Are you feeling it?

Is it just me or has the energy in the universe been whacky lately? Anxiety is running high in everyone I know, including myself.  As a life coach for women, I hear daily stories of overwhelm, burn-out and lots of fear.  A lot of you feel like you're drowning.

It's okay, y'all.  This will pass.  I think.  I hope.

You would like to fix these yucky feelings, make them go away, distract yourself from them (with work or food or alcohol or drama or Netflix or whatever).  Right?

You know what I do?  I go out into the woods.  I breathe, like really breathe, smell the fresh air, get me some heart-pumping exercise, and then stuff's bearable again.  (For an hour or two at least. If I'm lucky, the everything-is-gonna-be-okay feeling actually lasts til the end of the day).

So, my darling, if you are having a hard time and if you're not lucky like I am to live in the wilderness, let me take you by the hand and walk into the forest with you.  These are pictures from the other day, when I walked straight out into my backyard and up the hill.  This is what I found:

Can you smell the trees and hear the eagles and feel the sun on your face?

Another way to deal with the funk is to take a bunch of kids out mountain biking.  Our middle kid Luke is obsessed with this adrenaline-inducing sport, and as a former motorcycle-riding and hang gliding adrenaline freak, I know who passed the genes down to him. 

You can follow him on Instagram and see some awesome footage of his sick sending of trails, bro. (I'm learning mountain-bike speak, can you tell?)

The other day, we went to Darrington, a timber town 40 minutes from us, where a place called "North Mountain" is developing into a decent mountain bike paradise.  Luke's best friend Owen is equally obsessed with building and riding trails, so they're peas in a pod, winning over other friends as well.

Do you have any idea how my heart swells when I ride with these young people?  And I don't mean heart swelling with the pumping of adrenaline (although that IS a factor, let me tell you), but heart swelling with emotions to witness young people out in my beloved wilderness, enjoying themselves, bonding with each other, and practicing their independence.

They are stellar young men, is what they are.

I also took our little Eva this time around, and she and her friend (who is Owen's sister) rode a pretty challenging trail.  Following their brothers down the trail, with me in the back to cheer them on or peel them off the dirt in case of a crash ... another heart swelling moment.

Now that Luke is homeschooled again, he spends lots of time building trails on our property.  He is building so much, in fact, that his skills are getting recognized.  

Yesterday, he and Owen went to Little Mountain Park in Mount Vernon to a volunteer trail building day, where they were the youngest participants and were invited by the pros to come back next month and be the trail foremen leaders. I'm proud of them!

We also try to find time to go to Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, the ultimate mountain biking paradise 90 minutes from us.  Last weekend, my husband Steve rode with Luke and Owen, while Eva and the dogs and I walked by the salt water.

The good thing about all the riding and fresh air is the amount of food you get to eat afterwards.

Sending much love to everyone!  Hang in there people!  Go out and get some fresh air and exercise!

Mountain biking and other summer adventures (namely: here's Mama getting her ass kicked)

I will be 45 years old in a few days. I'm heading towards 50, which is half a frigging century old. I got the grey hairs to prove it, and the wrinkles... but to look at the positive side, more wisdom as well.

What I really want to celebrate is the fact that I can keep up with my teenage boys when we go on one of our crazy adventures. 

 Okay, I'm lying. 

I can hang with them, because they wait for me. We went mountain biking in the Methow Valley last week, and we did some pretty gnarly single track biking.

It was heaven. It was sweaty, endorphin-pumping, calorie-consuming, heart-pumping, teeth-clattering fun.

My husband came, too, and we kept high-fiving each other on being able to keep up with the young-uns. Sort of.

You guys, our two day camping and biking trip was so much fun, so gorgeous, so bonding, so lactic-acid producing, so delicious.  You can't believe the amount you food you get to consume when you burn ten thousand calories a day.

I absolutely love the Methow Valley, especially early on in the season when it's not too hot yet, and when the tourists haven't over run it yet.

Not that you meet too many people in these alpine huts you can only get to with some serious sweat equity.

One of the reasons I've been feeling so emotional about this trip is because I don't know how much longer our teenagers want to hang out with us, their parents.  Soon, there will be girlfriends, and peers, and other things to do.

There are some huge changes on our horizon, and I'll let you know about them some other day.

It has been feeling pretty summery here in the Pacific Northwest.  

Of course, as I'm writing this, a rain front is hitting us, but still... We've had some nice hot weather, conducive to swimming and kayaking at Baker Lake.

Another plus of the heat is being able to dry the laundry on the line.  It's nice when the kids help with it.

The roses have been going nuts with all this heat.  I get drunk sniffing them whenever I walk by.

Other flowers in our garden are equally spectacular.  I'm a serious beauty-lover, so our homestead is overflowing with it.  Overflowing with flowers and free-range chicken poop.  The paradox of country living, man.

I will leave you with images of all the track meets we've been cheering at.  The boys and Eva are starting to specialize in the 800 meter race, getting ribbons for second and third place for their age groups.

It was so sweet to watch the brothers coach their little sister, who never ran on a track before.  They ran with her on the grass, to tell her to slow down or pick it up.  

My voice gets sore on the last 100 meter stretch, when all of them give it their best and kick in for a sprint.  Yes, I am competitive.  (Did you know that I was the 100 meter unbeat sprinting champion in my school in Germany as a teenager? Yup. I beat the boys in my class every single time. I told you I'm competitive).

Lightning strikes, mountain lions and adrenaline

These past two weeks had their share of adrenaline.  Even for an adrenaline junkie like me, it's been a tad over the top.

For example: a traumatic lightning strike at our house.  The other evening, we sat around the dinner table with friends during a thunderstorm.  We don't get thunderstorms very often here.

This particular one felt different.  It was right on top of us, when with a deafening sound the electricity went out.  Our ears rang for hours.  We smelled smoke.  After finding flashlights to investigate if our roof had been hit, we found that our phone line had literally melted.

Later, we saw that two trees very nearby the house had been hit by lightning.  Both trees were split in half, and we found big chunks of their inside flung 75 feet away.  One of the 170 foot tall trees had 30 feet of its top blown off.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but this is one of the trees that got fried, with the bark split off and wedged open.  Poor thing.

Another adrenaline-inducing event was the mountain biking adventure with my son Luke.  We want to ride our bikes over Washington Pass this summer, so we've been training.

When we went to park at the foot of Galbraith Mountain near Bellingham, a runner stopped us and told us he had just seen a mountain lion on the trail.  I shrugged my shoulders and told him that we live in a place where cougars, wolves and bears roam, and that I'm not too worried.

Turns out, I did make sure we talked loudly while we rode, to scare the kitty off.  On the way down, Luke and I whooped and hollered so much that even the most ferocious man-killing-mountain-lion would have been terrified.

We rode some pretty technical black diamond rides, with steep descents, huge jumps, and windy, rooty single track.  I'm not a very experienced mountain bike rider, but in order to keep up with my sons, I am game for anything.  

It's a good thing that I make up for my lack of endurance and conditioning with my competitiveness and sure willpower.  We had so much fun!

The week before this ride, Luke and I biked up the Cascade River road, a few miles from our house.  It's a gorgeous ride with a nice climb and views of snow-capped mountains, wild rivers and spring flowers.

My bike derailler broke on the way down, and we didn't have phone reception for most of it, so it took a while to get rescued by Steve.

I love spending time with my middle child on these bike rides.  He is such a good sport, and although he routinely kicks my butt, he's nice about it.

My oldest son Kai has been tied up with track practice and track meets, and the littlest one, Eva, just learned to ride a bike.  It will be a while til she can keep up with us.  We have a ride-behind bike for her, but I am certain I would die if I would have to haul her up a mountain with it.  My sheer will power, competitiveness and natural strength have their limits.

Allright, let's move from the ra-ra-ra Macho stuff to some tamer scenes.  Let's talk about goat babies!  They are growing and thriving, and I'm going to have to sell some.  Are you looking for goats?  I got some.

They are super sweet, of course, and beautiful, I think.  Their mamas are producing great milk, and I am thriving, too, with all the chocolate milk shakes I make.  After all, my sons are hauling my butt up all these mountains, so I have to consume enough calories, yes?

Back to goats: Eva's little friend came over one day and helped us take the goats to pasture, and since the afternoon light was so lovely, I took about 800 pictures.

Sometimes, I think these kids' childhoods are a fairy tale.  How lucky are they to grow up in a place like this, with all these animals and gorgeous scenery?  I hope they realize they could have been born in Iowa.

Spring is happening, albeit slowly.  Sure, you see my beautiful pictures of sunshine and baby goats and blossoms, but keep in mind that they were taken in the four days of sun we had all spring.

Despite it all, the garden is kicking in, and so are the fruit trees, and the chickens and ducks with egg production.

I even planted tomatoes in the greenhouse.  Imagine that.  Tomatoes!

I will leave you images from my blissful Mother's Day.  My family took me downvalley to my favorite nursery, where I got to pick out flowers for our porch.  It was such a lovely day, and I felt incredibly spoiled and cherished by my family.

I am one lucky duck.

What are you grateful for this spring?