Summer Road Trip

Greetings Guys! I hope that your Summer is full of popsicles, swimming, light evening breezes, and of course, a good book! 📖

Road Trippin’

My summer’s gotten off to a great start since the family packed up for the Classic California Road Trip from Nor Cal to Anaheim to visit the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland! 🏰🐭

As anyone who’s hit the road with younger kiddos knows, it was a long drive. 🚙 Each of them had lots of activities to keep them occupied, but no tablets. (No shame to parents who do give their kids tablets, it’s just not how we roll.) Was there boredom? Um, yeah. But was there also some fun and funny conversations? Also, yes! Also, several stops at In-n-Out. 🍔🍟

House of Mouse

Confession: I LOVE Disneyland. Magical, happy, and whimsical. There really isn’t anywhere else that transports you into a land of make-believe with no shame.

I could ramble on and on about how beautiful and amazing the whole thing was, especially Cars Land and Star Wars Land which I’d never seen before!

But let me focus on this part: experiencing Disneyland with our younger kiddos.

This was the first time the kiddos had been to the house of mouse, and it didn’t disappoint them. It was magical, of course.

I finally got to ride on Pirates of the Caribbean! (It was closed the last couple times I was here) Kiddo’s LOVED this one, too!

Watching their eyes light up on the Jungle Cruise. Fearlessly riding Space Mountain and the Incredicoaster. Buying a pirate medallion and Steamboat Willie hat and Remi to sit on my son’s shoulder. Them calling out to characters (Hi Thor!) and posing for pictures with Princess Leia (daughter’s favorite Princess btw). Walking right up to Chewy and R2D2! Riding the Teacups and hearing their laugher—the pure joy of the kiddos being kiddos. 🩷💙

And me and my DH going right along with it, that was the real magic. I mean, all of us got a hug from Mickey! 😭

Author’s Disconnect

While on this family vacation, I made a conscious effort to disconnect and focus on us. I deleted my social apps off my phone and didn’t read any news.

What a great refresh!

I have observed that writers tend to want to stay informed as much as possible. This feeds our thirst for knowledge and our creativity. But for me, that leads to a cycle of constant negativity (especially nowadays).

Writer’s also need coffee, like this cherry cold brew (Thank You Ghost of Walt Disney!)

We all need to take time away from our daily routines and the constant hum of life sometimes. For our mental health and joy.

Spending time with my kiddos and DH in such a happy place was just the reset I needed. 🩷💙❤️

Changes Moving Forward

Another confession: my writing has stalled. Maybe it was the whole end of the school year thing. Maybe it was vacation planning.

I really think it was myself getting buried into the news, social feeds, work, kids, life, etc. and writing just didn’t have that pull it used to. My work in progress was more like “that thing I had been working on and forgot about.”

Luisa sums up the whole “mom’s doing everything and drowning” thing. And Steamboat Willie is just awesome.

Taking this vacation away from the daily grind, and the longer road trip across California, helped me see all the ephemera that has been bogging me down. I unsubscribed from so many useless emails (stores I shop at, not blogs or Substacks 😉). I haven’t gone back to the news except for some local stuff. And I’m creating a new schedule for when I use socials. Oh! And no more surfing or scrolling after 9 pm. Reading or writing only. 📖

Next thing will be getting back to my story. Thankfully I have an outline, so I should be able to pick up and keep going. 😊

Have a Happy, stress-free Summer, with lots of magic, Guys!