My money don't jiggle jiggle....cause I spent it all in FLORIDA!

Well, it's been a "hot second" or "minute" or whatever the cool moms say these days, since I updated blog life here over in BlueRose territory. Things have been good...and hot....and not good....and great and then everything in between! So all in all, things are...LIFE! (and yes, I am SUPER grateful).

To be honest, this last month has been faced with a lot of sad news. Not specifically for my little family of 6, but for loved ones. In the past 2 weeks, there has been 4 tragic, unexpected deaths from the ages of 7 to 73, and it has definitely been a time of pause, prayer and reflection. Habbakuk 3:17-19 has run through my head many times, and many times I have found myself writing it out to the ones who are suffering and mourning these losses. If you aren't familiar with that section of Scripture, it reads this:

"Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights."

So in a nutshell, pretty much what he's saying is, "I literally got nuthin' Lord. I am at the end of my frayed rope and I'm hanging on by a thread....but I LOVE YOU AND REJOICE IN YOU AND IT IS THROUGH YOU ALONE I AM ALIVE AND WILL MAKE IT!"

Maybe you are in a season of life like Habakkuk was here. Maybe you are doing great! Your health, your finances, your family, your marriage...all of it, SUPER! Maybe you are somewhere in between the extremes just going through the motions. No matter where you are at, repeat these words above. Get used to praising God in the valleys and the hills, and in the storms and in paradise. Often, we aren't even remotely feeling what we are professing with our mouth, but God hears these words and is the only one who can heal your brokenness. Cry out to Him! He is your strength, your shield, your REWARD!

God is in his goodness let us take a break from the hustle and bustle of work, sports, and life here in Wisco, and safely allowed us to travel to AND back again, from the great freedom state of FLORIDA! This was our third year of taking a summer vacation with one of Joel's brothers and his family and it did NOT disappoint! We headed to Nashville in the first leg of the trip and walked the honky tonk streets, featuring Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan bars. Our impression of Nashville? Hot and loud! Dang, it was hot that day! Over 100 degrees and humid. It was fun though, to see that country energy the streets of downtown Nashville bring. Lots and lots of "beer trolleys" for all sorts of occasions coasting the streets up and down. Bands playing in every bar and a homeless indivudal or meth addict on every block corner it seemed. I will be honest, that kind of surprised me. Not that there is homelessness and addiction in Nashville itself, but the amount! Oh, and weed. Like remember as kids seeing ice cream vendors or men with carts selling glowsticks and cotton candy? Yeah, in Nashville it's the reefer. Each to their own I suppose. I was also hoping Luke Bryan would make an appearance in his bar when we were there, since the waitress says he does stop in quite frequently, but to much avail, he did not. The closest we got to a celebrity feel was a Michael Jackson impersonator who ripped people off by doing a 2.7 second dance move for $1 when his sign said, "Will dance for money."

After a night in a hotel we headed the rest of the way and arrived at our amazing condo on Navarre Beach!! First floor, ocean side condo, right over the pool as well, so we didn't even have to move to watch our kids when they chose to swim in the pool over the ocean at times. It was glorious. Since we were there over the 4th of July as well, we were able to watch the fireworks that were shot off at the edge of the pier (which by the way is the longest pier in the Gulf go Mexico) right from our balcony deck!! The least stressful 4th of July I can ever remember, since we didn't have to pack up in a car and drive, and then park miles away and walk to a mosquito destination on blankets in wet grass in Wisconsin! Oh! Did I mention there were ZERO mosquitoes in Navarre where we were? Pinch me. No gnats, no mosquitoes. Kinda made me think of the line in Field of Dreams: "Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

"No...it's FLORIDA!" haha

I will be honest. Vacation for me personally isn't jam packing our schedule with a million to do's and running around non stop. Vacation for me is lying on a beach, floating in salt water, drinking an old fashioned or margarita (or any drink, I'm not picky) and trying to slow my ADHD brain down as much as possible with as little thinking as possible. The nice thing, is even though our traveling companion family may not always have the exact same schedule as I do, or Joel does, we travel so well together as two families equaling a grand total of 9 kids and 4 adults. I mean, we slept in a condo that normally fits "8" and we got along fantastic!

Even though I love laying around, knitting, drinking, sunbathing and salt water floating (my word I sound like a loser haha), we did throw a few little things in the mix. One day we headed about 45 minutes to Pensacola where we toured Fort Pickens. ( Very cool! Free to tour and if in the area a MUST HISTORICAL SEE!). Wow, did we sure have some brave, courageous and resilient soldiers in our US army. I pray we can go back to the days when our military focused on survival and safety verses correct pronoun usage and bodily "autonomy." After Fort Pickens, we went to Pensacola Beach which was an absolute dream. They don't call that area the Emerald Coast for no reason! The water here was SO warm, SO gorgeous, SO clean.....just amazing. The sand is like sugar and doesn't get nearly as hot as some other beach sand does. We found lots of fun shells and little ocean crustaceans and other than that, being the one day I fried like a pig on a spic, it was a perfectly beautiful day!

Another highlight of our trip was watching the teenage young man catch a close to 75 pound tarpon off the pier at Navarre Beach! Gabriel and Sam both cause the catch on film and it was incredible! The way those fisherman buddies bond together, even if they had never met until that moment to help them wrestle this giant fish in from the water, was stunning!!! Another funny of the trip was when Sam and I saw a giant sea turtle surface in the water and Sam goes, " Is that an old grandma floating!? Oh...no, it's a turtle. Sheesh. I thought for a second that was an old grandma with a swim cap floating in the ocean!" I was filming at the moment and you can hear my old lady wheezy laughing cackle as he made that comment. It did actually look like a grandma with a swim cap floating for a second. hahahaha.

We stayed for exactly a week and then headed home. In one day. My favorite. (NOT). However, if I being honest, by the end of a family vacation I am in desperate need of a "mom alone for many hours vacation" myself. The thought of taking everything out, checking into a hotel where no one sleeps well anyway, and then packing it all up again the next morning doesn't appeal to me either. So, we chose one hard over another hard and drove the entire 18 hour trip back. In one day. I also don't recommend that. I guess I would say , fly, If you can afford it, or want to keep your blood pressure in a healthy range and avoid water logged ankles.....but that's just me.

With the kind of ADHD I have, things that often would stimulate or settle neurotypical people, do the opposite for me. It always feels selfish to me, and I am sure there are people who even see it that way, but people like me NEED time alone, in quiet, without distraction, WAY more often than non-ADHD folks. So for me, an 18 hour car ride, followed by 13 people in a condo, 9 of which are kids, and then an 18 hour drive back is intense. And yes, it's intense for probably every parent. But medically speaking, my body AND brain need a major, MAJOR chill after things of that nature. If not, I often will get sick or even relapse into some depression or anxiety. I have learned to accept that to NOT allow myself this time, is actually the selfish choice, because my parenting and wifey duties go down the drain. So if you see me a bit incognito at times in life, know that I am fine, but I am doing what is needed so I STAY fine.

Does that make sense?

If not, that's ok too. Cause it doesn't always even make sense to me either . I just know it's a natural thing I need for my self to function. Kind of like breathing. I don't get all the ins and outs, but I know if I am not breathing, I am dead, so I will do my part to keep my body healthy, so it can continue to do IT's part breathing and keeping me alive.

What are/or have you done this summer for vacation? Where did you go?. What did you do? I LOVE hearing all about other's vacations!!

Stay healthy, stay hydrated and stay humble! If you are reading this, you are alive and God still has work for you to do!

XOXOX