December Edition: Living in the Moment

I decided to embrace the 12.12.12 theme for this month's LitM post.  Y’know, “twelve pics on the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year of the 21st century”.  I’m sometimes not so good at following constrained boundaries, so I morphed my 12.12.12 from 12 pics into 12 things (cuz, I had, like, - btw, that obligatory "like" is so my dudes can roll their collective eyes at me - way more than merely 12 pics) on a single day in Dec 2012.  Oh yeah, and I shot on the 11th, because it was a day that started especially nicely …
Here are my 12 things on the 11th of December, 2012 …

1.  We dropped Littlest Dude (who always has a book in his hands during the morning car ride) off at school.
 

2.  We went on a date.  Yes, in the morning.  It was awesomely wonderful.  He worked.  I read.  My book was The Son, the last book of The Giver quartet.  I give it highest marks; I may even  like it better than The Giver.



3.  I took my daily gram for the I Heart Faces December photo challenge.  The day’s theme?:  “on the shelf”.  And that's my new phone.  Isn't it purty?



4.  Middle Dude worked on his Omnibus history research paper.



5.  Big Dude found our one and only lime of the year (don’t know how we missed its whole growing period?!?).  Which started me meandering through the yard to see what else I potentially missed.  Dog Dude followed.



6.  Lunch of champions?  Hardly.  But it is his preferred daily lunch.  Generic grocery vanilla yogurt – no fruit lumps, thankyouverymuch.



7.  Little Dude does his homework.  Diligently.  First thing he gets home.  Daily.  Love that kid!



8.  Middle Dude played Big Dude’s retro/vintage Infocom adventures.  The Teen can’t stay away.  The Teen can’t restrain himself from taking the helm …



9.  Big Dude hung our ginormous new Kauai canvas.  Little Dude rejoiced and pretended he was back on the beach…



10.  I get “good Mom” points for not rearranging the dudes’ arrangements of Christmas ornaments.  Either that or I get lazy points.  Btw, yes, that sweet young thang is The Teen way back in the day.



11.  Little Dude created.



12.  Our overnight guests arrived, bringing our household total to 12 (if you include Dog Dude, and I am).
 

And thus concludes my “12.12.12” for this December edition of Living in the Moment.  For more December living moments, click on thru our blog circle, starting with Anika …

Hanakapi’ai Falls

The part of the hike I didn’t go on.  So pretty.  From Big Dude’s phone…

The Kalaulau Trail.

aka:  the hike on which I nearly died.  (ok, not really. just sorta)  So, the plan:  the plan was to hike in to Hanakapi’ai Falls, 4 miles in.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  Here’s the real deal with this trail:  there are a LOT of hills.  Steep ones.  And apparently, the sad, tremendously humbling reality is … I’m not good with hills.
Up, up, up we go to the first viewpoint …Breathtakingly beautiful vistas …Up, up, up some more …Hey, look at that!  A downhill!  Exciting, eh?  (right up until the moment you remember that you have to hike out the very way you came in. oy.)Down, down, down … til we arrive at Hanakapi’ai beach, the 2 mile mark.After a rest, we resume the hike to the falls. At this point, the Teen & Little Dude decide to remain at the beach. I determine to go as far as I can (while keeping in mind the return hike). And here’s where I turned back.  At about the 3 mile mark.  The last mile of the trail to the falls was traversing the rocks of this river/stream.  And my ankles were DONE.  My knee was a painful mess.  And my blisters were killing me.  And, and, and … I felt like a total loser turning back.Sigh.  It’s so incredibly beautiful.  I wish these pictures remotely did the landscape justice. 

I returned to the beach.  Gathered the two dudes.  And began in earnest the return hike.  The humbling, humiliating, exhausting, return hike.   The return hike wherein old women with walking sticks and barefoot new mamas packing their babies passed me by like I was standing still (which I was. often. catching my breath.  trying not to vomit.  trying to slow my racing heart rate.)   I was too tired to even take any more pictures; too sweaty to want to handle my camera.  And, oh yeah, at the halfway point back up the hill, I had passed my camera backpack off to the Teen.  I was, after all, trying my best not to die.  Not one of my prouder moments.  The Teen was a champ, carrying my gear and lightening my load; I think he might have been afraid that I was about to die.

And here we are, back at the beginning of the trail; the Teen waiting for me, with my backpack and me, looking like death warmed over.  That jeep seat never felt so good.
Big & Middle Dude made it all the way to the Falls.  I’ll post their pics after I locate & download them from Big Dude’s phone …

That’s the tale of the hike on which I almost died.

Joy Comes in the Morning …

Weeping may last for the night,

But a shout of joy comes in the morning…

“Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me;

O LORD, be Thou my helper.”

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing;

Thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness;

That my soul may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to Thee forever.

Psalm 30:5, 10-12

More Waimea.

Because I keep finding more I like, when I should be moving on to the next day’s pictures … I’m feeling like I may never work my way through all these Kauai pictures, which I LOVE, but which feel like a never-to-be-finished-project!


Next up, the hike on which I nearly died (not really. but sorta) …