As I was thinking back about what to include as highlights for 2009 and thinking about how this is the end of a decade leading to the beginning of a new one, it occurred to me that I’ve been doing these little annual updates for what seems like a very long time. How long? When I checked back, turns out I did the first one of these for the year 2000! Wow! So hard to believe. And then when I re-read it, I had to smile. Who WAS this naïve chick, throwing words together about the world as she saw it and publishing them out on the web? And who would want to read that sort of mundane stuff that seemed so important to a 20-year old but probably not to anyone else?

But when I think about it and connect then and now, it’s gratifying to see that the important things have become even more important. And all the other stuff? Well, it was part of the journey. I’d like to think it helped - not hindered – my growth as a person and is part of what makes up who I am now.

2009 was indeed an action-packed year. So much that we wanted to accomplish; so much that we DID accomplish, although certainly not all that we had planned. There were lots of opportunities to enjoy time with family and friends. Much of this stayed the same for us as a family; getting together with family members, whether special occasions or not. Our circle of friends as a couple stayed a lot the same, although we made a lot of new acquaintances and we hope that some of those might move to the next level.

Brian continues working with the same employer and is doing so well. He loves what he does – that’s such a plus – and he enjoys a lot of success. He really is valued by everyone there. He gets recognition and rewards for a job well done and is guided and mentored by his more experienced leaders and colleagues. I’m so proud of him. The cool thing is that there are times that I’m able to directly help him in his work by proofreading his proposals and presentations and offering suggestions. I really like staying connected to the business world - and his working world - in that way.

And Callie? I could (and do) write volumes about her. She’s constantly growing – physically, mentally, emotionally, socially – in so many ways, becoming the unique person God intends her to be. We take her lots of places and do lots of things with her. She seems to soak up everything she sees, hears and does. I’m so privileged to be able to be a stay-at-home mommy for her – to be there to not only care for her, but to guide her and enrich her life in as many ways as I can think of. She loves books, music, has some fave TV shows and videos. Likes to dance and sing. Likes games and likes to interact. Always inquisitive. Has a creative imagination. She likes to go outdoors to play so we take full advantage of good weather to shift our activities outdoors.

We have lots of good family time in the evenings and weekends. I do my best to have most everything in the way of chores, errands, all the household stuff out of the way by the time Brian comes home from work so that we can spend as much time together as a family as possible with all three of us engaged in activities. It’s especially fun in the summer when we can go out with Callie for stroller rides and bike rides around our neighborhood and sometimes to nearby parks. Then after her bed time, Brian and I have ample time together as a couple. So important.

Callie turned two in September. We had a mostly family gathering at our place to celebrate her birthday the weekend before. Brian’s parents spent the weekend with us. That’s not unusual, but that particular visit became particularly interesting in a particular way. You see, that was when we sort of filled in the rest of the gaps with them about our preference for nude living and recreation. It was actually Callie who instigated that by showing them a little picture-book I had made for her of one our weekend camping trips that summer – all totally normal to her, of course. But at any rate, that became the opportunity for a long discussion with them. It went OK – about as well as could be expected, I guess. We’re still on good terms – they haven’t like, disowned us or anything - but they’re not pleased with us about this and are concerned for Callie. And Beth. I plan to write about this in detail as a separate project.

So anyway, that was the birthday and we are now in the “Terrible Two’s,” although they have mostly not been terrible. Mostly not. But every now and then this other person suddenly surfaces in the form of our daughter. We call her the scream queen. Brian and I look at each other and say, “Whoa! Who is this! And what has she done with our sweet little Callie girl?” But with some gentle guidance and loving reassurance, the scream queen soon goes away and we get our Callie back.

It was toward summer‘s end that I became pregnant. We were trying and I was already certain of it even before the tests confirmed it. We were (and are) overjoyed for our family to be growing. I got along fine – even better than the first time in that my “morning sickness” was a lot less severe this time. I am so grateful for that. And it was great when we started sharing the news with our family and friends.

One of the things I think I mentioned getting involved in last year was a then new community group in our church for women to connect with each other for friendship and support. This group reaches out to women who feel isolated and friendless for whatever reason – stay at home moms, working moms with no time outside work and childrearing, single moms, divorcees, widows, you name it. The important thing is to bring people together to share their lives in friendship and caring; to interact with someone else who understands and relates – and cares about them. We do this around Bible study and social activities designed to bring women together and get them talking to one another with the potential to form lasting friendships.

I was asked to help with this with the thought that there might be a few gals my age in this situation, but that most would be older. But what we’ve found is that there actually are a lot of women my age in this very situation, so I’ve had the opportunity to be very active in the leadership and planning for this group. It breaks my heart to find that there are so many people out there who, in the midst of their busy lives, feel so alone, isolated, and uncared for. So sad. It’s been very gratifying to be a part of this endeavor and it’s been worth all the time and effort that’s been required.

What we try to do is get these women to discover things they have in common and to connect in friendship with each other, but it’s gone so much farther than that. I’ve made so many new friends and acquaintances through this and want to do all I can. It really opened my eyes. I always just sort of took for granted my circle of friends and the care and support that we just naturally provide for each other without even thinking about it, but over the past year I’ve learned to value my friendships at all levels so much more. My circle of friends – especially my long time friends – we’ve always been there for each other. Before becoming involved in this group, I couldn’t even imagine the loneliness that some of these women of all ages experience day in and day out. I don’t know how they can endure it. But I now know how important it is for me to do something about this situation whenever God leads me and another person with this need to cross paths.

This year, like last, we saw many opportunities to connect with neighbors in so many ways. Sometimes it was just to visit in the summer evenings as we were out enjoying the outdoors. And on other occasions there was a chance to lend a helping hand in some meaningful way or another – everything from watching kids, to running errands, to helping someone out of work polish their resume. So many chances to help others and form lasting relationships in the process. And of course, the opposite is true, too, in that we receive help sometimes. We’ve become very close to some of our neighbors – both on an individual level and at the family level. It’s so nice to have people like that close by.

Moving on, let me tell you a little about our camping trips. One thing we had planned for this year was a combined effort between Julie and I to see about getting more people to come back to the campground that we knew that used to go there. During the previous summer it had reached the point that there were no families, couples, or even singles anywhere close to our ages and Brian and I were concerned about the future for Callie. It wasn’t as much about wanting her to have playmates there as it was that we never wanted her to think of our preference for living this way as something so out-of-the-ordinary that no other families like us were involved in it. We were (and are) afraid that if that happened it would open the door for many of the world’s misguided, misinformed notions about our bodies to creep in and over balance the healthy ideas and perceptions that we want to instill in her right from the start.

But back to the people we used to know, Julie and I had a lot of success getting in touch with everyone and had pretty good response in getting them to commit to come back for at least one visit during the summer. Of course, it was impossible to get everyone there at the same time, but that was OK. We were grateful for however we could work it out – even if both of us couples couldn’t always manage to get ourselves there at the same time.

So here’s kinda the rundown on how all those meet-ups went over the course of the summer. First was Jason. He used to come with his parents and sister, Angie. More about her in a minute. He is 23 and has one more semester of college. He brought his girlfriend of several years. Her name is Melissa. They met during their second year of college and have been together ever since. Although she was already familiar with the whole concept of social nudity through Jason, this was her first time to a nudist venue. But in addition to that, they were there with Jason’s parents and staying with them in their camper. I asked her about the awkwardness of being with Jason’s parents on top of this being her first time. She basically just said, hey, it’s all totally terrifying and awkward, so both situations at once didn’t really make much difference. I commented on her courageousness. She just shrugged and said, “I love him so much I’d go with him anywhere.”

Beth was with us that weekend and Julie and Jeff were also there so it was cool that we could all hang out. Also, Melissa and I had some time just the two of us, talking in depth. We had some good discussion and I felt like we got to know each other pretty well. They have an interesting story of how they came to this point in nude living and recreation. Not the way I would have advised, but sweet none the less. Couple-wise I would describe them as seriously dating, but they don’t seem to be in any hurry to move their relationship to the next level.

Unfortunately, the weekend that Amanda was going to be there, we weren’t able to go. But Julie and Jeff were there so that was fun for them. Julie filled me in on it. She and Amanda picked right up again and had a great time together. Amanda is 24, out of school and living on her own in a major city quite a ways from here. She would be labeled as a young professional. She says she enjoys the social scene a lot, but she’s not attached to anyone at the moment. She doesn’t get home very often and never participates in nude recreation in the area she now lives. It just doesn’t interest her she says, but told Julie she did enjoy getting back to camping for the weekend. Said there is a certain element of the outdoors she misses so hopefully, she’ll be back and we can meet up with her, too.

The next one we met up with was Angie, Jason’s younger sister. She is now 20 and attending college although working full-time in the summer in the town where she goes to school. That’s why it was kind of a big deal for her to get to the camp. But she made it happen. This was a weekend that Beth was with us, but not Julie and Jeff, which was too bad. Angie had trouble with Julie’s sense of humor back in the day and I would have liked to have seen them get past that now that some time has passed. But at any rate, that’s how it worked out this time. Her parents were not there that weekend so she was our guest and camped with us, sharing our other tent with Beth. That worked out fine. They had some good talks.

Angie is still the thinking, confident, out-spoken when she has something to say girl, much like she was before. And she has strong opinions on any number of the issues of the day. It was interesting to get her perspectives on things; some of which are well thought out and others? Well, naïve and overly idealistic come to mind.

She says she likes to think of herself as a nudist and considers it part of her identity even though she never has a chance to “do” nudism. People at her school know she’s a nudist. In one of her classes or something, she said everyone was supposed tell something about themselves that no one probably knew. When it came her turn, she said she was a nudist. Not much was said at the time, but it came around again outside of class sometime later. Some guy at a party tried to call her out about it. Said if she was a nudist, get naked right then and there. Right back at him she said she would if he would - and meant it. He backed down. Another time in a group of girls that were hanging out, a couple of them ganged up and challenged her to get naked if she was really a nudist. She said she would if they would. One of them said she would, but then didn’t –never intended to. Several in the group then changed their position and called that person down for making such a big deal and then not following through on her end of the agreement.

And believe it or not, we finally got Ann and Jim there for a whole weekend. I can’t remember how many summers have gone by that we haven’t connected with them there at the campground. Even though we spend time with them at their place numerous times throughout the summer, I really missed camping with them. That weekend we had Beth with us and Julie and Jeff were there, too, so it was really a fun time. Beth is such an awesome woman – someone who is so upbeat and outgoing and liked by everyone she encounters. It was so great. Several times us girls would go for long walks or hang out at the pool, leaving the kids with their dad’s. When I’m in that company, it really feels safe to open up and share – anything. Even Beth – quiet as she usually is – was open to talking about things that even she and I hadn’t discussed before. We’ve grown really close over time.

And Ann, of course, I feel especially close to. I look up to her as both a close friend and a mentor. She’s very gracious; honest; tells you what she thinks – good or bad – but does it in a loving, encouraging way. And she’s totally transparent about her own life. Nothing is off limits for discussion.

And Julie? We have such a great relationship. People say we’re so different they don’t see how we can be such good friends. But the thing is, we’re not just good friends – we’re best friends. Our friendship just grows deeper and deeper and we feel more and more connected. And even though we find ourselves moving in different directions a lot of the time – me a stay-at-home mom with a toddler and a baby on the way and her partnering in business with her mom as well as always being out and about with Jeff – we still stay close. And that’s not something we have to force ourselves to do. We actually miss each other if we don’t talk at least every day, usually on the phone, but fairly often in person, too.

So in talking to you about Julie, I’m reminded that she’s the one that was with me at the beginning of this 10 year stretch of time I mentioned earlier, and even before. It’s so hard to believe it’s been that long, but that just shows you how a friendship can not only stand the test of time, but actually help to grow and mature the two individuals.

So…now if I dare look ahead into the next 10 years, what might I see? What does that look like? What can I hope for? Well, another child certainly as he’s already on the way. More children? I don’t know. We’ll see where God leads us on that. I certainly see Brian a lot in the future. My husband, soul-mate, and very best friend. We both want our marriage to deepen and flourish and be a solid foundation and example for our children, providing them with the love, care, and guidance for them to flourish. I see us living intentionally with that in mind. I’d like to see us giving ourselves to others – friends and family – in meaningful relationships that intentionally touch, bless, and make a positive difference in the lives of those around us.

What else? Hmm…10 years out. Let’s see…that would make me…40.

40?

Forty!!!???

Whoa! I can’t think about that right now, not in my condition.

So from our family to you and yours: We wish you a wonderful year in 2010.