It is amazing at how different the beaches can be within a few miles of each other on Florida's Gulf Coast. We have visited several beaches during our stay, having played at rocky sand beaches, shell and coral sand beaches, more coarse play sand-like beaches, and today we visited a white sand beach. If you know Stephanie, it is not hard to figure out that she prefers the white sand beaches, so it was a little easier to convince her to go to the beach today, and to stay and play for awhile. I have been itching to get to Siesta Key Beach since we arrived on the Gulf Coast. My parents brought me to this beach as a child, and I have such great memories of it. Needless to say, my memory was correct, and now I can only hope that my children remember this amazingly beautiful and fun beach as well.
We arrived in the late morning so that we would be able to get a parking spot and avoid being out in the heat of the day. The sand was soft and smooth and the tide was just starting to come in. The kids and I had fun playing in the surf, building a small lake to splash in, with a tide wall to protect it. With the tide coming in, it was a losing battle, but it kept us entertained for awhile. The shore gradually slopes into the water, so the three older kids and I had some fun jumping into some knee high waves (knee high for them).
Soon enough lunch time approached and we headed out, covered in sand and fun.
Think back. As far back as you can recall. What was your dream? When you were four? When you were twelve? When you were nineteen? What happened to that dream that was seeded in your heart during the first quarter of your life? What are you doing during your second, third and fourth quarters of your life to bring that dream to fruition? Maybe working out that dream looks different than you expected it to at four or twelve or nineteen, but these dreams were seeded in your heart in childhood for a reason. It's never too late to pursue these deep-seeded dreams that may be lying dormant within your heart. The dream hasn't die. It simply needs nurtured in order to grow.
Honestly, I don't think that it matters who you are, hearing those words seems to make any person's day. Being a constantly connected society, having access to an Internet connection with any reasonable amount of speed can make most people giddy. It seems that we are getting to the point that most retail establishments offer some type of Internet access while you wait or dine.
On the road, we are constantly looking for an Internet connection so that we may update our apps and software, connect on Facebook and check email, and to write blog posts such as this one. A recent step that we have taken to help out with a more reliable connection and speed while not taxing our cellular data plan is to install a system to extend to existing wifi networks that we normally would not be able to access from our campsite. Thanks to our friends at Full Time Families for their initial write up on this system and to Steve for showing me how his setup works, I went ahead and purchased the hardware that I didn't have on hand and got to work. Below, you will find links to the products at Amazon. I already had the cabling and router on hand, but have included links to those as well.
The installation of the hardware was the easy part for me. I spent some time planning out how I wanted the wiring to be run down into the RV and then began with a Lowe's run to get the last few things that I needed. I planned on mounting the antenna to my TV antenna so that I could raise and lower it easily for travel.
Material to mount the antenna
I needed to create a bracket since the U bolts would not fit around my TV antenna in the down position. I used a piece of 1 inch angled aluminum that I cut two 4 inch pieces off of, then pre-drilled holes to line up with the antenna holes for the U bolts. I didn't want to screw the angled pieces onto my antenna and risk nicking the TV antenna cable or the screws getting loose over time, so I very permanently mounted it with some JB Weld. I used the Kwik Weld, since I am familiar with the product and was ready to move quickly. If you have never used JB Weld before, use gloves and have a lot of disposable surface available (read cardboard or plastic). It is a very permanent bond, with at least a 3000 psi breaking rating.
So my antenna is not going anywhere.
Once I attached the bracket to the antenna, I ran the cat 6 cabling to give the JB Weld time to cure. My TV antenna sits next to my front air conditioning unit, and I was able to find a path for the wire to come down into the RV there. I was unable to fish the wire through the ceiling, so I opted to use some wire mold to conceal and support the wire over to the router.
Clean and polished.
Once that was done, I went back to the roof to finish the installation. I attached the antenna to my bracket, hooked the bullet to the wire, and then connected the bullet to the antenna. A few cable ties to keep things neat, and Voila!
The unit raises and lowers very easily and with little strain. I am happy with how clean the installation ended up being, albeit the fact that I cannot adjust the antenna up or down, but it is 14 feet off of the ground, so I think that reception will be alright.
There really aren't any setup instructions for the software on the bullet, but the company does offer a wiki and support forum for questions and troubleshooting. I was fortunate to have someone familiar with the interface that could field my questions. Being someone who is enough of a techie to be dangerous, I found it simple enough to use. Once the initial settings are taken care of, it is just a matter of logging into the bullet and selecting a wifi network to connect to. I have already noticed a huge difference in power and reception. I am able to 'see' 3 times as many networks as before. The down side is that even though I can 'see' some networks, they are not powerful enough to be able to communicate back and forth enough for me to use them.
One of the joys of homeschooling is being able to create lessons that are meaningful to where we are, what is around us, and structure lessons around our lives.
Well, today being March 14 (3.14), we celebrated Pi Day with our kids. How did we celebrate? Well, the kids made a pie, of course!
Some of the lessons that we learned, aside from what pi is and how it is used to find the circumference of a circle included:
states of matter and how solids melt to become liquids
solid and liquid measurement of ingredients in our recipe
chemical reactions and how individual ingredients changed as they were mixed together and then also how they changed when exposed to the heat of the oven
division and fractions to serve equal parts of the whole pie to each member of the family
Caroline, Lydia and Ian observe the ingredients before mixing them all together.
Eliza takes her turn to mix the pie filling.
The finished product. A Toll House Cookie pie.
The kids made (with a little help from Mama) a Toll House Cookie pie. This is one of my (Stephanie's) signature desserts and I'm always asked for the recipe whenever I share this pie. It's incredibly simple and oh, so good. You might want to double the recipe and make two pies. Yes, it's really that good.
Toll House Cookie Pie
2 eggs
1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. firmly packed brown sugar
1 C. butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
Preheat the oven to 325F. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add flour, sugar and brown sugar; beat until well blended. Blend in butter. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 325F for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.
"Is there anything that you would change if you were to start out on the road again?"
This is a paraphrased question that I've been asked several times over the past week from our readers. One that has really made me think about the past year of preparing to launch and our first 8 months of full-time travel.
Yes. Yes, there are many things that we would have done differently, and some that we have/are changing as the right time comes. These are the top 10 things (in no particular order) that we would do differently, if we had it to do all over again:
1) I wish we'd known what sitting in one place for 2 years does to tires and had replaced all 4 tires on our fifth wheel immediately after purchasing it. Our 5th wheel was 2 years old, barely used and in nearly-new condition, and had been towed a total of 20 miles in those 2 years prior to our purchase. Tires that didn't roll for 2 years were likely the greatest factor in our first-day-out blow-out.
2) Had we known all of the strikes against our first truck and its ability to tow, we would have opted for a different tow vehicle. We planned to replace it after 1 year, but that timeline was moved up to replacing after 5 months when we had to decide if we were going to continue traveling and replace our truck or stay put in Moab, UT indefinitely and just suck it up with our lemon.
Let me be clear: If you plan to tow a fifth wheel or travel trailer, avoid 6.0 Liter Fords like the plague. If you want to just throw your money somewhere for the heck of it, I'll email you our PayPal account address and you can just send your hard-earned dollars our way instead. Seriously--just don't do it!
3) We would not have brought so much stuff. In our first 3 months we took several truckloads of donations to the local thrift store in Glenwood Springs, CO. While we were grateful to help a local outreach, we really didn't need to haul so much extra crap along with us. We also dropped off a significant amount of unnecessary "essentials" in storage when we passed through the Midwest again last Fall.
4) We would have changed our state of residency sooner. While maintaining Indiana residency made sense for us while we owned a house there and makes mail forwarding pretty simple on our end (HUGE thanks to our "housemates" Chris and Holly who do our mail forwarding for us!!), the income taxes and vehicle registration fees are enough to stop us in our tracks. We are in the process of deciding where we will change our domicile to within the next 6 months to minimize the financial impact on our budget. Hey, if you can choose to take residence anywhere, why not choose the best place to set up residence?
5) I would have learned earlier how awesome the laundromat is. While I still use my Wonder Wash for all of our hand washables like our bathing suits and handmade or boutique dresses and for small, quick loads, I've found that taking 90 minutes once a week and setting up shop in the laundromat to wash 5-6 loads of laundry is soooo much more efficient use of my time and energy. I have to use the laundromat for Jason's work clothes anyway. So if I'm washing one load, why not wash a handful all at once?
6) I wouldn't have tried to make homeschooling look like school at home. This was a steep learning curve for me as a former classroom teacher. It took us almost 6 months to find our rhythm with homeschooling and while it looks nothing like I thought homeschooling would look like, it's exactly right for our kids. It's also always changing and evolving as interests and needs change. I feel much more confident as we move into our second homeschool year to know what works for our kids and when to scrap an idea and move onto something else.
7) We would have kept travel days shorter and travelled slower. Granted, since we (more or less) travel following Jason's work, we don't have complete control over the pace that we travel. However, we have discovered that travel days longer than 6 hours become very difficult and stressful for our family. Arriving to a campsite at dusk or later is no fun. And back-to-back travel days become torture for little people that require time and space to run and play.
8) We would have removed all expectations. We've stopped planning more than 24 hours in advance, because we don't really know what we are doing or where we are going unless we are actively en route--and even then plans can change. This is a great thing, because it requires us to remain present where we are, but a challenge to family and friends who always want to know "where to next?". We've stopped speculating because it really doesn't benefit anyone. I hope that we can carry this mindset over if we ever choose to settle somewhere permanently or semi-permanently again.
9) We would have taken the opportunity to get lost more often. Admittedly, I'm less directionally oriented than Jason. I've been known to get us lost a time or two. As long as it doesn't involve being lost while towing a 36-foot rig behind us, getting lost has always led us to someplace off the beaten path and a treasure that we'd never have found otherwise.
10) We would have done this years ago. While the time was exactly right for us to take off down the highway when we did, there are many times that I wish we'd had the courage to leave sooner. Our biggest reason for putting our dream on hold for years was due to pregnancies and newborns and uncertainties as to how to maneuver through those years while on the road. Now that we've met other families out here like us, we've learned of several families who have navigated pregnancies and life with newborns on the road with such grace and ease that I'm certain that we could have made it happen.
One thing that is for certain, if we had to do it all over again, we absolutely would. In a heartbeat and without hesitation. While life on the road is not always easy, it's always been grand.
My son made my heart swell and then stop for just a breath today. He makes my heart skip a beat every day when I look into those big blue eyes, full of joy and wonder. But today was different. We've loved having access to a pool this winter and the kids have really taken off with their swimming skills in just the past couple of weeks. Ian, just a month ago, was so cautious around the pool that he preferred to dip his toes in, but otherwise sit on the deck and avoid getting in the water. Over the course of the past month he has developed much more confidence in the water and actually enjoys swimming--as long as he kept his head above water. Just this week he has surprised me by jumping in over his head and swimming to the edge of the pool with a smile. Huge progress, folks! But I digress. I say all of this to set the stage for this afternoon. So, today was a perfect warm, sunny Florida late-winter day, so the kids and I went to the pool for a swim this afternoon. The big girls were practicing their underwater swimming, Eliza was enjoying floating on her back in her puddle-jumper swim floaty, and Ian was jumping in then climbing out to jump again like it was his job. Then he jumped in, but instead of climbing back out to jump again, he swam over to me and sat down on the steps next to me. He looked up at me, dripping and smiling and wrapped his arms around me in a hug. And then it happened. He looked into my eyes through his little blue goggled eyes and started singing, "I like you. I like you. I like you, just the way you are." My heart stopped. My son hugged me again and swam away as quickly as he had come to join me. It took me a moment to regain my composure, then I recognized the song from his new favorite PBS Kids show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, a spin-off of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood which I grew up watching. Surely Ian had no idea how poignant that little song was to me. You see, Ian is not my easy child. He'll never be my easy child, and it's taken me a long time to come to the understanding that it's okay that he's not going to be an easy child. His first year was met with an endless stream of tears from both of us. He had extreme colic. I had postpartum depression. We were both a hot mess. His next two years were a challenge as he tried to develop independence with older sisters who love to dote on him. We also had huge communication barriers to overcome and are still working to overcome some of these. Ian is a passionate person, and that means when he's happy he is exuberantly happy--you'll never meet a more joyful little boy. However, when he's sad or mad, the same passion comes forth and sometimes he struggles to direct that energy in a manner that is not destructive to himself or others around him. His anger is as deep as his joy is high. I love my son. Deeply. He has opened my eyes and my heart to a world that I never experienced before he came into my life. It's not always been easy, but it's always been good. However, there are times that he has been hard to like. When his stubborn streak takes over and he cannot, will not, shall not cooperate he can be hard to like. When frustration or social anxiety boils over and an outburst of screaming occurs as he tries to gain control of a situation, it's not an easy time to like someone. When anger escalated to stomping, pounding fists and growling, he's not easy to like in that moment. However, listening to his sweet little voice singing, "I like you. I like you. I like you, just the way you are," to me this afternoon was a marker in time that I'll not soon forget. Four years and some change into parenting my precious son, my heart resonated with those words. I do like him. Just the way he is. There is not a single thing that I would change about him, and while he continues to grow, develop and refine his character, I will continue to like him just the way he is. Today. Not the man he will grow up to be (although, let me tell you--this man will move mountains!). No, I like him just the way he is right now. With all of the struggles that we endure and all of the challenges that we face together, I like him just the way he is. And it is an honor to know that he likes me just the way I am. I am so undeserving, but those words are healing and life-giving to me. I am blessed. We are blessed.
The first thing that you'll notice as you enter Disney's Animal Kingdom is the Tree of Life in the middle of the park. You cannot miss this enormous, beautiful centerpiece of the park, which upon further inspection is found to be carved with hundreds of animals. It is truly a sight to behold, and not only sets the stage for your experience at Animal Kingdom, it lends itself as a clue that there's a lot to miss in this park, if you aren't looking.
Disney's Animal Kingdom is the largest of the four theme parks, with six main areas to explore.
Camp Minnie-Mickey is set up like a wilderness camp where you can meet many of your favorite Disney friends including the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto), Pocahontas, and more characters who appear on a rotating basis. This is also home to The Festival of The Lion King musical, which is arguably the most spectacular show in Animal Kingdom. It's worth making the time to see at least once.
Discovery Island is in the middle of the park and home to the Tree of Life, which houses the 3D show It's Tough To Be A Bug. Very fun and interactive, but can be frightening to small children (or anyone with an insect-phobia). Ian is our brave little guy, but his response after the show (which includes a few sprays and pokes during the performance) was, "Mommy, I didn't like that. Please can I not do it again?" So, be forewarned, if you have anyone in your party that might not appreciate the performance.
Africa houses the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, which takes you for a safari truck ride through the landscape where you can spot many species of African animals. Each ride is different, due to the migration of the animals, and early morning rides often are best for viewing the most animals before the heat of the day kicks in. You can take a train ride out to Rafiki's Planet Watch and Conservation Station. This is the on-site veterinarian clinic for all of the animals within the park and there are a lot of fun activities to encourage conservation and education about various species of animals. There's also a great petting zoo area where our kids thoroughly enjoyed brushing the goats. Asia is home to two of the more thrilling rides in Animal Kingdom. Kali River Rapids is an exciting water ride with unexpected twists, turns and sprays of water. Great for the afternoon or early evening when you need a quick cool-down! Expedition Everest is a fast-track roller coaster that takes you on a journey through the Himalayan Mountains in search of the elusive Yeti. You'll run into broken tracks, break-neck speeds, and racing backward through the dark mountains until you do find the Yeti--or rather the Yeti finds you! If you like thrill rides and roller coasters, this is one not to miss! Expedition Everest also offers a single rider queue, if only one member of your party wishes to ride. When lines for this ride can easily extend between 1-2 hours, the single rider queue is rarely longer than a 10 minute wait. DinoLand USA is one of our kids' favorite areas of not only Animal Kingdom, but all of Walt Disney World. It's themed like a carnival at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs. There's the Triceratops Spin (much like the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride at Magic Kingdom), which is great for all ages and especially fun for the little ones that have to sit out on several of the bigger rides within the park. Primeval Whirl is a combination of a roller coaster and the spinning teacups ride. Our 7-year-old loved it, but it's not for anyone prone to motion sickness! The Boneyard is fun if you have preschool or elementary-age kids that need to climb and burn off some steam. It's a large play area with many paths that twist and turn through the playscape, so be aware of this before you send a preschooler climbing up to a slide without someone by their side. It was a bit too much for our 2-year-old, but the older three kids enjoyed it. Finally, Dinosaur is a great simulated experience of going back in time to capture the last dinosaur before the extinction. Again, this is something to know your kids with. We knew that Lydia would not appreciate the ride, so we didn't encourage her to ride. Caroline was not a fan either, but this was hands-down Ian's favorite ride in the park! Throughout the park are many trails and paths to discover unique animals, plant-life, and simply explore. Don't miss the rabbit trails that will take you somewhere beautiful, new and unexpected. The theming in Disney's Animal Kingdom is second to none, and if you do nothing more than take in the details of the park, you will have an amazing experience.
Posts
