As the sunrises outside On this final day of the work week Of this week of blistering heat I am thankful for
My solar fueled home My functioning and better maintained AC unit The new air filter placed in it last week The person who place it there on September 1st
The cooler mornings The opportunity to see the rising sun more than once this week The coaches who moved practices to the early morning hours to beat the heat The women who met me for an early morning ride yesterday The opportunity to ride again today after dawn
My God Whose mercies are new each and every morning Who set the sun in the sky during the birth of creation Who set the very moment of this morning’s rising sun Who chases the darkness away with His light Who renews me each new day Who prepares me for the next thing He calls me to
The colorful sunrise The men and women fighting the current wildfire in the foothills The cooler temperatures coming this weekend to ease that burden The rain in the forecast to prayerfully help extinguish the fire Though this fire scorches the earth where it burns and will leave a scar Thankful that new life will arise out of it
My life The men and women who fought to help me emerge from one of the darkest decades of my life To see the new light dawning To be reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness The joy each new morning can bring The people who journeyed into and through this wilderness with me – you know who you are My girls for the beautiful warriors they are and are becoming My relationships – new and old – and the new life being breathed into them My thoughts that are being renewed each day My feelings in all their intensity, depth, height, sorrow, delight, and hope – To feel them, for them to move through me, and to release them
My God My Rock My Redeemer My hope for this new day and for each new day to come He gave me this new song to sing One I share with you today
As an educator, an assigned school administrator routinely comes to your classroom to observe you teaching and your classroom environment a few times each year. More frequently and more often if you are a newer the teacher and less frequently as a tenured teacher. These observations can be a dreaded part of your professional life or something that can foster growth, build confidence, provide insight, and allow conversations about what additional resources or tools a teacher might need to deal with any challenging situations in their classroom. Years ago when I taught full-time I enjoyed getting another pair of insightful eyes into my classroom to ask questions like, what’s the story with Mary? Or to say, did you know every time you turn your back to Connor, he throws spit balls across the room? or anything other things I could not see or know while focused on the content of my lesson. Then when I first started working as a mentor to new teachers, the school district offered training on “coaching” new teachers.
Recently, I began reconsidering and reevaluating this approach. I realized it’s similar to what a life coach or spiritual director might provide. The intent with coaching is to affirm and encourage who the person is and the strengths or positive assets they hold, and then to foster growth and insight through asking questions about what you saw (or heard) and allow the person an opportunity to respond and think about who they are, what they value, what their intentions were, and to evaluate whether what happened revealed what in today’s terms we might call their “authentic self” or not. If not, why and what might they consider doing differently.
For me, as a person of faith, it allows me to see areas of my life God is working to reveal more of Himself to me and/or to ask how I see myself compared to how He sees me… his beloved.
For me, I long to look at these things through a lens of faith. I know not all share my faith but I believe this practice could be beneficial to reinstitute in my life with a wide variety of friends. I know there are people who I can pay (besides a counselor – life coach or spiritual director)to benefit from coaching but I wonder if any of my friends, local or otherwise, share in interest in exploring this sort of coaching? Do you want to join me if I were to try to facilitate a small group in this manner? If so, would you prefer meeting in person or online?
This sort of group provides space to be real with our shortcomings and struggles and seeks to strengthen, encourage, and affirm each other while growing and gaining insight where needed.
Drop me a line here, on social media, or through messenger or text if you have any interest.
When is the last time you did something for the first time?
Today?
Yesterday?
Last week?
Ten years ago?
Thirty years ago?
After church today, I began reminiscing about the months I spent living overseas in Cairo, Egypt about thirty years ago. Many firsts I encountered in Egypt popped to mind as I recalled some of the unusual events.
Eating a juicy ripe mango
Experiencing an earthquake
Living on an island in a river
Daily marriage proposals including camels
Learning a new language
Handling foreign currency
Placing international phone calls
Snorkeling
Making flour tortillas from scratch
International banking
Buying groceries daily
Climbing in and through a pyramid
Haggling with merchants in a marketplace
Asking for pasta sauce and getting ketchup instead
Seeing guards with machetes on every street corner
Buying meat from a butcher
This reminiscing led to me to think about my more recent “firsts.” I share these firsts to reveal and foster my gratitude for the things God is doing in my life, to celebrate new adventures in the beautiful creation He provides, to reflect my yearning to never stop learning & growing, and to embrace the birthplaces of new hope, joy and love in my life.
A few of my more recent firsts, which in full disclosure, include a few done after a long hiatus…
Kayaking downstream in the American River
Off anti-depressants for the first time in nearly ten years
Shore Bluffs in Wilder Ranch State Park
Biking along the shore bluffs in Santa Cruz
Boogie boarding for the first time in nearly forty years
Overnight stays at Disneyland Hotel
Sunflower ride in the Dixon area with friends
Rode nearly 1300 miles and climbed 19K feet on my bike this year
Indian meal enjoyed after cooking it!
Cooking class at Yankee Hill Winery
Kayak backpacking trip coming up this weekend in Lake Tahoe
I admit it feels a bit silly at the age of 50-something to be recalling and celebrating firsts in my life but it reminds me that each new day brings with it newness. New opportunities to trust God. New opportunities to love, show mercy, and to serve others. New opportunities to try something and fail. To open doors and windows to bring joy, laughter, and love to this broken world – all without hopefully breaking anything else, especially if it’s not easily replaced or mended.
What’s something in your life that encourages you or others to choose love, new life, or to create beauty and to share it with others?
Slow – A value
Changes with age,
Improves with time,
Shapes a new perspective -
Rest
Impatient toe tapping...
Fingers drumming
Horn honkin’!
Appointment time
Tick tock - tick tock
Echoes, “You’re so SLOW!
Hurry UP!!”
Arrived
Ten minutes late!
Teams picked
Batons twirling
Relay order set
Peer pressure building...
Ready, set, GO!
Cheering
GO GO GO!
Baton handed off
Clapping
GO GO GO!
Baton handed off
GO GO…. Sighing
Echoes “You’re so SLOW!
Hurry UP!!”
Finished
In last place
After school practice over
Dashed through for fast food
Quick!
Gobble down dinner
Before you head downtown
To meet friends - to study
To chat or to fellowship
Microwave reheated cooled food
Seconds later it’s pipin’ hot!
Seers the tongue
Blisters the roof
Sends you scrambling
For an ice cube
Then somewhere
At sometime
You walk through a portal
Without knowing you’ve done so
You ask what’s the hurry?
Or maybe, why hurry?
You don’t care about first place
Or last place
Or any place in between
You just want to finish
To witness the completion
To maybe hear a clap
Or hear a few people cheer
You got this!
The fast food no longer satisfies
You enjoy savoring the lingering scents
Beckoning you to your kitchen
Inviting you to sit down
Stay a while and take a sip!
You notice the child sitting across from you
More resemblances a grown adult
Than the baby you once swaddled
While their animated expressions
Tell the tales of their day
Now you beg time
To SLOW down
To pause
To let you soak it all in
For time to stand still
To halt the marching
To embrace the moments
Before they spread their wings
And fly
Once they fly
Their presence changes
Captured moments
Come in fewer number
Over several weeks, months,
Or even years
SLOW down
The things worth savoring
Love
Peace
Hope
Take shape in the quiet, gentle moments
Our heart, mind, and soul
Catch our body
Then settle in for a long-awaited
And longed for REST
The unprecedented years 2020 and 2021 have been for us in our life time will certainly go down in the history books. However, amidst these historic events and occurrence a lot of personal hardship and challenges have taken place too. Those stories may never make the front page news or beyond the walls of your own home or outside of your community, but no doubt there are many of them as these years have presented challenges many of us never imagined. In dealing with, struggling through, and grieving my own losses these last couple of years, I have needed to remind myself of how God has shown up for me in the hard times in the past to help me stay focused on the horizon and pressing onward. I hope one day soon to share more about all I am learning, but for now, I am sharing a story that is sixteen years old but demonstrated God’s presence and HIs knowing my heart amidst another sorrowful time.
Every now and again, God so powerfully orchestrates life to reveal something about Himself and/or me that in those moments I do not doubt God’s purposes in my life. Sometimes I’m good about journaling those details. Sometimes I share them with others. I’ve found times I do both journal and share, are the times that mark a profound change in how I see myself as a child of God and in the depth of my understanding of Him and His abundant love for me. So I am here today (May 2005) to mark another one of those milestones in my journey.
Last week Karen (Community Bible Study leader) shared that a servant of God worships the God who is there, by remembering His presence, relying upon Him, and rejoicing in Him. God magnificently orchestrated this principal in my life recently. In order to see the beauty of these events, I need to take you back one month to April 18th (2005).
On this day, an event worth celebrating occurred. My sister gave birth to her second child, and to all of our surprise, the first boy in our family. I am one of three sisters and until Luke’s birth on April 18th, we had four nieces and NO nephews in our family. I eagerly looked forward to flying out to Colorado just ten days later to share in this celebration with my family.
The following day, April 19th, I had an appointment that I thought would be another cause of great rejoicing in my life, but instead it brought much sorrow. At a nine week ultrasound, I discovered the baby I was carrying was not growing as expected and since it was before the end of my first trimester, the doctor recommended I allow my body to miscarry it naturally.
So here I found myself amidst great sorrow in my own life, wanting to recognize God’s presence in this situation as well as have the strength and joy to celebrate my nephew’s new life, but wasn’t sure how. I came to Community Bible Study for the next two weeks. My core group among others faithfully prayed for me, the baby, and our family (Charles and Aynslee). As I recognized my desire to be with my family in both my grief as well amidst the celebration of Luke’s birth, I decided to leave as planned on Thursday, April 28th to Colorado.
The day before I left, at our CBS social, we talked about what our favorite seasons were. I remarked that it varied depending on the place I lived. As I mentioned each place and corresponding season I enjoyed, I shared how I missed winters and watching the snow fall in Colorado. Little did I know what God had in store for me.
The night I arrived in Colorado, about two hours after I put my young daughter, Aynslee to bed, the intense labor pain and heavy bleeding began. That entire night I sat alone in the bathroom as waves of child labor pain expelled the baby from my body. I’ll spare you the graphic details but it was one of the loneliest and most painful nights of my life but there was also great mercy in it that did not escape me. My young daughter slept through it ALL and did not worry about what was wrong with momma.
Additionally, that night an unexpected snowstorm moved into the Boulder/Denver area, and the snow began to fall and fall heavily at that. It must’ve dumped almost a foot and a half of snow the first night (while I miscarried my baby) and it continued to fall off and on for four days! This sort of lingering snowstorm is very unusual for this time of year. There was no doubt in my mind why that storm suddenly appeared in Colorado and lingered over Boulder through those first four days I was there. God made his presence and his knowledge of my heart’s longings known and real to me in a time of great sorrow. He also showed me the delight and joy of watching the snow fall for the first time through the eyes of my 20-month-old daughter. Whenever she walked by a window or was riding in a car, she’d scream as loud as she could, SNOW!!! She’d point and marvel at the marvelous white powder falling from the sky. I found that to be something worth rejoicing over… and brought tears of joy to my eyes. (It’s a fond memory of mine to this day. November 2021)
20 month old Aynslee watching the snow fall! April 2005
Also, before leaving for California for Colorado, a few people wondered if being around my sister’s newborn son would be difficult for me at this time. My whole purpose of scheduling the trip had been to go out that week to help her with her 22-month-old daughter so she could attend to Luke’s needs. I knew in my heart of hearts, I’d find great comfort and joy in seeing him and his newness of life despite my own sorrow and loss. I also knew my sister would understand my grief.
Through other trials earlier in my life, I thankfully had learned that life is full of many bittersweet moments. Not always have I handled those situations with the grace God provides me, but through the years when I have relied on Him and his grace, I have discovered unspeakable joy in being able to celebrate with others amidst my own pain and disappointment. His Holy Spirit enables me to lay aside what consumes me most (which are my wants and needs), and to enter into someone else’s life. If at those times I had rather sulk about my own hurts/disappointments, there would’ve been many moments of celebration and delight, I would’ve completely missed.
These moments always draw me to the words of the great psalmist, David, in Psalm 27:13, 14
I would have despaired unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD.
I struggle with these final words and thoughts because I feel like I am conveying I have “arrived.” To that end, all I can say is that the only place I’ve arrived is to THIS very spot in my journey. Here I feel God has called me to lay down stones to remember these lessons he’s shown me. So here I am laying them down in front of you to help me remember. My sorrow still lingers. My heart still longs. But yet I rejoice. God was there for me amidst my sorrow, God made his presence evident to me, and God granted me joy in seeing snow fall for the first time through my daughter’s eyes. God also gave me joy and comfort in celebrating the birth of my nephew. Additionally, God’s Holy Sprit gives me the grace and courage to continue to rely on Him and to not despair over the loss of my child. For this and much more I rejoice.
She doesn’t remember
She doesn’t remember when she first swallowed
She doesn’t remember when she swallowed the first stone
But now she remembers they are there
She wonders about the forgotten ones
She remembers – feeling unheard and unseen
She remembers – hearing there’s nothing to fear
Yet quaking where she lay
She remembers – mean names called
No friends standing by
She remembers – he said no to her
But yes to her locker partner
The names
The ones pushed down
The forgotten ones
The unkind, hurtful names
Four eyes
Moose
And more
But the worst of all…
The teacher
Sister to a parent’s classmate
Play on a last name, Ryan – O
Rhino!
The teacher laughed
Classmates joined in
No one saw the shattered face
The disappointments
The harsh critique
The uninterested dismissal
The laughing scoffs
The stuttering
Stumbling words
Echo again in Spanish…
Her nervous, trembling lips
Words stuttered
Spanish teacher’s mocking tone
Her derision to the stumble, fall
A bloody, scraped knee
It – the forgotten one – swallowed
Tore roughly at her throat
Sat hard
Grew heavy in her soul
Her eyes burned
She blinked back the tears
She heard a chorus echo
Don’t cry or they win
So, another one sat
Hard, heavy, and unmoving
Riskier endeavors came
Revealing to a trusted few
Less name calling yet
Held at an arms’ length
Stories not believed
Labeled
Too sensitive
Too emotional
Thinks too much
Eventually
Her heart ached less
Some pain processed
But the forgotten ones…
Sat, hard, heavy, unmoving
She froze in pain
How her heart
Like the forgotten ones
Unmoving turned to stone
She froze in pain
She wondered what gripped her
And turned her mind inside out
The stones sat hard, grew heavy
Drained her soul
She swallowed stones
Long after she stopped she believed
Then, Something broke wide open
Inside
Like geodes bust wide open
In a protective sack
Struck with a mallet
Beauty revealed
Sparkling, translucent, mysterious
The forgotten ones
Busted open wide
But no protection
Burn hot like lava
Slide down the hillside
Cover all, burn more
Her instinct
Run, scream, cry
Pulse strong
Overwhelm her senses
Beauty yet to emerge
She wants
Beauty to arise
Without the searing pain
Ripping her apart
But the first necessitates the second
The forgotten ones
The wounds long ago healed
Open anew
Fire searing heat
Transforming
Melting
Molding
The forgotten ones
Unearthed
Rumbling
Bursting forth
Smashed open
Searing pain
Fire to the soul
Beauty emerging
In a molten heart
Whom shall she serve
In her Welder’s name?
Sunday morning, September 19, the day after the metric century ride, I woke up feeling a bit like my toddler children when they’d proudly proclaim, I did it! I learned a lot from this wet, soggy ride about riding long distances in the rain, myself, and how God always watches over me.
The easy to explain things I learned for next time:
Consider using RainX on my glasses to improve vision
Your phone and watch will die – bring a brick for charging
Bring a flat kit even with SAG support
NOTHING will keep you dry on a bike for 60 miles in the rain
Add waterproof bag for dry things – like eye glass cloths
Train for more hills
Turn your insulin pump down further and don’t bolus for carbs
Observe your head space when you feel like quitting
Guardian angels are real
Not quite the view I expected for the ride!
I can do hard things. Hard things are easier when faced with friends who help get us out of our head. I trained with friends but rode this ride alone. I can do brave things. Physically hard things take both physical and mental training. Mental training because pushing your physical limits can trigger your fears, the “I can’t” thoughts, and lead to feelings of wanting to quit in my head and heart.
From the first hill – looking back at the Russian River!
Saw lots of my fave camping spots along the route!
The desire to sit down and cry came on strong toward the end of the ride. I faced the two longest and steepest hills in the last ten to fifteen miles when I was exhausted, sore, soaked to the bone, and felt a bit lost since my phone died. Then all these elements triggered my fear of abandonment which made me feel a bit panicked. Thankfully, I realized that almost immediately and started to talk to God about it and intentionally slowed my pace and my breathing down.
Once I got to the top of the last hill, wouldn’t you know, I ended up with a flat front tire. As I continued walking my bike up the road, I began to contemplate what I could do. No emergency phones in sight. Plenty of homes but most sat off the road a ways so didn’t feel safe approaching them. I kept praying. I stopped at the next street, Shuhn Lane.
Before long a gentleman driving a truck pulled in and asked if I was okay. I said no… my tire was flat. My phone was dead. I was on a long bike ride and I had no idea how many miles – less than ten at best guess – I had left. Thankfully, he cycles too, lived five minutes back down the road, and offered to go get what I needed. Sure enough less than ten minutes later, Will (his name) was back with a bike tube, a tire pump, a charging brick, and an iPhone cable. As he handed me the brick and cable he took my bike wheel out of my hand and began to change it. I was so relieved. We chatted while he fixed my flat and then before he let me get on my bike and ride away, he wanted to make sure I could access my map and knew where I was headed.
My phone charged enough that I knew the next turn was about one and a half miles away. Here’s one last nifty thing I learned – if your iPhone charging port gets wet and you plug it in, it won’t charge. It will give you an alert recommending you dry the phone first. Thankfully, I learned at lunch, if you pull it out and plug it in again, it will give you an emergency override option the second time. Anyway, Will then asked more questions about the ride and where it ended. Once he understood more about where I was headed, he reassured me I was only about five miles from the end (thank heavens!) and then he described what he believed would be the remaining part of the route. As I rode toward the finish line and realized how accurate Will’s description of the remaining five miles had been my exhaustion gave way to relief and a tiny bit of exhilaration in actually finishing the soggy 62 mile ride. I also rejoiced and felt like God sent a guardian angel to show He saw me and to help me make it safely to the end.
Selfie along Hwy 1 in Bodega Bay area
Along Hwy 1 in Bodega Bay area
Along Highway on in
Today, September 23, I received an email from the Communication Manager at World Relief. She shared that thirty nine riders collectively raised over $70,000 to help purchase another moving and passenger van which is crucial to welcome and transport families in Sacramento. All remaining funds will also help provide housing, job placement services, driving classes, English classes and more. In the month of August alone, World Relief welcomed 195 Afghanis and anticipate 400 more in the next few months. So to my sponsors on behalf of World Relief, THANK YOU!!!
Amazing what a towel, dry clothes, and ten minutes can do for a girl!
Ten years ago when I began my first curriculum design project, never in a million years could I have imagined the world we are living in now. Secluded at home. Sheltering in place to stay well and healthy amidst the coronavirus. Yet, here we are. My junior in high school is missing her junior prom and her annual mission trip to Mexico. My middle schooler is missing her trip to Washington DC where she planned to spend her 14th birthday apart from us. Disappointment abounds. I am sure you and your family can relate.
However, the larger unexpected gift in this time, is the work that I do. I worked for years as a secondary teacher, primarily high school. Then as my kids started to enter the school, I started teaching the grades they were in. I taught in their adult education preschool where the adults were the students and the kids part of the daily “lab experiment.” 😉 Once they were both in elementary school, I substitute taught on almost a daily basis in their K-8 charter. I provided writing lessons in my daughters’ 1-3 grade class and my other daughters’ 4-6 grade classroom for a time. Eventually, I went back to work full time and eventually I found doing instructional design for an education software company right up my alley. I hope the team of instructional designers I work with and myself will be able to provide teachers with helpful tips and examples to get distance learning going in teachers’ own virtual classrooms. New realities abound.
One of my favorite picture books by Dr. Seuss talks about the how we “start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place… ” and is a story I have find my mind drifting towards at various times over the last week or two.
So as life slows and we finish day six of being in this waiting place of social isolation, I am mindful of wanting to make this weirdish, wild space we’ve entered a constructive and hopeful one.
While the news surrounding the coronavirus alone makes this a challenging goal, Charles this week also received the news Monday that his sixteen and a half year tenure at the company we moved to Sacto for, will be coming to an end on March 31. The timing of this news came across as heartless and demonstrated minimal care from a company that he’s invested many, many hours into and we thought highly valued him as an employee. It also definitely made my intention of creating a constructive and hopeful space even more challenging. But yet I persist. Not because of who I am but because of who God is…. He first loved me and keeps hold of me and my family.
I struggle with a host of health issues that place me squarely in the “high risk” category for the coronavirus and given my past struggles with depression and anxiety, it would be easy to become fearful, anxious, to lose perspective, and to doubt the hope and faith I have in God. But yet daily I find myself choosing to turn towards God, His love and care for me, to embrace self-care, to reach out to others, to practice humor and finding hope, joy, and laughter, to feel all the feelings, and to keep moving. It’s NOT easy though.
Feelings of anxiety or fear can come on strong. Sometimes seemingly out of know where, and in the best of times, can be paralyzing and difficult to move through, despite our best intentions to live by faith or to live “our best lives.” Ironically, now at a time where it is very reasonable to be anxious about the unknown outcomes of this coronavirus threat coupled with Charles’ looming unemployment, I find myself feeling like I have spent the better part of my life preparing to deal with a situation like this one.
Not because I am some super hero immune to fear, or have profound wisdom but rather just a lot of experience wrestling and grappling with fear, depression, and anxiety to extents greater than I am usually willing to admit. Also, I tend to be a person who bears down and gets through the crisis then when it lifts, I fall apart. So I’ll share what helps me get through if a few of you promise to help me when I start to fall apart when the crisis ends.
When I decided to start blogging here about some of the things, I thought I’d be sharing more from a place of contentment and peace than I am right now. I am at peace, but the range of emotions I’m experiencing this week are much more varied and intense than they were when this whole coronavirus threat began.
For self-care today, I listened to a few of my favorite songs. I chatted a few friends. I ate a healthy lunch. I checked my blood sugars and tried to get my continuous glucose monitor to work again. I called my endocrinologist to ask a question. After sitting through a meeting listening to the same leadership team, who decided to lay Charles off abruptly (when he was expecting a raise and a bonus at the end of the month), talk about how everything we do as a company right now is about “empathy and integrity,” (when really it’s about making a profit), I made a few jokes with coworkers. But I also cried. Then I ran instead of yelling, though I forgot to take the dog with me. Then tonight I thought of the perfect response to the company talk. The quote from one of my favorite movies, the Princess Bride. I wish I had thought of it and would’ve had the balls to post it in chat window of the presentation, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Tonight, I will end the evening how I have ended the last several with my family. We will watch an episode of one of our favorites – Flash or Supergirl, and then read and pray through a psalm. I am inclined to go back to one of my favorites, Psalm 27. I will leave you with the last two verses of it tonight, verses 13 and 14.
“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD.”
2019 started off with an adventure in Nicaragua visiting Charles’ brother, Dave and his family for a couple of weeks. Dave and Claudia have lived in Managua since 2001 and lead a church in the city. We enjoyed meeting several people and attending services there. In addition to the ins and outs of their daily lives as missionaries, we also visited some of the sites in and around Managua. One of my favorites included trips to El Predio Food Park (https://www.elprediofoodpark.com/), which is Nicaragua’s take on the food truck craze. We visited this place a couple of times and I could not resist the delicious ceviche served at Ceviche Express.
Lighted and covered eating area at El Predio!
We also enjoyed hiking in and around the Mombacho Volcano Natural Reserve (https://www.mombacho.org/en/). The ride to the top of the volcano is one to remember. Then you can walk for a couple miles around the volcano crater in the lush landscape and see the sights and sounds of the area and the city of Granada situated below.
Several of these benches were situated along the trail and all had movistar stamped on them!
Lastly, we enjoyed a few days at a beach house in Rancho Santana (https://ranchosantana.com/) along Nicaragua’s Emerald (Pacific ) Coast. The vistas from the back patio of the home took our breathe away and made the luxurious home feel even more amazing. We spent a lot of our time simply lounging by the back patio pool and one afternoon at Playa Los Perros.
The girls and their cousins on the back patio of the beach house.
After a couple incredibly fun weeks in Nicaragua, we headed home to Sacramento to settle into our new year routine, which quite unremarkably looks very similar to this new year routine. Charles and I headed back to work at PowerSchool. He’s been with the company for just over sixteen years now and I am working towards my four year anniversary with PowerSchool. I enjoy my work as an instructional designer on the Customer Education team and Charles continues to work as a senior DevOps engineer. Along with the daily grind of work, we also filled our evening hours with shuttling girls to a wide range of activities – Girl Scouts, water polo practices and games, driving lessons (*gasp*), volunteer activities – OR we attended to activities of our own – book club, volunteering for many of the youth organizations our kids are involved with, church small group, cookbook club, and more. Now, as I list all these things, it’s no wonder we are constantly tired. 😉
There is a Fountain of Youth: It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.
At the end of January, Cindy enjoyed her annual trip out to Bodega Bay for a scrapbook retreat which really has become more of a girls R & R retreat for her. She does dapple with her scrapbook supplies and intends to do more than she does. She loves the time away by the ocean, to watch movies, read, walk/hike, explore, eat crab, and visit with the gals attending it too. She’s been going for over ten years now.
A sunset over Bodega Bay in January 2019.
February brought new milestones into our eldest’s life. Notably, she traveled solo on a Southwest flight to southern California to visit her grandparents in Palm Springs. Upon returning, she took and passed her driver’s permit test and so began the days of her driving much to her parent’s delight. We also passed the days of February with sunset walks with our beast, Finnick, and sitting poolside in the foggy and frigid temperatures to watch our oldest play waterpolo. Cindy now knows she prefers the hot summer months for watching her kids swim or play in the pool.
A few highlights from February
In March, we ventured up the coast to Salt Point State Park for a weekend of coastal camping. It’s awesome and amazing to be able to enjoy this fun and favorite activity of ours year around. We don’t take advantage of it enough in the “winter” months because we get busy with school, sports, and other activities, such as Girl Scout cookie sales. But when we can, we certainly find the time spent outdoors and away from the weekly grind refreshing!
Few highlight
In April for spring break, Aynslee took off to Mexico with her youth group for a weeklong mission trip while Charles, Cindy, and Saige headed to Palm Springs for some warmer weather. Cindy’s parents live there for most of the winter months now to escape the cold and snow in Colorado though it seems Colorado continues to hold out a few spring storms for them when they return.
Aynslee’s mission group in San Diego, then the med clinic in Mexico, and lastly the day she returned to Sacramento!
Palm Springs brunch at golf course and Borrego Springs Highlights
May, June, and July found us returning to our usual summer routines with the girls swimming most every day at the College Green Cabana Club and us spending nearly every Saturday morning at a swim meet. This year, Aynslee became a certified lifeguard and spent a good portion of her summer working as a swimmer coach for her swim team and teaching private swim lessons. Saige became a teenager in May and Cindy celebrated her fiftieth birthday in fabulous fashion by playing classic 80’s arcade games at the Coin-Op! And Saige became a teenager!
Saige also spent a few weeks volunteering for the Lunch at the Library program at our local branch. We’re disappointed our annual Memorial Day camping trip got rained out this year. but we squeezed in time in the great outdoors with a trip to Yosemite with Cindy’s sister’s family and a trip to Grover Hot Springs. We also visited the big city to see Hamilton in July, just before our last hurrah of summer – our church’s all church conference
The last week of July and first week of August took us back to Missions Springs in Santa Cruz for our church’s annual all church conference. Everyone in our family LOVES this week. It’s non-stop time with friends for a teenage girls. I literally have to request they eat at least one meal with us a day or we’d not see them except first thing in the morning and last thing at night or when they need a ride somewhere. Charles and I love it for the time to connect with friends, new and old. It also doesn’t hurt that neither one of us need to plan or cook a single meal all week or clean a single dish. The teaching and small groups round out the mornings and make it refreshing spiritually too. Unfortunately this year, Charles spent a lot of the week resting in our room with a headache to end all headaches.
The week before ACC, Charles was rear-ended by a drunk driver not more than a mile from our home. Charles was stopped at a stoplight in our Mazda5 and the drunk likely hit him from behind traveling at least 45 mph. Charles does not remember the impact as he likely lost consciousness. Long story shorter, Charles suffered a concussion and experienced bleeding on his brain. However, no evasive procedures were needed to repair anything. Time would allow the blood to absorb back into his brain and pain meds helped manage the headaches in the meantime. The Mazda5, after ten years of faithfully shuttling our family to and fro, was deemed a total lost.
Unfortunately for Charles, the night before Aynslee’s sixteenth birthday, and a day shy of a month from this accident, Charles was struck by another drunk driver while driving our Honda Pilot on the highway. (What are the odds?!?) Though on the highway, Charles was able to steer the Pilot onto the shoulder of the road without further incident; however, the drunk driver proceeded to swerve across all four lanes of traffic, struck the median, came back across all four lanes, and clipped another car that then rolled twice. Both the drunk driver and the other car ended up on the shoulder of the road a few hundred yards in front of Charles. Charles suffered more bleeding in his brain from this accident and another round of severe headaches but considering it could have been so much worse, we are grateful he walked away from it. We were also able to repair the Pilot.
In case you missed what was said, this second accident happened the night before Aynslee’s sixteenth birthday and a week before her driving test. Cindy wasn’t sure she wanted to let Aynslee on the road in anything smaller than a tank after these two accidents. Fortunately for us, Aynslee’s drive instructor allowed her to use his vehicle to take her driving test, because at that point we were down to only one car and it was in the shop! Needless to say, she passed with flying colors and continues to be a reasonable and cautious driver. To celebrate Aynslee’s sixteenth birthday, she enjoyed a fun pool party and taco bar at our friends’ house with a big pool and backyard!
Aynslee with her temporary license in August!
The end of summer brought the end of orthodontia in our family as Saige finished her stint with Invisalign. Cindy found herself chaperoning Aynslee’s Girl Scout trip to Disneyland for a final hurrah before they disbanded. Aynslee started her junior year in high school and Saige started her eighth grade year. They ride together to Saige’s bus stop most mornings and Aynslee drops her off before heading to her high school. Our fall sport favorite is waterpolo. In the post season this fall, Aynslee’s waterpolo team made it to the playoffs and won their divisional sections. They played and won the next playoff game but lost the game right before the NorCal (equivalent to state tournament) final game! What a fun ride to see the girls hard work, effort, and determination take them so far!
We applaud you for reading this long 2019 highlight reel from our lives. Cindy hopes to take to blogging more on a monthly basis to give friends and family near and far glimpses into this whirlwind of a life we are loving and embracing with two very busy teens. We haven’t done a Christmas photo card or letter the last year or two but still so enjoy receiving them. So please don’t remove us from your list! We hope this blog will suffice to catch you up with us! Please feel free to reach out to us on our cell phones anytime and/or find Cindy on Facebook and/or Instagram, while the rest, Charles, Aynslee, and Saige are all on Instagram! Much love and grace!
Cindy’s favorite photo from 2019! She’s trying to capture more of these beautiful sunsets on the American River by their house
Carve Out Time 