About Living at My Pace

Hi, I'm Travis.

I'm a stroke survivor, a filmmaker and a slow traveler. I live in Anthem, Arizona, under one roof with my wife Joanna, my brother Eric, our two kids, my dad Mick, and my mom, Terrilyn Miller. I'm a father, an artist, a photographer and a drummer, and a sixth-generation Arizonan. This site is a library of everyday guides: eating well, living together under one roof, keeping a house in the desert, recovering at your own pace and traveling without abandoning the life at home.

These are notes from a life already underway, written so you can borrow what helps and leave the rest.

The stroke, and the pace that followed

On March 14, 2016, I had a massive stroke. I spent a month in the hospital and a year in outpatient recovery. I relearned to walk, to see, and to make my voice resonate. I give credit for that to my family and to the medical team who stayed with the work. Some of what I lost never fully came back. My balance isn't what it was, and my body doesn't handle heat the way it used to. I also live with trigeminal neuralgia.

I still travel, and I still live a full household life, at my pace. I go to Pilates every day, and so does my mom. I wrote more about the stroke in After the Stroke, Life Had to Slow Down, and about that daily habit in Pilates, at Our Pace.

A household of three generations

Joanna and I share this house with our two kids, my brother Eric, my dad Mick, and my mom. We live in Anthem, Arizona. It is a three-generation household now. My grandmother, Donna Hancock, lived with us until she passed a little over a year ago, when the house was four generations.

We moved back to Arizona from Texas because I wanted my children to know their family. My mom was taking care of Donna when my mom was diagnosed with cancer for the third time. That is why we came home.

Down the road are more of us: my brother Tyler, his wife Sanni, and their six kids; and my brother Jared and his wife Allie, who is expecting.

Rhythms are how we make it work: the ordinary habits that let a full house stay kind. If you want that story first, read One Roof, Three Generations.

Terrilyn Miller, co-author

Terrilyn Miller is my mom, and she writes for this site too. She will author articles, especially in the Organic and Whole-Food Eating section, under her own byline. She has used food to fight cancer. That story will be told in her words, on her author page and in her articles, once her own write-up is in and she has approved it.

This site will not publish her email, phone number or any other direct contact details.

How we eat

I write about how we eat at home, and this site has a whole section for that kitchen work, including a Recipes library from this house. We shop at Sprouts, Fry's, AJ's Fine Foods, Costco, and online, and I source most of my grains online. We eat only organic. We don't keep a garden, except for basil and rosemary. Dinner is almost always home-cooked, and we eat by candlelight every night — beeswax candles we buy in downtown Flagstaff for that purpose. Everyone in the house packs a lunch. We cook with Lodge skillets, an Instant Pot, and a bread machine. I bake fresh bread every day; the machine is set to a timer, along with the coffee, and the house smells amazing in the morning.

Eating well, for us, is everyday work — shopping, cooking, sitting down together and using what we bought — done at a pace a full house can keep. Start with What I Mean by Eating Well at Home, or with Tools I Reach for When I Cook.

Travel, written on its own sites

I also write about accessible family travel at Travel at My Pace, starting at home in Arizona. Our Japan trips have their own site, Japan at My Pace.

Joanna and I have been to Japan twice: in April 2018, and on a trip that ran from December 2019 into 2020. Apart from Texas, where we lived for a while, Arizona is the place I have written about most. Destination guides stay on those sites. This one talks about how travel fits everyday life, then sends you over. The Pace I Travel Is the Pace I Live is the door.

A few notes on how I write

When a page uses official information — heat guidance, a labeling rule, a public produce list — it says where that came from. Photos, when they appear, will not include children or recognizable strangers, and location data will be stripped. There are no house exteriors on this site, and no street address.

Nothing here is medical advice, and nothing here is financial advice. The health and food writing is personal experience. If you have a health condition, including cancer, or if you are making decisions about recovery, heat, walking or how you eat, talk with your own doctor or therapist.

Amazon links, when they appear, are labeled. There are no ads on this site. The full note is on the affiliate disclosure page.

If you want to get in touch, see Contact. If you want a short path through the first pieces, start at Start Here.