To the beach

Heading to the beach to spend time with my girl-cousins! I have been looking forward to this weekend for over a year, especially during the long, dark days of winter! Woo Hoo!

End of June 2015

My oldest child has started a new chapter of his life with the woman who we expect will be his partner for life. It's very exciting, I know they will be happy together and do great things in their lives. They are going to live in New England, which is pretty far from me. It's a bittersweet feeling, makes me want to enjoy every second of my daughter's last year in high school...

"The days are long, but the years fly by" Isn't that the truth?

Summer 2015

My honeysuckle before the hailstorm.

 

This is a photo of a vinca blossom in our garden that keeps coming back, much to my pleasure. 

I've been enjoying time with my family while working in clinic part-time this summer. Looking forward to getting to see professional soccer in July and then a long weekend at the beach with my girl-cousins! This will be a first for us, getting together without our parents or children. Sounds like so much fun catching up with cousins, some I have not seen for many years. When we were very young, all of our extended family was still living in Western Washington and we gathered regularly (at least 3 or 4 times a year) for holidays and birthdays. There ended up being 27 cousins on this side of the family--what great fun we used to have running around our grandparents' farm, playing in the woods and in the barn, feeding apples to the cows....wow....it will be incredible to just spend time with them again!

Christmas 2014

It's certainly been a while!  I was inspired by my cousin's blog and found that this site needed to be updated. I'm happy to report I competed graduate school and am now practicing as an family nurse practitioner. Hoping
for a peaceful holiday season for all.

late-July 2011

My research proposal has received IRB approval! My surveys should go out early next week.

It's been a busy month, full of travel. Spent time on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts in the past month. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend time with family. My cup is pretty much overflowing...

Rainy days in May

It's been a while since I checked in with this blog. I started another, Self-Care for Nurses, and have been busy with family, work and grad school. My thesis is going to committee next week for approval before I distribute a self-care survey to nurses! I am actually half-way through my program.

And...I've got little radishes, lettuce and chard plantlings in my garden after being in the ground as seeds for less than a week! Our area has had more rain this year than in anyone's recent memory. Flooding problems have started. My prayers go out to all who have been put out of their homes or lost loved ones due to floods, tornadoes or other disasters. Take care.

September 8, 2010

School is in again and fall is in the air... I was in class again today, as well. The graduate program I am attending is primarily online, but we meet on campus in the fall for "intensives". It was great to see my classmates, several of whom I had not seen since meeting them for the first time last fall. At my regular job as a school nurse, I am actually the only healthcare person in the organization, so it was wonderful today to have the opportunity to spend time with other nurses.

For an assignment, I am to write this week on the value of prevention. Suprisingly (0r not) there are people who do not value the prevention of health problems. Some will say as much when they are asked, but for others, it's clear in their actions. For some, the efforts involved in prevention are not worth the risk of depriving themselves of a pleasure. I've had people with tobacco addiction attempt to justify the habit with, "we all have to die from something." My response is that is a true statement, of course, but I personally do not want to die a long, agonizing death where I feel like I can't get enough air for the last several years of my life. I honestly don't know anyone who wants that kind of a death. The most important part of being a nurse, for me, is optimizing wellness for myself and those with whom I work. Wellness prevents and/or ameliorates many health problems. Prevention of health problems is part of the journey of living well--optimizing wellness. It's all part of the process.