Bertle the Turtle Explorer

by Kara Anderson

31 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2025

About the author

My name is Kara Anderson and I am a Mom to a 14 year old girl named sassy Shelby and a 9 year old boy gorgeous Gordy. I have 5 dogs, a cat, chinchilla, frog, fish, snail and turtle and feed raccoons around 4 on a daily basis. Both kids play soccer and Shelby is a cheerleader while Gordy is a baseball player.

I grew up in Wisconsin did a little cheer leading and now 40 pounds heavier I coach for my daughter's team in Jacksonville, Fl. I have been married to the funniest guy on the planet for 15 years.

I am a breast cancer survivor at age 39 now I am 43 and have had the pleasure of getting to know the life saving side effects of mastectomy, chemo, radiation and continued medication so that I am able to write this letter to you today. I am grateful to God for each day he allows me to wake up and enjoy another day.

I lost my job, house and car when I was 37 as the market changed the great company I worked for just couldn't stay a float. My husband works for Lowe's and has wonderful insurance but I made a bit more money and ends just could not be met so we did a short sale being one of the first in our area, rented a cute tiny house, sold the nicer car and started a cleaning business since I knew and loved to clean.

5 plus years later and cancer free to date our business has grown we rent a bigger house and in the process of buying it and undergoing a kitchen remodel, started a non profit called Cleaning with a Meaning, wrote 2 children's books as part of a series about Merryam, invented a kitchen gadget, became a travel agent, have a blog and of course a Youtube channel full of useful information and recipes. It is not perfectly edited but neither is life.