Month: March 2023

Lively

Vacations are great, but what awaits at home after 10 days of being gone?

Have you ever noticed that when you come home from a vacation you have to do all the work from when you were gone, so you’re playing catchup for a couple days, or a week, depending on how long you’ve been gone. That’s how I have felt this past weekend and beginning of this week. Everything I had scheduled seemed to catch me off guard with it’s timing because of everything else I was trying to get caught up on. Consequently, this past 5 days has been lively to say the least!

I do however, love to get back into my routine. I enjoy the break from it on vacation, but when I get back, I am ready to jump back in and start getting my time organized again. Weirdly enough, I was excited to jump back in to waking up at 5:15 to teach early morning seminary. I do really enjoy the youth I get to work with and my team teacher, so it makes it fun, even if it is earlier than I usually care to wake up. I also enjoy getting my house totally clean. My husband and my boys did a great job picking up after themselves and cleaning up after meals and things, the dishes always got done, and big messes got cleaned up. But a lot of the deeper cleaning needed to be done when I got home. I am grateful for their thoughtful care of our home though, it made it nice to walk in to our home after a long day of flying, and not be met with a huge mess.

One of the really exciting things that was supposed to happen while I was gone, but really, I’m glad I was here to watch, was posts for my new greenhouse were put in. We are building our greenhouse out on the edge of our swamp so it gets a lot of the sun, especially in the spring and fall. Because it’s in a swamp however, we had to have 15 foot long metal pipes called pilings driven into the ground rather than putting in a traditional foundation. So the pile driver came yesterday and got that all done! On to building, but I don’t know when that will start, there’s a lot of other people on my husbands list as well. My husband and boys took great care of my little plant starts while I was gone, making sure the light got plugged in every day, and keeping them water. When I got home they were growing and happy. All of this makes me super excited about summer!

While I was on vacation I was able to paint almost every day. At home it seems like I go days without ever creating anything, whether it’s painting or drawing or sewing. I enjoyed the ability to paint so much while I was there, and know that it’s just about putting my mind to it every day at home. I decided when I got home I needed to work on something creative everyday, or as many days as possible every week. So, even through the lively week we have had I also was able to paint a lupine flower. It was a nice mental break each day that I sat down to paint, and I love the opportunity to do so. We’ll see how my desire to do it every day works out, but for me, it doesn’t need to be painting per say, it can be anything creative. I have also noticed that as the daylight increases, so does my energy levels and my drive to do more with my time each day. I feel like I have it all year long, but at least this year, I have noticed an increase this spring. I am grateful for the renewed energy that visiting my family gave me. I am grateful to be home and spring to be fast approaching here in Alaska, and I look forward to the many lively adventures that the next few days and weeks hold!

Home

What makes a house a home?

Thursday was our (my daughter and I) travel day home from Cedar City. It was a crazy day that day. We started out at 8:00 in the morning leaving Cedar. We were originally supposed to arrive in Anchorage at 8:10, which put us home before 10:00 pm, but we didn’t arrived at home until the next morning at 2:15 am . That’s not how it was supposed to work out originally, but with delayed flights at both Las Vegas and Seattle, we missed one connection, switched airlines, with more delays, and made it home 4 hours after we thought we would arrive. It was however, a good day to spend with my daughter, and we were safe all along the way, so all in all it worked well, just exhausting.

I am very much a homebody. I get very anxious as trips approach, even if it’s something I really look forward to doing, like visiting family I hadn’t seen in over 2 years. However, once we are on the road, I’m fine. I don’t mind flying and I enjoy wandering around the various airports and little gift shops, although I rarely buy anything, it’s fun to see what each city’s airport has to offer. I also enjoy people watching, and an airport is a great place to see people from all walks of life.

My mom asked me about half way through my visit this time if their home still felt like home. I thought a bit about that, and yes, it still feels like home. But it’s not about the actual house I have decided. Their home has changed over the years. There’s a new kitchen, new furniture, new carpets and the rooms get switched around periodically. Things get painted and the exterior has been resided with vinyl siding and a different color trim. What makes it home is family, particularly my parents. There is comfort and familiarity when they are there. I don’t think it would matter where they lived, and I feel the same comfort when they come to visit me in my home.

I have decided, as the quote above states, home is not a place but a feeling, and to a great extent the people whom we love, regardless of where they reside. My daughter and I had a great vacation. We visited with all my siblings and their spouses, nieces and nephews, and even saw some cousins and friends. I especially enjoyed visiting with my daughter there who is going to college, living at my parents home. We got to spend a lot of time with her and really enjoyed the things we got to do with all of them. You can read about our adventures in the 3 previous posts. I always find it hard to leave, and as my kids get older I find my heart torn between my home, and wherever they are at the time. I want to spend time with each one of them on a more regular basis and once or twice a year just doesn’t seem like enough. However, I am super grateful for the speed with which we can travel these days, and even if we are delayed an extra 4 hours, it’s still much faster than the alternative. I am also grateful for the technology that allows us to call or text, or even video chat any time. That wasn’t an affordable options when I left home.

Home is definitely where the heart is, and I am grateful for the family, immediate and extended, that always make me feel like I’m home no matter where in the world I am.

Cedar 3

Wow, this has been such a great visit with family this last 10 days. We have had a great time visiting family and enjoying the visits, the drives, and all the fun we have had. We are sad to be going home but excited to see home, family, and the dog.

One of the places I really wanted to take my daughter was to Red Cliffs Recreation Area. It’s kind of a mini Zion National Park only a lot less people. It’s a beautiful area with red rocks and arches and lots of hiking trails to explore. She loves photography and loves the color contrasts of the desert. This was one of my favorite places growing up and is only 30 minutes south of Cedar City.

One of my daughters favorite things is to drive up Cedar Canyon. There has been so much snow up the canyon and she hadn’t had her own car so she hadn’t gone up the canyon yet since she had returned to Cedar. A couple days after I arrived we found her a nice little SUV that had low miles and was the right price, so Tuesday we decided to go up the canyon. Cedar has had a lot more snow than they’ve had in years and there is a lot more snow up the mountain than normal, several feet more standing snow than we have at our house in Alaska. We didn’t go all the way to the top because of time constraints, but we enjoyed the drive and scenery we got to see.

This has been a fun vacation and opportunity to spend time with my family. I miss them when we’re apart and there’s never enough time when I’m here, but I know I’ll be back. I have also had some time to paint in between things, so here are some of the quick paintings I did, and one that took a little bit longer.

Cedar 2

The past few days have been relaxed, which has been so nice. I have had the opportunity to paint a number of small, quick sketches on our down time which has been relaxing as well.

I had the opportunity to go get ice cream with my oldest daughter and then drive to the Cedar City Temple to watch the sunset.

Saturday we drove down to St George to see the explosion of growth in that area as well as to hit Costco. All I can say is So Many People. It was crazy big. We also drove past a couple of temples, one under construction and one being renovated.

Today was a great day to be at Church. We got to hear a family friend speak about his mission. We had a great family and friends dinner and fun conversations after dinner with family. I am so grateful for family and the opportunity to be here. I am excited for this upcoming week! (And apologize for any typos or grammatical errors!)

Cedar 1

I love visiting my family! I am late tonight and my post will probably be short, but I thought I would share a couple of things we’ve been doing.

We flew down on Tuesday, started at around 1:00am. The flights were full and crowded, but typical and uneventful which is always nice. My sister and oldest daughter came to Las Vegas to pick us up and the 3 hour drive home was a great time to catch up with both my sister and daughter. We stopped for In n Out Burgers in St. George and then made it to Cedar City by about 2:00 in the afternoon.

We had a little bit of time to run to the store and then we went to a unique exhibit of a lifesize replica of the Old Testament Tabernacle. That was a fascinating tour and we learned some interesting details about the Tabernacle and the rituals and ceremonies performed there. The one thing I found most interest was that the Holy of Holies is 15x15x15 which represents perfection.

The evening was spent visiting with family and having dinner at one of my favorite restaurants – Costa Vida. I dream about that place sometimes. It was fun to catch up with the nieces and nephews as well as siblings and their spouses. The only people I didn’t get to see were my brothers.

Today has been much more relaxed. Many of the family members left early this morning for Disneyland so the house was pretty quiet. We did some shopping and touring around Cedar to see the changes and development since my last visit, and of course we drove up to see the temple while we were out and about. This evening we had another great dinner, this time with just my parents and siblings and just 2 nephews. It was so fun to just catch up in with just a few, and I finally got to see my brothers as well.

I love coming to visit, we have really busy days and then really relaxed and quiet days and I appreciate both. Also, apparently I brought the inclement weather. It’s rained and the wind has blown since I got here and tonight it’s snowing. Oh well, good thing I came to visit family not get a tan!