Living Each Day Fully

I've read a couple of books over the last few months that made me think about how I'm living and how I want to live. Generally, I feel like I'm in a better place in life now than a year ago. I've grown as a person, have better figured out my priorities, and feel God's blessings daily. Nevertheless, there's always room for improvement.

In The Happiness Project, author Gretchen Rubin has some great suggestions about how to be happier. Some of the ones that struck me were to declutter, sleep more, don't expect praise or recognition, quit nagging, be silly, remember birthdays, be generous, don't gossip, make new friends, and give something up. She's got lots of great stories and it's impressive how she reads so much and retains so much from that reading and is able to incorporate it into her book.


A friend gave me Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It's about a woman who gets early-onset Alzheimer's and proceeds to show her point of view of what it's like to live with the disease. There are good days and bad days, and on the bad days, life is very tough. I appreciated getting to learn more about the disease. The book also showed that even though your existence is going along smoothly, you may get a hiccup in your life that changes it more than you ever thought possible.



These two books, along with a variety of blogs I read and talks with friends, have really stressed the importance of living every day to its fullest. Over the past few months, we've had a number of local residents pass away and a number of others get seriously ill. With such a small community, we really feel the impact. No one could have guessed that this December we would be missing so many of our friends.

So I want to reach out to everyone I know and give you a huge thank you for being part of my life. You make a difference. And I am working on taking the time to express my gratitude, to live in the moment and smell the flowers and enjoy the smell of those flowers, and to spend my time on things that matter to me. There will never be enough time to do everything, so I might as well do what I really want to do.

As I continue on my journey of life, I'm continually looking for advice for living a happy, meaningful life. And advice on good books. Let me know if you have any of either to share!

Getting Ready for the Christmas Bird Count

Monday is our annual Christmas Bird Count for this area. It started here in 1997 and has been going on every year since, and it's been interesting learning about some of the trends (which you can see in an article in this publication).  Worldwide, the very first Christmas Bird Count was in 1900, which makes this project the longest citizen science project in existence.

To get ready, we started putting bird feed in our feeder about a week ago. It didn't take long for dark-eyed juncos and pinyon jays to find it. The pinyon jays come in a huge flock and stay until they eat everything.


They are beautiful birds, although a little aggressive so they keep out the other birds. I was surprised by how the photos I took captured them in so many stages of flight.

 A neighbor's feeder also gets the pinyon jays, but also lesser goldfinches, and at the top, a white-crowned sparrow.

To expand the citizen-science aspect of this project, I visited Desert Boy's school and put up a bird feeder for them. They are going to help watch what shows up on Christmas Bird Count day and contribute to the effort.

 They were fascinated with the binoculars I brought. We also practiced a few bird calls (e.g., Canada goose, mallard, raven, mountain chickadee, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk). I was impressed how well they knew them. Although most thought the red-tailed hawk was an eagle because that's what television dubs in--a real eagle call is rather weird and unimpressive sounding.

 Then we made bird feeders they can take home with them. First, find a pine cone, tie a string around the top, goop it up with peanut butter, then roll in bird seed. Put in a plastic bag to get home, then take out and hang up outside.

The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully they will see some neat birds at home!

If you'd like to help in your local Christmas Bird Count, it's not too late to sign up. They are lots of fun, and you can participate even if you're brand new to birding. Trust me, it's more fun to look at birds for the day than you might imagine! You can also just count birds in your yard or on a walk and submit what you find.

Some Holiday Preparations

 We've been focusing on homemade Christmas items this year, and that's been a lot of fun. Desert Boy got a lesson on how to wrap presents the other night. He asked where I had learned how to wrap presents, and I told him "My mom." He said, "Your mom taught you a lot." I agreed.

 Meanwhile, Desert Girl was enthralled with a craft project putting together gingerbread people made out of felt that allowed her to use glue. Glue is a special treat in our house now, after several glue incidents. It is a carefully controlled substance.

 Desert Girl was trying hard to make her gingerbread dolls just right.

 We've also made some Christmas ornaments out of a sticker kit. It's funny how the kids can make even a simple design have some extra character!

 You can tell that these were kid-made! They will be happy reminders of this stage in Christmases future.

We had an extra form in the package, so I let Desert Girl do whatever she wanted, including using scissors. This is what she came up with. Notice the ponytail on the snowgirl. She was very proud of that.

Desert Boy wanted me to open a present early. This is what I got:

I asked him where his club was, and he said he was making it. Once it's ready, I've got an exclusive ticket!

 Here is one of the finished gingerbread people!

I so much appreciate the extra smiles and chuckles the kids share and create!

Big Winter Storm

 First came the clouds...

 …marvelous, out-of-this world clouds (okay, a little photo editing maybe made them a little more out-of-this world!).

 I hereby dub the cloud above the dumbbell cloud.

Then, after a slow start the next day, the snow started coming and coming. We got several inches down in the valley, and up on the mountain it was over 20 inches.


Not only did we get snow, we got frigid cold temperatures.

 Desert Boy asked if he could walk on the ice, and I told him to go for it.

 The kids didn't seem to mind. They were on their usual perches at the post office, waiting for the bus.

 Then the kids decided to play in the snow. In the parking lot (it hadn't been plowed yet).

 Of course one ended up covered in snow. It's a good thing kids are tough!

 I liked all the lines in this photo.

 My drive to work. It was kind of cool seeing the snow getting deeper and deeper. But also a little scary.

 A dark-eyed junco searching for food in a shoveled area.

 Can you spot the car? Maybe the windshield wipers that are sticking up?

It was quite the snowstorm, and with the temperatures, we'll probably have the snow around for a long time. Fortunately the kids got to go sledding yesterday and take advantage of the snow.

A Winter Trip to the Salt Flat and Sinkhole

The day before Thanksgiving Desert Boy didn't have school, so I took the morning off. Desert Girl had preschool, so I decided that after we dropped her off, we'd head to the nearby sinkhole with a stop at the salt flat on the way. Better yet, we'd take some of Desert Boy's friends.

We have a lot of salt flats, or playas, out here in the desert. The rain falls, runs down to a low spot and pools, and then evaporates. It often leaves behind salt. Sometimes the playas are hard and you can drive on them, and other times they are mushy and will cost you an expensive towing bill.

The temperature was just below freezing, so I was hoping that it would stay that way. I was a little concerned that if the snow melted it could make the playa just mushy enough that I would get stuck. With four kids. Miles from the nearest person. I told myself if that did happen, it would be an adventure they'd remember. 

This playa has a dug out spot that collects water. We went over to look for wildlife and found some deep snow and a little ice. I had to work hard to convince the kids not to step on the weak ice. I didn't want our outing to end in the first five minutes due to a soaked, cold kid!

Fortunately they listened and soon were running free across the playa. That's one of the best things about a playa. It's a wide, open space, and you can go anywhere you want.

While the kids ran, I looked for patterns in the snow and ice. 

These patterns were quite a bit different from the ones I found in the spring when I visited this same playa.

Meanwhile, Henry was busy rolling on the snow. You can see Ava's boots in the photo. She was rolling around too.

Desert Boy tried to make a snow angel, but the snow was a little too hard.

I found it kind of funny that the kids chose to lay down on a cold surface.

We all agreed after awhile that it was time to head to our next destination: the sinkhole. When I had first asked Desert Boy if he wanted to go to the sinkhole, he enthusiastically agreed.

"I want to go. We can look for snakes."

I smiled inside. Yes, the sinkhole is a major snake haven. But it was winter, and our likelihood of finding snakes was very small. In fact, this was the perfect time to take a bunch of kids there.

We parked by the fence and found a place to cross it.

Then I had the kids line up for a "before" photo.

Soon they were charging down. I had told them as we were pulling up that we were going to the bottom, and none of them argued. They were ready for some outdoor time.

The mixture of snow and hard ground made for some interesting falls, but we all made it down unscathed.

Then the real fun began: finding snake skins! The snakes shed their skins as they grow, and we found snake skins all over. The kids soon began a friendly little competition to find the most.

They all left with a pile of snake skins and big grins.

I knew the trip was a success when the next day one of the friends asked me, "Where are we going today?"

Soon, my little friend, we will go out again!