Sacramento Time

Leaving California meant leaving My Little Sister and her family behind.  We did not live near one another, but the route from LA to Sacramento was a quick and easy journey.  We saw each other often and as My Nephew E has no grandparents, we (My Loving Spouse and I) try to step up the Aunt/Uncle role a notch to help replace that loss.  I was long overdue for a visit and was recently jetting down to Sacramento for some family time and decent (in my opinion) Mexican food.Elk Grove, Sacramento is growing and exploding by leaps and bounds, but everything is planned out for quality life style.  We rode bikes on gorgeous bike paths.…with parks on what seemed like every block, designed for old, young and 4 footed friends.I got my ‘shopping’ fill, with every store imaginable just around the corner…and a few stores I could not believe.  A store that sold nothing but popcorn!  (Yes, I ate too much!)We had been teaching Zentangle  at the library.  “The process of creating a Zentangle is a form of “artistic meditation”  I call it ‘adult doodling’, but really it is much more than that and I was excited to share it with My Nephew E.  E is a brilliant, messy boy.  I loved having him finish my pages, delighted that he wanted to, feeling that satisfaction of offering him something new…yet ever so simple.  The gift my Sacramento family is to me…much like the Zentangle, our lives are a collection of patterns, and when we put them together they make our own unique art.

So..I thank My Little Sister for loving me, and especially thank My Mom on this Mother’s Day weekend for giving me my family.  My Mom ‘had enough kids, but hadn’t had enough babies’.  She became a Foster Mother and so we became a Foster Family.  Eventually, My Little Sister was adopted by ‘us’….and as she said at Mom’s Memorial service.

“My Mom didn’t give me life, but My Mom saved my life.”

…and we are blessed.