Hey family, how are you this week? I hope you are doing awesome!

Next week I am going to have an update for you on my Kung Fu Journey, but until then I wanted to share that our daily challenges for Qigong, Tai Chi and Qigong are going amazing! We have had some great feedback already and it’s great to see people making the commitment to take care of themselves daily. It has also helped me stay accountable for my daily practice which is exactly what I intended as well as seeing others do the same. 🙂

Before we get to our review, I wanted to share some photos and life lessons I’ve learned from this last camping trip. This year we had a lot of kids between all the camps, which was great because the kids played, ran, swam, boogie boarded, rode their bikes and did all the things kids should be doing with very little interaction with electronics. Talk about Heaven on Earth!

I did the same! 😉

These camping trips make me think of this 80’s baby’s childhood where we just played and played outside, something most kids these days just don’t seem to do nearly as often. It’s proof we all need to unplug as often as possible, enjoy nature and let our imaginations run wild.

As much as I missed ya’ll, I did enjoy only checking in one day for customer service and to write the update. 😉 Which is one of the many reasons we started to create these every 4 week reviews. One so we can unwind a bit and get to other projects we don’t get to normally and two so we can have everyone slow down a bit to review the previous weeks to better their training.

I’m not going to lie though, the first day of our trip was extremely trying, seriously by the end of the evening I was ready to pack up my camp and head back home. No joke!

It started with not getting any help setting up a new 6 person tent solo in the hot sun, it sucked, but it was doable and I got it done. My help aka my daughter was off playing at the playground with all the other kids. I got over it quickly and moved on… Then there was panic as we realized it’s Tuesday and that means it’s Tie-Dye Tuesday and all the kids are expecting to get to tie dye their shirts they brought. We had like 5 minutes to book it to where tie dye meets the sea. It was chaotic, it was messy, but it was fun!

When we got back the kids wanted to have s’mores as the sun was setting. I go to get my special vegan marshmallows and other s’mores making goodies when Sifu Larry asked to try my drink… Sure no problem I am thinking as I sit down my supplies on the picnic table for literally less than a minute to turn around to horses going in for the kill!

Man those horses are fast, they weren’t even anywhere near us when I sat them down for that short time. I rush back over to where they were. Can I save the marshmallows? Maybe use some Ngo Dac Na on them? Ummm no, I am out numbered and I am pretty sure in that moment anything I do to try to retrieve the marshmallows will not end in my favor. But I do rescue the organic chocolate and all natural graham crackers, Score!

Then my daughter comes over and sees the commotion and starts crying, why you ask? Well, she knows as much as I do that finding kosher and/or vegan marshmallows is a rarity and probably even more so in Assateague, MD. She’s convinced everyone else is going to get to have a s’more but her. I assure her she won’t be alone (hello I am now s’moreless too)! 😉 I told her I will find a solution, but it won’t be tonight. She is comforted but still a bit skeptical.

The horses then began to rummage through my camp gear that wasn’t put up yet, all none food items, but alas they did not care. I had to rescue my daughter’s newly tied dyed shirt we just made about 45 minutes before hand so she wouldn’t think the horses had a personal vendetta against her. I ended up grabbing mine right before it became horse food too.

It’s now dark, she is still frustrated as she takes our shirts that have been malled to wash by hand. They had what we hope is just mud and grass vs. what else it could be. I go to finish putting some stuff away in my trunk and I must admit, I was bit frustrated too. It had been a pretty crazy past several hours. And then it happened…

The bike rack I kept reminding myself to be careful with as I could see how if I was distracted it could knock me out when I close my trunk… Well it didn’t knock me out, but it sure almost did. Thankfully due to my over all resilience and I am sure my Kung Fu training as well, I took it in the face like a champ without being knocked out…

I got hit in my nose and right above my lip, it busted my skin open and it hurt a lot. Thankfully I wasn’t super stiff at the time or I am sure it would have been worse. I thought at first my nose and lip was bleeding but thankfully it just busted me right above my lip and below my nose on my right side.

As blood dripped, I went to get a napkin and find my hydrogen peroxide to clean it and then fill a plastic baggie with ice to God-willing reduce the swelling and prevent bruising. Though to be honest, I was not sure how I was getting out of this without a jacked up face.

I was crying mostly out of frustration than pain, because seriously WTF was going on? Okay Assateague, you want me to leave? Aight, got the memo, would have been nice to get it before I spent a nice chunk of change on a new tent, supplies and food, but whatever. I’ll pack up right now and go home, I mean seriously the beach won’t be very fun when your face is busted up and bruised anyways!

Sifu Larry tried to convince me I’d be just fine, but he didn’t just get hit and have the other stuff happen and I know him, he would have left if half of the above happened to him. And he might have actually went for the horse, just maybe. ROFL!

But after I sat and iced myself a bit, I thought about how my daughter would be sad and her friend as well to leave so soon. So I turned my mood around instantly and started praying and thanking for speedy healing and kept applying chi to my wound right through my make shift icepack.

And in that moment of calm, I also realized I had a solution for my daughter, marshmallow fluff! I knew it was at least vegetarian and pretty simple ingredients and any grocery store has it. Genius!

And you know what? The next morning I woke up and just had what looked like a little scratch, no bruising, no swollen face and no pain even in salt water. A miracle and a victory!

Now, if I would have packed my stuff up and left and let myself continue in that downward spiral of frustration, it would have gotten worse and I am sure I would have woke up not looking so great either.

I also knew as soon as I got hit by the bike rack that if I wouldn’t have been so frustrated from the other stuff right before that and some other things that were on my mind, I wouldn’t have gotten hit by it in the first place.

A painful, but also great lesson on not not being mentally distracted and to not be frustrated regardless of what the day may hold.

Ah yes, but the pain was not over there though. Maybe I should have went home!?!?! LOL

Friday we boogie boarded and had a full beach day, it was great! We went to eat for our 1 night out of dinning to take a break from camp fire cooking and because we knew a storm was blowing through. Last year my tent flooded badly despite being on a incline. So, instead of borrowing an old tent, I decided to buy a new one that had great reviews for crazy weather. We did keep most of our gear in the car this year as last year all of our stuff got soaked. But we weren’t too concerned as the night before it stormed a bit and the tent did great! Sweet, right?!?

But when we came back to camp we found my trusty new tent did not fair as well as it did the night before. So camping gear was wet and now Jaya’s friend was crying because she was freaked out about the tent being flooded in the middle. I assured her it would be all good and had her go stay in our friend’s camper which is where we all slept for the remainder of the trip. It sucked to have our tent after taking extra precautions to get whipped out again, but hey it could have been worse!

Also, while my daughter did not help out putting up the tent, she came to my rescue and helped me clean up our big wet mess and hangup all our wet sleeping bags, etc. She also apologized for not helping out putting the tent up or helping out last year when we got flooded out. Win! 🙂

And Sifu Larry our friend Greg and I stayed up late to watch the sunrise after some great talks by the fire. So worth the lack of sleep!

Saturday I enjoyed some more boogie boarding. I took a break for some food, went back to join the kiddos in the surf and was out for a few minutes when a wave crashed into me and my shoulder got dislocated. What?!?!

I got up, was thankful it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the previous times it’s been dislocated which meant it must not be as bad. At least that’s my theory. 😉 I told the kids what happened and headed back to camp to find Sifu Larry. I prayed we could get it back in like we did when it popped out last year when I over extended when he was pushing me to go harder on a move at the gym… Bad idea! But this time I wasn’t over extended and my shoulder did not give any warning signs that I needed to be extra cautious. I’m not sure what happened, but lets just say my boogie boarding fun ended for the rest of the trip.

I did find Sifu Larry and we did get it back in through Tai Chi/Qigong breathing and applying Ngo Dac Na principles. It took 30 minutes instead of 1 hour. Yay! And it didn’t feel super tender and felt just as good as before it happened after a good night’s sleep.

So while it sucked, at least I didn’t have to go to the emergency room and it wasn’t as bad as before. That means the rehabilitation of my shoulder despite some bumps in the road is getting better! Whoop!

Another lesson I learned from this trip is to take more pics the first several days, I missed so many moments and did not get as many pics of everyone or even myself as I’d hoped. Maybe because I was constant attack the whole time? Maybe… ROFL!

Here some more pics from the trip, enjoy!

So lots of lessons in taking a break, healing, patience, seeing the silver lining and being more diligent in taking photos.

In the end Sifu Larry and I decided I needed a, ‘I survived Assateague’ shirt and maybe a bumper sticker too. 😉

I’ll have more pics for you next year.

And yes, I am going back again, for the 4th year in a row… I won’t allow a few bumps and bruises and crazy horses keep me from enjoying some waves and the best sleep ever!

Before you head to your review, make sure to checkout this week’s webinar replay. There’s tons of great tips and info in this week’s webinar.