L'aventure américaine

A year ago today, I was getting ready to go sledding.  The snow was falling so heavily and it was beautiful.  I took pictures of the backyard because it was so impressively gorgeous.  Randal and I had intended to go to Ashland for the night to celebrate his birthday as we had every year that we lived in Klamath.  I had ordered a surprise carrot cake for him from the co-op.  But, the snow kept falling and the drive looked increasingly more treacherous and so Randal and I decided that we were going to have to cancel.  While Milo was napping, I cancelled the hotel and the cake.  And then, I prepared for a snow day.  When Milo woke up, I began bundling us both up to go outside and enjoy the beautiful day. This year, it has felt like my life has been split into two parts.  Before the accident and after the accident.  Before the accident, I had spent an idyllic Christmas with family.  I had had two restorative conversations with friend...

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.