Trying to Find a New Normal

I try to blog at least once per month.  I almost didn't make it this time.  It's been a while.  It just seems that our whole routine has been messed up with this "messy" thing called grieving.  I know it's normal and eventually we'll find our new normal.  We're still trying to figure out how to get back into "normal" life.  But, I suppose it'll never seem quite the same as before, with the loss of Father in our lives.  So Easter was definitely feeling different this year.  On-the-one-hand, it had more meaning than ever.  On-the-other-hand, it also felt strangely sad.  After all, Father is hearing the heavenly music so far away from us.  As Jay said, "I just can't quite find my song right now."  So, when the congregation was invited to join the Hallelujah chorus up front, he just couldn't do it this year.  I sang in the choir at two of our Easter services.  Penny sang at one and babysat in the nursery for another service.

Penny is getting too old to be interested in hunting Easter eggs.  But, she enjoyed coloring some with some friends from church. We've been so thankful for caring church friends during our time of loss.

We also decided to go ahead and take the Spring break trip that we had been planning even before Father passed away.  So, we went to a mining museum in Leadville, to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, stayed with the parents of Jay's best friend, in Chama, NM, to a museum in Los Alamos and visited Santa Fe and Taos, NM.

We had hoped that if would be warmer down south.  But, we discovered that March tends to be the windiest time of the year in that area.  So, we literally got sand-blasted at the Dunes.  Needless to say, we didn't stay outside too long.  It was painful and hard to breathe.  Here are a few pictures to prove that we survived a great sandstorm.

 The wind was gusting at 60 mph.  It was a memorable experience. Not quite the experience we anticipated, but one we'll never forget.  We kept finding sand in our clothes/shoes for some time.

The mining museum was huge and very interesting.

 However, after a while, I think that the famished teenager wasn't finding it quite as fascinating anymore.  It's a good thing that Mom packed a cooler of food so that the teenage wouldn't starve to death.

It was really fun to stay with the Johnson's at their Bed & Breakfast, "The Parlor Car", in Chama, NM.

They treated us just like family.  It was a good time to weep and laugh with them.  A highlight was when Bonsall showed Penny how their player piano works.

 Mom and Penny also enjoyed some family fun by playing our game, "Dutch Blitz" that we brought along.

After our fun time in Chama, we headed down to Santa Fe, stopping by Georgia O'Keefe's former ranch, (where they filmed City Slickers).

 We saw some beautiful southwestern scenery along the way

and began to see more of the unique adobe-styled architecture that is so common down there.

The picture above is the oldest church in Colorado.  It was built in 1856 and still in use today.

We really enjoyed exploring Santa Fe.  Fortunately, it was a little warmer and less windy on the one day that we were walking around the downtown square.  We visited the art museum.

 It was fun to see some of the paintings, including some of Georgia O'Keefe's of scenery around her ranch that we had just seen.

But, the selection had more modern art than is to our taste.  So, I think we enjoyed the Museum of History even more.  And Penny enjoyed seeing the native peoples selling their homemade wares in the square, as they have been doing for centuries.  It was incredible to us that the building had begun to be built by the Spaniards in the 1500's. 

One thing that kind of amused me was a story about their statues of saints that the faithful of the Catholic church painted in Santa Fe.  It said that they would pray to these statues of particular saints.  It said that if the particular prayer that they had prayed to that saint wasn't answered they would turn it around to face the wall.  Somehow that just gave me a chuckle, to put the statue in a "time-out" for not answering one's prayer the way the person who was praying wanted it to be answered.  Does God chuckle at us when we whine and pout about prayers that He answers, "no" to, or "wait a while"?  Just a thought…

I think that we humans are really humorous, sometimes.  And to prove it, here's a photo that ought to give you a good laugh…

As you can tell, we had a great break in Santa Fe.  We even enjoyed eating at a great Thai restaurant there.

After we got back, I had to work for a full-week in a row, which I also had to do after Father passed away, since I got a full-week off for the funeral and one for Spring break.  Thus, it was a bit challenging to keep up with all of the homeschooling.  Jay wasn't thrilled that I brought along the tote of homeschool books on our trip.  But, when is a teacher, (who is also working a separate job),  going to get a little planning/teaching done?  We did manage to go on several field trips to museums during our spring break trip.  I even managed to squeeze most of the material in that I had wanted to cover over the past few weeks.  We've also visited a community college that Penny is thinking about attending after she graduates from high school, which will be next year.

After we got back, we took Mother out to a restaurant here in Arvada, as she came down to stay with us over the weekend.  We are hoping to see her more often, now that Father is gone.  But, we're thankful to God for how well she is doing.  Here are some nice photos from her 80th birthday celebration.

We have so much to be thankful for.  We really want to treasure every moment as a special gift.  I think we're even more aware of that now that we no longer have Father with us.  But, just as the new movie that came out is titled, we believe that "Heaven is for Real".