...with or without us! Do you ever look back at time...the last few weeks, months, years? Where did they go? What did you do in that time? Somehow I find myself toward the end of 2009. Next month we will have been in Fresno for a year, in Cali for almost a year and a half. I think about these things as family members who haven't seen my kids for the last year or so comment on how grown up they look in pictures and how they sound on the phone, and as people that I know continue to grown, age, and go thru life. I look at people around me, my peers, and can't believe that we're almost 30 (not that that's a bad thing!). My brother will be 30 in a few weeks. My sis is serious about her guy and we're hoping for a summer wedding (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge Janna!!*). My little sister who was two years old when she was a flower girl in my wedding is now ten years old!
Another thing that made me think of the passage of time, the waxing and waning of the seasons, was a friend's loss of her 2 1/2 year old son. Silas fought a hard battle with cancer, and left this world November 1st. His mom's
blog chronicles his life, illness, and death. Our lives are so short, likened to a vapor in the Bible. We're here one moment and gone the next. Our lives are simply a drop in the bucket of time. Some lives are much shorter than others, like our little one and Silas, who were here for such a short time. But no matter how long we're here, each one of us is here long enough to fulfill our purpose. That's something that I am constantly pondering...my purpose. Oh, I know what I'm here for, as far as the broad spectrum of things. But my day to day life, every thing that I do in every moment...does it have purpose? The time that I spend every day, with my family or with my coworkers and patients...is it spent purposefully? Am I spending my time wisely? Do I make each moment count? I see areas that could use improvement, areas that could benefit from improved focus on purpose. I work with a girl who just came back from maternity leave following the birth of their second child. She apparently read some of my blog, pulled me aside one day recently, and asked me why I'm working on the Neuro floor. At first I had no idea why she was asking this...did I seem unhappy? Then she said that she read my blog and was wondering why I wasn't in L&D! Turns out that she wants to be an L&D nurse as well. I explained my rationale for not requesting a transfer yet, but her question left me asking myself questions. One thing is for sure, I need to get my application in for school. I wasn't able to start the winter term because the trip to Kentucky for the start of school would have fallen during a family reunion. But spring...ah, spring has such potential! And I can't wait to start school again, to have drive behind research. I've been wanting to start doing more research-type posts...I'm a statistic/fact and figure fiend...but I find myself being in the mood more to contemplate than to study.
So, I found a CSA that suits our needs quite well! For those not familiar, "CSA" stands for "Community Supported Agriculture". It's a great way to support your local farmers, know where your food came from, and buy locally and in season. Some CSA's require that the members spend x-amount of time working on the farm (not much, but enough to acquire an appreciation of your food and where it came from), others don't. Some deliver, others require pick-up. The one that we chose is called
"The Farmer and the Dale" (the farmer's name is Dale). I find myself unable to make it to the farmer's market very often, as I work every Saturday and most Wednesdays, the days on which the market is open. So, with this CSA, it's like the farmer's market coming to your door! I also found a source of fresh chicken and duck eggs. I was hoping for true free-range, but the coyotes here are so bad that it's virtually impossible...they snatch chickens in broad daylight!! The family who raises the chickens, though, keep them as pets. They live in huge pens where they can roam safely, eat off of the farm and orchard that the family also keeps, and are not forced to lay year-round. Thus, we have to wait till spring is closer until we can get some eggs as they only produce a few eggs during the winter. But they've invited us over to have a look at the farm and the other animals, and allow the boys to collect a few eggs so they can really appreciate where the eggs are coming from. Now, to find a good local source of dairy! I'm pretty sure that there's a farm near here, I just have to research it out a little bit. I want to know if I can get it straight from the farm instead of from Whole Foods, where's it's twice as expensive. One thing that I have gotten hooked on since moving out here is
St. Benoit Yogurt. It is SO GOOD. Our local Whole Foods just stopped carrying it, though...so now I have to find a way to get it. Maybe I can bring a cooler every time we go to San Francisco and do a pick-up!
~ Fitted sheet...and Jasmine getting flashbanged...
~ Flat sheet
~ Everything put together! 
I was going for a moderate shade of purple...darker than lavender but not too dark. I committed a cardinal sin in the dyeing world and didn't test the color before I took the plunge. But hey, I'm not too picky and this set didn't have to match anything, so I didn't really care. I just did random circles in random sizes and used Rit dye in the washing machine. Minimal effort, great results! Oh, and the sheets were on clearance from Wal-Mart for $15, 100% cotton flannel, perfect for the cool weather we're having!