The island comes alive and ready to welcome another day. School buses have already hauled kids off the island for their first day back in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. A few cars and trucks putter up the street while a bicyclist heads the other way towards the beach. 

My todo list is now multiple pages, as I return to work today. Editing, marketing, promoting and photographing are all in my future this week. Taking these few moments this morning are some of the most important. Awareness. Thankfulness. Gratitude.

Thursday 1/21/16
We tore down camp for the last time for a while, well at least until spring, when we camp on Little Tybee with friends.

At our campsite in the Everglades, we met a fellow camper from Virginia, named Bobby. A retired, widowed gentleman traveling in his little RV. We got to know him over the past couple days as he would come by our camp and hang out sharing his life with us. He told us about a book the he recently self-published. It was a personal project that took him four years to complete. He showed me his book before we left and I purchased one for $10. He took such care in choosing the illustrations and maps that are published in it. It is historic fiction, a collection of five stories about a young pioneer girl travelling with her family through Virginia and Kentucky in the early 1800s.  I am really looking forward to reading it and keeping in touch with our new friend. He has a nickname of “Cowtail” as he shared a story about his favorite candy and carries mini Cowtail candy with him to share with his new friends. As I said in a post a couple days ago, the best part of traveling is meeting so many new and interesting people.

As we entered Homestead shortly after exiting the park, we made a stop at a fruit and vegetables stand,called “Robert Is Here”. I wish I had more time to shop there. Lots of beautiful fresh produce in every color and texture imaginable. I ordered their famous key lime milkshake.

Kyleigh spotted a display of rambutan fruit. This brought back memories of Costa Rica for each of us. That was the first time we experienced the exotic tropical fruit. They’re outward appearance looks prickly, but it’s really not. It’s covered with soft pliable spines. To open one, you insert your thumb into the skin, like you would a tangerine or orange. Peeling away the skin will expose the white flesh of the fruit. This is similar to a large grape and tastes kind of like one too. Inside is a single seed about the size of an almond. We purchased a dozen of them to snack on and to reminisce our past travels to Costa Rica. Our last trip there was last winter. I blogged every day during our trip. If you care to read about it, the first of eleven posts starts here. click here.

The rest of today has been uneventful… exactly the way we like it when are traveling. We are now headed to Palm Coast, Florida to spend the night with Sean’s mom before we return to Tybee on Friday.
It has been days since any of us has showered as the new shower facilities in Long Pine Camping area were not completed yet. We have been masking our body odors with eucalyptus scented hand sanitizer. It will be a mad sprint to see who gets to shower first when we arrive at Gram’s house!

We did cut our trip short by about a week. Although we all feel that we have accomplished what we set out to do. Make memories with our two youngest girls before time slips away. Which we all know how quick that happens.

If you’ve followed our trip the past two weeks, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!   When I’m not traveling, I don’t blog every day, but I will post 2-3 times a week about our crazy life on Tybee, homeschooling our girls, running our business and whatever else strikes my fancy. If you don’t want to miss a post, then I invite you to sign up for my email list. I promise to not spam you from this list, I just sent a quick email notice when I have a new post.

Friday 1/15/16

We are definitely operating in “Low Key” Key West style today.

Kyleigh had an allergic reaction to something she ate last night. We can only narrow it down to chipotle peppers that were in a new salsa we tried. She broke out with a raised itchy rash on her face. She is asleep once again under the influence of benadryl, marking today as a sick day from school.

With intermittent rain still expected to fall through the day, I decided to do a load of laundry while Ava was attempting to do her school work at the Campground pavilion. However, the internet is out once again. So she and Sean are playing pool in the game room.

I am next door in my quiet oasis of a clean laundry room that smells of fresh linens. The warm humid breeze blows through the open air room while the ceiling fan spins at the same beat of the washers and dryers.

Every once in awhile a white haired camper will come in and toss in a bundle of T-Shirts and towels and line up eight quarters into the machines.

Many of the campers here have made Boyd’s Campground their long term home. Some of them have erected permanent fences around their RVs complete with potted plants and outdoor lighting.

Others are just here long enough to escape the freezing numbers from where they came. Regardless of what brought them here, there is a community of people in this couple acre waterfront neighborhood that obviously have friendships and relationships that mean the world to them. Connecting with like minded souls to live and do life with is an innate psychological need I feel we are all born with. Finding a place to belong. I watched as travelers arrived over the past couple of days and were reunited with others as they gather together again on this perfect little clump of sand for a few months every year. Embracing each other with hugs and greetings, happy to be joined together after seasons of separations back in the real world.

Since we are here for just a few weeks, we are more like outsiders peering into their wintertime communal life. Everyone is friendly to us even though, we are obviously short term tourists. I can relate though, since it’s very similar to the way things are on Tybee. We always enjoy meeting people that choose Tybee as the place to spend their vacations, but there is definitely a thriving community underneath the surface of buzzing tourist activity.

The internet gods have had mercy on us, and we are back in business connected once again. We can continue taking attendance, checking off quizzes, assignments and replying to emails.

Even though these two weeks are earmarked vacation, we are somehow finding a way to blend our personal and work lives together just as we do in our daily lives on Tybee. The main reason we left our old life in Virginia was to find a way to not just work the first forty-five years of adult life only to be too old to enjoy the handful remaining years of retirement. It’s not always easy to blend the two worlds in daily life, but it really isn’t complicated either. Choosing simplicity has been the key ingredient for us.

This week, we have indeed traveled over six hundred miles from home to enjoy some tropical warmth (though we have experienced way more tropical rains than desired). We have also booked a couple weddings and emailed back and forth with numerous brides discussing their up coming wedding plans. Sean has booked a several ‘In for A Penny’ music gigs and we have updated website and marketing plans in the works.

We haven’t figured it all out yet, but somehow, right now this blended life is working for us.

Later in the afternoon we ate a hearty Italian lunch at a restaurant called “Roostica” located near the campground. It was a lot bigger than we intended, so we will opt for a light snack/dinner this evening.

We drove into Key West for more Benadryl for Kyleigh. That’s when the skies turned scary awful, as ominous grey and black clouds began to swirl in eerie formations right in front of us.

Hoping our tents and camping gear would all be intact when we returned, it eventually turned into an outright downpour. So much that the boat dock was completly covered.

Fortunately we did not lose anything and our twenty dollar Walmart tents still kept everything dry.

Within minutes the rain cleared and we received this beautiful sign! Hoping tomorrow will be the best day yet!

Creamy white clouds spread like buttercream frosting across the periwinkle blue background.
Pink, yellow and orange beams blazing through sparkle off  the palm fronds that are dancing in the breeze at the top of the tree outside my window. I sit on the soft worn sofa next to the window that faces the dark grey ocean. A chocolate brown and white plaid wool blanket that was a souvenir from a trip I took to Italy with my father twenty five years ago is spread over my legs and tucked under my feet.

I welcome the morning view as I hunt and peck the keyboard on my Samsung smartphone. (Which has not been that smart these days, but that’s another story)

Sipping hot tea and honey to heal my cough and nagging laryngitis. One by one I hear my neighbors’ cars start as they head out for the first day back to work in the new year.

The first Monday of the new year. That’s when the real new year starts. Last year ended with a four day weekend so, today is when it really starts.

The past four days were still filled with friends and family, food, parties, organizing, guests, sleeping in, reading, lounging in pajamas whispering my words and sucking cough drops…

But, today is when everyone goes back to their routine. When the hours and minutes are stacked up with work, checking off to do lists, meetings and marketing yourself to sell what it is that you do. Today is when you decide if you will continue to do what you’ve always done and do it the way you’ve always done it. Or, you can decide to do it a new way.

Only you can make the choice to do it with more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Only you can decide to do it with more boldness, courage, strength, creativity, tenacity and intention.

Whatever you have listed this year to improve, get better at or make new…today is the day it all begins.

For me, I have a list of projects that I am working to accomplish. Some are continuing existing works and some are a blank canvas just waiting to be splashed upon.

We can all accomplish our goals by allowing the “Elbs” do their magic. My friend, Roy Williams taught me about elbs and their magic fourteen years ago. “Elbs are Exponential Little Bits, tiny but relentless changes that compound to make a miracle. The power of an elb lies not in its size, but in its daily occurrence. For an elb to work its Exponential magic, the Little Bit must happen every day… every day… every day. ”

By doing a little something every day, you can accomplish whatever you set out to do.  The little bits begin to compound and before you know if they take on a life of their own. But, you must continue to them every day.

Relationships, being the most important value in my life take a high priority of cultivation this year. That means time, effort and energy. It also means pruning, weeding and cutting away. In my last post I mentioned that I want to focus on not letting the urgent crowd out the important in my life.

I think this ultimately means learning when to say “No”. We don’t have to do it all. We don’t have to go to all the meetings, volunteer for every committee, take every client, go to every class, concert or game, accept every invitation. Asking yourself before each commitment, “Does this help me accomplish my ultimate goal?” If not, then say “No”.

Here’s to your new year! I hope you accomplish what you set out to do and I wish you peace and prosperity
in every area of your life.

As I sit to write what will be my last blog post of the year, I think of all that has occurred during 2015. There was a lot of good and growth that happened mixed in with loss and sadness.

Though it was through losing loved ones that brought remaining relationships closer and deeper with more meaningful conversation and levels of commitment. When reality hits that we are not guaranteed our next day, it can change a life, a family, and a community.

Actions paired with intention happen more often now. This paves the way for clarity in our lives.

This is not supposed to be a depressing post, but one that will remind us to live our days with purpose.

As I prepare for the new year, I think about how I want my life to look. I shut my eyes and imagine the perfect days.  What do they look like?  What faces surround me? What is the conversation about? Can I make a positive difference in someone’s life?  How can I plan my days to create this life?

A question I constantly remind myself to revisit is… how do I keep the urgent from crowding out the important? What can I do to protect what I have deemed as important and valuable in my life and my family’s life?

A few years ago we started down the path of simplifying our possessions. This is an ongoing process as closets and drawers need continual purging to remove anything that doesn’t bring joy to our days and make us smile. It really is that simple and I always try to complicate it. The same rule can be applied to most areas of our life, don’t you think?

Enjoying the benefits of health and nutrition will be welcomed back into my daily routine. Over the past six weeks I have missed my daily exercise and clean eating regimen I worked hard to create last year. Creaking joints and familiar aches and pains of the past started to return and I am putting my foot down as I refuse to go back to that life! I will begin training in January as my brother and I plan to hike to Machu Picchu in the fall. Then to Mt Everest base camp in 2017.

Haven’t you had enough of saying “someday…” ? Put on your calendar what you intend to make happen, then do something everyday (an action plan) to get you there.

I started this blog in February with sporadic posts here and there with no real focus where I was headed with this whole thing.  In March when Sean and I traveled to Costa Rica for ten days, I wrote every day and was amazed that I could keep up with it. That was when I discovered how to blog from my phone with the help of a few apps.  After that trip I set a personal goal of posting at least once a week, within a month I upped my goal to twice a week. I am happy to say I have stuck with it! This is my 87th blog post this year. I have a few plans for next year to continue building my blog and share life with those who want to share.

Sincere heartfelt thank yous to all who have encouraged me. It was though your sharing, comments, messages and personal conversations, that gave me the push to continue. I don’t believe I would keep publishing publically if it were not for the encouragement from you. Thank you!

Opening a new journal is kind of like a sacred ritual for me. Especially in the winter months. Early mornings when the house is quiet. Still dark, except for the colorful glow of lights from the Christmas tree spilling their  reflection on the smooth simulated woodgrain floor. This is when I have the most time for my heart to be still and think on the past before wandering thoughts venture to where I’m headed and what purpose I want to fulfill in my life.

I dream of unloading conversations that are well rehearsed in my head. Possessing hopes of telling a story with perfectly picked words, like plucking a ripe piece of fruit from a tree that will bring healing and nutrition to my soul and maybe to someone else who reads them.

A brand new journal is kind of like the first week of January. The start of something new, full of hope and potential.

Maybe it’s because they both represent a fresh start. Perhaps that is when I give myself permission to have visions what could be.

A blank canvas awaits ink strokes and characters, detailed descriptions, and feelings. Words that will paint pictures into the imagination of others. Creating new worlds into existence. I imagine telling a story they way I want to remember it, or more importantly, the way I want others to hear it.

Although, it seems as once I write or draw in the virgin journal, it loses its mysterious wonder. Those first few words I write are like sending it down a path into the life and purpose it will lead.

It might become a book of lists, or it may be filled with ideas of business ventures I want to pursue. It could just be a daily to do list, which isn’t exciting, but never a bad thing. I take great satisfaction in checking off items such a list. But each time I pierce the cellophane and crack open the spine of the book, I have hopes for so much more.

The basket under my desk and the bottom shelf in my bedroom contain the years of said journals from my past. Filled with confessions, tales, and half told stories that I feel I never quite convey exactly what I wanted to say. Doodles and pictures sometimes illustrate part of what I’m thinking. Different colors of my favorite brand uniball fine point rollerball ink scribbled throughout the pages. Resembling much like hieroglyphics, even though I wrote them, I probably could not crack the code of whatever I was meaning to say.

Other times I laugh as I flip through the pages and see when I wrote about an idea that first came to me. A thought for a new website, business, blog or inspirational photoshoot. The inception of ideas. Maybe the practical shopping list I had for a party. The movie screen of my mind transports me to that event. And I see the faces that were with me that day. Celebrating life or meeting a friend for the first time. The next page reveals a list of things I’m thankful for. Stating heartfelt gratitude for the blessings in my life. Sprinkled in between there are dozens of prayers as I spilled my heart out to my Creator.

I’m off to Amazon to pick out my new journals for the coming months continuing in my life-long ritual of unloading my brain and heart on to paper.

Do you have personal life rituals that you perform daily, weekly, yearly? Those routines that guide you through the years and help keep you grounded?