As first time RVers, my daughter, Jaelyn, and I found this one easy and quite impulsive: celebrate every win.
First test drive? WIN! First time parking in reverse? WIN! First campground hook-up and tear down? Double WIN!! We literally hoot, holler, and cheer ourselves on after overcoming each new obstacle.
Now, we've been on the road a little while. It didn't take long for the regular campground routine and driving days to feel easier, and less exciting, than our "firsts." Yet we find that the journey itself is a continuous series of challenges, big and small, everyday.
Some may not be firsts, and some we pray will be the last, but at the end of every challenge, we're sure to celebrate every win.
Celebrating our wins is quick to lift our spirits and revive our energy after a particularly stressful or exhausting challenge. It helps us laugh at our struggle and remember that we do hold the power to achieve anything. very time, the celebratory cheer, dance, and laughter fills our spiritual tanks with faith and fulfillment, often when we need it most!
And if nothing else, celebrating every win is just fun. It feels so good to let loose and shake it off. It feels so free to laugh, cheer, and be silly, especially after getting through a rather difficult experience.
And no matter how stressful, or simple, any given challenge may be, it is ALWAYS worth celebrating!
Here's a few of our favorites so far...
Replacing our first windshield.
You may have read in an earlier blog, Surrender to the Moment, about the flying rock that smashed our RV windshield on the Houston freeway. What felt even better than arriving safely to our campsite at sunset that night? The ease and speed at which the windshield was replaced! Now, we celebrate how clear (and crack-free) our new windshield is every day we drive.
Driving on (and back off) the beach.
No road lines, everything's white, and ya better not slow down when it gets soft or you'll get stuck; sounds like a drive through our snowy homeland in northern Wisconsin! I wasn't sure how our Minnie Winnie would handle the sand, but she plowed over it like a beast. So for a smooth entrance and exit without getting stuck, we celebrate!
Cooking bacon without setting off the smoke alarm.
Yes. Cooking bacon. And I think this is my most proud victory yet! Let me set the scene for you...
The first time we cooked with our propane stove and oven, little did we know, we were about to contribute our notes to The Song of the Smoke Alarms through our campground...
In our little 24' motorhome, I thought it was enough to run the vent hood while cooking. However, within seconds of the first slice of bacon slapping the hot pan (that seems to go from cold to scorching in the blink of an eye!)... we were stunned by the deafening beep of our smoke alarm for the first time.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP BEEP."
I jumped backed and reached up for the reset button on the nearest alarm.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP BEEP."
What the heck? Why won't it stop?
Jaelyn hit the button on the second alarm, a whopping 2 feet away from the first.
It stops.
Thank God! I went back to the bacon and laid the 2nd and 3rd pieces on the frying pan.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP BEEP."
Good Lord, it's not even that smoky in here!
Jaelyn shut the 2nd alarm off again while I hustled around the RV opening windows and and back to place the 4th piece on the frying pan.
Now we were really sizzling. A burst of hot steam plumed from the pan. Holy crap! How does this thing get hot SO FAST?? What felt like instantaneously, I was burning the bacon and cringing in anticipation of...
"BEEP BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP BEEP."
Oh my God!! This must be what hell sounds like! PLEASE, make it STOP!
I spent the next 10 minutes anxiously cooking/burning the rest of the bacon, shutting off the smoke alarm, and wondering why the hell we didn't have another fan in our RV.
I could feel my facing burning from the heat and embarrassment that our neighbors had to listen to our smoke alarm song until all the bacon was cooked on our little pan.
Once the food was finally ready, we sat outside to eat... and get out of our bacon-smoked RV! Within minutes, we got a whiff of bacon cooking in the distance... followed by a distant "BEEP BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP BEEP."
The alarm stopped a few seconds later. Then another went off further in the distance. And another, closer by...
Yay! We're not the only ones! I joyfully ate my brunch to The Song of the Smoke Alarms all around us. Apparently cooking bacon in an RV isn't challenging only for us!
Needless to say, a new fan was at the top of my list for our next shopping run. Since it took another 5 or 6 musical rounds of cooking before we made it to a store, we settled with open windows and getting used to the startling alarm every time we cooked.
Then, one morning while camped on the beach, I decided to make bacon. This time, I opened all the windows, turned on every vent, and aimed our new little fan right at the pesky alarm.
I lit a flame on the stove and laid the first pieces of bacon ever so softly on the pan. As the heat and smoke began to rise quickly, I cringed in my usual preparation for the alarm...
It didn't go off.
Relief! I went for it, covering the pan in bacon; it sizzled, spat, and the big plume of smoke billowed up and through the RV. I closed my eyes. Cringed. Nothing. No alarm!
We made it through the entire pack of bacon, cooking them all to a nice crisp (only a few were slightly burnt!). And not ONE time did the smoke alarm go off!
CELEBRATION!!
We danced and laughed as we celebrated another win: we cooked bacon without setting off the smoke alarm! YES!
And now, though we cook in a new world of silence, we can still smell the wonderful wind of bacon through the campground air, and smile to the tune of other smoke alarms screaming in the distance through the mornings.
Cheers to you, my fellow RVers. May you, too, one day conquer the challenge of cooking your bacon without setting off the smoke alarms. Bon Appetit!
Sending love and light to you always,
Krista & Jaelyn
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