Author SimplyB

Go ahead. Live. Now. (and forever!!)

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A few days ago I had lunch with a dear friend.  Over Panera deliciousness, we caught up on life and the goings-on in our individual families.  Always a blessing to hang out with Sandy.

We both have new camping vehicles and part of our conversation involved our individual trips we have planned as soon as spring arrives. It seems that both of us and our husbands are almost fixated on the need to just go camping.  Just be in the great outdoors.  Breathe the fresh air and let our souls relax and our batteries recharge.  Quality time with our Creator. Continue reading “Go ahead. Live. Now. (and forever!!)” →

64 days and counting.

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We have reached that part of the year when the short days and long nights start to wear on me.  Just kind of mess with my psyche.  You, too?

Mid-January every year, I will google “how many days until spring”, and come up with stuff like you see in the above picture.  Brings me a bit of hope. Continue reading “64 days and counting.” →

HGTV and contentment

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Do you watch HGTV?  House Hunters, Flip or Flop, or my favorite Fixer Upper? I’m guessing you have watched at least one episode of these shows, as well as perhaps Property Brothers, HH International, etc.  I’ll be honest, I love to watch this channel.  No real political undertones, no real drama, and no disgusting commercials that would make you hope your grandkids aren’t watching, and make you wish you weren’t watching.  Ick.  (talking about you, Sports Networks).  HGTV is just stuff about home.  Home is a precious topic for most everyone. Continue reading “HGTV and contentment” →

Odd treasures & remarkable gadgetry

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I’ll start this post with the “remarkable gadgetry” section of the title.

We moved into this house and found these toilet paper holders.  


 



These qualify as remarkable because you simply slide the toilet paper roll onto the rod.  No need to dislodge a spring loaded, annoying toilet paper holder rod, reload a new roll, and then struggle to push that spring loaded bar back over before the new roll flies off.  Quick, easy, and eliminates the need for ugly loud verbiage leaving your lips.  Possibly in the middle of the night when you’re trying to just sleep through a trip to the bathroom. Continue reading “Odd treasures & remarkable gadgetry” →

Winter blues? Maybe it’s time to visit an island.

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It’s not officially winter yet but some of the coldest temperatures of the year have descended upon us Kansans.    Temperatures that can bring a squeaky whine from even the toughest of us.  Probably need to exclude myself from that “toughest of us” group.  I just want to be near the fireplace with a cup of coffee and a good book.  I was designed to hibernate.
I’d like to give you something to at least dream about.   Sanibel Island, Florida.  A slice of heaven off the gulf coast near Fort Myers (which in itself is another lovely spot for a getaway,  but it is just a bit more lively & commercial).
View from our rental condo, 2010, at Oceans Reach Resort.  Screened-in lanai.  Bliss, I tell ya. 
In 2010 we were looking for a place to take a vacation for our May anniversary and decided on Sanibel from some friends’ recommendation.  No buildings over 4 stories high and no street lighting (think very starry nights on a beautiful island)  It’s a decidedly quiet and wonderful place.  Very family friendly.  Lots of seashells, and there is a wildlife refuge that is quite nice.  Bike path over the entire island.  Historic lighthouse.  Plenty of restaurants and groceries, although it’s best to shop for most of your food before you cross the bridge to Sanibel.  And you can always cross back over that bridge any time and be in Fort Myers. Easy peasy.

Continue reading “Winter blues? Maybe it’s time to visit an island.” →

Capturing Time

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If you’re old enough you should remember the day when taking a photograph involved quite the procedure. My mom had what I think was a Kodak Brownie camera (? maybe) that she was ecstatic about. The process was slow. Film to buy at a store and then load into the camera. Then you had to remember to advance the film after taking the picture or risk double exposures. And the blinding flash that was so easy to forget to use, and of course when you really needed it you’d learn the bulb was burned out. Yes, little bitty light bulbs. Yes, we had to replace them. Yes, in a CAMERA, children of today!!! Then you had to use up all the film before having the pictures processed. Which always resulted in random shots of nothingness. Often we had more random nothings than good pictures. 

Back in those days in order to even look at the picture you just took it required printing them, which was a 10 day-2 week process.  You waited all that time, sifted through  12 to 24 to 36 to 48 prints for possibly that ONE picture you really wanted to see.  And often, every stinking one of them was icky and unusable.  Useful only for gag gifts or the like.

Continue reading “Capturing Time” →

One autumn evening

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There’s something about a sunset.  I’ve heard there’s also something about a sunrise, too, but I’m far more likely to experience sunsets than sunrises.

Every 24 hours the sun signs off for the day.  Some days it’s just a quick goodnight with no kiss of beauty.  Other times God paints a sunset so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes. That’s a fact.  Sometimes a sunset can take me away to one particular evening in 1970.  Kind of odd that one particular sunset has been etched permanently in my memory.  But it is. Continue reading “One autumn evening” →

Inexplicable mysteries of my gray matter. Subtitled: If I Only Had a Brain

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As we watched the KU game against Stanford a few days ago, I wowed everyone in the room with my vast knowledge of Stanford’s coach Jerod Haase and where he grew up, the two colleges where he played college ball, and his coaching history that began in North Carolina, as well as giving a brief verbal synopsis of the book he wrote titled “Floor Burns”.   To clarify the facts, “everyone in the room” was merely myself, the hubby, and our dog.  In order of wowed-ness, the hubby was least wowed.  The dog came in at #2, and that just leaves me to top the list of most wowed by my vast knowledge. Continue reading “Inexplicable mysteries of my gray matter. Subtitled: If I Only Had a Brain” →

Snowy happiness. In my own backyard and far, far away

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There is snow in the forecast this week. First snow of the season?  We’ll see.   Last year we had approximately 150 flakes of snow total during the winter here in the South of Kansas. But a couple of winters ago we were blessed with probably record amounts of snow. The ground was covered a lot of the winter. And I  made a new friend. Continue reading “Snowy happiness. In my own backyard and far, far away” →

From shelf life to finish line.

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For the past few years every August when I celebrate my birthday, I do what probably many of you my age do…. wonder how many more birthdays I’ll be blessed to celebrate.  My dad’s life ended when he was 64.  At the time I was 17 and thought “at least Dad had a good long life”.  Ha.  64 is so very very young. The closer I get to it, the younger it seems. Continue reading “From shelf life to finish line.” →

Shelf Life — A look into my pantry. Brace yourself.

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With Thanksgiving being last week, I spent a lot of time standing in my pantry, perusing the shelves for ingredients needed to make recipes that I only make once a year.  Not that I only use these individual ingredients once a year, but from the looks of the expiration dates on some of these items I clearly do not cook often enough. Continue reading “Shelf Life — A look into my pantry. Brace yourself.” →

Benton and Bunny

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My folks had three teenage daughters when they discovered they were expecting a baby.  Pretty sure my dad, Benton, at age 47 just knew his son was finally on the way.  One last chance to carry on the family name.  Oh the gloom that must have been thick in that hospital nursery the first time he glanced down and thought “No son.  Not now.  Not ever.”  In fact many many years later I came across the bundle of greeting cards that my parents received after I was born.  Some of them had all the happy exuberance of sympathy cards. Apparently the whole world, or at least all of Ottawa County Kansas, was sad for them.  “Well, you must be disappointed you didn’t get your boy.”  Stuff like that. Just dripping with happiness and encouragement. Continue reading “Benton and Bunny” →

Nostalgia. A side effect of cleaning

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Now that I’m sort of semi-retired, my leisurely breakfasts often include thinking about cleaning.  And occasionally, my thoughts become actions.  Some of  my closets are now phenomenally clean and organized.  Some are not.  Yet. Continue reading “Nostalgia. A side effect of cleaning” →

Simply B

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Simply B

After much time considering starting a blog, maybe today is the day.  Or not.  We’ll see.  As brilliant as I consider myself to be with technological stuff, setting up this blog has been kind of challenging.  Yes, brilliant is really brilliant … well look at that, I figured out how to strike through text all by myself.  

If you’re looking for profound posts you may want to skip my blog. I refer to myself as Simply B for a reason.  🙅  BTW the name of that emoji is “face with no good gesture”.  Seems appropriate.  

My goal is to have this little blog be empty of politics, mean stuff, deep thoughts, or basically anything of substance.  Occasionally I may stray into meaningful topics.  But don’t count on it.  😁  I might share travel info, camping tips, recipes to make and/or recipes to avoid.  And I love Jesus….you will undoubtedly hear about Him.  But again, I’m simply B.  Nothing deep, just an encouraging word or two.  

Until next time, 
Simply B