Mentoring and an Island

Right after I started this blog (a year ago this week), I read about a group that Kristen started over at Dine and Dish.  She called it Adopt-a-Blogger and in it, she paired up people who had been blogging less than a year with people who had more experience.  The idea was a mentor/mentee relationship and support for one another’s blogs.  I loved the idea and, having just started, was desperate to be adopted.

Alas, I was too late and missed the deadline.  As it came around again, even though I am just under the year mark, I decided to mentor.  As my husband pointed out, this follows the pattern for me of learn, do, teach.  I did with yoga, I did it with mothering a newborn, I am doing it with cooking, and now am doing it with blogging.

I got paired up with Tammy of Sassafrass Cafe who has been blogging since December of last year.  On the surface, we don’t have much in common.  She lives in Arkansas, I live in Seattle.  She eats meat, I don’t.  But digging just a little deeper, we both have two children (one being a 2 year old), we both have music and teaching in our backgrounds, and we both love to cook and bake.  Tammy has dived right in and joined two blog “clubs”, Tuesdays with Dorie and Barefoot Bloggers.  She has had great success with both which is really impressive.  I hope you will wander over and take a look at all she is making.

Last week, I took the boys over to Bainbridge Island for the day to visit my lovely friend Jen.  I have known Jen since middle school and she is truly one of my favorite people in the world.  She has four children and teaches yoga in a delightful space on her property.  She is hosting a retreat next Saturday called Motherasana and she asked me to make lunch for the group.  I figured a visit was in order so we could talk about the menu and catch up.  In addition to being a truly wonderful friend and inspiration, she figures large in my life because she was present at both my decision to stop eating meat and also my decision to stop eating fish.

Every time I get on a Washington State Ferry, I am stunned by the beauty of the place I call home.  I have lived here almost my entire life and yet it all still surprises me.  The ferry ride that takes us to Lopez Island finds me staring out the window the entire time.  I have done that passage more than 100 times in my life and I always get a little breathless.  The trip to Bainbridge is much quicker – the ferry leaves from downtown Seattle and the crossing is about 30 minutes.  The boys love the ferry.  They love looking at the water, running around, and pretending to play the driving video game.  Mostly they love that they get a treat on board.

This is my baby.  He is two years old and very excited about the prospect of a muffin.

And this is them splitting  and enjoying the muffin (big brother is 4).  They loved going to the island.  They loved playing at the park near Jen’s house.  They loved playing with Jen’s sweet kids.  They loved the delicious lunch that Jen threw together for us.  But really all they talked about was the muffin…and the soft pretzel on the way back.  If there was every any doubt, these boys are definitely my children.