5 Questions With…Julie DenOuden from Girl On The Move

Welcome to another installment of my interview series, 5 Questions With… Today I am sharing my interview with Julie DenOuden who blogs over at Girl On The Move. We connected through The SITS Girls community which fosters relationships among bloggers. I am always fascinated by people who lead active lifestyles, face life head on, and dream big. Julie embodies all of those things.

1. I’m a big believer in writing about what you know. It seems that you subscribe to that idea as well. Tell my BAW readers what you share on your blog, Girl On The Move.

At the heart of my blog I share three things…

– My love of adventures including baseball, cupcakes, running, and traveling.

– How I stay organized being on the go so much including meal plans and organizational tips.

-Inspiration to try new things!

And the third one is the one that is most important to me.  I believe in really being intentional about living life and not just letting life happen to you.  It is my hope that reading about my many adventures, will inspire others to take adventures of their own.  That may not mean you start eating cupcakes, but I hope that each of my readers is inspired to try something new after reading my blog.

2. It’s clear in reading your blog posts that you have a passion for traveling. You have a goal to visit all the major league ballparks across America. How many have you been to so far?

So far I have been to about 10, although some of those visits were before I started blogging.  I am actually getting ready to embark on a two-season adventure to try to visit all of them!  I kick off the visits in two weeks with a trip to Petco Park in San Diego to see the Padres and then I have a number of games lined up this season (about half the parks!)  Ultimately I would love to write a book about what makes each of these stadiums unique!

I always love getting cupcake recommendations, so if you have a cupcake shop near you, let me know about it!

3. Your fascination with cupcake shops all over the country. How did that begin?

I get hungry just thinking about all of the yummy cupcakes I’ve had!  I can’t say that I remember exactly how my love of cupcakes began but I can still remember some of the first cupcakes I had five or six years ago!  In my opinion, cupcakes are just the perfect little sweet treat because there’s portion control built right into the design of the cupcake!  And there are sooo many flavor combinations available, which is one of my favorite things about visiting cupcake shops…seeing what flavor combinations they’ve dreamed up!  Now I’ve been to more than 30 cupcake shops all across the country and I have quite the list of places that I still need to try.  It would be a dream come true to attend (or even judge!) an episode of Cupcake Wars and I always love getting cupcake recommendations, so if you have a cupcake shop near you, let me know about it!

….the rules were so specific about when you could take breaks that we had to brush our teeth in the outfield!

4. I read that you participated in a kickball world record game for 24 hours. Tell us about that.

Oh my was that an adventure!  The game was to raise money for the Kyle Korver Foundation and we played from 7pm Friday night to about 8pm Saturday night.  Since it was a world record game we had to abide by the official Guinness Book rules, which meant using a specific ball, official substitution rules, only taking breaks at certain times and many other tiny details….the rules were so specific about when you could take breaks that we had to brush our teeth in the outfield!  We actually had one person dedicated to making sure we stuck to all of the official rules. And although kickball doesn’t seem like a very physically demanding game, I have never been as sore as I was when I woke up Sunday morning…it took me about 15 minutes to get out of bed!

5. Your on-the-move attitude is inspiring, Julie. You plan your meals at home to stay organized. What are your best tips for meal planning?

My number one tip for meal planning is to have a bank of meals written down that you keep handy.  There is nothing worse than sitting down to meal plan only to realize you don’t know what meals to put on the schedule!  I keep a list of meals in my household binder so that when I’m ready to plan I can use those as a reference.  Then whenever I come across new meals that we like, I add them to the list!

I would also encourage people to have one sheet where they meal plan and keep a grocery list.  I have found that to be helpful because I’ve been in the grocery store and thought, “Now why did I put tomatoes on the list?!?”  With the meal plan and list on the same page, it’s easy to look over the menu for the week and figure out why you needed tomatoes…which helps you figure out how many you needed!

And if you’re really not sure how to meal plan, I post a meal plan complete with grocery list, every Friday on my blog!

I will be sure to check out your blog for meal planning tips and updates on your ballpark and cupcake shop travels. Thank you, Julie, for sharing your blog with me and my readers. It has been a pleasure getting to know more about you and your interests.

If you would like to connect with Julie from Girl On The Move (girlonthemoveblog.com), here is her contact info…

Instagram – @jmdenouden

Do you have any questions for Julie?

Are you a fan of baseball? Cupcakes?

Which attraction/tourist spot would you love to visit?

5 Questions With…is a Being A Wordsmith interview series geared toward sharing insight from people who are embracing happier, healthier, and wiser lifestyles.

Linking to: This Momma’s Meandering Mondays, Mommy Monday Blog Hop, Turn It Up Tuesday