Remembering my mom

One month ago my mom passed away.  She was at home, as she wished, and had visits from friends and family.  She also asked for singing and even dancing around her bedside and so we fulfilled her wishes.  The solidarity of joining voices and invigoration of dancing eased the sorrow of seeing her physical decline.  It was a powerful experience to be there at a time when great unanswerable questions about the mysteries of the universe were so present.  There were words floating around that I never got the full context of, but the gist I got was that my mom had said "we come into this world alone, and we leave this world alone" and I'm not completely sure what she meant because I haven't had the chance yet to delve into it with ones who know, but again it begs contemplation on those great mysteries.

One thing I do know is that my mom would want us to keep on living fully, celebrating and appreciating what we have in this life.



Chris and the kids came to Michigan to be there for the memorial service and it was a lovely event with loads of meaningful participation and storytelling.

And then we drew ourselves away from Michigan and came home to try to get back into the swing of things, in the midst of the holidays.

Audrey participated in a beautiful Christmas pageant at her school.



Chris and I had a lot of fun and silliness at our friends' annual Christmas party.


Our little family celebrated Christmas with all the allure and excitement of Santa and elves.

And we rung in the new year with a couple close friends, we watched televised broadcasts of midnight in other times zones and we laughed together and sang one last song for 2015.



Below is my mom's obituary and the program for one part of the memorial service with a piece of writing that brings comfort, reminds me of the great care, concern and interest she had in those she met all around her, and inspires me to live with love and peace in my actions.

Thanksgiving

We had Lisa, Rahja, Oli, & Noah visit for the thanksgiving weekend, the cousins had a great time together.




The young cousins got to hang out while Chris & I got to ski with Oli, he did great for his third time ever on skis.



We had a fun turkey feast with a couple neighbor families.









We had fun romping in the snow and then closed out the weekend by putting up our Christmas tree and moving on to making gingerbread cookies, a favorite holiday tradition from my childhood.

Nicaragua part three

One more highlight from Ometepe was the natural cool water springs called Ojo de Agua. The waters were lovely and peaceful, so much so that Audrey and Julian passed out afterwards. The light green under us is the stump of a giant tree.


























There were other spots we could have visited but the ocean was calling us back so we got on the ferry and enjoyed the views and the signs on the restroom doors.



























After a few more days at playa majagual we packed up and said goodbye to the howler monkeys and to our buddy Herly, the caretaker at Max's house.








We returned our rental car at the border then caught a bus on the other side.






We had one more night of partying at a hotel in Costa Rica before we caught a plane back to the USA.

Nicaragua part two

Ometepe is an island on Lake Nicaragua made up of two volcanoes, on of which is active, you can see it below putting out some plumes.

















There are many interesting attractions on the island: ancient petroglyphs





beautiful flora

















I spy a monkey












There was so much there I need to make another post...see part three.

Nicaragua

We flew into a town in northwestern Costa Rica and headed straight for the border. Audrey and Julian got a ride on a bike cab on the way from the Costa Rica exit office to the Nicaragua entry office.








We were glad to make it to San Juan del Sur so we celebrated there before making the 25 minute drive north to the beach house.






The house was in a beautiful spot close to two beaches, one with big waves we could hear from the front porch and one with the nickname Baby Beach, this is where we did the majority of our swimming and often had the beach to ourselves.


















































Chris did some surfing and got a couple lessons from Orlando who coached him enough to catch a couple big waves. Unfortunately his progress was cut short by a nasty ear infection. Orlando wanted to teach Audrey to surf next but we decided instead to take a little trip to Ometepe...see part two.

Houston visit

We had a nice time visiting family in Houston, including brand new baby Sawyer!



























It was a quick, fun visit and then we flew to Costa Rica.