It’s January, 2023. 10 years ago tomorrow we brought our first born into the world; it’s almost unbelieveable!
So much has changed for us a family. We’ve moved to Florida, we’ve cut ties with toxic friends and family members. We decided to homeschool our children. We now run multiple businesses, all of which started in our house. We got an office this past year and we started transitioning from an all virtual team, to an in house office team.
So many lessons and so many sweet moments have been sprinkled throughout our journey.
The holidays were full of family visiting and ringing in the new year with my sister and mom (and their Marks!)
We’ve spent a lot of time plotting, planning, re-organizing and formulating what we want our life to look like. Where we want to travel. Who we want to serve. Where we want to live…
None of it has been overly easy, but I am vowing to work on making things not so hard this year.
We can do hard things…and we can do them without the Hallmark movie of all supportive friends and family because I can assure, at the end of the day, there are very very few truly amazing humans who are there when you need them.
2022 showed me that anything is possible and that I need to give myself permission to rest and also put myself (my health) first. I got a little lazy and I know I can do better. I’ve already started a new program this year and am committed to being the healthiest version of me; my kids, husband, students, team, future grandkids and most importantly myself deserves such.
I’m also working on 2023 being the year where I truly come into my own as far as being a working homeschool mom. I lay so much guilt on myself for not being the totally committed home-making mom and then I also beat myself up for not being that 7 figure boss babe. In November I had a realization that I did not want in fact want someone else shoving facts//education down my children’s throats. We had hired a nanny who seemed great at first and then I watched as the love of learning faded away and my kids hated school…defeating the purpose of homeschooling.
We’ve also had some shifts in our team; in a sense the band broke up and while we are looking for full time employees, we had hired some amazing women whose dream is to do their own things and with that comes some trials and nothing a little perseverance can’t fix. Sometimes it’s just time to say goodbye and start fresh with new beginnings. We are currently hiring in our FL office if anyone is looking!
We live in a very quiet older (gorgeous!) community near a nature preserve. We get to observe eagles from our living room; I am quite certain they were making eagle babies the other day! The downside is that there are not children in this neighborhood, so it was amazing to have the Canadian neighbors grandkids around for the last month for our kids to play.
I vow to have more beach time this year; we live so close and yet have not made it a good habit to get out there on a weekly or bi weekly basis. This will chage.
We went through our first Hurricane and that was something I will never forget. I was so scared that Ian was going to make landfall directly where we live…we learned how to put hurricane shutters up and cleared our patio, left the home and hoped for the best. I sat in my bed at a hotel in West Palm watching this crazy storm turn south and devastate SWFL. We came back to a few down palm tree limbs and that was all. Survivors guilt was real!
We battled covid and bad colds. We did some of our biggest real estate deals so far. Joe finally got to meet Ron Legrand and Bradley almost broke his elbow.
2022 was the year we took the kids to Disney!! Their little faces lit up at every park and the Mickey Christmas party was the biggest hit of all. I am already looking forward to going back with them again.
May this be the year for Joe to find true relief from his Crohn’s pain and for me to continue to make the time for my health as well. Without health we have nothing! We also want to continue to make new friends and build our community around us.
Starting over in a new state is not overly easy, but the kids have really begun enjoying their activities: gymnastics, tumblings, karate…down here they have great little day camps when the public schools are off so they have been getting a lot of social time there.
Summer plans are to fly up to NY for a bit…travel the state and maybe check out Boston. I’d love to connect some history with the kids, especially Paul Revere.
If you’re still reading my blog, thank you! I apologize my fingers have not made the time to type but I am really pushing this to be a year where I write books, blogs, newsletters and we are creating our first online course. The world needs to hear more about the reality of how you can live your dream, despite the naysayers, little help from friends or family and that at the end of the day you have to do what is best for you.
We are not promised tomorrow and it is our birthright to be happy. Joe and I stopped allowing others to mistreat us and though it hurts, that the expectation you have of someone is not there…we know that we have to do what’s best for our kids and for ourselves.
You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.
Know your worth. Keep fighting for your dreams and surround yourself with the dreamers AND the doers.
Many blessings for this new year and be sure to take time for you today.
