Life on hold while in Super Non-stop Go Mode

Summer camping season is awesome. I love it. There's so much going on, ALL THE TIME. Yet life as I know it the rest of the year literally gets put on hold. I was so much more aware of that this year for whatever reason. Maybe it was making new friends at the beginning of the year (a number of them being teachers) and for them summer means no schedule, let's plan fun things to do and hang out. It's doesn't really make sense to 9-5ers year round or teachers that for me, summer means some weeks my life is put on hold. Actually, friends have been super, supportive and we've still managed to find snippets of time to enjoy summer daze but its a tough balance to maintain priorities and friendships. Kudos to the friends who've kept in touch, not taken my lack of availability for calls & texts personally and who haven't forgotten about me.

Even bigger props to JC who is working in the lives of kids and families this summer. It's such a mystery to me and I love love love that the God of the universe chose this time in history to allow me to be a part of witnessing what happens in and through Him at Camp Hebron.

Summer Solstice

i.e. National Naked Hike Day

Just going to copy & paste this article.

The Pros and Cons of National Naked Hiking Day

By Liz Tracy Fri., Jun. 17 2011 at 9:00 AM

via hikingnaked.com

It's time to get nekked. But bring bug spray.

​​ Naked Hiking Day takes place this year on June 21, a Tuesday. Seems like an innocuous day to get out of your underwear and gallop out in the open air. Instinctively, it makes sense. It's like, yes, go back to your roots, be all tribal and shit. But then the actual logistics of this "free spirited" activity awoke in us thoughts of asshole mosquito bites, and nippular poison ivy.

There are pros and cons to wandering the wilderness in the nude. The idea of grabbing a hiking stick (an actual stick, you perverts), our Nalgene filled with filtered tap water, strapping on our finest hiking boots, and taking off everything else sounds like a really fun time! Let's look at what we should be specifically worried and stoked about.

Bugs, snakes, critters: Con

Bugs suck. In Boston right now, they have an influx of giant mosquitoes the size of an orgy of wasps, saw it on TV. Down here, our mosquitoes are twenty times as hungry. The Everglades are filled with child-sized munching bugs of all sorts, things like giant beetles, fearless grasshoppers, and critters that would turn Andrew Zimmern's stomach. Without the protection of fabric, you might as well cover yourself with honey and lay in an ant pile. It's like you're a meat kabob in a pen with starving tigers.

Achieving an actual sensation of freedom: Pro
Being naked rules. Maybe you're self-conscious. Here's a little note for you: get over it, you'll be dead soon enough, enjoy those flabby tits and flat tushies to their fullest. It's not like being naked in a warm enough climate is simply something that seems liberating, it freakin' is. It's awesome.

Rangers: Con
sn't there something, maybe everything, illegal about walking around nude in public? There was that women can be topless in New York thing, but generally speaking we mean. Does it make you a sex offender to be caught in the flesh in public? If you're hiking naked in a national park, and you get caught, would that make it a federal offense? These are things we need to know before dropping trou in the outdoors. Call your nudist lawyer friends, you've got at least one. Ask around.&

Other hikers: Pro/Con
After you get over being self-conscious, it kind of seems like it'd be fun to prance around naked, but running into other people on the trails might make the whole affair kind of either exciting or embarrassing. It's safe to bet everyone huffing and puffing in the summer air over broken twigs is going to be about 300 pounds of hairy man meat, so chill out, bring some pepper spray, bear spray, bug spray, and get ready to show Mother Earth the beauty she made in you.

Happy trails!

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Christmas in May

I moved in to the 'mobile home' (I'm told Trailer sounds too white trash) August 2010 so this is my first spring in my new place. It is so fun to see what little beauties are growing up all around. Makes me thankful for all this rain we've had. Welcome May flowers!
My grandmother has a green thumb and her roses are the BEST fragrance I have ever smelled. It's not often I get flowers but wild or home grown roses FAR outlast store bought editions. Take note future husband. And I'll keep in mind that its the thought that counts.
Maybe my interest in things that grow stems from g-ma. Or maybe its natural for God's creation to admire the rest of his creation. I planted a few strawberry seeds 2 weeks ago and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. Today I put some Simpson Elite Lettuce (Burpee brand, teehee. Really? Is that someone's last name?) in the ground. There's just something right about eating something you planted, cared for and watched grow.

Day 1
lovingly placed, miracle grow added, watered


Take a walk with me around my home. I don't know what any of them are but they are more beautiful than Solomon in all his splendor.

Jazzy planted this last summer. I kept it in my house all winter and thought it died. It was so pitiful. Now look at it! So many spiritual lessons to glean from that one.



This one is a violet. That's all I know.



I thought about posting these on facebook but honestly WHO CARES about the plants around my house. I'd bore myself with them. Yet I felt I had to document them somewhere and this is like my secret public soap box.