fulltime families magazine november 2012, issue 30
DESCRIPTION
In this issue you'll find:How to Cook for the Holidays in your RVWhat the Zero Waste Family Project isHow to Support your OTR lifestyle through blog curationWhat life is like in the Chaos NestHow to learn to live with lessand as always, tons more!So click here to go read it!So, flip the pages, download it to your e-reader, send your comments and if you like what you see, consider signing up for our $1 trial membership which will give you access to all 30 Issues!TRANSCRIPT
the official magazine of the Fulltime Families the official magazine of the Fulltime Families Camping Club Camping Club
November 2012—Issue #30
Your Ad HERE!
Fulltime Families
is seeking corpo-
rate sponsors.
Get your brand
seen from coast
to coast!
info@fulltimefam
ilies.com for
more informa-
tion.
In This Issue
P A G E 2 F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
On the Cover:
A collage of the Ethridge
Family’s Balloon Fiesta
Pics
Submit your photo for
our December cover to
Letter from the Editor........................................................................................... 3
Lady E’s RV Kitchen ........................................................................................... 4
Apple Dumplings ................................................................................................. 5
What’s in season .................................................................................................. 6
Road Rebelles Radio /Black Top Teen Radio ...................................................... 6
Pics from Scary Street .......................................................................................... 7
Benefits of Cleansing ........................................................................................... 8
FtF Affiliate Corner / Featured Blog .................................................................... 9 Zero Waste Family Project................................................................................. 10
Supporting your OTR Lifestyle with Blogging .................................................. 13
FtF Featured Family; The Chaos Nest ............................................................... 15
Welcome to the Road—New Families who just Launched ................................ 16
Join Us for our Winter Rally .............................................................................. 17
FtF Holiday Ornament Exchange ....................................................................... 21
Learning to Live with Less: Dreamers to Drivers Column ................................ 22
Teen Perspective ................................................................................................ 23
Ten Bests ............................................................................................................ 24
Rally Updates ..................................................................................................... 25
Want to contribute? There’s always room—just email [email protected] with your
ideas!
Copyright © 2011 Fulltime Families Magazine. All rights reserved. Personal use of this material, including one hard
copy reproduction, is permitted. Permission to reprint, republish and/or distribute this material in whole or in part for
any other purposes must be obtained from FF. For information on obtaining permission, send an e-mail message to
[email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws
protecting it.
Did you here the one about the guy who dreamt he was eating a marshmallow? He woke up and his pillow had vanished :)
Can you find Pinky the Marshmallow?
Somewhere in this issue, Pinky is hidden. Find her and send an email to
[email protected] with the page number. All participants will be automatically
entered to win this month’s giveaway (see the giveaway column for prize details).
Custom fit – Made at your RV site
Daytime privacy – Enjoy the view without being the view
Black for best unobstructed view
Blocks up to 98% of UV rays
10-Year Warranty
It seems that moving is in both our spirits. Ex-
ploring new terrains, meeting new people, ex-
periencing life in motion—it suits us.
But there’s a lot to do before we move again.
In the coming weeks we’ll be publishing the
2013 Edition of “How to Hit the Road”, wrap-
ping up the 2013 Winter FtF Family Reunion
Rally Details, hosting our first Annual Christ-
mas Ornament Exchange and ‘Bringing the Lips
to your Trips’ every Sunday night on Road Re-
belles Radio.
I hope you’ll join us for a bunch of these things
and as always…
Hope to see you down the road!
Kimberly
Happy Holiday Season from balmy south Florida!
It’s great to be ‘home for the holidays’. By that I
mean, both in my home on wheels, and parked in
my in-laws driveway.
Who can resist free laundry, free babysitting, deli-
cious dinners, fabulous beach weather and great
company —not me for sure!
After so long on the road, its great to be with the
people you love in a land that’s familiar.
And yet, it has begun, a yearning for other places.
As thick vines ensnare our tires, I look at western
vistas and think, can I really stay in one place for 4
months.
If you’ve been with us from the beginning, you
know the answer already… and you know we’ve
done this before.
By that, I mean, made long term plans to be parked,
only to pull out the chucks early.
And so I wonder, will we ever be able to settle
down?
Like most of you, when we started this journey 2
1/2 years ago, we were in search of the ‘perfect
place’ to raise our family. We knew we wanted to
full time for a while before we set down roots, but
with each passing month and mile, settling down
has become less of a priority.
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E 3 0 P A G E 3
Standing Still is hard to do
Todd and Renee Seeley, Distributors · Fulltime Families Member #81
(713) 208-5569 · [email protected] · www.RVSunShadeCo.com
“Let Us Put Sunglasses on your RV”
With now October being gone….I sure hope all of you were fortunate
enough to be in an area or traveling through an area …..to see some of the
awe-inspiring autumn foliage that has been occurring from coast to coast.
The Professor and I just came back from a full week in upper central Ar-
kansas, working with the great folks called ‘workampers’ at the 4 day
Rendezvous (a time to learn how to be successful in the Workamping life-
style) sponsored by Workamper News of Heber Springs, Arkansas. Parked
about 7 miles out of this very quaint little town of 7000 population… was
Wagon Circle RV Park …the most stunning color changes were taking
place right in front of us. These images are instilled in our minds as made
our way back to our beloved Texas
where it seems to be holding on to
the more 80 and 90 degree weather.
However, our cooler temps will
come soon…no doubt about it.
With Thanksgiving upon us…I wanted to give everyone a few tips to
help with overcoming the challenge of cooking for your family in a
small space. I remember my first Thanksgiving as a full-timer…
with my 2000 sq ft. home just a memory, educating myself on small
appliances that could be used in the RV kitchen was daunting in itself. However, what I didn’t know at
that time…..this appliance wound up being one of the best investments that I had made ... an electric
roaster oven (18 qt size). A smaller size of 6 qt is also available, however, even though it can perform the
same….the size is about like a large slow cooker. Your holiday cooking can require a larger appliance.
Depending on the temperatures used ….this guy will require from 800 to 1600 watts of electricity. Not
only does it bake, roast and fry; it also can be your extra oven anytime you need it. I suggest that you
place this on the outside of your RV (in your outdoor kitchen) maybe on a folding or picnic table. Using a
heavy duty extension cord, plug this one up at the pedestal power instead of using the RV receptacle. This
way you are freeing your rig up on that extra electrical pull. When not in use….please consider storing this
appliance in the original box. You will find that storage goes a lot further when your small or larger appli-
ances are stored where they can be stacked in the under-storage compartments or inside cabinets or closet
space.
Always remember that there are ways to make your RV kitchen experience easier and lots of fun for the
family. Consider investing in a solar oven. The Professor and I have own a very inexpensive solar oven
that cost us around $40…and that has worked fine. Recently, we invested in a Global Sun Oven that has a
self leveling tray built inside so now…no matter the terrain, our foods cook nice and even. The Global Sun
Oven cooks in temperatureranges of 360 to 400 degrees in about 20 minutes with normal sunlight. Doing
your research can pay off. Some websites are offering great savings right now so check it out if you think
solar cooking is right for your family.
I have some exciting news ….I have decided to start my next cookbook publication. This with be a book
chalked full of holiday recipes and are great for the RVing lifestyle. I have so many ideas and am anxious
to get the ball rolling. You will be hearing more about this in the near future. ….because I will be giving
everyone who wants to be a part of this, a chance to submit their favorites. This will be a publication
scheduled for Fall of 2013.
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E 3 0 P A G E 4
Lady E’s RV Kitchen Column—Cooking for the Holidays in your RV
Until next month…..Happy RVing and Good Cooking!
This month’s recipe is coming from the RV Centennial Cookbook submitted by: Jan Powell of Bolivar, MO
Method of cooking: electric skillet or dutch oven
Apple dumplings
List of ingredients:
2 granny smith apples, peeled and cut into 8 wedges for each apple
(16 total wedges)
2 cans refrigerator biscuits
1 c. sugar
1 stick softened butter
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
1 12 oz. Mountain Dew (can be diet)
Recipe assembly instructions:
Flatten a biscuit and wrap a slice of apple in it. (Try to cover the apple but don't worry if there's apple not quite covered
with biscuit dough. Put into 9x13 inch pan. Do all the apples this way and place side by side into pan. In small bowl mix
sugar, softened butter, cinnamon and vanilla together and spoon over apples and biscuits. Pour Mountain Dew over top.
Bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes (Dutch oven-10 inch-cut the recipe in half and put in a round cake pan in your Dutch
oven. Bake with 8 coals on bottom and 10 coals on top for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.) Serve warm or cold. Warm with ice cream topping is yummy!
Wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving from the Professor and Lady E Cooper…..
Until next month…..Happy RVing!
P A G E 5
T H E R E C I P E : A P P L E D U M P L I N G S
Looking for a great Gift for the RVer in your life?
Why not give the gift of great food and great fun
to the RV’er in your life “The RV Centennial Cookbook”
And as an added bonus…
Evada will personally autograph all copies
sold via this promotion!
http://www.facebook.com/MyRVKitchen?sk=wall
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E 3 0 P A G E 6
Friday Nights at 8pm est and Sunday Nights at 9pm est. You can set reminders for yourself here:
Blogtalkradio.com/roadrebelles
We’re getting ready for a brand new season of Road Rebelles Radio and the introduction of our newest show, Black Top Teen Radio. Hosted by 13 year old Johnny McCloskey and 16 year old Neva Emerine, BTT Radio dis-cusses life on the road for kids. So tune in on
Now there’s two Weekly Radio Shows from FtF!
November Produce: Eat Fresh, Eat Local, Eat In Season Availability varies from state to state, so check
Field to Plate's Seasonal Lookup Guide to see
what's freshest near you.
Make healthy eating an adventure by “picking
your own”! Check out this great website for a
pick your own farm by you: http://
Stay healthy by eating
what’s in season!
Each month we in-
clude a list of in sea-
son produce. Here is
what’s fresh right
now:
Vegetables:
sweet potatoes pumpkins
winter squash broccoli mushrooms
Fruit
Oranges
Tangerines
Pomegranates
Cranberries
Pears
P A G E 7
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Happy Halloween From Scary Street
Click the pics to find these families’ blogs!
P A G E 8 The Benefits of Cleansing by Daryl Meyer-Hall
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Daryl Meyer-Hall is a
Health Coach available for consultation and speaking
engagements.
You can reach her at: [email protected]
www.nothinbutnatural.com
561-706-3401
Young Living
Distributor # 94169
I am a big proponent of cleanses. I do a colon cleanse every 3 months. I do a liver/gallbladder cleanse once a year. I just finished a kidney cleanse and I am in the middle of a candida cleanse! Yes, turning 50 last year is probably the reason why I am on this kick, but the truth is, I feel so much better after them, that it is my incentive to keep doing them! It is unreasonable to expect our organs to do their difficult jobs if we don’t help them along. Your gut is the health of your body and your colon and supporting organs take a beating with the modern day diet. I like to use the analogy of a well tuned automobile. You have to drain and change the oil, run cleaner through the fuel injection system, and flush out the radiator once in a while. Otherwise, things stagnate and stop working efficiently. I truly believe most people don’t know what feeling good really feels like. We accept our discomfort, aches and pains, and even disease as something to manage because we are aging or because it runs in our family. Stop being a victim and take control of your health. If you have never considered a cleanse, I would encourage you to reconsider. A colon cleanse is the place to start. There are 2 cleanses available through Young Living which are safe and effective. The fact that they incorporate essential oils in the formulas enhances their bio-availability. http://www.youngliving.com/ : (use enroller ID 941690)
1. Item # 3296 The 5-Day Nutritive Cleanse™ facilitates gentle and ef-
fective cleansing to improve overall health and well-being.* A mini-mum of four, easy cleanses a year with our 5-Day Nutritive Cleanse and continued nutritional maintenance will help balance the extremes
of the modern diet. This nutritive cleanse includes the following: Ningxia Red, an energizing, replenishing, whole wolfberry nutrient infusion (1 liter ); Balance Complete, a super-food-based, daily, su-
perfood energizer and nutritive cleanse (26.4 oz.); Digest + cleanse, which soothes gastrointestinal discomfort and supports healthy diges-tion* ( 30 softgels ). Note: The 5 - Day Nutritive Cleanse is a starting
place. More intense and targeted nutrients may be required for your
particular situation.
2. Item # 3115 - Cleansing Trio™ Kit contains the products you need to begin improving your health through cleansing your system and elimi-
nating waste by specifically supporting normal liver function.* Aug-mented with herbs that are rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, fiber, and essential oils, the Cleansing Trio will give you new
energy and an improved sense of well-being. Kit includes: Essential-
zyme, ComforTone, and ICP.
OR take a look at this link from Dr. Oz and his 48 hour weekend cleanse: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/48-hour-weekend-cleanse The other great thing you can do for your colon is colonic irrigation or colon hydrotherapy. Colon hydrotherapy, is a safe, effective method of removing waste from the large intestine, without the use of drugs or laxatives. As with all therapies, it is important to find someone on good referral.
FtF Affiliates Corner
P A G E 9 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E
Every month in FtF Magazine we fea-ture one stellar blog from our blog roll list.
This month’s featured blog is:
This Magickal Life There you’ll be able to keep up with the adventures of the Drake family.
Want your blog featured? Send the URL to [email protected]
Join the party
at the FtF
Group Page!
Are you putting our button to work for you?
Did you know that you could be mak-ing money by cutting and pasting a
few of our products onto your website.
“How to Hit the Road”, “Bottles to BackPacks”, “Buried Bliss”, FtF Mem-
berships and Magazine Subscriptions… this are only a few of the products we have waiting for you in our affiliate store. So click here to become an FtF
Affiliate and start making money with FTF.
This month’s top affiliates are:
Margie Lundy
Stacey Schrier
The Evansville Museum is a great traveling companion! Take your membership with you as
you travel the country. With our $35 Friend Membership, which is good for the entire house-hold, you can get into over 275 museums across the country – Free! To join today, call the Di-
rector of Membership at (812) 425-2406 or go online at www.emuseum.org. To see a list of
participating museums go visit www.astc.org/passport
Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science 411 S. E. RIVERSIDE DRIVE EVANSVILLE, IN 47713 (812) 425-2406 / FAX (812) 421-7509 www.emuseum.org
Featured Blog
We all know that you are what you eat,
and that what goes into your body must come out, for better or worse, right? Well, the same goes for your consumption and what goes into your home and what comes out. What you bring into your home effects the state of your home. If you are cleaning with highly toxic chemicals, then you are breathing in all of those toxic chemicals
on a daily basis. If you are buying new products everyday to fill your home, then you need to find a place for all of those things, and clean and care for
those things. Living full-time on the road doesn't really afford any of us to over-consume too much, though. We literally don't have the space. But, what
about all of the "essential" items you buy? Clothes, food, toiletries. They come into your home and go back out in some form. If you buy a bunch of bananas, you have the peels left over. If you buy shampoo, you have the bot-tle when you are done. So what do you do with these things? Do they all end up in the trashcan and then to the
dumpster and then landfill? They have to go somewhere right? And what a footprint we are leaving if we just con-sume and dispose! Because disposable
isn't really disposable is it? Everything ends up somewhere! The best way to lighten your carbon footprint is with the three R's... reduce, reuse, and recycle. Try and reduce what you bring into your home. Don't buy something unless it has a place, so very important when you live in 256 sq. ft., huh? Reduce the packaging on the items you do buy. Buy one large bag of chips rather than single packs all wrapped up individually. And, remem-
ber the more you consume, the more stuff you have to take care of and clean and store. The next step is to reuse. I
love checking out consignment and
thrift shops in all the different towns we travel through. It's like a scavenger hunt, looking for treasures! And, you are reusing someone else's discards, giving a product a longer shelf life. See you are helping the product live longer! And, when you are done with an item that you have consumed, pass it along. Some people's trash is another's treas-
ure. Even living in such a small space, we are constantly taking bags to Good-will, when the kids have outgrown clothes, and when we sort and go
through whatever books or toys they are no longer using readily. Also be aware of how an item can be repur-posed. An old t-shirt with stains can be
turned into a rag, old jewelry can make a new barrette, an old toy can be taken apart and its pieces can be used for an art project. There are also some awe-some ways to upcycle clothing into something new and fabulous from pieces of old clothing given new life and a funky edge.
And, when you have reduced, reused, and repurposed everything you can, recycle whatever can be recycled. This will vary from location to location, and a lot of campgrounds don't even recy-cle, or only recycle a limited amount of things. But, where there is a will there is a way. And, if you know that you can recycle glass, aluminum, paper, card-board, and plastic, then recycle it! Most municipalities have recycling drop-off locations, and can be easily found near a campground even if the campground doesn't recycle. We have educated many a campground that didn't even know there was recycling right down the street from them, and really what
more effort does it take to swing by the recycling center on your way to the post office? We use a few of those pop-
The Zero Waste Family Project by Angela Malson P A G E 1 0
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Resources for this article http://www.ecowomb.com/zero-waste-family-
project/ http://www.earthbench.org/ http://www.bottlebrick.com/ http://nbnetwork.org/
Promo Videos Click to play!
Zero Waste Continued
P A G E 1 1 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E
up bins you can find in any camping supply store, or sometimes at a campground office, to separate the recycling into paper, plastic, and cans/glass. You could even just use paper bags to keep things sorted. And, remember that plastic bags can even be recycled, with
drop-off bins often at the front of most grocery stores. In some locations, you can even take your bottles to local Redemption Centers to be redeemed for cash! And, you can also use paper or cardboard (or bills) to
light a campfire, often serving a dual purpose for being a great release of energy into the flame. Be sure to check http://earth911.com/ for more information on just what can be recycled, and where to take things
like automotive or hazardous waste, electronics, bat-teries, etc. And, yes, the Eco Womb Tour Bus has been known to trek recycling across state lines, piled up in our shower, when there is no easy recycling place to be found near a campground that does not recycle. But even if you don't commit to recycling everything and carrying it with you until it can be, then at least recycle what can be recycled where you are. You are helping keep items out of landfills, and learning that
every thing has a life, from cradle to grave, trash just doesn't disappear. So, take those steps first, the three R's, and just re-member that every thing needs a place. It comes from somewhere and ends up somewhere, so be aware of its life cycle. If you are already doing all of the above,
do you compost, as
well? Food scraps often get thrown in a trash bag and tossed into the dumpster along with everything else. But, did you know that it only takes a few weeks for most food to biode-grade back into the
earth and become soil. And, if that same food is left inside a plastic trash bag, then it won't
biodegrade at all! Imagine all of the food sitting somewhere in-side bags in a landfill.
That's a lot of waste! So, the next step you can take to go Zero Waste is to compost.
And, yes, it is possible to compost on the road. We
keep an inside container with a cover and dump all food scraps and any recycled paper products that may have food on it into this container until it is full. Once full, we take it outside and dump into a
three gallon bucket with a lid. In most places, we never have animals get into it, but do have bungee cords to secure the lid just in case, and carry this outside compost bucket on our bike rack so it is
always stored outside. When it gets full, we find a local nature center, school, farm, or friends's house
Angela Joy Malson - Writer, dreamer, life learner, ac-tivist, lover, eco-traveling, simple and sustainable living, gypsy, hippie mama, and full of hope in this time of transformative change and conscious awakening. With a Masters in Environmental Law, Angela is now Co-Founder of Eco Womb and Visionary for The Conscious Caravan, Senior Writer and Copy Editor for Letterbox
Studios, and Staff Writer for Blindfold Magazine. Juggling three kids and three jobs, she finds it grounding to dig her toes in the sand, gather by the moon, dance loud and proud, create space for stillness, and climb mountains.
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Supporting Your OTR Lifestyle Blog Curation By Alan Sills
P A G E 1 3 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E 3 0
If you have read my narratives to date, I talked
about various marketing models – drop shipping,
affiliate marketing, network marketing and some
hybrid models. The core to all is to find products or
service you have researched, believe in and wish to
promote. Now comes the fun part! We are going to
talk about HOW to promote and in doing so, gener-
ate sales and profits!
After all, the whole idea here is to be earning
money from the comfort of your RV as you travel
from destination to destination. I have found that
internet connections are not hard to come by and
with an internet connection, you virtually have the
world at your fingertips!
The best advice I can offer here? Learn to create
your own content, and curate others content. Learn
how to make blog posts (not difficult) and to make
videos (also not difficult!) What I do NOT suggest
you do is start burning all kinds of capital (money)
advertising by ANY method (pay per click, pay per
view, or banner advertising (unless you’re getting it
for free!) Why? The days of cheap advertising on
the Internet are OVER and I contend your “return
on investment” will be poor (at best).
I could devote an entire article to each of these two
topics – creating your own content and curating
others content. So, allow me to start with
“curation.” From dictionary.com, the verb “to cu-
rate” means to take charge of or organize; to pull
together, sift through, and select for presentation.
Applying this to blog curation, what we are doing
is creating a “valuable web property” that over
time will acquire “Google love”, get lots of visi-
tors who are interested in your content, and in
turn, when you post a “banner advertisement”,
they will be inclined to trust you and buy the
product(s) you recommend (by virtue of their be-
ing offered on your website.
Allow me to provide a specific example here
http://heartdiseaserisk.info
This is a “curated blog”, 95% of the content is
taken from existing articles, and you know what?
Google LOVES it! Why? Well, first of all, it is
100% ethical as each curated post credits the
original source and even places in a grey box any
text directly copied from that source. In that sense,
the original author is gaining greater exposure.
Second, you’ll note that I add value to each post
by supplying additional commentary, background,
or opinion.
Now, what do we mean by “Google love”? Well,
simply this… (and here is the big picture to blog
Continued on page 16
P A G E 1 5
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
FtF Featured Family: The Ethridge Family We call ourselves "The Chaos Nest". It's insanely ap-propriate - life is chaos, ENJOY the journey! For the past couple of years we've been hit HARD. We
have 4 boys, all 4 of them adopted, and 2 are special needs. Mental special needs. You'd never know it by looking at or engaging with them. When a special needs child is obvious, people think they under-
stand. When they can't see it for themselves, they have no clue (but they still think they understand). In a nutshell, our family has been
abused. Tremendously abused. We are shell shocked. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a
common theme in this house. We need healing.
Our journey is about healing. Healing as individuals. Healing as a family. Discovering our-selves, discovering each other. It's an attempt to make us utterly dependent upon God and each other, eliminating the rush of external noise and distractions. It's about building deeper relationships. Creating a bond of healing that will take us through our lives.
We've drawn in on ourselves so much, we needed an outlet, a release. We needed something different. Over Memorial Day weekend 2012, we, on a whim, went and looked at a used motorhome. We
looked at it 4 times and finally made an offer on it on Memorial Day. By the time we brought it home 10 days later, we had already started packing things up, selling things, getting ready to full-time.
Crazy. We are REALTORS with a real estate team. For the past year, while we were going through our season of utter chaos, we had transitioned our business to almost totally mobile. Now we real-
ize it was excellent preparation for "on the road". Even Crazier. We put our house up for rent, sold just about everything, put our most important items in stor-
age, and went out for our "shake down cruise" July 1st for 2 weeks. We came back and "moved into" a local RV park intending to leave at the end of September. A brother announced he was getting married, so we moved up our launch by 45 days. We also completely changed our jour-ney direction.
More Crazy??
Continued on page 20
P A G E 1 6
Affiliate Marketing Cont. from pg 13 curation) – I selected a niche to curate for. There are literally millions of niches (and
yes, I have some free training available to you on this topic, I will give you the link
shortly) you can choose to curate for. If you go down this road, pick one you’re pas-
sionate about.
As you curate posts (my training explains where the articles to curate come from),
you’re growing a “valuable web property.” Over time, how much depends upon the
niche you select, you will find that Google will reward your efforts by giving you
“first page results” when someone types in your keywords. Why? Simple, you’re
providing value and adding content – which is exactly what Google wants to supply
for its readers.
For example, on my blog, my goal is to be one of the top results when someone
types in “heart disease risk.” You CAN know how many people are doing that
search each month by using the “google keyword tool” (see my blog curation vid-
eos) and of course once you are presented as a top result, traffic and lots of it will
come to your site.
This traffic is also very high quality traffic! The folks visiting your site WANT the
information you’re curating. Further, they will grow to TRUST you. Think back
(those who are dinosaurs like myself) to the trust Walter Cronkite enjoyed on the
CBS evening news. If he started promoting a “widget”, I bet we all would have run
out to TwoGuys, ValleyFair, or Gimbels (hows that for a walk down memory
lane?!) to buy it, no?
Well, as you build a following to your blog, and then later monetize it (start making
money with it), you can for example post a banner ad that people will likely be re-
ceptive to as long as the ad promotes something specifically of interest to your read-
ers. For example, I happen to represent a very good (if not great) arginine product (it
reduces the risk of heart disease), once I have enough “traffic” coming to my blog, I
will post a banner for Cardio Protogen on the blog and I suspect (strongly) that many
of my readers will purchase it.
To learn more about Blog Curation, please visit
http://alansills.com/blogcurationseries
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Is your blog listed on Fulltime Families.com
If not, send an email to
so everyone can keep up with your adventures!
ARE YOU COMING TO THE RALLY?
P A G E 1 7 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E
The 2013 Winter FtF Family Reunion is set to be
the best Family RV Event of the Winter! Don’t
miss out!
The rally schedule is coming together and we’ve
already got:
Jan. 24th—27th (check out 28th)
Suwannee River Music Park
An Ugly Sweater Social
A Performance by The Weaver Believers
A touch football game between the Highway Hounds (Teens) and the Parents with special support
from our littlest cheer’ers!
A Seminar on Dry Camping by Author Marianne Edwards
A Teens Only Dance
Girlie Spa Day
And tons more in the works!!!
Click here to reserve your spot now!
Latin I and Latin II Junior High & High School Class Online and at Your Own Pace
120.00 per semester (15 weeks) payment plans available
Class assignments, recordings, and reviews are posted weekly on the Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/LatinsNotDead
Skype meeting every 2 weeks for new material, pronunciations,
and group work.
Mention
Where You
Saw This Ad
for 10% off
P A G E 1 8
The Benefits of Cleansing, Continued from page 8
If you want to explore more targeted cleanses for liver, gallbladder,
and kidney, then check out the book by Andreas Moritz called The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse: An All-Natural, At-Home Flush to Purify and Rejuvenate Your Body [Paperback]. Available
at Amazon.com. You can also search YouTube for his tutorials on cleanses. For candida cleansing and nutritional support, check out: http://
www.thecandidadiet.com/ I am not advocating their products, but there is a wealth of information on the web-site I used and found helpful. So, give your body a gift and start cleaning out all the stuff that is keeping you from thriving and feeling our best! To your health! Daryl Hall Proactive Health Counselor www.nothinbutnatural.com Young Living ID # 941690 Information provided here is for EDUCATION PURPOSES ONLY and is in NO WAY intended to replace proper medical advice. IT IS NOT for diagnostic or prescriptive use or to be construed as instruction on how to cure or treat any condition, illness or disease. Every individual is different, thus what may work for one may not work for another person. Consult with the professional health authorities of your choice. Re-member, taking responsibility for your health is your own personal decision: do your
research and choose wisely.
“Mother Nature gave us the gift of healing. Providing our bodies with the nutri-
ents, substances, and care required to heal, lies in our own actions.”
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Zero Waste Continued from Page 10
P A G E 1 9 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E
to take it to and add to their compost, which they usually love and welcome us to do so. It is a great way to connect with the local community and learn what they are doing to be sustainable. Or, if there is no place to take it, or you are not comfortable doing so, simply take a walk in the woods with a shovel and dig a hole. Yep, it is that simple. Three gallons of food scraps biodegrades pretty quickly, and if you are digging a hole and then covering with dead leaves or branches, you won't even see it or smell it. We have been asked, what about animals? If you are deep enough into the woods you are just attracting animals to the woods, where they live. Just do not dig close to camp-sites, or close to any roads or trails, as it might make a mess if an animal digs it up. And, we have been asked, is it legal to do this? We have never been told it is illegal, never saw a sign, never been stopped. It is natural food that naturally composts and naturally goes back into the earth to make naturally rich, fertile soil, the way Mama Earth in-tended it to. Yes, it may be easier to compost if you had your own yard and could use it in your own garden. But, just think of all the pockets of awesome, rich soil you will create all over the nation, if you compost on the road. Really, you could contribute to bringing back healthy soils in areas where they have been depleted. Who knew composting on the road could have such an impact!
Now, if you already reduce, reuse, recycle, AND compost, you are doing a lot. But, my guess is that you still have trash. You may have a whole lot less trash, but there are just some things that cannot be recycled or composted. And, yes, there is one more step you can take to reduce and even eliminate having any waste. Yes, we are not crazy,
we are just determined to know the life cycle of everything that comes into our home, cradle to grave. So, whatever you cannot repurpose, reuse, recycle, or compost, you can bottle brick. You can actually go Zero Waste and have no trash at all! You basically take your waste, true waste, whatever cannot be recycled or composted, make sure it is dry with no food on it, and stuff it into a plastic bottle. You can use any plastic bottle, any size, anything that you can stuff trash inside, like granola bar wrappers, chip bags, the plastic ties on bread bags, odd pieces of broken toys, bro-ken rubber bands, razors, etc. Stuffed tight and full, these bottles become hard. To fill in any remaining air holes, you can add sand with a funnel. You can easily get a couple weeks worth of trash into these bottles, and it's fun to see who can push the most amount of trash into one bottle. Use a stick or wooden spoon or whatever to do your stuffing, and then place the top back on the bottle. There is no smell, takes up hardly any space, and is just as convenient as a trash can. We keep a current bottle brick on the counter, and have eliminated the need for a trashcan altogether. Now when the kids have trash, they find a recycling container, the compost bucket, or stuff a bottle brick. Who said "trashcan" had to be an everyday word!
So, what to do with these said bottle bricks when you have collected a pile of them? Well, send them to us. Yes, seri-ously. Or look for the many drop-off locations popping up all over the country. We are using these bottle bricks as sturdy building materials for park benches, walls, and schools. Just stack them and use cob (clay, sand, straw and water) or mud or whatever natural building material is available and smooth around the bottles. Yes, that's right. Stuff
your trash into a plastic bottle, make it hard as a brick, and then use it as a brick to build something beautiful! At Eco Womb we have joined forces with the Peace on Earthbench Movement to collect bottle bricks, and build community benches (or whatever your vision is) all over the country. Check out http://www.earthbench.org/ for more informa-tion. We are currently developing a list of drop-off locations, but if you are interested, stay in touch with us and let us know you are starting this project with your family. We will make sure to let you know the when, how, and where you
can donate your bricks. Being full-time on the road, we know you probably can't haul around your trash in bottles for-ever, but seriously, you can send them to us or give them to us if we see you down the road, and maybe just dedi-cate the space you had your trashcan in to holding a handful of bottle bricks. You might just agree that storing trash this way is a whole lot cleaner with less smell than having a trash can!
Want to learn more, join us in signing up for the Zero Waste Family Project and take a step toward reducing and even eliminating your trash! Yes, we live simply on the road, we have to in such small spaces, but you may just feel a sig-nificant load being lightened when you lighten your carbon footprint and know the life cycle of your things! Because
you, too, can go green with the Eco Womb! Hope to connect with you on the road and share some bottle bricks!
We left our home base, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on August 20th, 2012. We've traveled almost 4,000 miles so far. We are currently just outside of Houston, TX and we are on our way to Florida for the winter. In so many ways, we are finding that our situation is unique. We have 2 special needs kids - but we also have 2 non-special needs kids who need
healthy parents. These 2 boys are competing for the 2016 Olympics in swimming. We can't just "travel around", we've got to "plant it" for at least 9-10 months a year. They need to train. So at present, they will train in Orlando for the winter and in Coeur d'Alene for the summer. So, we are "on the road". We don't know how long, we don't know why, we just know we are doing what we need to be doing. We explore some things, skip others, don't have a specific agenda, yes we are using the typical "sticker map" full-timers use, no we don't have a goal to hit
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E P A G E 2 0
The Chaos Nest Continued from pg 15 every national park, yes we maintain a 'normal' household routine, no we don't get to live like every day is vacation, yes we are having fun, yes it gets chaotic, no we don't think it takes special courage to do this, no we didn't save up for months or years to do this, no we aren't rich, yes we are winging it . . . And that, in a nutshell (and a super fast rush of
words) this our story as best I can tell it. BYLINE: We are The Ethridge Family. We are not "PC", we are "CP" aka crazy people. We travel in a 28' Mo-torhome with 2 parents, 4 boys (3 teenagers), 4 cats, 1 dog. Want more? Dare to want more? You might be offended, dismayed, laugh, cry, go insane, who knows. You can follow along with us at www.TheChaosNest.com
P A G E 2 1
Welcome to the Road
The Mann Family has just launched on their Full Time Adventure! Are you next? Send an email to [email protected] to see your family here!
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
FtF Holiday Ornament Exchange
Build Friendships, and good will
towards men by participating in
our Holiday Ornament Ex-
change!
It’s fun and a great way to con-
nect with other fulltime families.
Click Here to Join Now!
P A G E 2 2 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E 3 0
Learning to Live with Less by Marci Livingston
We are realizing that old habits
die hard. The first month of
traveling the desire to buy was
still so strong. When we would
arrive at a big town, Gabe and I
would get so excited to see all
the choices of stores they had.
And of course the boys would
notice Toys R Us and would
beg to go shopping.
Our children have been well
loved materially by their grand-
parents. They have been given
so much and are not accustomed
to going without. They have
been constantly begging us to
take them shopping. They had
money and they wanted to
spend it! They were always
making lists and dreaming of
new things they wanted to pur-
chase. Finally, I put them on a
30 day buying freeze. I told
them they could continue to
work to earn money but they
could not spend anything until 30
days had passed. Let me tell you,
that was a long 30 days of want-
ing to know how many more
days, how much longer, and when
would we see a Toys R Us. I was
so tired of the asking that I was
just as relieved as they were when
the day had finally arrived.
I realized for me that I was over
the need to buy things when we
were shopping at a thrift store in
Billings, MT. It was the nicest
thrift store I had ever seen. Eve-
rything was in order and organ-
ized by size and color. All acces-
sories we neatly and attractively
displayed. And yet, I walked
aimlessly around. If someone
was watching me must have
thought I was lost. I did not want
or need anything and it was truly
a wonderful feeling!
The boys have changed too. They
don't ask when we are going to be
near another Toys R Us. Their
play habits have drastically
changed. When we used to visit
a playground, they would only
run around on the play struc-
tures. The last few times we vis-
ited a playground, they played in
the dirt around it. They are now
more interested in dirt, sticks,
rocks, water, hiking, and biking.
We believe that giving our chil-
dren everything they think they
need is a disservice to them. We
are trying to teach them to be
content with what they have and
enjoy the world around them.
There is so much to explore and
so much to do that costs nothing.
This is the joy of traveling! This
is the joy of showing our chil-
dren another way of living!
Marci Livingston
www.livingstonfamilyadventures
.com
P A G E 2 3
Teen Perspective by Neva Emerine
About Neva: My name is Neva. I am 16, and I've been full-timing with my mom, Kimber, and my little sister, Elaina, for almost 2 years. I couldn't imagine a better life!
F U L L T I M E F A M I L I E S M A G A Z I N E
Do you know “How to Hit the Road”?
This book can show you how:
To make money on the road
To get your mail on the road
To pick the right camper for your family
And to get your life off hold and on the road!
Order your copy today!
Ten Best Authors’ Homes in the Country
P A G E 2 4 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 , I S S U E
Want to walk in the footsteps of
America’s Greatest Writers?
Here’s where you can:
10. Emily Dickinson, Amherst, MA
9. Robert Frost, Shaftsbury, VT
8. Authors of Concord, Concord, MA
7. Mark Twain, Hartford, CT
6. Jack London, Glen Ellen, CA
5.Ernest Hemingway, Key West, FL
4. Edgar Allen Poe, Baltimore, MD
3. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dayton, OH
2. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hartford, CT
1. William Faulkner, Oxford, MS
Reprinted from “National Geographic The 10 Best of
Everything for Families”
NC
6. Holiday Lights! Parade,
Gahanna, OH
7. McDonald’s Parade, Chicago,
IL
8. America’s Thanksgiving Pa-
rade, Detroit, MI
9. HEB Holiday Parade, Houston,
TX
1. America’s Hometown Parade,
Plymouth, MA
2. Parade Spectacular, Stamford,
CT
3. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Pa-
rade, NYC, NY
4. Thanksgiving Day Parade,
Philadelphia, PA
5. Carolina’s Parade, Charlotte,
10. Jacksonport Pa-
rade, Jacksonport,
WI
Cityyear
Interamerican workshop
US Army Corps of Engi-
neers Volunteer Clearing-
house
Nicodemus
Learn and Serve America
Youth for Service
Americorps
Citizen Corps
Feeding America
Habitat for Humanity
Ten Best Opportunities to Serve
Ten Best Thanksgiving Parades
When will we see you again? FtF Mini Meet up in Disney World When: December 7th—15th Where: Orlando Thousand Trails / Disney World What: Camp with us and sign up for the Carolina Homeschool Groups Annual Disney Trip for great rates on Disney Tix: http://www.carolinahomeschooler.com/atravelwdw.html Who: Anyone who enjoys camping How Much: Free—You are responsible for your camping fees and Dis-ney tix. Some organized activities will include potlucks and campfires. FtF 2013 Winter Family Reunion Rally When: January 24th—27th Where: TBD What: Our full blown Family Reunion Rally with tons of fun activities. For more info about our past rallies, check out: http://fulltimefamilies.com/
slideshow/2012-ftf-summer-family-reunion-rally-is-a-huge-success/ Who: Anyone families who like to have a great time! How Much: Check fulltimefamilies.com soon for registration.