January 27, 2012-Quiet Morning Musings and Crazy, Chaotic Days…

     One thing I learned from my parent’s visit in December is that I need to spend more time on my back porch enjoying the warm breezes, gradual rising of the sun, and cheery chirping of the island birds.  Watching both my mom and dad spend every morning and every other opportunity they had to get away from the cold winter weather in Alabama to sit outside on my porch made me realize how much I’ve taken that space of my home for granted.  The last house I lived in was on the ocean, and I used to spend plenty of time watching the waves and listening to the water, but my home now looks out at my neighbors’ yards filled with coconut palms and green yards, and I hadn’t taken the time yet to appreciate what my new porch has to offer.  In many ways, my porch now provides more of a sense of calm than my porch on the ocean did.  My life at the ocean house has its good memories, but my association with it also carries a lot of pain, unfortunately, more pain than peace.  My current home holds nothing but peace and blessings, and I love to sit on my porch in the morning, reading my devotionals, drinking coffee, and listening to my back door neighbor’s wind chimes, the rustlings of the palms in the wind, and the singing of the birds flying overhead.  I am ashamed to say that it took my parents (in their semi-retirement) coming over 3, 000 miles for a visit to help me see what I was missing out on.  It’s especially important for me to have this kind of time in the mornings now because once I get to work, my days turn crazy and chaotic, not crazy and chaotic in a bad way, but certainly too busy and non-stop to have a quiet moment to muse over life, love, and God’s blessings.  My quiet morning musings on the porch along with my morning yoga practice is what helps me through the crazy, chaotic days, and what keeps me enjoying those days instead of allowing them to frustrate me and stress me out.  Living on an island where the weather is a balmy 82-88 degrees every day doesn’t hurt either. J 
 

January 2nd -26th, 2012 Revising my Resolutions…

     Okay, so I am like most of the rest of the world, breaking my New Year’s resolution before the first month of the year is over.  I clearly have not gotten back to blogging weekly, but seemed to have moved to monthly instead, so that’s my revised resolution. Blog at least once a month, and more as needed for my sanity and peace of mind.

     As month one of 2012 moves closer toward being in the past, life speeds on by.  My oldest son is now certified to scuba dive up to 40 feet as a Jr. Open Water diver. My youngest has all but abandoned his “patch therapy,” lacking the internal motivation to improve his sight within the offending blind eye, in which his vision has never really improved (even with the cataract removed), but he’s happy and healthy in every other way, so I guess that’s more than enough blessing to ask for this month.  One thing he is motivated to do is become a boy scout.  He’s in the Wolf Den of the Cub Scouts currently, and he spent all last weekend, working hard with my fiancé to complete Achievement #8, Cooking and Eating.  He helped plan, shop, prepare, serve, and clean up breakfast, lunch, and dinner for most of the weekend, and surprisingly enough, he actually ate the healthy meals he planned (the requirement was to have at least 3 different foods from the food pyramid for each planned meal).  This was my picky eater’s greatest accomplishment, eating green, leafy salad and chicken that was not pressed into a Burger King shaped crown.

     The other big event of the month is part of my fiancé’s Christmas present, beer-making supplies. For a man who loves to cook and try specialty brews and loves science, this is a perfect pastime. It’s hard to get anything but Bud Light here on the island, and coming from Oregon, my honey is used to having access to all the microbrews that are part of a beer connoisseur repertoire.  J  In fact, having tried some of these microbrews myself, I have become a bit of a beer snob, and I no longer wish to drink the everyday brew.  I did not know how complex brewing was until we started this process. The science of the yeast, fermentation, and carbonation is fascinating, and keeping everything completely sanitary throughout the whole process can be nerve-racking, but it will all be worth it to have our very own batch of brew, the first of which will be ready to try this coming weekend.  My Christmas present was a different kind of “brew” gift, in the form of a coffee roaster.  I am now also spoiled on specialty coffees, and the chow hall brews no longer measure up, but it’s been really fun to make all our own stuff lately.  My back door neighbor taught me how to make her homemade bread this month, and I am going to try that this weekend.  Now, if we could just do a full-scale garden in between the Coconut tress of my side yard, we’d have it all.  J  

     Someday, maybe, when we are back in the states we can go even more “organic” and natural.  My future in laws went to a relative’s wedding not so long ago where the couple lives completely off the land. I admire people who do this, although I don’t think I could go all the way back to the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder (even though there was a time as a little girl that I wanted to live like her).  So, life on an atoll has its disadvantages (not always having fresh bread or the variety of produce or other grocery products we’d always like), but you take lemons and make lemonade by figuring out ways to do it yourself, and on an island where there are not so many other distractions, you have the time and ability to do so.  Chalk it up to just one more of my varied experiences of island life.