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Meet Rachel. We really like her for too many reasons to go into here. But so much so, that she’s going to be appearing frequently on this blog over the next month (or so), as a guest blogger (she’s got her own blog, journeymama.com).

Rachel’s been journeying with us (literally) for a season (as has her husband, Chinua), and we’re borrowing some of her writing and photography talents. You’ll find out more about what she’s been working on from her own posts, which will be forthcoming next week and will continue in a pretty steady stream until…well, until the season changes. In the meantime, I’ve asked her a few questions to introduce her:

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When you aren’t blogging, what are you doing?

I’m a little- how do you say it? –insanely ambitious. So I’m always coming up with some kind of project, and lately it’s all about the latent domesticity. I think I’ve been involved in Administration and bookkeeping for too long, and now that I’m moving out of that line of work, I’m making a run in the crafting direction.

In other words, when I’m not blogging, I’m homeschooling, cooking, baking, taking photos, knitting, and I am turning a corner into sewing land, right now.

I’m also a reading addict. The kind who tells herself not to buy any more books because there are plenty of books in the library, but still feels drawn to the bookstore, where she walks through the aisles touching and smelling. So, that’s me.

You were in San Francisco and then way out in no-man’s land Northern California. Tell us a bit about that lifestyle change.

When we lived in San Francisco we were in a flat with several different people, on one of the busiest streets in the city. We lived above a coffee shop and a bar, and across the street from a club. It was crazy, and although I adore San Francisco, sometimes I felt like San Francisco didn’t adore me.

Moving to the Land was like a fairy-tale to me. Suddenly it was summer (unlike in San Francisco, where it is coldest in July) and I was hanging my colorful laundry on the clothesline, to dry by a sparkling river. I was spending time in the garden eating the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever had, I was outside all of the time, and I lived in a little cabin in the woods with my kids who were constantly rolling in the dirt. To get the dirt off we would swim in the river. The Land was a community, too, and we had meals together most days, and at least one a week during the summer we’d have a bonfire, and sit and drum and sing around the fire.
I missed San Francisco, in some ways, but I adjusted really well to life way out in the woods. The winters were the hard part, with flooding and water problems, and constant rain, but there is nothing like cuddling up beside a wood-burning stove.

What’s it been like to adjust to urban life again? Have you had any eco-urban “Aha’s’” since moving to Sacramento?

It hasn’t been completely easy to adjust to urban life. I’ve loved many things, like the convenience (at the Land we had to travel for an hour and a half just to get groceries) and being close to good friends, but I find it overwhelming at times. I think that the eco-urban concept has made a lot of sense to me at times when I’ve been reduced almost to tears by huge strip malls and big box stores.

Suddenly simple living is almost like a battle. In the woods, things simply aren’t available. But when everything is at your fingertips, you are constantly making choices not to consume. And an urban dwelling place that has the warmth of a neighborhood is a necessity. Our identity shouldn’t be in our role as consumers.

“Journey” seems to be a life-theme for you. Tell us about that?

Well, let me just say that I’m a Canadian, living in Northern California with my husband who was raised in Detroit and asked me to marry him on a tropical island in India.

Really, I haven’t stopped moving during the course of my life. And in marrying a wandering minstrel, I have obliterated the need to quench the nomadic tendencies in my life. We plan to be in India this year, and from there? Who knows? Plus, the Journey is a bigger symbol, I am moving towards faith, drifting further into love, into rightness.

How ‘bout a few favorites?

Article of clothing: Any kind of cozy, thrifted, hand-knit sweater.

Films: Baraka, and Rivers and Tides about Andy Goldsworthy. Both of these bring me to tears.

Books: This list is huge, a few are: My name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok, Freddy and Fredericka, by Mark Helprin, Back When we were Grownups, by Anne Tyler. Those are just recent loves. I adore the entire Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery, like any good Canadian girl should, and for just fun, I love all of Robin McKinley’s fantasy books.

People: This one’s a no-brainer- the ones who bear my DNA and my last name, not to mention their father. Also, I tend to drift towards crazy visionary types who keep themselves and others at a run. They drive me insane, inspire me, and make me laugh, all at the same time.

Childhood memory: Once, when I was about twelve, my family traveled to Ontario and went to my grandmother’s cottage on one of the lakes there. My cousins and sister and I would take the canoe or rowboat out and just paddle around all day on this wild lake in Canada. There’s an Innocence Mission song that I love called Lakes of Canada, and I think it about captures the lovely wild beauty of those days.

Place on earth: British Columbia is my homeland. I adore Thailand. And the Redwoods feel like home, to me- I think I will always think of the far North of California when I think of home. I don’t know that I’ve ever been more content than when I was in West Africa. But I think I’ve yet to be in my favorite place on earth. I have a feeling it might be Goa, India, but I haven’t been yet, so it’s still just a premonition.

Time of day: Morning, morning, morning. Rolling out of bed and making an Americano. I love being out and about in the morning, too, when everyone is a bit sleepy. I loved this especially in India.

The last time you laughed so hard, you nearly peed was when…?

When we were in Burkina Faso and the Juiliba tried to speak English.

You’ve got kids and a husband. Tell us about them.

My husband captured my heart the first time I ever saw him. He’s a real, live Superstar, one who can juggle fire, play any instrument he picks up, write letters that sweep me off my feet, and make up songs off the top of his head to cheer me up. He’s put up with a lot from his wife of the artistic temperament. People often ask me, “Doesn’t it make you mad, how good Chinua is at everything?” But no, no it doesn’t, because I see how hard he works at everything he does.

Right now he’s working for LJUrban doing videography, something that, surprise surprise, he is excelling at as well.

Oh, the children that we were going to wait to have. (We didn’t wait, celebrating our first anniversary with a week-old baby) They are incredible: a boy who is five, a girl who is three, and a little boy who is almost two. My heart is captured by them. They are my biggest challenge, my sweetest work, and my closest friends. I cannot wait to see what comes out of these little ones. I also have our fourth nestled away in my belly, so, you know, can’t wait to meet the next one.

Jason (and Rachel)