Goodbye 2017

Here I am at the end of the year looking back.  I realized that what makes the difference in how I feel about my life this year is not any one big event but all the small and simple things.  Looking back I am happy and content with how I spent my time this year.  I wouldn't say that this is the best year ever, but pretty close.  

A few years back I read a book, "The art of Happiness" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  He said to be happy try to visit a new place every year.  It doesn't have to be far away to exotic places.  Since reading that book I have tried to follow his advice, and my life has been enriched because of it.

The three most notable events/accomplishments for this year are
1. I became a US citizen and got my US passport
2. I walked 1000 miles 
3. I read 65 books 

   
2017 in pictures.

 *A big snow storm in January
I am really grateful that our nephews came and helped us with snow removal from our roof. 

*opera with our girls
It is always fun to go out with them.  This year's show was Puccini's Tosca.

*Minji's concerts
Our daughter, a music major, had numerous concerts and recitals throughout the year and we tried to make it to most of them.

*Citizenship and passport
After 25 years...

*Quilts for Mountain States Tumor Institute
This was to help a young man with his eagle scout project.  I made these with my daughter.  

*Family camping Trip
I don't know when and how all this started, but we go on a family camping/hiking trip over my birthday weekend and I love it.

*Huckleberry picking
My first time picking huckleberries.  We had a fun weekend with Mike's two brothers and their wonderful wives.  Complete with homemade marshmallows and an amazing sunrise.

*Happy Halloween 
My first time decorating for Halloween. I started with 5 ghosts, but they keep coming and I think we ended up with 9 of them (this happens when you have a lot of free time)  

*Mike's birthday trip to Utah
We took a quick trip to watch his basketball team the 76ers.  Mike has waited for years for the sixers to play well, and they have finally come out of the darkness.  We also stopped at the aerospace museum. 

*Meridian Temple open house
The temple was absolutely beautiful 

*Merry Christmas
A quick Sunday afternoon picture in our living room.  We are missing Suji and her husband Danny.

Looking forward.

For the new year I have two goals in mind.  Mike doesn't know about this yet, but we are a package deal.
1. Put our finances in order and save more.  Old age seems way closer now that we are over 50.
2. Take care of our health to avoid medical expenses and enjoy a better life. We already have planned a few hiking trips for the upcoming year, and I am going make better choices with the food we eat. 

I hope you all have a wonderful year full of love and prosperity. 

What I learned walking 1000 miles

At the beginning of this year I was invited to join a group called "1000 mile hopefuls" by a friend.  After 324 days of walking in the snow, rain, cold, and heat on November 27th I met my goal.

I wanted to see just how far 1000 miles is in a distance that I can see in my mind.  So here is what I found out using google maps.
It is same distance as
From Boise ID to Albuquerque, NM
From Boise ID to Phoenix, AZ 
From Portland OR to San Diego, CA
And equivalent to walking 5 times from Seoul S Korea to Busan S Korea.

What I enjoyed most about this experience was spending time with Mike. We went on a hike almost every weekend this year.  Even though we have been married 26 years, I never get tired of having him as company (partially because he ties my hiking boots for me and carry all the snacks and water for us).  

Here are three things I learned walking 1000 miles this year. (I learned a lot more but I'm not going to bore you with all of them.)
 First, I found it interesting that what made the difference toward my goal was not the long 18 mile hike over the weekend, but 3 miles everyday.  It is same way with everything in our life.  When our children were learning to play piano what made the difference was everyday practice, not one long practice before their lesson day. In the same way if we want to have a better relationship with our family members or friends the small things we do everyday have more impact on the relationship.  
Our daughter learned the same principle from her seminary teacher years ago and she shared it with me. Her teacher said you can't brush your teeth once a week for 21 minutes and expect the same result as brushing them everyday for 3 minutes.  This applies to everything from studying, exercising, learning, and also walking 1000 miles.
Second, I learned that if you want to rest you have to work first.  It sounds funny but after a long hike I am physically tired and worn out, but I am better emotionally and spiritually.  It sounds like hippy talk, but I feel connected to nature and gain a deeper appreciation to our God.  And nothing beats taking my hiking boots off and drinking cold water after a very long hike on a hot summer day.
Third, I really like having someone to report my progress to. It really helped me out with meeting my goal. As a group we had a FB group page where we can post our progress, encourage each other, share pictures, and what not.  It help me to be accountable and overall it was really good for me in many ways.   

Here are some pictures of the places I walked this year.

Boise foothills

Balancing rock

Sawtooths

Frank Church Wilderness

Mt Heinen

Cervidae peak

Kepros mountain

Snow Slide lake

Station creek trail

Happy birthday to Mike.

Look who is turning 50 this year.  I have spent more than half of my life with this man.  There are many things that I appreciate about Mike and I thought I would share few of them.  

First, he is a man with a great mind.  He has a great understanding of the scriptures and knows how to help others (mainly me and our children) learn.  He is a great teacher, but also a great learner.  I love our many discussions we have had over the years regarding religion, philosophy, history, psychology, language, and many other things.  I love talking to him about the books I read.  He always brings new and interesting things to my attention. We don't always agree on things, but that is the beauty of having discussions and we welcome our differences. 

Second, he is the perfect father to our children.  He is definitely the "good cop" in our parenting relationship.  He makes up for my lack of patience.  He is the one who blasts music and dances with the girls when I am out.  Our children love talking with him, playing games with him, watching movies with him and cooking with him.

   

  Third and most importantly, he is my number one fan.  I know I can count on him to be there for me, take my side when sides need to be taken, and support me on my decisions even when he doesn't agree with them.  I appreciate him for letting me go to school to earn my degree, which costs a lot of money and time.  I appreciate him for providing for our family so I can stay home with our girls. I appreciate him for building the bird houses, garden beds, chicken coops (we have two) and other crazy things.  I appreciate him for supporting me in my church callings over the years. He is my editor, walking dictionary, driver, baker, walking companion, and much more.

 Happy 50th birthday to Mike.

The things I carry in my car

About a month ago while I was on a short hiking trip with Mike I had to cross a small creek.  Instead of trying to balance myself on the rocks I decided to just walk through.  The water wasn't that cold, but since it was the beginning of the hike I really wish I had a towel in my car to dry my feet.  

Then a few weeks ago I came across a face book post asking, "What do you have in your car that you can use in case of an emergency?" Some people said all they have is some napkins and ketchup packets from a variety of different restaurants.  The most common items people have in their car are a first aid kit, phone charger, a change of clothes (I stopped doing this after my kids were potty trained), and water bottles.  There were a few people who carry everything except the kitchen sink.  They can totally survive in any situation for weeks if they had to (this is not me).

I wanted to see what I had in my car and add a few items.  So here is what I found in my car.

I have a first aid kit.  But this is so old some of the medications have been expired for years.  But other items like band-aids and pads are still good and I especially like the "call police" sign.  It is hard to see, but I also have a small first aid kit.  I am not planning to put any type of medications in the first aid kit, because they usually stay there for years and  end up being thrown out.  I always carry pain medication and what not with me if I am gone for more than a few hours.

 This is my "Good to have them around" pile. The water is definitely a must have item and I usually carry a case of drinking water in my car.  Those two bottles are carry over from the last case and I haven't restocked them yet. Did you notice that I have one food bar?  I guess that is better than none. I have some eating utensils, probably leftover from a picnic or something. How many pens do I need in my car?  Well, in case of emergency, and if I have to wait a very long time for help to get there, I could work on the book that I always wanted to write. A lot of these items just end up in the car, not because I purposely put them there.  Packing tape, dental floss, hats, and gloves are such items, but nonetheless they are nice to have in the car. 

This is my "why do I have this in my car?" pile. Over the years you gather things in your car and then forget that they are there.  Some of the pamphlets are from our trip east in 2013. And who knows why and how long that bottle of cherries has been in the car. The sea shell and small rock are from our trip to the coast.  They bring happy memories whenever I look at them, so even though they have no value in an emergency situation I am going to keep them.  The paper pile in the right corner is the papers with information that I don't want to throw away in the trash.  It may sound funny, but I am holding on to them to use as a fire starter.  I am a queen of building fires, but it is nice to have bits of paper on hand.

After looking through everything I realized that some things that should be in the car are not there anymore.  In the same way things gather in your car sometimes things get taken out and never get put back.  Some of these items are a flash light, duct tape, and a small knife. I will be putting those things back in the car and adding a case of water, a towel, and a blanket. 

"What about things for the car?" you may ask.  Like jumper cables, thingy to change a  flat tire and such. I never drive long distances without Mike, and If I am around town I would call a tow truck.  In another words that is Mike's problem.

What I am trying to carry in my car is very minimal for just small inconveniences and to, maybe, survive overnight in the car.  Whenever we travel we carry snacks, foods, extra clothes, and other necessary items. We also carry a water filter, stove, and extra food when we go out into the wild. 

It was nice to clean out my car, and now I have a towel in my car for my next creek crossing.

Talking about a weight problem that is not really a weight problem.

I am planning to go visit my family in Korea next year for my mom's birthday.  My mom is getting old and I need to go see her and mend our relationship while I can.  The last time I saw her was 11 years ago and we didn't part in a good way.  I think the most deep rooted problem is our difference in religion. Followed by, "I can make you become a better person by pointing out all of your short comings".  While she was visiting me for a month she constantly reminded me how overweight I was and my lack of housekeeping abilities.  

I am not writing about this to say bad things about my mom.  I think it is actually a cultural thing.  Years ago my friend came to America and we went to meet her at the airport and the first thing she said to me was, "Oh my goodness you got fat!" Can you believe that someone would say that to you?  A lot of Koreans think if you have a close relationship like a good friend or family members, you can say whatever is in your mind and it shouldn't damage the relationship.  It is something like tough love.  Koreans tend to think in a scale of all or nothing.  Either you are fat or have a super model figure.  If skinny jeans are in style, everyone wears skinny jeans, so much that you will have a hard time finding anything else.

I was out for my walk this morning and thinking about seeing all of my family in Korea and the first thought that came to my mind was, "Oh my gosh, I need to lose some weight."  I figure I need to lose about 20 pounds to pass as an acceptable weight for Korean standards in 5 months. I was thinking of ways to accomplish this weight loss.  It seems near impossible to lose that much weight since I have maintained about the same weight for the last twenty years.  I even thought maybe it is better for me if I don't go see my family.  How sad is that?

So how fat am I?  I don't think I am fat at all. I mean I can surely benefit from shedding a few pounds, but according to my doctor I am in a healthy weight zone. I do not have any health problems. I enjoy outdoor activities. I walk an average of 3 miles per day. I am quite content with my life.

I pondered about my initial, "Oh my gosh, I need to lose some weight" thought all day and it bothered me in a couple of ways.

First, it bothered me that I got bothered by the possible comment about my weight from my family and friends.  Why can't I just let that go? I would like to think that I am confident enough to not be bothered by such things.  The interesting thing is that when I am home in America I can totally say, "What they think about me is their business," and it doesn't bother me at all.  So why is it that when I meet (or think about) my family and friends from Korea I am worried about such a thing?  I think it is a little bit weird that I have two different responses to the same issue based on which culture I am dealing with.

Second, it bothered me that my family, who should be more understanding and loving, is the one who usually says more hurtful things to each other.  Like I said before it is a cultural thing, so I am pretty sure I have the same thought process, and it bothered me that I did the very same thing to my children from time to time.  Maybe it shows in a different way, but Americans are not that much different than Koreans in this regard.  We Americans can be so polite to strangers, but not so with family members.  We sometimes hold on to the love from our family like a "get out of jail free card."  We do and say whatever comes to our mind and think that it is okay because they love us.

So am I going to lose weight before I go? I will try, but I hope we can all overlook whatever the short comings we have and be able to enjoy each other's company.  We shall see...

    

Fresh egg display board

Part of the fun of having backyard chickens is daily egg collecting.  It has been five years since we brought our first chicks home.  During that five years we have tried a variety of different ways to store eggs.  We wanted to make sure that we eat the oldest eggs first.  In our first year we wrote the date which we collected the eggs in pencil.  It only worked for a short period of time.  Pretty soon we realized that we had to sort through all the eggs in a basket to make sure we used the older ones.  Not very effective.  

 For the last few years we have been using egg cartons with the tops removed.  This worked out pretty well.  We used them from the front and put new ones in the back.  As you can see in this picture I ran out of egg cartons and had to use an egg carrier that we used for our camping trips.  One problem I had with this method is that they are not very stable.  I knocked over the eggs twice and made a big mess on my kitchen floor.   

There are all kinds of things you can buy online to display fresh eggs.  Some of them are really cute and I would love to have them, but some are very pricey.  We decided to make our own (which means that I decide I want one and Mike has to do all the work).  We decided to use this old board we already had and use the circle saw to cut holes to hold the eggs in place.  

We set the eggs on the top of different sizes of the circle saw to figure out which size to use.  The green egg is a normal size egg and we used that one for the board.  The other two I set them out for fun.  The white egg is smaller than normal and the brown egg is way bigger than normal.  It probably has two egg yolks in it. 

Here Mike is giving the drill time to cool off.  It is half way done.

The finished product! In this picture you can see the different size of eggs.  Some of them are so small they went right through the hole, but that will change as time goes on.  Also notice that some eggs have dirty spots on them.  I do not clean them until they are ready to be used.  When chickens lay their eggs they are covered with a protective layer that prevents them from going bad.  This is the reason I can keep my fresh eggs on my kitchen counter.

Our backyard chickens

I was out in our chicken run one day and saw three girls in a nesting box and Panic was waiting in line to use the nesting box.  I could tell she was getting impatient; she had her neck stretched out to see what was going on in the nesting box and making all kinds of noise.  She waited a little longer, but she was done and pushed herself into the box.  Well, apparently Goldilocks thought four girls were just too many and bailed out.

We have six chickens and just one nesting box wasn't enough.  I have been in line to use a restroom during halftime, and I know exactly how Panic felt waiting to use the nesting box.  It was time to build a new one.  Mike built a nice new  nesting duplex using the wood from our old fence.  But do you see how many nesting boxes are in use?  Go figure.

I've read that fresh or dried herbs are good for the chickens.  The herbs reduce stress, help with fly control, have a calming effect, and many more health benefits.  I have plenty of herbs growing in my garden so once a week or so I add some fresh herbs to the nesting box.  I don't have any way to measure the effects the herbs have on our chickens, but I love the smell when I gather the eggs.

Here I planted some mint in our chicken run.  It is guarded by chicken wire and some logs.  So far it is working and the girls have not been able to dig up the roots.  Having plants in the chicken run is a good idea because it attracts different bugs, gives shade and places to hide.

    

When we went backpacking last week a chipmunk ,or maybe an army of chipmunks (I was asleep so didn't see), chewed through by backpack and got into my nuts.  It was probably no big deal if I ate the nuts, but I just didn't feel like sharing germs with a chipmunk.  When we got home I thought our girls might enjoy them.  I broke them down into smaller sizes for the girls.  Oh my goodness, they loved it.  I saw Cole pecking at the empty plate the next day.  I am pretty sure if she had a tongue she would have licked that plate clean.

I heard that chickens love to stand on logs.  I picked up these logs just for that purpose.  Maybe other chickens love to stand on their logs, but not my girls.  This picture is staged; they don't care about the logs at all.  Goldilocks was a good sport though,  but as soon as the picture was taken she was ready to go back to her normal stuff.  Probably thinking, "things I do for my human."