Everyday Adventures

It has been a long time since I did an Everyday Adventures post or even a everyday favorites post. Today I decided to combine the two and share some updates on our everyday life and what I have been doing and loving over the summer. 

Let’s start with catching up on real life and a family update. My husband and I celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary in July. We combined a short trip to the beach and a trip to Oregon to visit my family. It was a great trip.

We even took a few selfies, which is something we rarely do. I do not like having my picture taken. Since we took a few pictures though I thought I would share a picture of the two of us, which is something I have probably only done a couple of times in the last eleven years of blogging! 

I can’t believe that it has been twenty five years. It really does go by so fast. Twenty five years ago I got married and moved half way across the country from all my family and the small town I grew up in. I was young and had no idea what an adventure was ahead of me. But I wouldn’t change any of it because it has made me who I am. 

Marriage is not easy, but it is so worth it. I could write so much about marriage and what the last twenty five years had taught me. But that is for another time. 🙂 Here is hoping for many more years. Years that I am sure will include ups and downs, good times and bad, and tears along with laughter. 

And now for an update on my kids.

When I started this website way back in 2008 my oldest was ten. Now she is a grown women. In fact, all three kids are now basically grown. 

They are all in college. They have all made the decision to stay at home and go to school for now. I know that will probably change, but it is saving them a ton of money and we are happy that they have been able to do that so far.

My oldest is in her last year of college. My other daughter is about half way done, and my son just started college classes last week.

That all means that my homeschooling journey is ending. It is a strange place to be. Some of you that homeschool probably know how I feel. It has been an eighteen year journey that I am ready and yet not ready to be over. 

Hopefully the end of homeschooling will allow me more time to focus on website and online things. I have a long to do list and a long list of ideas that I can’t wait to get started on. 

If you haven’t made my peach pie bars you need to! I have made these three or four times already this year. They make a great dessert to serve company or take to a picnic or potluck. If you are gluten free I also shared the recipe for my gluten free peach pie bars. 

This was our book haul from vacation…We love visiting book stores on vacation. This summer we found some great new and used books on vacation. Our suitcases were a little heavier coming home than they were when we left. 

I might have talked about this Kumbucha before, but I have been drinking it almost every day this summer, so it deserves another mention. 

I don’t like tea and I don’t like beer. As in I really, really, don’t like the taste of them. Kombucha tastes like a combination of those two things and I have struggled with finding a Kombucha that I like.

It either has a strong tea taste or a strong fermented beer taste. 

Over the last year and a half I have taken four rounds of very strong antibiotics for diverticulitis. That means I am now trying to work on my gut health. 

Kumbucha is supposed to be good for gut health, so I am learning to enjoy it. After trying a lot of different brands I can easily say that Humm is my favorite. I still don’t love it, but it has made a huge difference for me. I can definitely tell the difference when I drink it and when I don’t. 

Humm is made in Oregon. If you live on the West Coast you can find it all kinds of places. The only place I have been able to find a good selection of it in Oklahoma is at Target.

If you have tried Kumbucha and had trouble liking it, give Humm a try. The apple berry, the pomegranate lemonade, strawberry lemonade, and the mango are my favorite flavors. 

If you love both reading and cooking I shared some of my favorite books about food and cooking this week on our book site. It was a fun list to put together. 

If you love reading or want to read more we would love to have you sign up for our book newsletter. My daughter and I now have over 400 book reviews on our site. We love to talk books with other book lovers! You can find all our book reviews here or see our blog posts and book list here. 

And the apple cake in the picture is my apple snack cake. It is one of my favorite apple dessert to make. 

We have several apple trees and they all did well this year. We have had a ton of apples and I have been making all kinds of apple recipes. I will be sharing a few new recipes soon. But if you are looking for an easy and delicious apple recipe try my apple snack cake. 

It is back to school time. School can be challenging for kids that need to eat gluten free. They want fun and delicious foods like all the other kids. 

If you need an easy fun lunchbox treat or after school snack give my Gluten Free Little Debbie Brownies a try. Your kids will love these. Adult love them too. These taste so good that no one will know that they are gluten free! 

They also freeze great so you can easily cut them and freeze them into individual lunchbox or after school treats. 

I hope that you enjoyed a look into our summer and our everyday life. I know readers, especially long time readers, love these type of old style blogging post, so I will try to share these type of posts more often. 

I hope you have a great weekend!