Living a Chocolate Dream

     It's there, lurking in your home, calling your name, tempting you to indulge ... chocolate!  Now I have a friend or two who actually don't care for chocolate, as crazy as that seems BUT fortunately, I do not suffer from that malady.  On the other hand, I'm not addicted to it either.  However, one of my surprising discoveries about Kansas (other than it is not flat) is that it is home to a Russell Stover Chocolate factory and STORE!!!!  Yes we have been there twice already in the month we have been here and my daughter tells me that she is ready for another visit.  Hmm, she might be addicted.  If you look carefully I think you will agree with me.

     So, what do you do when the house is done and you have family visit that you haven't seen for six years?  Ahh, go get chocolate?  That and enjoy the time together, which for these two families means constant trips to the grocery store, lots of cooking and eating WAY too much good food.  Okay, so maybe some historic sightseeing as well.  After all, someone has to be a tourist.  Fort Riley is surprisingly packed with historical places and monuments.  Plus, exercise is always a good thing after you eat chocolate. 




    

Pretty amazing, right?

     These are just three of the places we visited here and we haven't even begun to start visiting everything here on Post alone.   There really is a LOT to see and do here in Kansas including a gazillion wineries which all have free tastings but that is for another time.  Although visiting a winery and tasting some different kinds of wines IS on my bucket list.
    
     What does all of this have to do with a simpler life?  It took years for us to really explore Georgia and start to see all the unique and wonderful things about it.  Why?  Why so long?  Simple, too much junk.  That stuff I talked about yesterday that we have been carrying around for years?  Every bit of it is like the junk we fill our calendar with every day.  Stripping it all away until only the important stuff remains is one way we are keeping it simple this time.  Exploring the world around us and enjoying life will be a bigger priority.  So, our charity work, children's activities, church and time as a family will remain.  I guess my husband needs to keep his job too, but other than that we are keeping it simple and our time free to enjoy that family we haven't seen in six years as well as the ones we see every day.  The moral of today's blog?  Don't forget to stop and eat the chocolate!