Friday Stuff n Things

I am a billion percent scattered today. It has been a week around here. Lots of unexpected twists and turns at work and in our lives, so I thought I'd take this day to catch up and clean up on the blog!

* First up...one of you asked me if we ever plan to take our bikes with us on trips, and the answer to that is a resounding YES! We don't yet have the gear to attach them to Abby, but that is on the short list of things to purchase, and we do hope to take the bikes on some of our trips! 

* Speaking of bikes, I'm so ready for our first ride of the season, even though I have no idea when that will be. I am ready to put my basket on the front, too! It's still sitting here in our living room, waiting to be added to the front of Miss Daisy. She's gonna be so stylin'!

* Someone also reminded me that I forgot to circle back to the coffee story from our first Abby trip! THANK YOU! Yes, I forgot all about it. Here's the story.

We did a lot of research on coffee pots/makers/etc. over the last few months. We determined that it probably wasn't practical for us to have a regular house style coffee maker in the RV, because we have very little counter space. We don't want to clutter it up with a bunch of appliances. (Or even one appliance, if we don't have to.) 

The same was true for a traditional Keurig. They're so big, and we hated to have it sitting out - or using up storage space that could be designated for something else. 

We decided to go with an electric water kettle and a stainless steel French press. We liked the idea of the water kettle because it would allow us to have it for other uses as needed - like hot chocolate or cooking with hot/boiling water. The French Press is on the bigger side, so it would give us plenty of coffee, but the stainless steel would not be fragile like glass, and that would be good for travel. Both of them tucked away nicely in a little storage cube. 

All of it worked exactly as we envisioned...until...

...it came time to dump the grounds. We shook most of them into our trash can, but we didn't want a bunch of coffee grounds running around in our gray water tank, so rinsing out in the sink wasn't an option. We made it work for the weekend with some creative (and gross) manual cleaning, but we learned this is definitely going to require some adjustments. 

We've been pondering what to do, and we haven't landed on an answer  yet. Keurig does make a slimmer machine that a friend of mine has and likes, so that's a possibility. (And we could get the little pod that allows you to use your own grounds if we don't want to guess at K-Cup numbers for a trip.) This wouldn't take up a TON of room if we put it on the counter, nor would it take up a ton of space in storage if we chose to do that. 

And though not quite as slim, there are options like this one that aren't huge, but they do have stainless steel carafes. So that's another idea. 

We'll keep thinking about it and try to figure it out soon!

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And now, a complete switch of topics. Let's move on to prayer, shall we?

* I'll tell you more about it another day (Really, I will! If I don't forget!) but we have some changes coming up here at WillowBridge, and Ryan and I would gratefully accept any prayers you might have for us as we navigate those changes. It's a whole story, which is why I will save it for another time, but if you have room on your prayer list, we'll take a spot!

* And while I'm asking for prayer...I have a dear friend who has battled health challenges for about twenty years now. (I didn't ask permission to use her name, so I'll keep it anonymous.) She has always faced each battle with loads of grace and has both challenged and convicted me with her complete trust in God, even when she is so very ill. Within the last week she had to go on dialysis and a kidney transplant list. She messaged me yesterday and said dialysis is absolutely awful. I don't know that I have ever heard her say anything is awful, even with all the awful things she's faced. My heart breaks for her. I know she hopes for a new kidney, but I also know that could take a while, so dialysis could be here for much longer than she hopes. If you think of her, even without knowing her name, would you join me in praying for her? (God knows exactly who she is, so He won't lose your prayers!) She's such a prayer warrior for others, and I would love to gain some extra warriors for her. 

Thanks, friends!! Much love to all of you this scattered Friday!