right.” Stop by and visit her sometime!
I grew up in Searcy, Arkansas. I have lived in Searcy for decades. I have seen Searcy grow from the population of less than 10,000 (13,000 when Harding College was in session) of my youth, to the current population of nearly 23,000 (30,000 during the school year). It has more than doubled in size since my Junior High years in the early seventies.
There have been a lot of changes in these years. Gone is my favorite store of my childhood – the Ben Franklin $0.05, $0.10, and $0.25 cent store. There were thousands – or at least, it seemed that way to a young child – of toys, and few of the toys cost more than a quarter. Sometimes dad would give me a dime to spend. I can remember standing in front of my favorite tray of toys and trying to decide – did I want two nickle toys, or one dime toy. I could get a slingshot for a dime, or two bags of peas and a pea shooter, or a doll, or a coloring book and crayons – the choices seemed endless.
Then there was Allison’s, at the corner of Holmes and Highway 16. If dad gave me a dime there, I was rich, indeed! Usually, he just gave me a nickle. But that was OK. With one nickle, I could get five pieces of candy. They had a huge selection of penny candy. If I chose my candy just right, I could end up with twenty pieces – Kits taffy had four pieces for a penny. For two cents, I could buy a BB Bat – which was taffy on a stick. Or I could spend the entire nickle on one big piece of flat taffy – I think it was McGraw’s Country Store brand. I remember that if you gave the candy a sharp hit before you opened it up, it would shatter into small pieces. If the candy got a little bit warm, however, it wouldn’t break, it would stretch. I remember when the penny candy became two cents, and then a nickle, and then a dime. Nickle taffy cost fifty cents. Today, that same type of taffy can still be purchased, and if you are lucky, you can find it for a dollar. Allison’s is still in existence, across the street from the original location, but penny candy is just a memory.
Another favorite place from my childhood was the County Courthouse.
Construction on the Courthouse started in 1850. The Civil War intervened, and it was not finished until 1871. It is the oldest courthouse in Arkansas still used for its original purpose. It is smack dab in the middle of what used to be the main part of town. I remember brick roads going around the courthouse. I loved those brick roads. They have been paved over for years. I wish they were still there. As of this writing, some of the brick road can be seen, as they have taken a lot of the asphalt off while they are working on the roads in that area.
One Saturday my whole family went down to the courthouse. There was some kind of festival going on. I was little, but I remember that blue grass music was being played on the porch and steps going up to one of the entrances. Other events were held at the courthouse as well. Decades before Dinner on the Square was started, the then new local arts council sponsored several plays and musicals. One of them was Night of January 16, by Ayn Rand. The play takes place in a courthouse, and this play was actually held in the courthouse.
Across the street from the courthouse is an old movie theater, the Rialto.
My friends and I would affectionately call it the “rat hole.” There was a show on PBS that was about old classical movies. The opening scene showed people going in and out of a movie theater, and my dad told me that the theater depicted was our very own Rialto. I remember in the 60s, the theater was segregated. White people sat in the bottom, and black people, with a few whites, sat in the balcony, which had a separate outside entrance. My family usually sat in the balcony. In the late 70s, necking couples would sit in the balcony (don’t ask how I know). One of the things that I remember from those days gone by was that the Rialto wasn’t just for movies. I also saw live plays and variety shows at the Rialto. I was so happy when they started work to restore the neon lights.
Unfortunately, that restoration project never got finished, and the lights that were repaired no longer work. There are very few people who work on neon lights anymore. I do hope the restoration efforts continue – I would love to be able to see a movie from the balcony again.
Searcy wasn’t always the name of my hometown. It used to be called White Sulphur Springs. What many people do not know is that at one time, White Sulphur Springs rivaled Hot Springs for its springs and spas and by 1834 the area had many people coming to “take the waters” for its therapeutic healing. A number of hotels were built around what is now Spring Park. The town was officially renamed in 1838, after Richard Searcy, a prominent legislature who had passed away in 1832. As a kid, I remember a special water fountain at Spring Park. The water tasted really odd to me, and it had spigots where people could fill up jugs of water.
My favorite place and memory from my past hometown, however, is of Searcy Pioneer Village.
On the grounds of the White County Fairgrounds was a special section. That area was fenced off, and wasn’t usually open. But during fair week, it was open, and sometimes it was open for other special events or occasions. There was a dogtrot cabin, a one room school house, a black smith’s shop, a woodworker’s shop, a pole barn, a jail, a covered bridge, a general store, an old moonshine still, and lots of fascinating things to look at and talk about. There were carriages and tools, and sometimes people demonstrating old traditional crafts. I loved that place as a child, and I loved it as an adult. It was a pioneer hometown within my hometown. All of the buildings had come from White County. I still have a ten volume set of “The Best 100 stories in the World, printed in 1927. My boyfriend at the time bought for me at one of their special fundraiser events.
Pioneer Village is no longer at the fairgrounds. A parking lot sits where once people cooked over an open fire, or gave a lesson to students in a one room schoolhouse. A lot of people have told me that they miss Pioneer Village. What they had not known, and what many still do not know, is that it is not gone, it has only moved. When the Fair board decided they wanted the space for something else, they went to the White County Historical Society and asked them if they wanted to move the buildings. The Historical Society decided that they wanted to maintain the village, and the city of Searcy found a spot that the buildings could be moved to. Pioneer Village now sits at 1200 Higginson Street, just north of the Searcy Soccer and Ball fields. It still has the dog trot cabin, one room schoolhouse, and the original Pangburn jail.
There are a lot of stories about the buildings. The sheriff of Pangburn supposedly said that he wanted to build a jail so uncomfortable that no one would want to spend more than one night in it. The Gordons were friends with the James boys, and on the wall of the jail a pair of chaps are displayed that are supposedly from Jessie James. Not all of the building could be moved, so a new pole barn with blacksmith shop has been built, and a new woodworker’s area has been built. There is also a new gazebo for musicians that was finished just last year, a trapper’s cabin furnished from a description from the early 1800s, and a train depot that was donated to the village after its move to its current location. Master Gardeners keeps up the grounds, and they do a wonderful job.
Open house is traditionally held on the first weekends of May and November, with crafters selling their hand made items and historical demonstrators in period clothing. There is also a one day Christmas event in December, weather permitting, and for the last couple of years the village has been open for tours on Saturdays during the summer.
There is so much more that I could say about my hometown, both past and present. I could talk about the industries, the factories, farmer’s market, Harding College and its transition to a University. I could talk about integration in Searcy. I could talk about the Cobbite cult of the 1870s, and the civil war ghosts that are supposed to haunt houses on Park street, and the ghosts at Harding. I could talk about the churches, the people, the schools, concerts and plays – I enjoyed living in southern California for fifteen years, but I missed Searcy. I’m glad to be back in my hometown. I hope, where-ever you live, that you have good memories of your home town – but come on over and visit mine! I think you’d like it here.
Melinda LaFevers is a creative, imaginative, renaissance woman with a wide variety of interests. She is a substitute teacher, an Arkansas A+ Fellow, and a writer. She is also on the Arkansas Arts in Education residency artist roster with two programs, Life in a Castle?and Life in a Log Cabin,that she presents in schools around the state. She has speculative fiction stories in several anthologies, writes a column on traditional and modern herbal use for The Renaissance Magazine. Her first non-fiction book, Meditations of a Hoarder, was released last June. She likes to imagine the day that her house is completely organized. More of her writings may be read at https://melindalafevers.wordpress.com/ and https://hoardinglife.wordpress.com/
Imagine, for just a moment, a world without imagination. What would it look like? We would have no space shuttles, no sky scrapers, no X-ray machines. No planes, trains and automobiles. We would have no music, no movies, few, if any, books. Most forms of art would be non-existent. We might not have houses or running water, and we might even still be eating our meat raw.
It took someone with the creativity and imagination to think of all of those things – and then to figure out how to make the impossible come true. Imagination and creativity are the first requirements for any invention or discovery. Yet we seem to value those things less and less.
A recent study showed that America’s creativity quotient has steadily dropped since the 90s. The main speculation on why this is occurring is the “No Child Left Behind” program. Because school test performance was so closely tied to funding, for the last couple of generations teachers have been teaching “to the tests.” American students have only been taught how to memorize facts and take standardized tests. They have not been taught how to think or problem solve.
I read an article in the newspaper a few years back about a school in California. This school decided that any child who did not make a satisfactory score on the benchmark tests would only be allowed to take math and English courses the following year. No art, no music, no social studies (that wasn’t tested, so it wasn’t important) no P.E. – nothing but math and English, all day long. Can you imagine what that type of schedule would do to a child’s spirit?
But what is so important about creativity, anyway? Why should we encourage it? Sir Ken Robinson, a worldwide known expert in education, says:
There are two other concepts to keep in mind: imagination and innovation. Imagination is the root of creativity. It is the ability to bring to mind things that aren’t present to our senses. Creativity is putting your imagination to work. It is applied imagination. Innovation is putting new ideas into practice.
But so what? Isn’t it true that only certain people can be creative? Robinson says no, that is a myth. He believes that creativity can and should be encouraged, developed, and taught in our schools.
But why? Why should we bother trying to develop creativity and imagination? Sure, creativity might be good for inventors and artists, but what about the rest of us? Do we actually need it? One of type of creative fiction is science fiction. To use one author, Heinlein his stories were full of innovations that had not yet happened when he wrote about them. The cell phone, water bed, air dryers for hands and body, astrogation, auto cars (now being tested), microwavable food, waldos, artificial meat those are only a few of the innovations he put into his books that did not exist when he wrote about them, but do exist today. Creativity and imagination is necessary for innovation and invention.
That might be fine and dandy for the researchers and inventors. But what about your average person? Why would “Joe off the street” be interested in developing creativity in himself or his family? In 1958, researcher Paul Torrance gave nearly 400 Minneapolis children a series of activities designed to measure creativity quotient. For over 50 years, researchers tracked those students, their achievements and their life-time accomplishments. Those students who had showed the greatest creativity and imagination on the Torrance tests were the ones most likely to end up as business owners, doctors, authors, diplomats, etc. They were also the ones most likely to express satisfaction with their life. The data has recently been reviewed and re-analyzed. The correlation between lifetime accomplishment and satisfaction and childhood creative quotient was three times higher than it was for childhood intelligence quotient.
So, why do we need creativity? For innovation. For new discoveries. For new inventions, new ways of doing things, new art pieces, new music, new books, new science…We All of us we need creativity, imagination, innovation, to make us better people, with happier lives.
Imagine a world with no imagination. That is not a world I want to live in. I’d rather imagine a world full of creativity, wonder, and imagination. Go forth and imagine. Go forth and create!
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorTotalAlphaList.asp?AuNum=2&offset=160 Melinda LaFevers is a creative, imaginative, renaissance woman with a wide variety of interests. She is a substitute teacher, an Arkansas A+ Fellow, and a writer. She is also on the Arkansas Arts in Education residency artist roster with two programs, Life in a Castle and Life in a Log Cabin that she presents in schools around the state. She has speculative fiction stories in several anthologies, writes a regular column on herbs for The Renaissance Magazine, and her first non-fiction book, Meditations of a Hoarder, was released last June. She likes to imagine the day that her house is completely organized. More of her writings may be read at https://melindalafevers.wordpress.com/ and https://hoardinglife.wordpress.com/
One of my favorite literature assignments from my school days was James Thurber’s short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. He uses daydreaming and his imagination to escape the mundane of everyday life. His peers from the story perceive his “head in the clouds” nature as an element of frustration but the recent movie versions give his imagination a redeeming quality.
Growing up (and admittedly still today) I identify with the compulsive daydreaming.Long drives in the car watching the tree-lined highway had me creating adventures by boat through the flooded creeks and drainage ditches that passed me by.
Or I would imagine myself a character of my favorite books and TV shows.You know that all important character that the writer just forgot to include.
“I was thinking,” said Walter Mitty “Does I ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?”
I always hated how Walter (we’re on a first name basis) was looked down on for his fantasizing.Daydreaming and imagining are great tools for problem solving and inspiration.It’s an activity that can rescue me from issues I’m worrying too much about or create an environment for great ideas to flourish.Sort oflike a reset button for your brain when you’re stuck.
I love how the movie versions have taken Walter out of his hapless, distracted role.They show that by following his daydreams, Walter becomes the real life hero.And that’s where our imagination and daydreams can take us too.
A Frenchman running from the law sold him his vessel, and together we sailed out of Port Royal – the city so wicked it sank into the Caribbean Sea – and out into open waters to circle Dead Man’s Key.
The boat would pitch on the choppy waters, and at high speed it would tip and lean until one side was high above the water, causing my mother to grip the boat white knuckled with one hand while clutching my pudgy infant sister with the other. My mother does not care for the water – much less the open sea.
“Isn’t this fun?” the pirate would grin at me gleefully.
I was raised by a Boy Scout.
His delight on open water was nearly matched by his zest for craggy peaks. He loves to pack his gear precisely and park his jeep at a trailhead to set off wandering in the woods – the farther from civilization the better – especially if a lottery system prevents all but the most intensely committed from accessing a particular wilderness area.
Gathering firewood, pitching a tent, brushing your teeth with creek water and drinking coffee around the campfire – these are a few of his favorite things.
I was raised by an astronomer.
He trained a powerful telescope on Haley’s Comet in 1986, making grand plans and cajoling my nine year old self and his visiting septuagenarian mother and aunt out onto an immense concrete patio overlooking Kingston Harbor.
In the wee, darkest hours of the morning we snickered like errant schoolchildren and watched the bright, blazing tail of the comet cutting its path through our solar system – once every 75 years. The astronomer said that only I might live to see it again.
Years later on clear summer nights in the Pacific Northwest, he and I would sit together on the roof high above the confluence of the mighty Columbia and Wenatchee rivers in the valley below and he would doggedly quiz me on the names of the constellations splayed out above our heads.
And on many summer nights one camping trips in the Cascade Mountains planned carefully to coincide with meteor showers, we’d lay flat on our backs with only our noses protruding into the chilly night air as the Perseids rained down before our eyes.
I was raised by a tinkerer.
An engineer by trade and an Arkansas boy at his core, he loves erector sets and bridge-building competitions. He crafted me a pair of sturdy wooden stilts, and he was as likely to install his own irrigation system on our acreage as to be found seated at Mom’s sewing machine mending his top sail.
I was raised by an outdoorsman.
He took mountaineering classes and gamely signed up for wilderness first aid certification courses with me, where we would merrily bandage massive wounds together and practice rigging a travois to carry one another – if injured – back to civilization.
Now in his 70s himself, he set off a few months ago to drive across the United States, meet an old friend (probably a pirate) to sail together through the San Juan Islands toward Desolation Sound in British Columbia and then drive back to Arkansas. Of course, he made a pit stop to solo hike in Yellowstone for several days, finally sending a single missive to let us know he’d returned to the land of the living (and cell phone signals).
I was raised by an adventurer.
These days I feel every tiny adventure is a testament to my upbringing and a quiet thank you:
Floating side by side in a kayak next to my husband, one foot dipping lazily into the water as we watch for bald eagles.
Biking along a former railroad line meandering through the Missouri Weinstrasse, mile upon mile.
Setting off to tromp around in the woods for our annual New Year’s Day hike.
Plotting a road trip that will allow us to see the absolute maximum expanse of land in a limited number of days.
Laying down in a field near the Buffalo River with the five year old, staring up at the Milky Way.
Watching the pre-teen dance around a backyard fire with the little dog at her heels.
Solo backpacking through Europe at 20 to see what promise and adventure the world may hold.
I am an adventurer.
Bethany Stephens blogs at The Little Magpie, where many more stories about her slightly different childhood hopping from third world countries to the Pacific Northwest are unfolding thanks to a little nudge from Lela Davidson’s recent Second Story Writer’s Workshop. Beth can typically be found taking photos straight into the sunlight or chasing all the words. She and her husband Fred live in a 1905 house in downtown Rogers with their daughters Sophie & Ainsley. By day, Beth runs the Soapbox Insights + Influence division of Kendal King Group.
The first sentence of any written document is difficult to write no matter if it’s the first line of a book, an article for a magazine or newspaper, or the first sentence of one’s very first blog post. I remember, clearly, sitting at my computer ten years ago to do just that.
My blog, Desperately Seeking Gina, turns ten years old this week. I joke that my blog is my baby, but actually, it was reborn after having been created and named Desperately Seeking Thom. You can read how the blog evolved right here on Arkansas Women Bloggers.
In the beginning, I blogged about a trip to Europe, my niece and nephew, my amazement that people who wrote blogs would take pictures of their food, and little snippets of thoughts that popped into my head during the day. In those days, I didn’t worry about page views, followers, sponsored posts, or likes and comments. Sometimes, the first sentence of every post just flowed from my thoughts to my fingertips without reason or rhyme.
I continued documenting my life on the blog as I found myself moving to Arkansas. I joined the Arkansas Women bloggers and attended the first meet up in 2010.
The Middle
I purchased my first camera at this point and practiced taking pictures of everything in sight. I may have stalked our cats. That kitty-cat birthday hat? It was the first blog prop I ever made.
With the new photography habit under development, I ventured into food photography. The blog turned into a place to share those food pics and recipes that I found online. I wondered: was this my niche? It was during this point where I learned about “finding your niche,” writing with purpose, and the importance of the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of blogging.
The Current
They say blogging is dead. I’m not sure who “they” are, but I keep hearing about “them” from other bloggers; professional bloggers who make a living from teaching the business of blogging to those of us who are eager to give up our day jobs and live a work-at-home, get-rich-from-blogging life. Not that I want to do that. Well, partly, I do.
My adventure in blogging has led me to writing with purpose and to being paid for stringing words together on my blog and others. I never did find just one niche. In fact, I’m learning about new ones every day; I started a YouTube channel, I’m playing with craft blogging and I even became a contributing designer for a scrap booking company and an influencer for a wood working company. I’ve worked on campaigns for one of my favorite chocolate companies and was able to work part time from home last month with the dream of leaving my day job almost in sight. If I squint real, real hard, this adventure-dream is becoming clearer and closer.
Adventures in blogging are not nearing an end for me. My blog is not dead, although in blogging-drama-fashion it’s currently down at the moment and I can’t figure out why. I have grand plans of growing Desperately Seeking Gina into an adult this Spring and migrating to a self-hosted site.
Thanks to all of you reading this and to Arkansas Women Bloggers for cheering me on during this adventure and I hope to see more of you in blog land.
How is your adventure in blogging shaping up? Let me know in the comments below.
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, love directs your course. /Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
I’ve been thinking about great love stories—not the short, tragic sort, but relationships of real-life people whose commitment and affection for one another have spanned years and seemed to grow stronger with each passing year.
And you were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. /You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. /Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
My Aunt Mary and Uncle Zack were beautiful examples of enduring love. He was only in his early 60s when he lost his battle with cancer. Aunt Mary was a one-man woman with no interest in dating. I know of at least one suitor she shooed away and there may have been more. She kept several of Uncle Zack’s shirts to wear around the house. I will never forget her telling me, “When I wear them, I feel his arms around me.” Aunt Mary soldiered on in her widowhood, and I believe there was great joy in heaven when those two were reunited.
When love beckons to you follow him, /Though his ways are hard and steep.
When his wings enfold you, yield to him, /Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him,
I’m pondering the through-thick-and-thin, sometimes-by-the-skin-of-our-teeth, but-we-made-it kind of unions. They’re folks like my friends, Don & Donna, who are almost joined at the hip. Generally if you see one, the other isn’t far away. They used to work together, and now that they’re retired, they spend most of their time in one another’s company. That is, unless he’s hunting or she’s having lunch or coffee with the girls. Don’s been known to grumble about not getting to come along with her on coffee dates, but she doesn’t go hunting, so…
This pair will tell you that their marriage wasn’t always so good. Over the years, they faced big challenges, but they stuck together. Now they’re examples of stability and devotion.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness, /And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. /Love one another but make not a bond of love: /Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls…. /And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, /And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
Last year, I had the privilege of attending two 50th wedding anniversary parties for classmates. Larry & Carolyn and Bobby & Karen enjoy relationships a little different from Don and Donna’s.
Larry traveled for years because of his job while Carolyn held down the fort at home. Now that he’s retired and home all the time, they both enjoy part-time jobs, but they’re a team at church.
Bobby and Karen worked at the same company but never in the same department. In retirement, she thrives on lots of volunteer activities while he pursues other interests when they’re not at home together.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; /To return home at eventide with gratitude. /And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Finally, there are duos like Terry and me, who although disappointed in love, didn’t give up on finding a lasting relationship. Last year we felt blessed to celebrate our 41st anniversary. He and I have never worked at the same place, and we have very different interests. But we still thrive on being together when we’re not enjoying our individual hobbies or fulfilling other commitments.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. /For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
Whatever your situation—whether single or married, I pray you will truly understand how greatly you are adored by the author and true embodiment of Eternal Love.
The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3
Note: If you’d like to read the complete passages “On Love” and “On Marriage” in The Prophet and learn more about Gibran, visit the following websites.
Spending time together with your family is not only one of the most important things that you can do, it can also create some of the most memorable times of your life. Whether you decide to have a stay at home date watching movies together, or got out for an evening of family-filled fun, the memories you make together will last a lifetime.
My family consists of my husband, me, our dog, cat and soon some fish. Our family time may be a little different than yours but the importance is still the same. A few things to remember when you are having family time:
Give each other your full attention. Put away the phones, turn off the TV, focus on the people around you.
Do something everyone can enjoy. Try to pick an activity that will be fun for everyone even the ones who have never done it before.
Talk to each other. Now is the time to connect to your family see what is going on in their lives, and what they are thinking.
Another idea is to have one person plan everything, or for kids pick the activity, and surprise the others.
Remember that it doesn’t need to cost a lot to be fun. Some of my favorite memories are from times we spent no extra money at all.
Some things that my husband and I like to do are:
Make a nice dinner at home and watch “terrible” movies together on Netflix while making fun of them the whole time. This usually leads to some fun inside jokes and a memorable laugh that we will share.
Take our animals for a nice walk in a State Park or a nice walking trail. Not only is it good exercise but we talk about random things and it always makes us closer.
Go out for a dinner at our favorite restaurant. Sharing great food with the people that matter most to you is always a way to make memories.
Just do “nothing” sometimes nothing can spawn the best ideas you have ever had together. Some of the most fun and memorable things my husband and I have done have come from spur of the moment ideas we had while we were just hanging out together.
Do something related to a hobby that a member of your family has. This will allow you to draw closer to each other and at the same time you may find a new hobby yourself.
As you can see it does not matter what you do together, all that matters is that you are enjoying a time with the people that mean the most to you. There are an almost endless amount of things that you can do to make yourself closer to your family, unfortunately, most of the time we get so caught up in everyday life that sometimes we forget to spend time with the ones that matter most. So this year put your phone down, don’t let your everyday life get in the way and enjoy some time with your family and make memories that will last a lifetime.
Renee shares her favorite things in life at Married and Hungry. Hoping that her newlywed situations and thoughts will help another new wife out there, and to let them know they are not alone. Being a self-proclaimed food nerd, with a degree in Food and Culinary Science, she shares her recipes and experiments. Her and her husband call Central Arkansas home for now. You can find her at home making the kitchen a mess, trying to cross stitch, or playing with their dog and cat. Keep up with her over on Twitter, and Married and Hungry’s Facebook page.
Like most of you, I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it for all the useful things it can do, but I hate how attached we’ve become to it. While I do try to put down the phone and be present more, I’ve found a few apps that really help me keep my life in order.
For starters, I use the True Weight app each day. It’s a unique system of tracking your weight, whether you want to gain, lose, or maintain. It keeps a rolling average, so you can see beyond the daily fluctuations. It will chart your recorded weight and your “true weight” which is the average weight along with trend lines.
Another app I love is the eMeals app. While it does come at a cost (I’ve previously been a part of a blogger promotion, so if you’re interested you should check that out), I pay for weekly meal plans and grocery lists. It’s awesome because when I’m at the store wondering what we need for dinner, I can pull up the recipes right there.
For my spiritual side, I love the Echo app. Echo is a multi-use prayer app. It allows you to record anything you want to pray for (and also to mark when they’ve been answered!), but it also has a prayer mode. When you select “Pray now”, it will scroll you through your prayer requests and it will also block any disruptions from coming through on your phone. You can also set reminders to pray at certain times of the day.
When I travel, one app I love is TripCase. When you get itinerary emails, you just forward them to TripCase, and they keep it all together for you. You can store hotel confirmations, flight plans, cruises, car rentals, restaurant reservations, concert tickets and more. It’s great because you can see all these plans together, get directions, check the weather, and countdown to your trip – all in one app.
Google Photos helps me streamline all of my digital images. I just take all the pictures and video I want, and then when I’m hooked up to wifi once a week, I open the Google Photos app. It backs all my images up so that they are stored in the cloud. Online, you can tag images, search through your images, and organize them, creating a great backlog of pictures without much work.
For my blogging, I use the WordPress app so I can create blog posts on the fly. While I find it a little tedious to type an entire post on my phone, it’s great for starting posts and uploading photos from your phone. You can also approve comments, reply to comments, and check your stats.
So those are a few apps that help me keep it all together. What apps do you use to stay organized and on track? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Brittney is a native Arkansan with a love for bright lights and big city. She often escapes her 20-acre home south of Fort Smith to shop, eat, and catch a concert in the big city. She blogs about her life, her faith, her adventures, her dogs, and her country home at Razorback Britt.
Life is filled with big moments. Major birthday milestones, graduations, new jobs, major goals met.
I think it’s easy, in fact too easy, to get caught up in those big moments and let a lot of great little moments pass without notice.
I’ve often been told and even encouraged others to celebrate the little things in life. Life events in the last year have driven this home for me.Anyone who keeps up with me on Facebook knows I started battling health issues last spring, and while I’m doing better, I still struggle.
I had to put most of my goals on hold and focus on specialist visits and healing. I didn’t give up on my plans; I knew if I wanted to do them right so I delayed the full execution. Instead, I focused on doing what I could to reach the long-term goal and celebrated those accomplishments along the way.
For example, one of my goals was to create a new component to my business, Jamie’s Notebook. Full execution meant writing the curriculum, scheduling events and training for the events. I knew I needed to hold off on the curriculum, which made scheduling the events a moot point. I continued with public speaking training, however, which makes me feel confident in my ability to add the new business element soon.
I celebrate the mini goals I established towards the big goal. I’ve continued with public speaking training and exceeded my goal for leading volunteer seminars that help establish my “street cred” for the new business component.
I continued participating in Toastmasters, which has helped me grow my public speaking skills.
Another part of learning to celebrate the “little things” is something I call simple joys. Simple joys are the minor happenings in life that make us smile. For me, it’s realizing I had exact change available to pay for something in cash. Or beautiful sunsets.
I often try to take pictures of these moments and share them. I try to remember to hashtag them with #simplejoys but often forget.
Here are just a few examples from the last year:
My dog Flower (the shepherd mix with the ball) usually focuses on supervising the rest of the family. She enjoys playing keep away, however, and I have to admit I grin when she manages to steal the ball from our black mouth cur mix, Jazzy. It’s great to see her take the opportunity to be silly like a dog should be.I love aquariums, whether it’s in a doctor’s office or a restaurant. Ironically, I would never want to maintain an aquarium. I just find them breathtakingly beautiful when I see one in public.
These were both on the desk where I was about to have blood drawn. That’s never a fun activity, so it was a delight to turn the corner and see pumpkins decorated in such a fun way.
These simple joys may seem trivial, but they are a sanity saver. They help bring a small bit of happiness in what might be an otherwise dreary day. They remind me to be grateful for the good things in life and to acknowledge those things.
What do you consider a simple joy? What small goals on the path to a larger goal will you celebrate this year?
Jessica Bauer is a small-town girl raising her bunch deep in the heart of Arkansas. She blogs at Life With the Bauer Bunch (www.thebauerbunch.com) to share stories and lessons she’s learned along the way. Her parenting strategy in a few words: “I figure it out as I go, I keep my fingers crossed, and I exhale when I feel like I get it right.” Stop by and visit her sometime!
Adventures in blogging are not nearing an end for me. My blog is not dead, although in blogging-drama-fashion it’s currently down at the moment and I can’t figure out why. I have grand plans of growing Desperately Seeking Gina into an adult this Spring and migrating to a self-hosted site.
Renee shares her favorite things in life at 
Brittney is a native Arkansan with a love for bright lights and big city. She often escapes her 20-acre home south of Fort Smith to shop, eat, and catch a concert in the big city. She blogs about her life, her faith, her adventures, her dogs, and her country home at 
I continued participating in Toastmasters, which has helped me grow my public speaking skills. 
My dog Flower (the shepherd mix with the ball) usually focuses on supervising the rest of the family. She enjoys playing keep away, however, and I have to admit I grin when she manages to steal the ball from our black mouth cur mix, Jazzy. It’s great to see her take the opportunity to be silly like a dog should be.
These were both on the desk where I was about to have blood drawn. That’s never a fun activity, so it was a delight to turn the corner and see pumpkins decorated in such a fun way.