Westwoods

Last year as soon as school was out we took our family and sailboat to Florida for a dreamy vacation. It turned out rather un-dreamy. One of the most vivid memories I have on the trip is fixing a boxed dinner while standing over the alcohol burner stove. All of us were stuffed inside that small space with torrents of rain pouring down on top our boat and finding every leak along the hatch and main and windows. Everything was supposed to be sealed. Anyway, it rained a lot. And I was cooking dinner that I knew the family would not enjoy and was feeling pretty lousy about it. It was as if everyone's misery was my fault.  During the times of no rain and a little extra room on the boat, God kept taking me to Matthew 6 about alms and doing them before men to be seen of them. I could not make the connection between feeling like a failure to my family with lack of dry clothes and decent food and soothing salve for the no see um bites and doing alms. Yet that's what kept coming...

It's my mom's birthday. I think about age a lot lately. My parents are extremely blessed with good health even though they are in their seventies. I am extremely blessed to have them in the same community. I know this, yet it seems I don't spend near enough time with them. Or maybe I do. I was home most the week just doing what moms do. I could go over to my parents house every day and check on them, they live only about five minutes from my house...I kept thinking these nagging guilty thoughts that I am a crummy daughter for not being there more. Then I thought how wonderful it is to be current with them no matter what. And that I am current with them even when I'm staying home. I know them and they know me. Even knowing they are of the age that our times together could be numbered, to be on their couch every day checking their pulses would be unhealthy for all of us. Meanwhile I'm thankful they're still around. It's really nice to have someone w...

Recently while traveling through Montana we stopped at a rest area and happened to witness an older lady trip and fall backward on the concrete. Just minutes before, she had cheerily greeted me and we made conversation about the lovely day. I noticed then her shuffling walk and swollen ankles and almost asked her if I could take the garbage to the bin she was obviously headed for, but didn't because she seemed of an independent nature and if our roles had been reversed I would have wanted that respect. While I was in the restroom, I heard a cry of pain and instantly knew she had gone down. Thankfully, Bruce was by her side in seconds and also her retired nurse husband, so she was in good hands. Getting her off the ground was not easy but between the expertise of her husband's experience and Bruce's they soon had her up on her feet. However, something was not right because she felt she couldn't walk or move forward. She kept going forward toward the ground. ...

This type of cactus is only found in the Bahia de los Angeles area...or so they say...It is rather plain and ugly except at Christmas it throws off a beautiful bloom right at the top... Leaving Bahia, we parked the sailboat at the end of a remote road and did a bit of off road driving. Bruce had read about some rock paintings in the area...and a lady from the museum gave us directions here. We drove around for a couple of hours looking...our vehicle did great in this sand... We finally gave up and headed north on this peninsula that is called Baja California. Later that afternoon we drove into a small coastal town and checked into a hotel that was cheap and clean. So nice! After talking to a few locals and eating more fish tacos, we relaxed a couple of hours before heading out to find the Pacific coastline. We planned to be there for sunset...                           After traveling narrow ru...

 I left you with the dolphins. And I do realize the first part sounded pretty dreamy. Had you been there though, ending up on the rocks with a hole in your boat...that isn't exactly a dream. The threat of not staying anchored because of high winds and sun blistered arms, legs, and lips was not pleasant either. Another reason we were done, some of our family cannot take the bugs. I was doing pretty well with everything but the not staying anchored part. Because of that, I wasn't sleeping much. My duties on the boat change little from what I do at home. There is still food, laundry, and cleaning to keep up with all on a tiny little space. So not a relaxed mama... Not a full ten minutes later we met with an amazing amount of wind coming across the water towards us. You could literally see the line across the water of calm water and whitecaps. This was directly in  our route into Bahia and there was no avoiding it. Thankfully, the sails were put away and we quickly deflated a...

There is so much to say I have almost given up on telling our story of the last month. I know that everyone experiences trials and difficult things in life. I have hesitated to talk about ours because it is not special or different than yours. And really, how much of what we go through or endure does anyone want to know about? In preparing for our trip to Bahia de los Angeles, Mexico, our brains needed a thought of a reprieve or destination in order to survive the last grueling weeks of school. Bruce did pass his semester...he has one more to complete...I did finish with my third year of teaching and put away the classroom all in time for us to leave on the day we were planning. We met our accomplishments. We prepared really well in spite of trying to finish everything under pressure. Or so we thought. We left as planned on May 23, four days after school finished. God had been speaking with me long and hard about trust in the last couple weeks and this continued as we journeyed ...