Why I love Disney (pt. 1)

For me, returning to a love of Disney began about 5 years ago. After 10 years as a stay at home mom, homeschooling my two oldest, my life was changing. My husband, Luke, a high school physics teacher by trade, had launched out into a new side gig—solar electricity for homes and businesses. I was excited for him. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, and loved the idea of following in their footsteps. I bought a class on Quickbooks for small businesses. I binged podcasts on marketing and social media. He sold the solar systems and designed them, I ran the back end.

The business began to grow rapidly, and soon, Luke retired from teaching to go full-time into solar. This meant there was more and more for me to do as the in-house (literally) admin. But I’m not a naturally gifted accountant. I love words and stories and pictures. I loved marketing and brand, but I did NOT love bookkeeping. So I had to find a way to motivate myself. My carrot of choice—a trip to Walt Disney World for our family of 6, something we could have never considered as a 1 income teacher family.

My work computer’s background became a picture of Cinderella’s Castle. My work playlist increasingly included Disney songs—they’re upbeat, they’re catchy, and I surprised myself by knowing most of the lyrics, mainly from my childhood and that of my kids.

It took a little over a year of saving and planning, but in February 2020, we made it to the Happiest Place on Earth. Little did we know how much the memories we made on that trip would feed our hearts and minds in the next year as we watched the unfolding of the pandemic.