I Choose Joy July 2024

The two seasons of Ketchikan . . . Rain and Summer! And, I’m so glad, we're in the thick of Summer still.

Every climate has their own feel in the turn of the seasons. In the coastal rainforest, when the sun smiles down and touches everything with vibrant color, it is truly magical. There is such a warm peace, relief, and optimism that accompanies summer up here, it is easy to see how some cruise ship tourists who happen to chance a truly beautiful summer day fall in love and decide to uproot and move to Southeast Alaska.

However, having been here a full year now, we know better! And so nearly every waking moment that the rain abates and the clouds part, we are outside, getting our full measure of summer sun within the few short weeks or months that are given us. Beach bags are kept at the ready in the van, the floor of which is perpetually strewn with pine needles and black sand. Oh, if only summer knew no end . . .

I Choose Joy July 2024

• Listening to the wild, mysterious call of the Swainson's thrush through the woods, long into the night and early in the morning.

• Sunbathing out on our back porch while the kids play. It really feels like Alaska's part of the globe is tilted closest to the sun this time of year, and as I close my eyes I can feel the intense rays soaking through to my marrow.

Shells from Alaska, Hawaii, and California

• A wonderful four-day Independence Day weekend with Daddy off. Letting the kids run wild, play, and pick berries all day. A hot dog roast on an open fire. Red, white, and blue dessert of homemade whipped cream, salmonberries, and blueberries. Content to just stay home and miss the festivities this year. We did smile in our sleep at the booms of the fireworks set off into the wee hours of the short summer night.

• Listening to a new favorite on YouTube, Tae Kim: Financial Tortoise. Love the concise, rich words of wisdom from a Korean American veteran who began with nothing.

• Purple fireweed 8 feet high or more around our house, attracting bees and hummingbirds.

• Enjoying the view from a grassy knoll at Settlers Cove. Big Country and the kids catching little fish with their hands and wading into the cool blue water close to shore. Smiling at the campers in the woods, their fragrant fires and swimsuits hanging on the line. Remembering travels gone by.

• Mr. Al sharing his beautifully perfumed Sitka roses and wild sweet peas with us.

• Firebell's 10th birthday. Presents of cute summery outfits, dresses, puzzles, and crafts. Playing all day with a neighbor girl over at our house. My confident, passionate, unabashed ray of sunshine☀️

• Abundant salmonberries and sunny skies at Refuge Cove. Playing catch and lazily watching the boats from our beach towel.

• Sunday drive to the end of the road, south. Windows down, threading our way through a gorgeous corridor of trees with small harbors on one side and waterfalls on the other. Joining Hannah and Leon at Bugge Beach for some sunshine.

• Laying down with Trig, 2, every afternoon in front of the cozy near-infrared lamp. Best part of my day?

• Swimming, paddle boarding, and kayaking with a family we just met at Ward Lake. Trig peeling off his diaper and running into the reedy shallows.

• Rig and Firebell helping me enthusiastically with my various “nesting” projects . . . organizing, deep cleaning, moving stuff around, giving away, and hanging pictures. With baby 8 months along now, we are nearing the finish line!

• Looking over baby girl clothes with Firebell. “This one's the cutest! No, this one!” Smiling to myself that ten years ago, she was wearing these very same tiny dresses, as well as Hazelnut, as well as myself years before them.

• Cloudy but pleasant afternoon at Refuge Cove with Becka, Hannah, and the kids. My boys making a big floating log their boat. Trig carrying around a little perfectly clear jellyfish.

• Batch cooking new favorite keto casseroles: pizza, enchilada, green bean, creamy chicken, ground beef. Hoping to put something away for when the baby comes! Although we keep eating up everything . . .

• A lazy rainy Saturday at home, ordering photos to put up in frames on the wall. Flowers, landscapes, and family photos from Rocky Mountain, the tiny house on the farm, and Alaska. Digging up old photos from backpacking in Europe and Big Country and me on my motorcycle. We were so young!

• Another month of summer berry picking. Enjoying desserts of whipped mascarpone with blueberries, red huckleberries, and salmonberries on top.

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Genesis 8:22