2022

A few updates from cgs life so far and Sunflower farms.

It is 2022.  How did that happen?  

We have been navigating (or trying to at least) this crazy world.  The last time I posted a blog was in 2020!  ONE WHOLE YEAR has gone by!  Full of fear, uncertainty, worry, unstable economy, unstable political stuff and SO. MUCH. MORE.  One of the weirdest things to me was how everything sort of came to a hard stop in 2020. It was as if time stopped.  But it didn't and we moved through the year with hope.  Hope that the worst was behind us.  Hope that things would get back to normal.  Well, it didn't.  We had to navigate new variants of the virus, continued unrest in our country, work stress or lack of work stress and so many other things. I have had to stop watching the news.  I still look at Facebook, but have removed anyone that continually posts negative or political things.  I like to see my friend's happy pictures of family and places and happy events.  Same for Instagram.

In my work, babies continued to be born, but we began to see what seemed to be complications from mother's having Covid in pregnancy.  We had to separate babies from their Covid positive mothers after birth in some cases. We lost babies.  We lost mothers and fathers to the virus. We had/have staffing shortages.  And burn out.  And controversy over the vaccine (not going to get into that, but it has been difficult). 

I feel so fortunate to have an amazing NICU team to work with. We hold each other up. We encourage and support each other.  I am grateful for my work environment.  Our office is our safe place. We can cry, fuss, curse, laugh at inappropriate things and be ourselves.  Then we put on our big girl/boy pants and walk out the door to care for our little patients.

I got Covid in June of 2021 even after doing all the things...  Had the intestinal variety.  It was not pretty.  But the worst of it only lasted a week, I  had to have IV fluids at the start in the ER. and I lost some weight.  Still have some food issues, including not being able to eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  If you know me very well then you know these were my very favorite.  For some crazy reason the smell and taste of them still is nauseating to me.  A very sad thing indeed.

2021 was also a time for growth and reflection.  For studying new things. For contemplating how to move forward. 

Sapphire Farms had another wonderful crop of sunflowers.  We made pretty bouquets and sold them in front of the local grocery store and we gave half of what we made to the fire department.  We also had a lovely little crop of lavender.  The first year for the lavender was an experiment to see how it would grow and produce.  We planted little tiny plants (144 of them) and watched with anticipation to see if they would flourish.  AND they did.  I have a big barn wagon full of dried lavender.  Not sure what to do with it now, but it does make the barn smell nice. So, I have ordered 144 more little lavender plants and have some ideas of what we are going to do with it, so stay tuned to find out 😊   

Lastly, for now, we got a new puppy in 2021.  I lost my chocolate lab, Lucy near the end of 2019.  We decided to wait for a while to get another dog and do some traveling. We went to visit Chip and Joanna in Waco in November, 2019. Ok, not them personally, but their Silos, restaurant, shops and bakery.  In December, 2019, I gave myself a big 60th birthday party. In January, 2020 we visited Arizona to celebrate our mother's birthdays.  And at the end of February, 2020, we went to New York City.  We had planned trips to Portland to see the kids, to Hawaii for a conference in the following months but that was a bust. Finally, we decided travel was over rated and in January of 2021 decided to look for a puppy.  Luna was born on February 27th (the Snow Moon) in Deer Lodge, Montana.  She is a black lab and came to live with us in May of 2021.  She will be 11 months old the end of this month and is so much fun!  She thinks Ed is her master and I am a litter mate.  Not sure how that happened..😉

I plan to write here more often this year.  We will see if that actually happens...

Happy January, 2022

Cindy