New Year, Same Me

   As the hours wane for 2018, a tradition of looking through the thousands of photographs I've taken throughout the year commences. 

 t first begins with just me reliving the past year but inevitably, I begin roping in my clan to join in the memories. With the ease of technology in this age, not only do I have photographs to recollect, both in digital and hardcopy forms,  but short videos and memes I’ve designed as well. This morning, we marveled at how our lives changed throughout this past year and how many fun memories we made just enjoying our day to day. Last year’s focus was, in fact, making memories.





  For those who wish to just read the highlights:

• Keira is living in an apartment in New Underwood, tackling night classes and management classes while working full time. She is also New Underwood's resident Cat Lady.
• Sydnie moved into her first apartment in Rapid City, graduated high school, and is holding two jobs with one being in the healthcare field, with on the job training for becoming a nurse. She was accepted to SDSU but has chosen to decline the offer until she truly knows where her interests are.
• Summer is an avid Summer....doing her thing, taking high school classes, being a role model “big”  sister and designing and creating her costumes for the next comic con.
• Finn began the year crawling and finished the year sprinting and toilet  trained. She is an artist, gardener, chef, housekeeper, sports lover and outdoors girl obsessed with her hatred of  flies.
• Clayton knows stuff.
• Cris knows lots of useless but interesting factoids.

   We began our year traveling for business in a record winter storm. We found ourselves in minus 21 below as a high, just a few mere miles from the Great White North,  staying extra days to make an important meeting for his career. We still remember quite fondly just how warm the hotel's wonderful pool was. In South Dakota, the weather was unseasonably warm with open waters and Summer, Finn & I took in more trails of the beautiful Black Hills with our four footers. Our backyard was still welcoming as we practiced our yoga daily outside and Finn explored the grounds crawling around.


   February brought the snow to our area, forcing us indoors more often, and thinking about the possibilities that our future held. Dreams abounded! My artwork took on more meaning, more of me poured into each stroke. After years of self teaching, I challenged myself to not mask my visions any longer or get wrapped up on the rules. My Clayton has unlocked any door I had. I found myself painting more often and with purpose....not lost or anxiety ridden as I had always been before. My days of nurturing our wee Finn with breastmilk were quickly coming to an end and I took in every second I could. I kept to my autoimmune lifestyle and my hair has been the longest it has been in over 25 years! 


    March is monumental in our family...it hosts the date of our marriage plus the start of what we call "the birthday season". Finn celebrated her first birthday in Finn fashion at a local hotel's swimming pool with our family and some of her extended family. Her older siblings were joyous to "swim with the Roo" and the grandparents enjoyed watching our family be a family together. Our kids, ranging in ages from 1 to 20, have lots of varying goals-There's lots going on for us to enjoy!


   Our April was filled with birthdays and fun stuff like Finn AND Clayton's first kite flying adventure. We celebrated the arrival of spring with backyarding, hiking and cycling. We enjoyed our Mustang and listening to the birds talk in our yard. Prom was in our midst again and the weather held perfect. We were no longer held hostage indoors, reflecting on things yet to come or not come on the business side of our lives.
   My sweet husband adopted a bonsai tree for me  for Mother's Day and I began the art of bonsai. Steeped in history, this art quickly is becoming a passion for me. The tree still lives.  My birthday was spent in a tree line along a crest of the Black Hills with two of my favorite people. And true to form, the girls and I were lost for a short stint. Our adventure brought us to breathtaking views and laughs. Also, when we got cell service again, I found myself  ribbed in texts by  beloved cousins about my coupe of the year older persuasion and I quickly let my parents who had been waiting in our driveway to take me to lunch that we were alive and well and 20 minutes out since I knew where we were finally. Such is the fantastic life of an immensely lucky home gal.
   Summertime in our house means outdoors as much as possible. We swim, we hike, we bike, we stargaze, we dream, we love, we laugh, we savor. We garden and enjoy what our backyard offers us. It is my art studio, our family gathering place, movies under the stars  and as a wildlife watching point as deer live in the backyard next door. We got to see our resident doe calf twins there. Magic happens when you open your eyes and see. I am a nature mom....getting to be home has been simply amazing. We were outside by 8am, backyard outdoor yoga at 9, playing and artwork or basketball or swimming or blowing bubbles, playing the uke and inside by 8 lol. I didn't think I did as much hiking this year - until I looked back at my photographic history. 

 e might have rivalled our 50+ miles we put on last year! This year, Summer bypassed me in height too and those  long legs served her well on the trails with her finishing first for a change.


   Our summertime ended with a few car travels - we enjoyed the hospitality of the big city Minneapolis on a business excursion, with Clayton having an important meeting and the girls and I taking in the local transportation to downtown. We took the girls to a fondue restaurant and the Mall of America. We finished our summertime season with a joy ride to New Mexico, staying at their state parks in our tent with our four footers. We loved everything we experienced there from the locals to the vast views and beautiful colors Life is a bit slower there than we are accustomed to in the north. We swam in sinkholes,  looked at aliens and apartments. 

On that trip, we were called by mom to say dad was rushed to the hospital for his heart failure condition. His emergency visit prompted his doctor to push his heart surgery that seems to be working wonderfully. Mom is semi-retired (if there is such a thing) and they seem to be on the go! She had her share of health problems but with the right crap (I’m being literal) she is her old self again! 
     Our fall was busy with Sydnie moving into her first apartment and graduating from high school. She is working two jobs, one in the healthcare field working her towards becoming a nurse.  Keira is living in an apartment with her boyfriend in New Underwood and  taking evening classes, working on management classes for her job and working full time. She also is New Underwood's resident Cat Lady. She is loving being a fur baby mom. Summer began the year in middle school classes and finished the year excelling  in high school classes. She is a wizard in algebraic forms and advanced high school geometry. She also is celebrating the fact that she can finally read movie subtitles in the amount of time needed without pausing the show....#dyslexialife.
   Winter arrived for us in our last night  in the tent - on  a camping trip at Angostura with my parents and uncle. We had a glorious bike ride around the reservoir, good food and campfire laughter and awoke to snowflakes as the heater in our tent kept the cold out.

   My extra time away from much social media has afforded me more time to work on personal goals.  This fall, my newest artwork captured the eye of a curator and I was encouraged to submit artwork to a board of their curators. I was awarded not one, but two, one-year contracts by an INTERNATIONAL art gallery, 1340gallery, that represents "not only artists you know, but artists you should know". This gallery is a tremendous opportunity towards my global art goals. Locally, one of my pieces was used as a business’ IGChristmas greeting. In June, I traded a few paintings for a ukulele and boy did that turn into a massive obsession.  I also have achieved a third grade level in Spanish and am still working on it. I'd say the grammer or proper use of grammer has been the biggest difficulty. Finn can take direction in both English and Spanish at this point. I practice using it in real life with others on my Instagram and that has been a huge asset since I have to spell things correctly too.

   Clayton and I have learned the art of patience not only with this gaggle of girls but in his career path as well. The government works like molasses in winter sometimes! We plan on supplying details in the near future...however, we thought that last January! 

Happy New Year and to all and a prosperous and blessed 2019!

Less Facebook brought the world a little closer

 

Es primavera mi familia y amigos!

    I did it folks, I became a ghost on the social media mogul Facebook. I am no longer a puppet with strings abiding to people's twists and turns, shouts and "likes", mean spirited remarks or banter or unabashed fluffery to provide the world with proof that I like/love someone. I no longer have a ticket on  the daily political roller coaster ride. I am no longer at the mercy of feeling pressure to participate, or just watch or have knowledge of any of the shenanigans of the masses that mask their true feelings with the various forms of cyber bullying. That all too  often translates into bullying in real life, creating a world of disconnectiveness.



                         I           AM         FREE
and actually not in the dark as "they" would have you believe. I still know the news, I still talk to family or friends or acquaintances who desire to actually know me and not peep at me through a keyhole unsuspecting. I feel connected and the sun shines brightly.

Now I get to say I'm "fit, healthy and over 45"

This was us on my 46th birthday!

We celebrate life!

   When I started Facebook years ago, it wasn't the bullies playground as it is often known of  today. It was a wonderful new environment where I could keep up with my long distance folk and banter with the ones I saw daily. It was a place of sunshine and laughter.  It was a wonderful forum to find like minds, to share grand ideas, to explore other views and to broaden my mind. Of enjoying my human relationships and sharing with them a tiny piece of my world and spread happiness. It was a place where people still held their tongues and valued their manners. It was sometimes a place of open worship, not one chastising others life choices.

    It was never a place for me to share my burdens unless they were funny, all of which  were first world problems, or talk about them at any length, complain vaguely about someone, nor a place I wanted to waste any of my time viewing people's faults and then complaining about the stupidity of mankind. After I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease, I attempted to spread knowledge of my autoimmunity and to maybe help others with other autoimmune conditions,  invisible diseases.

     This new age of Facebook became a burden to me....seeing all of my friends and family in turmoil over different things, much of them having nothing to really complain about....someone larger sitting in front of them at a sporting event, the wrong coffee was given out at the drive through window, someone else's obesity offends them, or educating the world on how important their relationship to their deity is and should be the most important thing, etc. It was certainly no comfort to me when we lost our babies, there was not a feeling of closeness or camaraderie in the days that we grieved. Later, we often found people trying to "see" things through our teens' accounts.... and not necessarily connecting with them to cheer them on through life or help them when they stumbled. It was sometimes used as a tool.

    Our (my husband and mine) joint Facebook feed became a shouting ground with people screaming at the top of their keyboards for all to see. Soon competitions ensued over lifestyles, actual gifts for self and family, arrogance and verbal pestilence became a mainstay. The Facebook I grew up with had evolved into this evil empire that sucked on the very souls of humanity and made people feel very ALONE in their strife. As I have watched the demise of this social exchange, I felt a need to be super positive and to spread joy. Honestly, it began to feel overwhelming.

    In real life, I  have changed the world in which I live by being the person in charge of overseeing the youths that had been  court mandated and saddled with  community service. I chose their tasks, made them work, listened and talked to them about theiir journeys, tore them down and built them up. I showed I cared deeply for those who ultimately felt the world did not. Which means,  I have touched souls, helped youth grow, made a difference in people's lives. I GET to say that.  I felt good trying to make a difference. I try to  inspire. I have been contacted by people I have been associated with  years before and they have told me, that me....little tiny me, has made a difference in their lives. Not a lot of people can say that.

  But, it occurred to me as I have watched Facebook evolve, that many of the people on that particular social experience want to be in the dramatics. They create it, foster that feeling and let it ride. They thrive in the shadowy human experience. It cannot be changed or altered right now. They need to feed their emotional necessities. It is far easier to allow yourself to feel a widely false connection on social media, that to actually put yourself out there, in life, and forge a real concrete one. It is far scarier to let others in, to look past their defects, and love them anyways. I have faith in the human spirit that we will someday be able to do just that. Until we get close to that day, I will continue to welcome my mornings with the chirping of birds, the smiles of my family, a chat about how the night's sleep was, and to skip into the sun rays of the life giving air I breath. I will greet folks with a smile, and savor every gift presented to me.
                             Life is grand beyond the screen.
  Now when I run into people, they truly ask me questions about my life. They wonder how I am and make a connection you can't find on the screen. They hug, they grab my hand, they rub my shoulder, they show me that my existence in their world matters. They want me to feel close to them and they are forced to demonstrate that in real time. Moments are not wasted. No longer am I at an event and people let my presence go unnoticed. Indeed, I have made my world closer for myself. Be not afraid to try it - you'll be surprised at how your human experience changes! 

Enjoying a birthday hike!

Blessings!