These past two weeks, I’ve been editing, and re-editing my book for Amazon. So the normal things I do in our home haven’t been getting done on time and my family is reeling from mommy neglect.

So yesterday, we all took a long, deep breath and drove to the river. Just a few miles from our home, the Sacramento flows like a life vein running all the way to the sea.

I love this river. She’s ancient and beautiful and can transport me back in time like nothing else can. The mighty sycamore and oaks along her banks tower to the sky. Birds sing in the trees. Animals of all kinds drink from the river banks, just as they’ve done for centuries.

I feel very small and new on the river, like a girl at her first dance.

When I was little, my grandparents introduced me to the Sacramento River. Fishing was my grandpa’s thing. Grandma went along so I could go along. “Girls don’t belong on the river,” my grandpa said, but I knew he was wrong.

I knew I belonged on the river.

Yesterday, I needed the river to wake me up. It’s so easy to get sidetracked away from your life. Away from the people you love and the little things, that in the end, are really the big things. Like your children growing up.

Take a moment to think about what sidetracks you away from your life. Your living, breathing life on this earth. Does Facebook sidetrack you? Pinterest sidetrack you? An addiction sidetrack you?

Or maybe like me, your work can sidetrack you.

It happens so fast. I needed the river yesterday to remind me that my boys are growing up in the blink of an eye, and I don’t want to miss their inches. Because they are literally growing in inches right now. John actually grew an inch in a week. We know this because Oma measures the grandkids on her pantry door frame all the time.

There are marks on that door frame from when I was a kid growing in inches.

I just realized I need a pantry room door frame like Oma’s. When I am a grandma, I will track our grandkids in inches on our wall. Because like the river, sometimes life appears to be moving slow, but really, it’s flowing fast and you can never get it back.

These pictures are actually misleading. I never really saw our youngest boys in the river this weekend. The pictures arrived on my phone as I sat in a boat with my dad and our older boys, John and Joey, down river from where Scott snapped these shots. While we were fishing, Scott took these two swimming.

Only three or four people fit in Opa’s boat so the little brothers didn’t get to go along. Scott drove Cruz and G2 over to the river anyway.

When these swimming pictures landed in a message on my phone, I about lost it. “Get my boys out of the river!” I texted back like a mad woman.

Sixteen years ago, I did a feature story for the newspaper on boating safety. After a weekend spent on the Sacramento River with the sheriff’s department, I decided nobody should swim in the Sac. It’s deep, it’s cold, and it’s unpredictable. People drown there all the time.

“But they’re having so much fun,” Scott messaged back.

“Oh my goodness! Get my little boys out of the river!”

I was sitting in the boat with my foot propped up higher than my heart. John was making sure I held ice on my leg. An hour earlier, in the middle of catching a striped bass, I’d banged my shin on the boat anchor, breaking a blood vessel in my leg. It immediately swelled up and looked blue and scary. John put his hand on my injury and prayed and then ordered me to keep my leg elevated as we fished.

I prayed too. I didn’t want our day to be ruined because I’d hurt myself. Scott stopped messaging me the way he does whenever he and the boys are doing something that scares the mommy.

So I settled down, trying to enjoy the river.

 

Ultimately I did enjoy the river. The Bible says, “Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows” Ezekiel 47:9.

I love this promise about the river bringing life to swarms of living creatures. Like baby salmon. This is our baby salmon story:

About eight years ago, when G2 was born and landed in the NICU with a heart issue, a big storm hit our farm and blew down all our old almond trees.

At the time, we were overwhelmed by G2’s medical bills, and one Sunday morning, Scott and I walked up to the altar at our church and knelt there to pray for God to help us with our finances because we were growing desperate.

That same Sunday afternoon, a government truck drove into our driveway. The guy came to our door and said, “What are you going to do with all those old trees lying in your pasture?”

“Firewood, I guess,” Scott said. We were exhausted parents of a baby with a heart problem and our bank account was so dry. Our spirits felt dry too.

“I want to buy all your trees. We are making homes for the baby salmon in the Sacramento River and your trees will make perfect sanctuaries for them.”

A week later, the state came in with a big tractor and several semi-trucks and loaded up all our trees. Hundreds of them. A large check arrived in the mail soon after that, and Scott and I thanked God for providing for us in our time of great need.

On Saturday, as we cruised down the river in Opa’s boat, there were our old almond trees stuck in the side of the riverbank.  Trees of life for baby salmon.

When you’re in the thick of life’s difficulties, as we were back then, it’s hard to believe God has good plans for you. Plans for you to live and thrive and enjoy your life.

But the truth is, God has good plans for you. Say your prayers, and trust in God to restore you.

And take a drive to the river. You may even bring home fish tacos.

Stripers make the best fish tacos. I cut the fish fillets into tiny pieces, roll them in flour, then egg, and then breadcrumbs, and then fry it. Then I stuff the lightly browned, breaded fish into a flour or corn tortilla with some graded cheddar cheese and fry it again. Add some lettuce and tomatoes and salsa and it’s delicious!