Week #9 - Exploring Florida
11/08/2024
Chris - “Connection”
The “elevator pitch” that we have been giving people is that we are aiming to buy a sailboat and live on it for at least a year, but a deeper, family goal that we have is “connection.” Connection with each other, and connection with the world/ people around us. Our “normal” lives, back in Colorado were amazing, but so full. They were filled with friends, work, hobbies, yardwork, house upkeep, school schedules, church commitments, habits, preferences, goals, and a million other things. When we began to dream of our boat-life, we wanted to slow down. We wanted to “unplug,” as they say, and be more intentional with our togetherness. We wanted to see people around us, and engage with them in real, practical ways. We wanted to eat with, work with, and be a light to strangers. To be a witness to the type of connection that we believe God has for all of us. Unity together through His Spirit. When we left home, we were not going to be working all the time, so we would have more time to be connected as a family, and we would have more flexibility to say “yes” to the people around us. It sounded like a refreshing change of pace from our ultra-scheduled, normal life. In some ways it has definitely been just that, but the reality is the issue that we had connecting at home was not REALLY a product of our circumstances only; it was mostly our choices and habits. And habits are hard to break.
Stupid phones!! Most of us know that we spend too much time staring at our phones. I was constantly tethered to my phone in Colorado, due to work. I told so many friends and coworkers that I was going to “lose” my phone as soon as I left town. The truth is, I’m still on the darn thing way too much. How else am I going to find a boat? How else would I find a place for my family to stay tonight… or tomorrow night? How else would I fill SO MANY moments with useless scrolling? The truth is, even when I am using my phone for “value-adding” activities, simply holding my phone in my hand isolates me from the people around me. Yes, I want to find the perfect boat, but not at the cost of real connection. Yes, I want to find our next living situation, but not at the cost of connection. The other day, my 8-year-old daughter told Crystal and me that she felt like our boat search was pushing us apart as a family… OUCH! Granted, at 8-years-old, she doesn’t have a full grasp on the nuances of taking care of a family of 7 on the road. She doesn’t know how difficult it is to find the perfect boat, or how hard I am trying to please everyone! I am doing this for her! But her perspective is NOT wrong! Her statement is valid, and I have to pay attention! I have, at times, been fully consumed with my “need” to find a boat. I have doom-scrolled boat listings for SO. MANY. HOURS. My connection with my family has absolutely suffered, at times, and all of my hyper-focus on the boat-search has actually produced zero boats. (Luke 12: 25-26 “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” In other words, no matter how much I stress myself over this boat, I can’t make it appear. God will have to do that… and he has told us that He will.) I don’t know how to find the right boat, but I DO know how to connect with my family; give them my attention.
On this adventure, we have experienced connection. We have spent way more time together as a family. We have met, and connected with, so many new people in our travels. We have made new friends and mentors. We have visited friends and family that we never made time to visit before. We have been welcomed and celebrated in new Churches that we have visited. Those moments are a gift! We ARE doing it. We are already living our dream! But God has more. More connection. More life. And I don’t want to miss it because I “need” a boat to complete my elevator-pitch quest. So, I am trying to be more present. I am trying to be fun, and loving, and aware of the people around me. It is time to focus on connection and stop being anxious. Time to “lose” by phone a little bit more often. God will provide the boat in the right time.
We are currently visiting family near Panama City, Florida. We are not sure where we will be by next week, but we are living the dream today! Hope you are having a great week. Love you all!
~Chris
Crystal - “Brain Dump”
Webster’s definition:
-noun : the act or an instance of comprehensively and uncritically expressing and recording one's thoughts and ideas
This week I couldn’t even begin to write. So instead of trying to force a blog post, I’m going to share a brain dump from the past week. This one is really only a partial start that never came to an exhaustive end but was cut short by circumstance. Ideally, brain-dumps happen at a time that you can just sit in it and let it flow until you run completely dry of expression. I think this method of clearing out your heart and head is profoundly helpful when you’re feeling overwhelmed or distracted by your own thoughts and mental lists. My brain dumps are usually also ambling prayers.
“11/4/24
Fever pitch rising but not quite there. My thoughts are going everywhere. So many shallows to jump around and going deeper in any facet becomes an overwhelm. The kids. The boat. What’s happening back in Montrose? My identity. The beauty of it all. Money. Blessings. Friends. Faith. Weather. Politics. The dog. Fitness. Health. Food and feeding my people. Best? Hurting relationships. Investment. Dessert. Spanish moss. Holding tanks. Boat maintenance. Chores. Small spaces. Efficiency. School. Grit and integrity. Joy and fun. Healing still from childhood. Perceptions misguided by fears and unforgiveness. Home?”
This was meant to be the “ table of contents” so to speak, for my brain dump but time was short. I need to flesh it all out sometime. The point is that all these unrelated thoughts are slamming around in my head creating static energy and chaos. There were no pauses between thoughts…
No grammar. No complete thoughts. Just get that mess on a page and then let it be. Being cognizant of what and when you allow back in. What and how we think alters our perception of reality-which as far as we can tell, is reality. Change the way you think, change everything.
Matthew 12:35 “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him; and an evil man brings evil out of the evil stored up in him.”
~Crystal
Ellis - “Semana Nueva”
We left Montrose CO. August 19th (I think) and since then we've stayed at (about) 8 rental houses, 2 hotels, 2 camp grounds, and one RV. We've also stayed at 5 friend's/families' houses (shout-out to Cathie and Toni, the Jetts, Memaw and Bapa, the Whites, and the other Mullens). Point is, it's getting hard to remember what happened at which house so we've come up with names for some of the places we've stayed. A few are named after their exceptional hosts such as "Steve and Nancy's House" or "Marcus and Sabrina's House", but most are named after a defining feature of the place itself or our stay there. Examples of this would be the Buddha House, the Emu RV, the Rat House (frowned upon), or the Atari house. Most of these are fairly self-explanatory so I won't waste time describing each.
And with that rabbit hole in mind, it'll make more sense when I say that we wrapped up our 3 night stay in the Atari house last Friday and moved to an RV. Some complications with Sven's boat have deterred our interest a bit since, but at the time we were still very interested. We wanted to stay close and cheaply, the Airbnb RV checked those boxes. Progress on Sven's boat was slow, lots of waiting on a few specifics but turns out waiting goes pretty well with RV life. Inside was a little small for the seven of us but we had a sparsely wooded roadside-ditch-area as a back yard. Mix in a few alligator hunting trips (sadly unsuccessful), beach excursions, and some food? We were pretty content.
~Ellis
Conrad - “Alligator Hunting”
Long before we even entered Florida we have been excitedly talking about how we want to catch a wild alligator with our bare hands. I think it was originally Ellis’ idea but the rest of us have picked up the goal by this point too. Ellis is still the most committed to catching the alligators but we all want it. Another thing that should be said is that during this road trip all of the kids have been craving Wendy's one dollar Frosties. That be Dad eventually said that if we catch an alligator, we can get Frosties. It may have been originally a joke, but by now, I think if we catch an alligator we will get our prize.
We started looking as early as South Carolina as we made our way southward. Once we were in Florida, we started looking a little harder, but we were still mostly looking for boats. We eventually got to the point where we had to wait for answers from brokers and other boat people, and we were just stuck in a RV with nothing to do. That was when we really started looking for gators. We drove to a reservoir and a local fisherman pointed us to the end of the reservoir for alligator hunting. And so the first hunt began.
When we got to the recommended place we had to pay an unexpected toll to get in. We quickly found out that it was a much more touristy spot than we were looking for. We started looking along the water edge for gators, but there were people walking around in the water all over, and we decided that it didn't look like a place for alligators. The only other water in the area was a three mile hike to get to, so we took a small walk on a trail and found a tortoise nest. There were some rangers that showed up and found a pigmy rattlesnake really close to us. It was a little depressing because we wanted to find the animals not watch other people find animals, so we ended that hunt and went to the beach instead.
The second hunt was much different than the first. We ended up driving along St John's River and stopped whenever terrain on the side of the road looked promising. We never ended up finding any alligators but we saw lots of frogs and a few cool birds, like flamingos and storks. The swamp lands were cool too. There were trees growing out of the water as far as the eye could see, which wasn't very far actually. Later on, in the hunt there was an amazing sunset that made for really nice pictures. So far we have only seen one alligator, and it was dead on the side of the road. Sad, but at least we know that they aren't made up. We are still looking and will continue till we have success or until we leave.
~Conrad
Oliver - “Bread Crumbs”
This week, instead of living in a house, we lived in an RV. We had a lot of fun. There were frogs and lizards everywhere. There was an emu in with the chickens next door. There was a lot of entertainment. There was also a beach nearby, so we went there often.
At each of the beaches we've been to, we make something out of sand. It could be a face, a hand, an alligator, or even a weird guy laying in the sand with huge hands (see week 8). I look at these as leaving our mark.
At most of the houses we've been to we've done the same thing but with a drawing, or painting. We have kind of left a trail of art and sand sculptures behind us, we started the trail at Marcus and Sebrina's house in Annapolis, with a baby picture of Marcus. Marcus grew up in the house and me and dad decided to use a baby picture that was at the house to paint him. When we left, we left those for our hosts. They loved it, and said they would put them in frames. Since then, we have done that with other houses and beaches. This has been a super fun addition to our traveling. Every time we do it, I wonder what the people who find it think.
~Oliver
Jasper - “Pool Water”
Topic: This week we have been living in an RV and this is my blog about it.
If you go in through the main door you will see the kitchen right in front of you. In the kitchen you would see the oven, stove, microwave, and sink along with a sink cover.
If you still are in the doorway you could look to the right to see some stairs. If you went up the stairs you would find two doors ahead of you one in front and one on the left side. In the left door you would find a bathroom. In the bathroom you would find a small toilet, a small shower, and a medium sized sink. The bathroom also has two doors, if you go through the other door you would find a bed. The bed is Queen sized and has storage all around it.(Dad and Mom slept here.)This room has a bathroom door and a hall door. The hall leads you back to the kitchen. This time you could go to the left side. As soon as you turn you will see a pretty big couch(where Conrad slept), across the couch attached to the wall is a semi big TV, by the TV there is a ladder that leads to a short bed that is pretty high (Ellis slept there.) In the next room down you could see two couches and a bed suspended above the couches me and Oli were on the couches while Posy got the bed. The rest of our room is composed of a bathroom and a door to the outside. Speaking of the outside, next up “The Outback”
On the outside the RV looked about the right size, maybe a little smaller. In the yard that we were allowed in there were frogs, and lizards everywhere, so we caught many. Also behind a fence were a bunch of chickens and surprisingly an emu!? The one thing was the water, it tastes awful!! But it was pretty nice for an RV so, I’m happy.
~Jasper
Posy - “CHICKMU!”
We were staying in a RV and our neighbor had like twenty-five chickens and an emu! The owner said his sister got it for him, and he put her in with the chickens so she tried to be small, she was like a toddler maybe. It was as big as me, it looked more furry then feathery. The feathers felt less nice then you thought they would. I hand fed it a carrot apparently I was the first to hand feed her. She liked to bite fingers cause she thought it looked like food. She never caused blood. I named her Jessica because God told me that was her name. She wasn't noisy and actually we were the first to pet her. She tried to act like a chicken but was kind of bad at it. I miss her, she was fun, and I love her.
~Posy (the emu whisperer)
Always so excited to see a new post! It’s so hard to imagine your new lives now but not at all difficult to understand and relate to your emotions. With God leading, you’re getting closer each day, while being refined along the way, to finding his very best for you. That precious little Miss P, has a heart full of answers. Keep riding those waves while never missing the smallest joys that leave the largest impacts. Always praying and loving you all.