It’s Christmas morning. A fire is roaring in our wood stove, Christmas music is playing in the background, and Davy and Daryl are getting their presents set up. John took the pups to the foothills to run and play in the snow. It’s the best kind of morning.
As I look back over 2014, I see a good year – much better than 2013 for me. Mostly what I see is that my ongoing health struggles are slowly improving. I started this year having identified several issues ranging from adrenal fatigue to vitamin D deficiency to torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders. After spending many, MANY hours in bed, I am now happy to report that I am feeling significantly better and am finally starting the long process of regaining my strength. I am hopeful that a year from now I’ll be able to write and report that I’m back to normal!
The boys anxiously watching their robot perform at the international competition in St. Louis.
Davy and Daryl, at nearly 17 years old, are spreading their wings in ways I never dreamed of and certainly never expected. They continue to be involved with their FIRST Robotics team, and are counting the days until the 2015 Kickoff (9 more days!!). This year their team did very well, and ranked in the top 100 out of over 3000 robots worldwide – they’re hoping to do even better next year! They have both continued taking their math/science classes, but this year branched out into other disciplines. Davy has chosen to take AP Composition, while Daryl is taking AP Economics and AP American Government. I suspect their first love will always be science and engineering, but it’s fun to see them explore other subjects.
He made it! Mt. Katahdin in Maine is the official end of the Appalachian Trail.
John’s passion has turned to hiking, and he spends many hours every week hiking up in the Boise foothills with the pups. He had planned to hike 700 miles on the Appalachian Trail this summer, but had to shorten that distance after his heart went back into arrhythmia – it was in 1996 that it first happened! This time he had an ablation which, hopefully, solved the problem. A month after the procedure, John hit the trail and hiked 350 miles through Vermont and Maine. He is now planning another big hike for next summer, but hasn’t yet chosen a destination. (You can read his journal entries from the hike here.)
I’ve been having a blast seeing what metal can do! I particularly enjoy working with copper, as I love the earthy, organic feel of it.
As for me, my passion has turned to metalsmithing. When I taught on the Navajo reservation back in the 1980’s, my teaching assistant was a Navajo silversmith. I loved what she made, and wanted to learn how to do it – but I also knew I wanted to travel and live abroad. Travel didn’t mesh well with the heavy equipment necessary for silversmithing, so I picked up beading instead. Now, I figure we are as stationary as we will ever be, so I dove in. It’s been a blast figuring out how to manipulate metal. I don’t have much up there now, but you can find my work here on my Etsy store.
I’ve never personally seen our cottage with snow – but the pictures our family send are lovely!
As a family, we continue to work on our cottage in Connecticut every summer. We’ve come a long way, but still have much to do. The cottage is now completely stabilized – the exterior has been scraped, sanded, and painted. The wooden supports holding it up have been replaced. The hole in the roof has been repaired. We’re confident that it won’t fall down now, so are turning our sights to things like getting a functioning toilet, tearing off three layers of shingles and reroofing it, and getting the windows re-puttied.
We have high hopes for 2015, and are looking forward to seeing what the new year brings. We all wish you the merriest of Christmases and the very best in 2015!
Nancy, John, Davy, Daryl
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