So here I am again. It’s been a long, long time. Almost five months actually. That didn’t happen on purpose, but it did and I have no regrets. Sometimes when things get real something has to give.

So here it is in case you were curious. September included the Whatcom Farm Tour which was awesome. It’s my Christmas actually. LOVE it! A week or so after that I sprained my ankle and my car was wrecked within 8 days of each other. Total crap. I’m not going to sugar coat it. It sucked super badly. What happened was on a Thursday night after work I tripped off the last stair in my building while carrying my customary pile of crazy work stuff – sheets, oils, my bag – and I landed on the top of my foot. Seriously. The top of my foot was upside down. I learned later that with a bad sprain you can actually dislocate your foot in the process. That’s exactly what happened. I had to put my foot back and not vomit all over the street. I think I earned some serious cool injury points for that one, if not cool than toughness points.

About a week later and I was rearended and my car, my beautifully bright red car was totaled. *big frowny face* It caused ouchies all over my body. Thank goodness for PIP coverage. For any of you whom don’t have it, put it back on as soon as you can! It will take all the complication out of getting treatment for your injuries. It’s the best thing you will hopefully never have to use.

Anyway, these two things threw a monkey wrench in my life so I didn’t do anything unless I had to, including blogging, making kombucha, doing laundry, dishes, winterizing my porch or riding my bike to work. But instead of this being a bad thing it allowed me to prioritize my life a bit better. I stopped all non essential activities. I healed and worked and slept – the most important things.

Between pity parties some great things made themselves apparent. Firstly, I have a sweet loving Rick. Second, I have no car payment now. Thirdly, I had to become more organized. Fourth, I learned to take and ask for help. I don’t like it but I learned to ask a bit more. Good things from bad happenings.

The holidays came around and I made my second turkey ever at my parents house. It was delicious. We took some time away just before Christmas. Rick got all creative for the holidays.

Then came January. Sweet January. Oh thank the Universe for January. Decompression month. We ended the month with a trip to Capitol Hill (Seattle not D.C., though that would be cool as well), a free haircut, and some outings that included gluten free and grass fed beef.

Now it is the middle of February. It’s lovely outside. It rains but it doesn’t crush my soul. It’s grey right now, but it’s okay because it’s warmish. I’m just puttering through the month, continually prioritizing, putting myself back together still. My business is growing. I’m getting out and enjoying my sweet Bellingham. Life is great.

So excuse my absence. It was needed. I was living more in my community than I ever had before. That doesn’t mean that everyone knows my name. But it does mean that at Brandywine Kitchen two of the chicks recognize us now. Xiann and I walk the Railroad Trail often. Rick and I just do stuff. It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. I still can’t believe how wonderful a life we lead. Sure it’s not perfect, but it shouldn’t be or we wouldn’t notice how great everything can be.

So anyway, that’s what’s happened. I hope that the last few months have been great for the handful of my readers.

Cheers

I’ve been away too long. But I have a good excuse, I’m a student, studiously avoiding the internet and all her distractions, except those related to my classes. I wanted you to know that I haven’t forgotten, I’m just busy and getting the hang of classes again. I started school behind, I worked two weekends in a row. Bad idea. I know now that weekends shouldn’t have much in them other than chill time and study time. Lesson learned. I think I might actually be catching up on my assignments, so I’m hoping to get back to my posting and picture taking. I did tell you that I was working on a photo blog right? If not, you know I am now. I’m going to put my and Rick’s best there.
Aside from school I’m still a yarn fiend. I just finished crocheting a giant bag for my yarn. Now my kitties and sweet puppy can’t unravel everything over night! I’ll have to remember to take a picture of it so I can show off some more. I have requests from friends to make more. I have just have to finish my homework and buy food for my animals first, oh yeah, and work. I always forget about work.

      You’ll probably be hearing the occasional thing about school. Today was my first day. First day of online classes. Meaning, I stood in line for close to two hours to get all the stuff I needed to do school from home. Three separate lines. I didn’t get into the wrong one either. Just three long lines. I’m happy it’s done.

      I was reminded, as I walked passed students, faculty, and parents, that I’m a student. I don’t feel like one. I feel like an intruder, or like a blogger, just looking in for a story. Or for a picture because there’s something about yellow orange leaves anywhere. College campuses often have lots of leaves to spare.

      I stood behind a girl who wanted to be part of student government, behind a boy who looked 17, and another who looked and sounded 19. It reminded me that kids in college are so unsettled. They are out to meet lots of people, experience their fellow students and classes. They are out to have fun and do some learning along the way.
      It’s a guess, probably accurate, that not one of them is planning or saving for a house. Like me. I’m old. I like it. I’m in-between-old, not really old, but beyond the crazy partying of college aged kids. I’m in the house saving age group. A house so I can have a huge compost pile, and another dog, and a green house. I want to putter around and be an old person, baking gluten free cookies, hands stained with dirt from planting potatoes, in my own backyard. I want to plant an apple tree. I want to put down roots. 20 year old Missy would be horrified….

      Something is in the air. Perhaps it’s the season changing to autumn, perhaps its the tea I’ve been drinking, or how well I’ve been sleeping, either way I’ve felt a change. I feel more like I did over six years ago, when my only worry was helping my “kids” with their homework and how much – or little – sleep I got the night before.
      After our vacation, slowly but surely I’ve been gaining energy. There has been an improvement in my cognitive ability – meaning I don’t feel like I’m walking around with cotton between my ears. I finally feel like yes, I do want to be self-employed again. I do want to go to school for journalism. Yup, that’s right. I’ve kept it under wraps because I didn’t know if anything would come through properly. But life is running a little more smoothly now. I’ve got passion, I’ve got drive, I have finally got creative juices running on an almost daily basis! Oh it’s good to be back!

      As an off shoot from my main focus – if you can see the main focus at all, it’s more healthful and mindful living in case you were wondering – I’m going to share some of my goals and projects for the next few months.

And so much more!
      Moral of this post. Life’s too short, take a vacation!

(You know what’s really funny. I wrote this a couple of days before a nasty bug laid me out. Productivity gone until I can smell and sleep well again. Thought I should post it even though at the moment all my desires to redecorate are stunted by being really, really tired.)

After almost a week unplanned hiatus, yours truly, the Modern Hippy, is back!
I have so many things planned. I was on vacation for about a week, before the website disappeared.
I’ll be sharing more eco-friendly camping ideas. Eco-friendly road trip ideas. Yes, I said that. It might not seem like an eco-friendly type of vacation, however, there are ways to lessen one’s impact. I’ll have another post for the Aunt Flow series. There has also been a recently, awesomely cool, development in my hair experiments. I’ll be sharing a little about a couple of awesome people we met while camping. She has a website about living more balanced. She also sells ebooks, two of which I bought and am about ready to read. Stay tuned for my onslot of crazy posting!