The kiddo was at camp last week. She had such a great time. Making new friends, trying new things, cool and exciting experiences, and making memories. This week she’s at rock band camp.
Hard to believe that we’ve been in Texas for 3 years now. THREE YEARS!
I miss the beaches in Florida. The sound of the waves, seagulls attempting to steal Doritos out of our hands, the smell of the salty sea air.
I don’t miss the humidity, not one bit.
But yeah, 3 years in Texas and it’s starting to feel more like home. Moving twice so far, from south ATX to north ATX and things are just now starting to fall into place. It’s a good feeling. We’ve made new friends and connections, our lives have all changed for the better. Better quality of life, better outlook for the present and bigger plans for our future.
Moving helped us do just that.
We were stagnant but safe “back home” in Florida-duh. Boxing everything up and moving half way across the country was… well… a jumping off point.
Since our move to Texas, we’ve made some great friends, via work, our neighbors, and our homeschool community; we’ve had major life changes. We lost Bambi just after our first year here. That was a tough time for everyone in the family. Thumper and Sebastian are still alive and kicking – nearing a sweet16 and a newly 13. When we loose those 2 boys, I’ll need a little time to recuperate. Not going to think about it, just going to pause for a second and listen to them BOTH snoring right now.
OK
Our lives shifted again when LP decided to give up dance and shift her focus more towards music. Traded those pointe shoes in for drum sticks. Dance was a HUGE part of our life. It brought us friends, and “vacations” – sorta, well, crazy, stressful, fun weekend traveling. But it also brought us some scary moments, between injuries, nasty dance moms and their daughters, and studio owners that were more focused on winning than building their team as an extended family. Dance in Texas wasn’t a complete bust though, we made a few connections and learned a lot about goals and life.
We took back control.
It lead LP to drums. That’s pretty cool, and definitely doesn’t hold our family schedule hostage with a yearly mandatory calendar of dates for class, rehearsals and competitions. I think we’ve welcomed the break, although we also kinda miss dance, for what it was and had been.
Over the past 3 years in Texas, we’ve still been homeschooling and have taken a few different approaches to learning. There’s a lot of Texas that we want to explore, now that we’re here and venturing out a bit more. Living somewhere where you didn’t grow up, and know “everything” about, has given the 3 of us, a greater sense of exploration.
Since moving to Texas, Josh has also underwent some MAJOR changes. We moved for his job. True, the move happened a year after he was employed. I didn’t want to pick up and move on a whim… and yes, after we moved, he quit just over a year later… BUT, with that he got out of his shell and comfort level – venturing out again on his own to work on a failed project.
After that bit of financial and emotional struggle, we regrouped, he found a great remote job and our little SS SHERMAN ship was back on track.
Working remote, and from home, has afforded him additional time better spent, on some of his new projects, that are taking off and flourishing. There’s always new stuff with his personal side project and company, so we have weekly meetings to discuss the business side of life.
With business, I’ve started a small consulting project of my own. Helping to keep others financially accountable, being their sounding board, and helping others get on budget, and on track to get out of debt. It’s actually exciting to help others get better control of their finances, and knowing that I’m helping them has been a really positive experience.
I’ve also been blogging more, if you’ve read anything here for the past 2019, I’ve been pretty consistent for 6 months now. My blog has a little bit of everything here. Just whatever I want or need to write about lands somewhere here on my blog.
It’s been a healthy outlet for me. Keeps my brain working, and hopefully has improved not just my personal quality of life, but also my writing skills too. And maybe something here has also inspired a reader or two as well. Who knows?
Moving to Texas has been something that has helped us grow individually and as a family. To push our limits, to look around and not say “what if” but rather “let’s try it!” Moving to Texas has given the 3 of us that little push of confidence that we should “go for it” and so we do.
Oh and we may not have the cry of the seagulls, but we do have GRACKLES.