Knock, knock! Hello? Anybody out there?

Hi again. It's been a long time.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing here, but I've missed at least giving writing here a try while trying to figure that out. So here's a quick update...

I'm in a much better place than the last time I wrote here. Though I still don't understand exactly what was going on with my body last spring, I am much healthier now and working on improving that even more. Both my husband and my parents had some very difficult health problems in the last year as well, and they are all doing much better now too. This feels like a very hopeful time.

I love fall and the sense of new beginnings it brings. I think I will always feel like fall is more a time of new beginnings than January - involvement in school systems of some sort has definitely had it's imprint in my life. My girls have been back in school for about 3 1/2 weeks, so we are beginning to settle into a regular routine. I've begun to pick up some substitute jobs, as well, and I am loving this work. This will be my second year of substitute teaching, and it is already so much easier and more enjoyable than when I began last year.

I have a fun new passion - learning to make bento box lunches for my family! I had never really heard about bento lunches (besides a few references to classic bento lunches in some children's literature) until recently, when I stumbled on blogs about them. There is a whole community of people who have adapted the bento box culture from Japan to a way to provide healthy lunches of all different types of food. I'll have to write more about what I have learned, and put up some links to some of the wonderful resources I have found. Our bento lunches are far healthier than what I used to pack, and much less wasteful of resources (I'm barely using any disposable products in our packed lunches now). With my husband's health issues and living in an extended family home, providing food has been such a time consuming part of my life for the last couple of years - it's fun to take something that has become a chore and turn it into something new and creative for myself.

I have one more thing that I want to mention here now. This is really what woke me up from my blog-fast - if anyone even reads this blog again, I want to tell you about my friend and her husband and what they are doing!!

My friend Michelle is on a trip across the country with her husband Tim Borland, trying to raise awareness and money for research for a rare childhood disease called A-T, or Ataxia-Telangiectasia. Tim is running a marathon a day for 63 consecutive days. It is unbelievable what he is attempting to do! He started on September 3rd at the Disneyland 1/2 marathon (which he ran twice), and today he finished his 17th marathon in Portales, New Mexico. Tomorrow he will be running in Austin, Texas.

Michelle has been my daughters' horseback riding instructor for the last couple of years, and we just adore her and her kids. Please consider keeping Tim and Michelle and their kids (who are only 1 and 3 years old) in your prayers as they attempt this project. Tim is being followed by a couple of documentary film makers, and they are maintaining a video blogs with clips from each day's run and event here. The entry from the beginning of the blog does a good job of explaining the whole undertaking. The clip from day 15 shows my friend Michelle and her children.

The itinerary for the tour can be found here at A-T Cure Tour website. Please keep Tim and Michelle in your prayers, and tell your friends about this! It would be so wonderful if Tim could get a lot of support for all his efforts. Consider going out to cheer him in from his run, if you live near one of stops on his itinerary!