Hi again my small, yet patient group of readers! It’s good to be with you again. I am returning from what was supposed to be a month long Sabbatical with my husband, enjoying family events, visiting friends as well as bookstores and lighthouses. While we did get the family part done, and also got to visit many bookstores, 2 friends and 12 lighthouses… the trip was cut short by a week, due to the passing of my mother and our need to fly across country to manage the funeral. (Thank you for your condolences, very kind of you.) She lived one hundred years and nine months. I kid you not! So, long story short… sort of… after 7 flights for our little family alone, coordination with the funeral home and family spread out across the country flying in with multiple trips to the airport… “we did her proud” according to the wonderful minister who kindly led the service. She has known our family for decades and this is quite a loss for her also. She is a rock and I know she feels the loss as deeply as we do, yet in a different way.

We all made it safely back to our homes after managing a few post funeral details and then I caught a sinus infection that I could not shake. Gratefully, my doctor said I had done everything she would have suggested, but that I needed a boost. So on to antibiotics I went and just as I was recovering, my husband came down with something similar. He is also now on antibiotics and doing his best to work from home while resting and recovering also. Not an easy task. He was a rock through all of the schedule changes, booking and cancelling flights and reservations, supporting me during the funeral arrangements and funeral and then coming home to get groceries in the house while I was sick and taking his mother to a medical procedure, all while starting work again. No wonder he is worn out! He truly is, and was, amazing and I am most grateful for the support when I needed it the most.

So here I am, finally sitting down at the laptop again to get this blog back on track. I have so many creative things to share with you and I’m still catching up on documenting the experiences myself. I have updated the Engaging Art News page for you and will work on getting a series of new posts done in the next few weeks. Until then, find something that ignites your creative spirit and try something new too!

Photo above: Taken by me at the top of the Point Arena Lighthouse in Mendicino County, CA. More on this lighthouse in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!