A Word from Colleen!

michael often asks me, have you seen the blog lately..."no"....then i look, "how wonderful"....my friends comment to me about the website...i have no idea what they are talking about...sometimes michael even asks me to contribute...but i would rather be digging in the dirt than sitting indoors at a computer. i am fortunate he is so talented and willing to put energy into keeping up a diary of ambianas growth. but i finally wanted to share my thoughts as our trip comes to a place of heading home.

this trip has been such a beautiful experience for me as a person and as a mom. i have watched the tremendous impact it has made on ambiana. wow...such a great gift we gave her. she has really absorbed so much. she is remarkable. we were given such a special gal...thank you...and i hope we are doing well for her....i think we are.....i see it everyday.
travel always brings on such personal growth, perspective and a sense of being for me. being a mom, it has brought more. thank you.

we are ending our time in hawaii. since ben and laurel left i feel our life has slowed down to our more usual pace of being. we have been spending time getting into the community, something i enjoy. we have made friends, been attending social parties and getting to know those around us. we have been working on the land making it more beautiful and liveable. michael has made lovely walls all around and cleaned brush. we put in a nice sink, and feel great about washing standing up. i have, of course, organized and cleaned everything so that everything has its little home...my specialty. and finally i feel good about the gardens that taught me so about slugs and tropical growing. we eat one meal a day from the garden now. mostly spinach, greens or salad. but we have started getting peas. tonight we will have our first real pea feast. yum. ambiana has been going to look at them daily watching the change from flower to pod. three strawberreies so far....yum. and a few more yet from our very young plants. hopefully we will get a bunch next year. the slugs seem not to like these...thank goodness. we have been exploring our lands...taking car trips to new places, hiking to high places in the hills above...and still faithful to biking everyplace bikeable. i have been getting to know a beautiful woman and child who live near and helping with beekeeping. i have learned a lot. it is hard work. and really fascinating. and glad we found a friend. we continue our saturday trash clean up on the way to the dump and have now cleaned almost the whole neighborhood road, this saturday will be the finale. i thought i saw a lot when i was on bike, but on foot...wow...what are people thinking...they are not. two full bags a week for nearly two months now.

we are shedding stuff...planning for our booth at the market this weekend. packing. planning final explorations. and saying goodbye. to hawaii (for now) and to our trip.

love to all...we will be seeing many of you soon as we travel across the states to find our home.