Our Life These Days

For the sake of looking back, I wanted to blog about life these days, where we're at, what we're doing. Kudos to you if you read this. ;)

This summer was absolutely nothing like I had planned. I'm sure God smiles down on me when I decide exactly how things will be in my life. Apparently I still haven't learned that my plans don't usually work out the way I picture them. I waited through winter and a wet, cold spring for the arrival of summer. I was so sure I'd be back on the bike doing 35-mile bike rides and losing another 15 lbs. That was the plan and I couldn't wait for it to happen! Not.

About the time the weather finally got nice, my mom was down and out with a serious back problem that ultimately required surgery. My life was all about work, mom, family, mom, work, mom, you see the pattern. By the time summer got started, we spent weeks attending doctor appointments, then pre-surgery appointments, then her surgery. She is just now somewhat able to resume her life. So, we jumped from early June to early August and I have a dusty bike. Just enough time to GAIN 10 lbs in 5 months because (as is my norm) I ate my way through stress, exhaustion and frustration. My place was helping my mom, I needed to do that and I'm glad I did. It just wasn't the way I pictured my summer.

Steve, on the other hand, has been riding 100+ miles per week and kept his weight off. He's focused because with his cancer, it's critical that he does it that way. I'm just impressed that he's done it.

It's also a summer of changes for my "kids." Josh has been looking at houses in hopes of buying his first home. Our housing market is very depressed here so it's a great time to buy your first house. Not such a great time to sell, so we are stuck where we're at for now, but my dream is to sell and move into Redding so we're near everything we do...work, grandkids, church, etc.

Jamie and Mike are also moving this week to a house that better fits their family. They'll be so happy to be out of the 2-story house with no yard and no driveway (they live in high-density housing right now).

We start the fall this year with a 4th grader, 2 Kindergartners, and one pre-schooler. All but one grandchild goes to school this year! Wow! Emily jumped from 2nd grade to 4th grade this year. She's very bright and since she barely missed the deadline to start a year earlier, she's actually the right age for 4th grade, albeit at the lower age end. She was SO bored in school, so it was necessary to move her up per the school principal, counselor and 2nd grade teacher. So Emily and Jamie spent a lot of the summer doing some catch-up work, especially learning multiplication tables, division, and working on nouns/verbs, etc. We all went out to Kobe's this past Sunday to celebrate all of her (and Jamie's!) hard work for accomplishing it this summer. Ask Emily any multiplication equation up thru 12x12 and she knows the answer! And, like her Nana, she loves long division, go Emily! ;)

We are back at The Stirring for church. Since our church fell apart about 6 years ago, we have really struggled with where to land permanently. It sounds so easy - just find a church and get involved. There is a church on every corner so it shouldn't be hard, right? Not so easy... For the first time in awhile, things are starting to feel like they fit. We're at church with our kids and grandkids which we love. We took the plunge to get involved and are one of the 3 bakers for the church's new cafe. We get there at 6:00 a.m. on Sundays (yes, we actually chose that shift) and start baking biscuits, scones, muffins and focacia bread before the breakfast serving starts at 8:00. Steve's also helping with the parking team (our new building came with some parking issues), then we're both done in time for church. We're meeting new people, and enjoying many that we already knew there and it's starting to finally feel like we have a church again. I know my relationship with Christ isn't the church, but it is the foundation for me to serve, worship and fellowship, a crucial part of my Christian growth so it's like coming home finally.

We have a few things coming up in September and October. On Labor Day, we're heading to Crater Lake on our motorcycles with our friends for a few days. We've done this ride once before, Crater Lake is a beautiful ride.

The week-end of 9/11, Steve and I head to Tahoe where he's signed up for the Tour de Tahoe ride. He'll do the 78 mile bike ride around the lake, a great end of the season ride that he's looking forward to. While he's biking on the tour, I'll be "forced" to read my Kindle or hang around Tahoe enjoying the weather, or maybe even doing my own little ride around the beach trail. We drive through Reno on our way to and from Tahoe and will be stopping for a visit at Scheels, which is a "must" for Steve. The last two visits we have come within an inch of buying a tandem Hobie Mirage Kayak to take home with us (they have oars and pedals both, so they're fast, fun and good exercise). The question is...will we make it back with, or without, the kayak this visit? Time will tell... We have two beautiful lakes that are about 10 minutes from Redding, not to mention the Sacramento River that's 1 mile from our house, so we have plenty of places to ride it, including our visits to Tahoe. So tempting...

We also have a week of vacation coming up in October but we're not going too far, we're flying into SoCal. From there we'll drive to Yuma, AZ and have dinner with some old high school friends that we've reconnected with on Facebook (one reason I love FB - anyone else in or near Yuma who are reading this that want to come, let me know, it'll be on Oct. 15th!). Then we head to San Diego to stay with my brother for a few days. We plan to rent some bikes for the day on Coronado Island, just a hang out kind of vacation.

So that's our life lately in a blog post. We live in a wonderful world of grandchildren with missing teeth, bike rides, short trips with family and friends, a new ministry at church that involves baking, and much more. What more could you want from life? Sometimes it really is the small things in life that are the best and I am really learning the importance of them, and of learning to count your blessings in life. There is no doubt that even with our economy, even with the frustrations we may have with our country's leadership, even with job issues and health issues that come up, and other things that throw a monkey-wrench in our plans, we are far more blessed in this life than anything else. And I am learning to keep my eyes on that!