Josh’s company owns a house in Millsboro, Delaware that Josh’s family makes an annual pilgrimage to in order to unwind and spend some quality time together. Unfortunately, this year, I had a work conference that I was asked to attend so we couldn’t go for the entire week.  But, we left Friday, 8/18/2017, at lunchtime, as soon as I was able to escape my work conference.   Traffic was typical for a Friday afternoon trying to get through Harrisburg and Lancaster but, we decided to break up the drive some and stop at the Crocs outlet in Lancaster to try to find some sandal-like not sandals for me to wear to work.  (My employer has concocted some really convoluted, complicated system to determine whether footwear falls into the strictly prohibited “flip flop” category; the semi-prohibited depending on how many clouds are in the sky “sandal” category or the generally allowed but questionable if your toes are showing “non-sandal” category.)  After selecting the footwear winner: a “non-sandal,” no-toes-showing but no socks required pair of flats, I had a “small living” victory!

Everything in the Crocs outlet was buy one, get one free.  I got up to the register with one pair of shoes.  The cashier reminded me that everything was buy one, get one free and put my shoes aside so she could help another customer while I went to select my second pair of shoes.  “I just want this one pair, please.”  She was beyond confused.  After a few moments of explaining that I did, indeed, understand what buy one, get one free means, my resistance was accepted and she let us leave with just one pair of shoes.  I didn’t get a second pair of shoes, even though they were buy one, get one free and I’m pretty proud of myself for that!  Hindsight being 20/20, I should have grabbed another pair and donated them to charity, but, I was so focused on not taking an extra pair of shoes that I didn’t really need (or want) that I didn’t even think about it.  I’ll have that plan for next time, but, this time I was focused on saying “no” to something that was free that I didn’t need.  And that’s a big victory for me!  Good lord, how much of the “stuff” in our house did I take because it was free that I’m now trying to get rid of?!  Lesson learned – victory celebrated!

We got to the beach house around 5:30 in the evening and learned that The Amish Outlaws were putting on a show at a little hole in the wall joint right down the street from the beach house called Live @ Bo’s.  No cover charge and cheap drinks!  I couldn’t contain my excitement and, of course, we had to go!  It was PACKED and pouring down rain, so we stayed for two drinks, danced a bit and then headed back to the beach house.  We were back before 10pm.  I think we’re getting old.

Saturday, we got up early and headed out to fish.  We were about 12 miles offshore when we caught 18 fish between the 5 of us.  Three of them were keepers – two flounder and a sea bass.  And the weather was absolutely beautiful!  Saturday afternoon, it was time for my favorite part of family vacation at the beach house – BOOZE CRUISE!  We piled in the pontoon boat and took the canal from the bay up into Lewes, Delaware.  I love, love, LOVE that cruise because there is SO much to see!  Between the multitudes of birds and extravagant homes along the canal, it’s a bit visually overwhelming, actually.

While we were booze cruising, Josh’s little brother and I talked about my plans to eventually share our content publically.  I talked a lot about my fear of publishing our blog (and everything else) because I’m not really a person that makes public goals.  I make a TON of personal goals that I share my completion of publically, but, I don’t really ever announce my goals.  Mostly, I guess, because I don’t want to experience that potential failure.  Saying I’m going to do something and then…not.  We talked about my fear of failure of our plan, or redirection of our plan, that’s held me back from sharing our journey publically so far.  But, that fear of failure is present for most people, I assume, especially when they’re doing something different from the “norm.”  And, even if we redirect our plan or end up “failing,” it’s still all a part of the journey.  The journey that I know we’re not alone in.  The journey that I want to read other people’s candid, real-life experience with.  And, at that point, we decided that now is the time to go “public” with things.  Because fear keeps people from doing so many things.  Keeps people from going outside of their comfort zone for so many reasons.  And that’s part of this entire plan.  To challenge ourselves to do it different, to live freely, to experiences the highs and the lows.  So, the ideas began flowing…

Sunday morning, we packed up and left the beach house pretty early so we could head to Kent Island for most of the day before heading home.  Josh fired up the Think Tank during the drive and we decided on a name for our website – Small Living, Big Life!  How appropriate!  How absolutely exactly what it’s all about for us.  I purchased the domain while we were driving – how cool is technology sometimes?!  We’ve decided to use WordPress.org on our host’s server going forward as opposed to using WordPress.com.  (Read: created a BUNCH of work for myself!)

We stopped at my favorite Stevensville Crab Shack for lunch – crab cakes, shrimp and fresh cut French fries – YUM!  We also visited Sail Away Catamarans and The Catamaran Company, even though both were closed because it was Sunday.  Sail Away Catamarans is a definite “must go back” because, just driving through, there were a TON of different makes and models of catamarans.  We couldn’t find a place to park, it was pretty cramped and they were closed so we didn’t lurk around very much.  But, we did find another boat yard while we were driving around called Bert Jabin Yacht Yard where we were able to get up close and personal with a Lagoon 450 and Maverick 440.  No boarding, but lots of lurking!  The Lagoon 450 is incredibly MASSIVE.  So much more massive than I would have ever imagined.  I’m thankful it’s not on our list because it is wayyyy too much for us (price and space)!

When we got home Sunday evening, I spent the evening nerding out – setting up our new domain, installing WordPress and setting up a very rudimentary website and setting up e-mail accounts.  (Josh was just a little excited about when he would be able to get an e-mail address associated with Small Living, Big Life!)  Josh offered to be the mouthpiece of Small Living, Big Life and will be receiving and responding to all the e-mails from the site.  (This is going to be a FANTASTIC help!)  Migration from WordPress.com to our new domain did not go nearly as well as I had hoped, so I’m starting from scratch on the new site and will rebuild everything, migrating the stuff from the old site to the new site.  I’m excited about the challenge, but also excited about the endless possibilities associated with the challenge with our own domain and hosting!  We still must decide about Patreon, Steem, YouTube, Facebook, and all those other social media, crowd sourcing opportunities.  I’m just not sure where to draw the “line” at this point.  Or, how many people will actually be interested in what we’re doing.  In my head, the amount of public interest is pretty low, but, I guess there’s no real way to find out except to throw some things out there and see how it goes!