Well, it has officially been over a year since my last post and I know that is technically a sign that I am not really invested enough to keep this thing going, but I am not one to give up so easily. I will just take this opportunity to run down a little update of the life events, ups and downs that have kept me away from this blog this year, which will serve as a sort of preview of the things I’ll be blogging about in the next few posts.
Just after my post last May we brought home our precious little Rosie, a rescued pit-mix (we think she may have a little jack-russell in her) from Arkansas, who turned out to be quite a handful. She spent the year reminding us of how glad we were that Pippie had outgrown her puppy stage & she learned a lot of good manners from her big sister. We are so glad to have a companion to wrestle with Pippie & such a spit-fire to add to our family.
Within the last year we’ve also had some losses, our sweet little kittie, Lettie (short for Lorreta) passed away over Thanksgiving, from complications surrounding her eating a zipper pull. The tragedy of her passing still hangs heavy in our home from time to time. We try to focus on the memory of good times we were able to share with her. When we had adopted her, and her brother Merle from the local Humane Society we never could’ve guessed that we’d be losing one of them so soon. Lettie’s brother Merle has been accepted by the dogs as one of the pack, and when he is not up on his cat towers and cat walk, he can be found watching birds out the back window with Pippie, wrestling (although we try to prevent this) with Rosie or just lounging around & drooling like a mastiff.
We are also transitioning into the “empty nest” part of life with our human child, who has flown from our little nest into her dad’s where she will soon be launching from, out into the world to make her own way. This part of parenting is bitter sweet. There is a kind of peace that comes from letting go & knowing that you have done all that you can to prepare them for the world that waits, and a kind of terror that you didn’t do enough, or that they didn’t listen. Only time will tell and we will, of course always be here if life bumps back too hard.
Through all of this transition, I chose to turn inward, spending a lot of time outdoors, alone with my thoughts. This spring, however, I’ve been emerging & tackling new adventures that I can't wait to share. I was able to go back to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this past February & June for the Becoming an Outdoors Woman weekend workshops where I learned so much about cross country skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, archery, fishing, back packing, etc… Not to mention all of the beautiful places and things I saw. I also taught my first outdoors classes. I was asked to run a children’s class at my local homeschool group and I taught a class in preparation for a hunt as well as one on wild edibles and medicinals at my local sportsman’s club for their Wild Women of Washtenaw event. As if that wasn’t enough, I also received a small creek boat from my amazing husband for our anniversary and this spring I have been testing it out on the water a little bit. I can’t wait to write more about these things and others in the months to come.
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| image by Jason Davis |