Dream The Blueprint: The Decision

Hey friends. I call you 'friend' because you're about to come along on a journey with my family and I, and I wouldn't bring just anyone along. This is us (I promise we won't take long on introductions):

That sweet bundled-up newbie is our baby, Lucas. He was almost 3 weeks late (you can read all about that here) and as such, is the final installment of the Linton line.

That little kid you see who is completely distracted and picking at the chain of the swing is my boy, Mason. He is our Wild Man and the vibrancy that beats in my veins each day. He has changed me at my core, just by being alive.

That man in the boots? That is our workhorse. He is my problem-solver and the axis around which my world spins. My JD. This blog (...and the rest of my life as I know it) could not exist without him. He's the dreamer. He's the ambition.

And that's me, there, lying on the swing. I'm Amanda. I'm the writer, and the planner. I'm the artist behind our blueprint.

Now that you know all that, let's get caught up. Since the dawn of our marriage, JD and I have dreamed probably a million dreams. He is a far-fetched dreamer. He dreams about the long-term future, about the eventual pay-off of each dream. I dream about the right-now. I dream the foundation. We have not seen eye-to-eye on many, many things (a business called Beer Run, owning chickens, breeding dogs, selling jewelry, owning a restaurant, to name just a few) but we've also agreed on a lot, like:

Our Kids

Owning Property

Moving to a New Place (this is primarily what we'll talk about here)

and Changing Our Stars (we'll hit on this here and there, too, I hope).

For years, we tossed around five or six locales to move to. For a flip in our marriage, JD was the more practical spouse. He dreamed of staying in the South, near family and near a lifestyle we had grown up in. I, on the other hand, had stars in my eyes. My heart screamed for Chicago or New York (you can read about THAT here, but keep in mind, that was my first attempt at a blog. Don't judge me too harshly). One cold April morning in Mississippi, I was getting ready for my day and it dawned on me - let's move to Florida. A great friend of ours had moved only four months before. With each obstacle, an answer became clear. Before we knew it, we were packing and on our way for a visit.

These were taken at the beach. If you can't see the looks of joy on our faces... well, you're just blind. We had found home.

We came back to Mississippi and it became a driving passion to get to Florida. One short month later (with a little push and a lot of help from my Daddy), we had a rough plan in place. Attend an Advocare conference in Nashville on Saturday (kids and stuff in tow, by the way. Imagine a Ford Escape packed to the max... then add another 18 bags. That was my truck.) and dive head-first into Florida on Sunday.

Conveniently enough, at the Advocare Spring Breakthrough event, we heard from blogger, author, and New York Times bestseller, Jon Acuff. I was expecting this presentation to be lackluster at worst (sorry, Jon) and marginally motivational at best. Boy, was I wrong.

Jon put into words what we were already doing. He told us (and by "us", I mean the 750 folks in two rooms!) to start BEFORE you are ready. "Ready" does not exist. JD and I knew this. We weren't "ready". We just knew that something had to be different. But we had no idea that someone else had ever done something when they weren't "ready" too!

Being un-ready, we've found ourselves planning the next 5.5 months (at least) in a camper. Yep. A 38-foot camper. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice camper... but we'll be living in it.
With babies.
And dogs.
And (maybe scariest yet)... each other!

Tonight, we've been here two weeks even. JD is so close to landing two jobs (one of which he really wants) and my kids are thriving. Mason adores the beach. Lucas loves watching and learning from his big brother.