Our first time seeing mom’s new headstone. My mom passed away from cancer five months ago, in October 2015. She was 59 years old.

I have been so busy sharing great food and recipes on The Goldilocks Kitchen that I haven’t taken the time to share much about where life finds me and my family at the moment. One reason I’ve been working so hard is that I have set a goal to consistently post twice a week. I want to be dependable to you, and I want to work hard to make The Goldilocks Kitchen a successful blog and second income for my family.  I haven’t written much about my life since we lost mom last october. We miss mom. She was always doing things to help others; to help us. A whole lot of crazy changes happened soon after she passed, and our lives were completely upended. But much of that change was good. Hard, but good. God is always presenting me with challenges and obstacles that I’ve never faced before. I know that he does it to teach me faith, hope and patience. He wants me to be the best person I can be, and I want that for myself too, but life is still hard sometimes. If it weren’t we’d never learn to appreciate the good times :0)

Enjoying the only place you can find snow in NM in wintertime, high in the mountains. Here we are sledding/snow shoeing in the Valles Caldera National Preserve in the Jemez mts, Feb. 2016. Me, dad, and my hubby Camron in the back and my three kids in front. Miriam was a trooper!

The day after Christmas my husband and I moved our family out of our rental home, and we moved into my dad’s house just a few miles away. It was a financial blessing to both parties involved, (more for us really) and my boys didn’t have to switch schools. But moving stinks! And I had to leave my nice big kitchen :0( The bus stops directly in front of the house now, no more driving to school! Just this morning I sent the boys running out the door to catch the bus, my oldest in socks carrying his shoes in his hands! He got distracted and didn’t have his shoes on when the bus came. Maybe I’m a mean mom, but I was laughing so hard watching him run to the bus in his socks! (They both made it, in case you were wondering.) I just couldn’t help it. One of those funny moments I’ll probably remember forever :0)

My son Shiloh just joined Cub Scouts and he loves it. Here he’s just earned his very first badge and belt loop.

All three of my kids are now sharing one bedroom. It’s been a challenge to organize and find room for most of their stuff, and our stuff too. I still have little piles all over the house of things that need to be sorted through and either tossed or taken to storage. I imagine it drives my dad crazy. He’s not big on clutter. As the lady of the house I need to set a goal to stay on top of the cleaning and clutter. My mom was sooo much better at it than I am. As any parent knows your home can go from sparkling clean to trashed in a matter of seconds when small kids are around. My days usually consist of juggling blogging work, caring for my little baby girl (who is walking now), laundry, and dishes so the house doesn’t fall apart.

The muddy Rio Grande with the Sandia mts. in the distance. There once was an indian pueblo near this spot, the ruins can still be seen today, however they are on private land. The bosque is just beginning to green up, this shot was taken the end of feb. 2016.

Whenever we can find time, my husband and I will take our kids out for nature walks or hikes. Dad joins us when he can, and we’re off to have some good adventures. The photos featured in this post are a compilation of some of these. New Mexico has it’s own enchanting beauty, a mixture of desert ruggedness with mountains sprinkled here and there where one can get some green tree relief from the usual brown sand and sage. The Rio Grande River runs just a few miles from home, and it’s the only place where cottonwood trees grow naturally in a river forest called the ‘bosque’ (the spanish word for forest). The bosque trees at the moment are bare, but come spring a ribbon of green flows right through central new mexico and the bosque shade provides a nice relief to the intense sun of the southwest. I have to admit, I’m not looking forward to summer. Too many Idaho summers have made me a wimp, I despise the blaring heat here. If you get stuck somewhere with no air conditioning, you’re toast. Literally!

So where do I go from here? I only see one way, and that way is up :0)