Life: Through the Lens

I can't believe another year is drawing to a close, and our Christmas celebrations are winding down.  We have had some lovely family times, and unexpected moments of reflections. For instance, on Christmas Eve we were supposed to have our family Christmas dinner prior to church services.  The morning of the 24th we woke to find no power.  In fact, a very large section of mid-Michigan did not have power, though for some reason the center of town did! Hoping for the best, we lit candles (since we have gotten our fabulous puppy we have been getting up earlier than usual) and lit the gas stove to make tea.  With the advent of the iPad and Kindle we could read for a while, while calling Consumers Power to try and get a handle on how long we might not have power.  And the day slowly moved forward. It became apparent we would not have power back that day, and maybe for another day or two on top of that.  With an unexpectedly warm December, th...

If you scrolled through Facebook today you have seen numerous beautiful tributes to those who serve, and have served, our country.  I added my own tribute, to our son and my father-in-law, then thought about how many others in my family and extended family have served this country through generations.  This sent me on a hunt through a couple of photo albums, and an email to my sister, as I decided I wanted to reflect on a deeper level than a quick Facebook post. Our son made the decision to join the Marine Corps after much soul searching.  It was a wonderful decision, and he grew exponentially as he completed 4 years of active duty service, then 4 years inactive.  One of the proudest moments in our life was attending his graduation ceremony in San Diego.  Whether in formal uniform, or work fatigues, he gave his all to serve our country.  Thank you, son! Daryl's dad, Anthony Koch, served in the Army the last 18 months of WWII, drafted at the age ...

Last week we were able to get away for a few days for our annual Color Tour of upper Michigan, though it is later in the season than we typically like.  But you take what you can get...and we had a lovely, if somewhat wet and cold time!  Have camper, and puppy, will travel! When we plan our excursions we like to revisit some favorite haunts, and explore new places as well.   We were surprised to find that most campgrounds had closed for the season, but we managed to find a wonderful KOA campground in St. Ignace that was still open, and a couple of questionable establishments which we by-passed.  Fortunately we also found a very nice pet-friendly motel in Marquette for one of the nights, and certainly found the service very good, and the new owner was very friendly and accommodating. The color was past prime in the Upper Peninsula, but we still had a lovely time exploring.  Our first "must see" location is always Pete's Lake, near Munisin...

I am a list maker.  Relyin Lawson of Come Sit By My Fire does a wonderful job of crafting a creative blog post in the form of a list.  It is awesome and I recommend you visit her site.   I always think I would like to try it, but can't wrap my mind about what my own spin might be. Original native Alaskan art - I could write a post on the preservation of native culture so easily. Items on my list include:  making some sort of photo book, or two, from our travel photos and adventures this summer. writing more about our travels, through blog posts that have been promised but not written. cleaning up my work space in the basement so I have my writing spot back, and my sewing area. (There will be no photos to illustrate why this is critical.) beginning the process of downsizing by taking a room-by-room inventory, and then multiple trips to Goodwill.  getting back on Ebay.  We did this once, but don't remember how to get back on it!  This ...

Greeting a new group of University students. We are finally establishing our new routine, one which includes my teaching part time and being WAY busier than I want to be!  Our 10-week summer adventure was wonderful...now what?! Hanging out with grandchildren at the airport. One of the things that happened which has been a mixed blessing, was the invitation to do a presentation about our trip.  However, that invitation was for last night, and we have not even been home a full month. Making it up to Meesha for being gone so long this summer. We took on the challenge, partly because it pushed us to do that preliminary sort - the one where you have to delete some images which are duplicates, or triplicates, and you just don't need to save them! The beauty of switching to digital photography is that ability to push the "delete" button.  The nightmare of digital photography is that you can take so many photos that you can get overloaded with images.  Th...