Who doesn’t love a summer road trip? Well, me. Unless there are great snacks involved and a tumbler full of coffee and a some good tunes raging on the stereo.

Enter: the Almost There Road Trip Giveaway! (Scroll to the bottom to enter)

My publisher and I have put together  some of my favorite “on the move” goodies to make your last long haul on the road this summer a good one.

Some of my favorite things include:

• A YETI tumbler because I want my hot coffee to stay hot and my cold coffee to stay cold and if it settles anywhere in between the whole caffeine mission must be aborted.
• Summer Issue of Magnolia Magazine because I’m certain Joanna Gaines and I are about to become best friends and in preparation I find it useful to memorize  her current musings on grout color, neutral paint colors, and how to master that farmhouse casual vibe. This way we will have less to catch up on when our real life friendship finally blooms.
• A BP gas card. For more snacks. But also for gas, if that’s your thing.
•  A super box of Cheez-its. Have I mentioned my passion for snacks yet? Cheez-its reign supreme in the category. Don’t even talk to me about Cheese Nips, a cheap knock-off made of styrofoam and broken dreams.
• A signed copy of my book, ALMOST THERE. It’s a book about finding home on the move and the whole story begins with a road trip. There’s a theme going here, see?
• A cute backpack because you need a place to store stuff.
• A car organizer again, for storing stuff (like all your rad snacks or, sy, diapers, wipes and hand sanitizer).
• Hand-lettered wall panel. Not-so-secretly my favorite element of this whole gift pack, this piece of art by Lindsay Love Letters is hanging in my own house.

You only have a few days to enter the contest, so be sure to sign up now!

Cheers to road trips, new adventures, a big ol’ box of Cheez-its (that aren’t for sharing. Unless it’s with Joanna Gaines).

Win a signed copy of Almost There and a custom gift box!

Photo by Christie Purifoy

I’m not a gardener, nor do I possess any talent for coaxing green things to grow, but I am a person who is curious about roots. I’ve often wondered what it takes for them to wind through the ground beneath me and make me feel settled, at home.

Nearly a decade ago, I married a handsome Marine who promised to show me the world.

Then he moved us to Yuma, Arizona.

Ever since that first departure, my family and I have moved often, rearranging the same furniture in different houses, coaching new acquaintances on the correct pronunciation of our last name.

In a life on the move, I have found that a person can be homesick for many things besides an address. You can long for a relationship, hobby, or talent that you’ve lost or tabled for a time. You can be homesick for a version of yourself that existed before you changed jobs or had babies or decided on a whim to try out bangs.

Any source of stability can unexpectedly expire, so I think we’re all “on the move,” in one way or another. We are moveable gardens and transplanted roots, all asking what—and where—home is now and what else it could be.

My favorite quote from Christie’s book Roots and Sky is that homecoming is a “process rather than a moment.” It takes some time.

Because to establish home is to strain for it. Home is not a passive landing pad, but the place where we battle for roots.

Read the rest over at Christie Purifoy’s blog…