I made bread!!!!!

I  made this delicious loaf of bread the other day and it turned out perfectly! I have never made bread before so I was pretty stoked that it turned out as good as it did!!!

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 pkg. rapid rise yeast

1 tbsp. honey

3 cups flour (all-purpose)

Pour the yeast into the warm water & stir until dissolved. Add honey and mix well. Add the flour and mix until you get a ball of dough. I did all of this in the same bowl...no need to dirty a ton of dishes and it works out good because counter space is extremely limited on our boat. 

Cover with a light towel and place it somewhere warm. {I forget to snap a photo at this point, but I'm sure you know what dough looks like}

Let rise until doubled in size (about 45 mins). 

Punch the center and remove from bowl. Shape the dough into a  small loaf & place inside a well-greased pan, seam-side down. {I used my new silicone bread pan, thanks mom} 

Let rise again (covered) in pan for about 10-15 mins. 

Bake at 325° for approx. 30 mins. 

This makes the perfect, crusty crust with the right amount of chewy inside...pure deliciousness!!! :)

The boat smelt so good!!! Nothing warms the soul like the smell of fresh bread, hot from the oven!!! 

Now, if you want to add a touch of heaven to it, spread on this beautiful, (yet slightly adapted to not be so sweet) copycat, Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon Butter:

1 stick butter (softened)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp. cinnamon 

Stir all ingredients together until combined. It'll look something like this...

This also goes great with a cup of coffee!

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm....Enjoy!!!

Spidey Senses

When living on a boat you come to know all the normal boat movements, after all, you are in water, so the boat is always moving. But after a while, you don't even feel it moving anymore {I tend to miss that feeling} what you do notice is, movement produced by a strong wind gust. You know what it feels like when someone gets on your boat vs. the feeling of bumping into the dock and in turn, squishing your fender & the noise that makes. 

Joe used to work nights a lot when we lived on land, so my spidey senses were always on alert. Any weird noise and I was holding my breath, scared to make a sound for fear someone was in the house. I knew if I called him and told him I was scared, he would make me walk through the house and check things out....so, most of the time I didn't call him   I would just lie really still and hope I fell asleep before hearing any other noises. 

Well, last night, I was startled awake by what felt like someone stepping on the boat. Then I heard what sounded like a grunt {this is where I imagined someone trying to pick up & move our incredibly heavy cooler} followed by voices. I was convinced someone was in the cockpit handing things over to someone on the dock. I just thought I was alert on land, but my spidey senses kicked in and in high gear, at that!! I sat straight up, which startled hubs enough to wake up and I told him, someone is on the boat. He listened for a few seconds and told me it was the wind. I wasn't convinced! I told him if anything was missing in the morning, he would know that I was right and he was wrong.....that, was enough to get him out of bed and go check. {he doesn't like to be wrong. In fact, if he was writing this post, he would go as far as to say he is never wrong. But he's not writing this post, I am! And I am usually right. :) so, that would mean he is, well, you see where I'm going with this. } 

Of course, everything was in its place and it was most likely the wind. But still... Someone has to be aware of our surroundings! 

Maintenance Day/Day Dreaming

           love these cotton candy skies!!!!!

The last couple of days have finally been warm enough to wear shorts and a T-shirt {oh happy day!}. I am a 100% summer girl! Growing up in warm, sunny, sub-tropical year round, South Africa will do that to you! :) 

Yesterday, was a day chocked full of maintenance and cleaning. It's a necessary evil. =} We cleaned the boat, did laundry, cleaned out the Yeti to sell it & then decided to keep it, ;) and re-filled the water tanks. Basically, it was chore day, but what made it not feel like work was the warmer weather! 

Life on a boat is not all fun and games, ok, most of time it is, but it's hard work too....sometimes. 

It would have been nice to go out on the boat today, but there is no wind whatsoever. There is always good wind when Joe has to work and then no wind on his weekend. It's a conspiracy, I tell you!!! ;) 

So, for now we sit outside and enjoy the clean boat and sunshine and dream about moving south....I'm thinking Florida. Warmer winters and prettier waters!

This is us in Destin, Florida a few years ago! 

And then, there's beautiful Miami Beach....I mean, look at that water color!!! 

Yep, I've decided. We need to move to Florida!! What do you think??

I live on a boat

Sometimes, I can't believe I actually live on a boat...and not just a boat, my boat?!? When you wake up in the morning, in that first instance, right before you open your eyes, for all I know I could be sleeping in our bed in our old house {after all, we did bring the memory foam topper onto the boat, so it does feel like our old bed, minus the odd v-berth shape} and then, I open my eyes and I'm on a sailboat....my sailboat!! It's insane, but in a good way! =}

Last night, hubs asked me if I ever thought we would actually live on a boat. My response? "No." It's not that I didn't want to, it's just something I thought would never pan out. People talk about the things they should do all the time, but all it is is talk. I think about having a cattle farm sometimes because of all the memories I have of my Papaw herding cattle. Do I really think that's going to happen one day? No. But then again, I never thought I would be living on a sailboat, so who knows? Someday, I might be calling the cows out to the pasture & hauling hay. 

What would be awesome, is if we bought

a small farming island. This I see is the best of both worlds!! We could anchor out & still live on our boat. I would take a dinghy ride to shore and tend to the cows! Sounds perfect, doesn't it?

And bonus, I would never have to worry about not having a good steak! You see, that is a major concern for me right now, because when we start sailing full time, it's going to be all seafood. And well, anyone who truly knows me, knows I'm a beef girl! Nothing from the sea, for me! I know, I know....the irony of it all is quite amusing!!!

On the other hand, I know there's swimming pigs in the Bahamas so at least, maybe I'll have some bacon? Other than that, I will be stocking up on a lot of beef jerky before we leave! ;) 

You never know when you are going to be a winner!

It was only 5 days into this New Year and I had already won 3 seperate competitions!!!

My 1st prize was this lovely {& might I add, super soft & comfy}shirt from   

I LUV MY BOAT

2nd prize was {something I won for hubs} a fishing/boat tool & tumbler from BoatUS

3rd prize was free, budgeting PDFs from Dave Ramsey 

Now, it may not have been the prize money I initially entered for, but I did win a runner-up prize and I am grateful for that! Who knows, after properly budgeting, we might win back some {of our own} money that might have been wasted, had we not been budgeting! Look at me, being all positive and whatnot!! 😳

Moral of the story, er, post? You never know when you're going to win.....so, go enter those contests!!!! 

Thank-you again to all of the companies listed above!!!!! Happy New Year, indeed! Y'all Rock!!!! 😃

Year-end review

It has been 7 months since we moved aboard our floating home and this is what we have discovered:

• V-berth disputes continue

Hubs still thinks I take up most of the bed and hog all of the covers, whereas I know that that is incorrect and I have pictures to prove it! ;)

• Projects have come to a halt 

We have been talking about trading up to a bigger boat. So, we are at a standstill with all boat-related projects. No need to keep putting money into this boat, if we are going to turn around & sell it in a couple of months. By the way, did you know the word boat is actually an acronym for, Bring On Another Thousand? 

Well, now you know! =}

• Living without 

I think we have learned what we can and what we cannot live without. 

For example, we have {somewhat} peacefully lived for almost a full month now, without a microwave! Yeah, I'm just as shocked as you are. :) 

• Sailing

Hubs still knows way more than I do and

I still have so much to learn, but what else is new?  And although, I was more of a motor yacht girl {my heart beats Meridian} when we started,  I do see the beauty in sailboats, sailing, etc.. And I do love sailboats a little bit more now that I've lived on ours! ;)

• Plan B & sometimes C, D & E 

This mostly applies to cooking{like when you get halfway through cooking dinner and you run out of propane}, but I've learned it's good to have a plan b for most anything boat related. Whether it be due to rain, lack of propane, or just about anything you can think of. :)

• Cat-like reflexes

I still may be somewhat of a clutz, but boat living has definitely taught me to have more cat-like reflexes! Hubs has even said, {on more than one occasion, I might add} that he was surprised that I caught whatever was falling, whether it be sunglasses, phone, remote or even myself. =)

• Quarter shortage 

You can never have enough quarters! Now that we use a laundromat to do our laundry, I've found that there is always a shortage of quarters! We have a designated quarter bowl on the boat that is only used to collect quarters for laundry. Just when the bowl starts filling up, the hamper overloads and our stash is depleted, again! My mom had asked what we wanted for Christmas....she wanted to be sure it was something we would have room for and something we would use.....I told her to get us a roll of quarters!  I don't know why she didn't go for it!! ha ha ;) 

Happy New Year!!! 

Thank-you for following along with our life afloat! 

See you next year!