L'aventure américaine

It has been a beautiful Christmas. Beautiful, full of family, busy. We’re tired, but enjoying a peaceful Christmas dinner this evening after days of fun-filled chaos. The kids were wonderful, Santa came, and the food is plentiful. We are lucky. 

This month's 30-day challenge is a 30-minute walk each day.  You would think on the weekend that it would be easier, but I missed it today.  (Unless you count grocery shopping, in which I was walking for more than 30-minutes, but not at a clip, certainly.)  So, I am making it up for it with a blog post. This photo is from last weekend.  This weekend has been much less exciting.  Sing with me now...  On the second weekend of December, Klamath Falls provided me: Several wintry cocktails.  Three friends over last night.  Two poopy blowouts.  One one-year old birthday party.  One medical director candidate dinner.  And some chickens and some fake Christmas trees.  (Three mini ones to go in the front yard.  We're not doing a tree in Oregon this year.)   So, it was busy - too busy, and I don't feel quite ready for the week ahead.  But, it was a weekend with love and sunshine, so I'm pretty lucky.

This month’s 30-day challenge is to walk for 30 minutes each day, which translates into a 30-minute break for myself daily. Which is great.  Today I walked on my lunch break. This view is 15 minutes away from my office and fairly spectacular. It was a good break. 

Well, it is the end of this 30 days.  I made every day but one.  That was the day that I found out about Glenn's health issues and put myself to bed at 7:00pm.  I think that it's okay that I missed that one. As my reward for this challenge, I will order a photo book of one photo from each day.  Some days, I struggled to find a good photo.  Some days, there were too many from which to choose.  It will be a good snapshot into our lives this November of 2017.  There were difficult moments, but the sweet ones far outweighed the hard ones.  Christmas time is upon us and it is my favorite time of year.  I love the music and the lights and the love.  And it is a time of reflection, which can be good and difficult.  I am in a very different place now than I thought that I would be.  A year ago, I was submitting grad school applications, and Randal and I were mentally preparing for a move.  But, today, as I watched the buildin...

Sometimes it feels like I’m in a TVshow and there’s a new issue for every episode. Today I was quite tired after the previous two days with Dexter. But, today’s episode brings a sick kid. On the bright side, I feel justified in watching TV with my kiddo, so that’s a plus. 

I have been working hard for a month on a series of three presentations by Dr. Dexter Shurney- a celebrity in the field of lifestyle medicine. Tonight, he presented to the community and while the turnout was not as large as I had hoped, we did have some people brave the cold and listen with interest to what he had to say. Ideally, it will drum up more business for the Wellness Center, but if nothing else, it presents the idea of lifestyle medicine as treatment (as opposed to medications) to an audience that isn’t as familiar with it. It went well, but, whew... I’m glad it’s over. 

It’s a busy week at work, but there was good news outside of my office window today. This vacant lot, which prompted Stephanie and I to present to the parks board in 2014, (which has also spawned another successful park creation: Sugarman’s Corner), is going to become a beautiful park within the year. Those two buildings will be torn down in the next week or two and we will start moving forward in earnest. The park will be dedicated to Stephanie.  Good news, indeed. 

I’m not ready for the week ahead. When you truly allow weekends to be an escape, a Monday can be a rude return to reality.  But I am also grateful for our friends, jeanette and Tony, who volunteered to watch Milo so randal and I could see a movie. I’m grateful for randal who has skated through my mood swings like an Olympian figure skater. And I’m grateful for Milo who has been a good eater and makes me laugh every day. 

It was a good day today. Randal spent the day with me as we puttered along. We went shopping downtown for small business Saturday and ran into so many of our friends and acquaintances. We went to the park and played. Milo and I went across the street to spend some time with our neighbor who is home from college. It was a perfect, small-town day.  And there was much to be grateful for. On a superficial note, I am really grateful for the salumen jacket that I got for $20 (originally $175). I am grateful that we ran into so many people also supporting our downtown. And especially grateful for my evening with neighbors and family - laughter and hugs and tears - I do have a wonderful community. 

I just returned from a beautiful hike on the hill.  The weather has been warm and dry, which is a nice change.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I was glad to get out today. I only worked a half day, which was good.  I met with my boss who told me that if he found me at work, I would be in trouble, which I appreciated.  And so it's been almost like a snow day here - unexpectedly at home, doing some work, but also catching up on some things that I haven't wanted to do too.  And eating leftovers - it's good to have some turkey.  Turkey, I've missed you. And so to continue with my week of gratitude...  I'm grateful for a boss that supports time off.  I'm grateful for turkey.  And I'm grateful for the beautiful day that was today. Klamath at dusk

It has been a good holiday. I always reminisce about my childhood thanksgivings and still, nothing can beat them. But, today was a good day. It consisted of a beautiful hike, lunch with Randal’s dad, and a traditional meal with the Montjoys - our adopted Klamath family. We laughed and ate delicious food and had a wonderful time.  Today I am grateful for so much. It’s been a tough year, but I still have a wonderful life. I am grateful that we have enough to eat and are comfortable. I’m grateful that I have such wonderful thanksgiving memories. I’m grateful for friends who have become family in our community here.  But above all... today and every day... I am grateful for these two males in my life. They make everything worthwhile.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am grateful for my home- a nice haven after a short, but intense work week. I am thankful for friends who welcome us for Thanksgiving and give us discounts on snow tires. I am grateful for my mom’s macaroni and cheese recipe, because it’s delicious. On that note, I’m grateful for cheese in general. What would I do without it?!

I am grateful for the rain holding off on my walking commutes to and from work. I am grateful for my Moosewood cookbook. It really is honest about prep times and I really can make their red lentil soup in 35 minutes. And I am grateful for my husband who is currently doing the dishes, despite being a little put out with me right now.  (I am also grateful that Milo ate dinner tonight, because frankly, he’s a terrible eater.)

Happy Thanksgiving week!  I need to practice more gratitude (don’t we all?) and this week, will plan on listing some of those things for which I am grateful.  Today, I am grateful for those of you who read my blog and especially those who have reached out this month. Thank you! I am also grateful for my friend, Helen, with whom I had a wonderful breakfast. And for that matter, I want to acknowledge those delicious buckwheat pancakes. I’m grateful for that too.  And, of course, this kid post-bath. Grateful for baby giggles and fat bellies. 

I am sitting quietly on the couch, but will soon hang up the last load of laundry for the weekend. Milo is sleeping upstairs and there is not a sound in the house.  This morning, a photographer came to take family photos. We “won” a package in a silent auction and I think she did a great job. She came to the house so we got photos in our natural environment. (Not totally natural... I hid a lot of stuff in the bathroom and made only one shelf for wine as opposed to two normally.)  She thought that we would get the photos midweek. Fingers crossed! We dressed Milo in a cute outfit and he proceeded to hang out under the bed for 20 minutes with the dogs. Thank goodness for lint rollers.  And last night, I went to the symphony to hear my friend Helen. Before going to medical school, she went to the Cleveland Institute of Music. She had a solo and was simply phenomenal. Klamath is a town with many hidden talents!

Today was our window installation party at the building to which we invited several friends and expected few to show up. But- we had a dozen friends (some skilled and some not!) show up in the 30 degree weather today to install new windows in the building. Our friends who own the pizza shop donated pizza and between 9 and 3, the workers bees were busy upstairs.  Sixteen out of 21 windows were installed and it is night and day different. I’m quite proud that of randal and all of his work with this project! And grateful to our community for all of their help. 

Today I spent the day with a potential candidate for medical director. It is a day ripe with memories and dreams and ambitions... hard and good.  I took a brief hike between meetings to clear my head and that was the best thing that I could have done. It is a beautiful place where I live. 

I guess I’ll choose wine. 

It has been a difficult two weeks. Our interim medical director and my good friend has had some serious health issues that are still uncertain.  I feel a little beaten down by this year.  But... many things raise me up... including this 2 year old boy and this 12 year old cat. And the husband that made me dinner once again this evening. 

For a community who has been strongly affected by drought, wildfires, and warm winters, there were not many in attendance at the Climate Change rally downtown today. Protesting Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, around fifty people came together outside of the courthouse today. It was quiet, but the solidarity was comforting. Jeanette and I headed down on our lunch break to join them and I’m glad we did.  In this political climate, it is too easy to feel hopeless. I don’t know what to do, but standing downtown in Klamath today somehow helped.