Come one come all

 

Merry Christmas everyone.  I am sorry that it's been a while since I have written a blog.  There is so much going on that it is sometimes hard to share it all.  No, the house is not finished.  But I don't really care.  We are happy where God has put us and we are learning to live within the means that we have right now.  Complaining happens sometimes and so does the nagging but they are few and far between. 



We just spent Thanksgiving in Connecticut with the in-laws.  I can tell you that it was quite

Natasha the turkey

interesting with the nieces and nephews running around with each other, singing at the top of their voices the tunes from the latest Disney movie.  And yes, my 20 year old daughter was one of the singers.  It was so much fun to see the younger ones playing along with their older cousins.  Us adults were well behaved, as you might imagine, when the Perreault clan gets together.  I have no evidence of any strange behaviors of adults, such as the conga backrub line.  For more incriminating evidence, visit my facebook page.  

I am not dinner!

   

Conga line for backrubs?

 

 But enough of such silly things.  We are looking forward to Christmas, this year again with the Perreault clan.  It's been a while for us to spend Christmas eve with them.  We are looking forward to it.  But anyway, I didn't set out to write this blog all about our Christmas plans.  I have started this blog three times now, and I am finally trying to get it right.

 

I think by now everyone knows about the fact that I have found a publisher for a great little story I was blessed to write (well it is a very, very long story at 600 pages!!!!!).  I am so excited about it, but at this stage the excitement has faded some and reality is setting in.  When the publisher contacted me in late September, October I would have signed over my children and my dog for the story to get published.  At this point I have calmed down a little.  I am more settled and can think rationally again. 

 

When I was young, I loved stories.  They became a really important part of my life.  I would be happy to snuggle up with a book.  I had trouble sleeping, so at night I would make up incredible and crazy adventures.  When I went to boarding school, my second year was incredibly lonely.  I had no friends.  And when you have school until one in the afternoon, there is a lot of time for nothing.  I was very studious at that time, because I had a lofty goal.  But there was still a lot of time for me, myself and I.  So we made up this story and over the years it became more and more important to me.  I would retreat to my imagination whenever things got rough. 

 

Fast forward ten years ago.  I was in a really hard place in my life.  Things were tough and I couldn't face them.  My wonderful hero husband went to bat for me and finally got me out of the mess I was in, but in the meantime, I retreated.  I was in such a bad place, that often time I didn't even get out of bed.  I would stay in my room, more importantly in my imagination.  It was a very cozy place.  A place I found comfort in.  When the whole mess was over, I finally came out of my little happy place and rejoined the rest of the family again. 

 

It was then that God started talking to me.  He wanted me to stop running to my imagination.  He wanted me to stop daydreaming!  The audacity!  I couldn't!  I was so involved with the characters in my mind, that they had become real and important to me.   In the end I said that I just couldn't stop talking to my friends (characters in the story).  I argued again and again about the impossibility (hint: don't argue with the creator of the universe.  I seem to be doing that a lot!).  This went on for quite some time.  I tried to stop daydreaming but in the end I would always go back.  It was like an addiction when I was depressed.  So then I got my little awakening.  He said to me, you are having an adulterous relationship!  Yikes!  That got my attention!  I asked how to stop and we worked out a pretty good plan.  I have not gone back to that dark place where I need my story to make it through the day.  So now fast forward to early this year.  I was done with the story I wrote for Tasha (10 years in the making) and I thought, that was fun.  What's next, God?      

 I did not expect and answer right away but I got one, and it was a little scary.  I shared last blog that He wanted me to write 'the story'.  Well, I argued again.  Like I shared, it would be too personal.  As I finally started opening my heart to hear what God had to say to me, I began to say, all right.  But I can't trust my heart, because I want to go back and see how my characters are doing.  In my heart I was afraid that if I went back, I would start to run to my imagination every time the going got tough again.  So, God just asked me to trust Him and to obey.  I was willing to let Him lead me all the way.  And over the next couple of weeks, it became obvious that God wanted me to write the story.

Here is what He shared with me as I wrote.  He shared that there was going to be a lot of healing, and I, of course, thought that I was doing just fine.  Well, there was a lot of healing.  He showed me that through the creative process how much fun He had creating me.  Since I was His creation, He was not just going to sit back and watch from afar.  He wanted to be intimately involved with my life.  He also showed me that when the chips are down, He is right there beside me.  I was writing a particular hard part of the story and I was grieving for my characters.  In that moment I knew that in ten or more pages all the hardships would be over.  That is the same with God.  He is right there beside us when we go through hardships and he is cheering us on.  Because He knows the end results!  Just like I knew the end result of the story, He knows the outcome of mine.  And just like me as the author, He does not just leave me hanging.  What a beautiful picture He gave me.

He also talked to me about the adulterous part.  It was not because of the content of my story, but it

was by retreating into my own little world, I was shutting out the rest of the world.  My kids couldn't follow me into my imagination.  I was the only one who could.  And so by me writing it down, He brought this story that I had kept in my darkest imagination into the light!  Now, everyone can read it.  And that is why this story will be published!  But not on my own time line.  When God deems it's time, there will be nothing stopping me!  That is soooo cool.  He brought about a lot of healing just by brining out the story into the light.

So I really hope that this story will be out there soon, but I am willing to take a breath and not run on my emotions.  I am glad that we took a step back from when the publisher contacted me.  I needed to think things through.  And it is giving Tom a chance to look through my story.  He has done a really good job looking through it and talking about little areas that didn't quite flow well.  So, prayers are definitely appreciated.

Because whoever knows me, knows how incredibly patient (NOT) I am.  I would have liked to have seen this story in the stores by Christmas, but that is not going to happen.  And I have to be all right with that.  Because when it does come out, and it will, it has to be really good.  I can't change the way people see me when they read what I have written.  I put my thoughts out there for others to see and to evaluate.  That is one scary thought.  So, we are going to work on it some more. 

I don't really care if I offend someone with what I write, but I care to represent my Lord with honor.  I have to share the story about my laptop.  The thing is now 13 years old, okay!  It has seen better days.  When I started writing this story, I was praying that I would continue to write until God shut me down.  And that laptop was pretty iffy if it would start.  So, as I started writing, trusting and obeying what God had told me to do, the thing just started getting better and better!  I'm not kidding you!  I had a hinge that was busted.  Sean tried to fix it, and it just kept popping out.  It's fixed!  It just fixed itself (well not really, you get the picture?).  As I was writing there were a lot of verses God And Mary said, behold the Lord's handmaiden.  Be it onto me according to thy word."  That verse became so real to me.  I was living it.  So I decorated my laptop with the verses God was giving me.  Tasha drew a beautiful soaring bald eagle on the front and I wrote the verses around it.  I have to admit I got the idea from Sean.
was talking to me about, but one of them was really important to me.  "

There was a part of the story that made me realize just how involved God is in whatever I do.  I was at home, writing away.  It was a great part of the story.  And I was rubbing my hands together in glee.  Suddenly the laptop died!  Just shut down.  I was plugged in and everything.  It hadn't given me

any problems since I started writing.  And I just lost ten pages of the very juicy part of my story!  Okay, I prayed pleading that this wasn't it for my short writing career, and started it up again.  Yup, it stared right up.  I wrote and wrote along the same line I had gone before.  And it shut down on me again.  So I booted up again, without problems and on I went.  Again, lost it when it shut down on me.  I was done!  The next day were are in my office (McDonalds) and I thought about why the stupid laptop kept on shutting down.  Then I realized it.  The story was taking a route where God wasn't honored!  He didn't want me to write that way.  I switched and reworked the story.  The computer hasn't shut down on me since!  I thought that was absolutely amazing!

I hope that this story is an encouragement for you during a time that for many can be really tough.  I want you to be encouraged.  And hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Who am I?

 Hello everyone and I am sorry that I haven't bothered you in a while.  I have been thinking of what to write to you and really, nothing came to mind until recently.  I have to be honest with you. I really didn't have anything to report on the house.  That doesn't mean nothing is going on.  The weeds are growing really well this year.  The garden is blooming with weeds and the house is still there.  With Tom's work it is very hard for him to get some time to just do something.  And then he is usually exhausted when he comes home.  I don't quite get that.  I mean, the guy is out at four in the morning driving and hefting heavy boxes until sometimes six at night.

I do have another confession to make.  I have not really wanted to write a blog.  I have been too busy doing my own thing.  But more of that later.  We had a chance to have a wonderful vacation with the whole family in German, something we haven't been able to do for five or six years.  My parents celebrated fifty years of marriage and we were able to celebrate with them and family and friends.  It was a really wonderful time and I am so thankful to have been there.  Seeing people I haven't seen in, well 25 years, was really cool.  We got to spend time with the cousins and saw everyone in the family.  It was a precious time.  We also got to go and take a trip to the Mosel river in central Germany.  What a gorgeous area!  I also got to get my first speeding ticket ever!!!  Fun, fun!  I  hope my Dad sends me the picture.  I would love to see my sister's too.  It was her fault!  I'm kidding! 

School has started and it has been hard for me this year.  But once we get down to it, we do really well.  We have a great time.  I have been allowing myself to do something I never thought I would admit to, let alone dream of sharing with others.  But that is not the point of this blog.

People say that writing is good for you and that you can learn things about yourself.  It is therapeutic.  I never understood that.  I always had to write and I hated it!  I was very bad at it too.  But lately God is working on me in areas that I never thought I would visit.  That is what I want to share with you, so pull up a chair, grab some beverage of choice and make yourselves comfortable.  It's gonna take some time to explain.

There are not many pictures of myself that I like.  I always wondered why that was.  I always hated that thing being pointed at me.  I was never thin enough, my smile was never good enough, my eyes were never looking in the right direction, whatever you can name, I thought it!  I was stuck in a bad place.  I think a lot of women/girls are stuck there.  When I was a kid, I hated being stuck with the girls.  Ugh, girls!  I was not going to do what they did.  I was cool!  I played with the cars, the guns, climbed the trees (not too well), and did tomboy things. 

And in my heart, I knew things weren't right.  I wanted to be a girl, but I didn't want to be considered a second rate citizen!  No, not me.  Girl things were out!  In my heart and in my room I did all the girl things.  I played with the bardies, did the doll thing and even danced to music.  Yup, I was a closet girl! 

Okay, you got the back story here?  Good, now moving on.  I carried that with me everywhere, the closet girl.  I dressed in baggy jeans, baggy sweaters anything to avoid being a girl.  I had a hair cut like Rod Steward my first year at boarding school!!!  It didn't look too bad, actually.  I carried that into my relationships and my family.  I was still the closet girl/woman. 

Fast forward, twelve years ago.  I win a computer.  I have some time on my hand and I start writing a story for my daughter because I just couldn't stand what is out there for her age group.  I share with my friend who reads a little bit.  Her comment is, "You're a writer!"  Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, eh, no!
I don't have a degree in writing, journalism and my papers in English came back dripping with red ink!  I am not a writer!  Since that time I have come to write more, and more and more and now I have this crazy blog!  Fast forward to last year: I finished Tasha's story (yes, 12 years later)!  Now what?  Write another one, I am told by the Boss.  Not a chance! 

Because this one is close to my heart!  I can't let people see the things that are in my heart, can I?  Write the story, the words just keep popping into my heart.  No, thank you!  I won't!  Because this story has been part of me from the beginning of time.  Yes, but I will make you whole if you trust me and write the story.  True enough.  Through writing the story that has been on my heart for the last thirty years, I have come to realize something and so much more.

I am a hopeless romantic!  There, it is out!  I admit it!  Give me a good old fashioned romance and I will cry with the best of them.  I also realize that it is okay to be a woman. Mmmm, that was really hard to admit.  It is okay to be whom God has created me to be.  It is okay that there are limitations on who I am.  I am not superwoman, I am not a supermodel, I am  just a woman!  And that is totally all right.  Just because I am a woman doesn't mean that I am a second class citizen.  I have been created!  Most importantly I was created a woman.  Scripture tells me that I was knit together in my mother's womb. 

My mother knitted when I was young.  To picture that God took out the needles and knit me together is a little ludicrous to me, but it is true all the same.  His word also tells me that I was fearfully and wonderfully made! Yikes, me?  I would agree that maybe if I were a boy I would be fearfully and wonderfully made but me?  Yes!  I, a woman, am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Realizing that the same God, who spoke and there was light, took His knitting needles and made me to be who I am is really incredibly humbling and it is so comforting.

I don't have anything to prove!  Here I am, I have a masters degree in teaching and pretty much in horsemanship, I can get on any  horse and not make a fool of myself anymore, I homeschool three kids, and I am building my own house with my husband.  But I really don't have to prove that I can.  Because He has made me.  And even if I didn't do any of those things, I would still be fearfully and wonderfully made.  That same God Who knitted me together and Who fearfully and wonderfully created me in His image (wow, He is a creator) created me to be a woman, a mother, a wife, and so much more.

I have been made complete!  Not because I am all that!  No, the same creator who created me also send His only son and He died for me!  A woman!  He shed His blood to cover me and protect me!  Emm, no, that is impossible, because I am only a woman.  But it is possible, because I am His child, no matter what!  I am not afraid to admit that I am a woman. 

The picture at the top of the page was sent by my parents.  I like the picture.  I think it is the best picture of me yet to date.  That is the way I see myself at this point in time.  I am just another woman on the street.  I have nothing left to prove!  I cry, I laugh and I make goofy faces if you point a camera at me.  Although that may change now.  I may not even care anymore what I look like. 
    

The nice thing about being in Germany for my parent's 50th anniversary, is that 25 years ago Tom and I got married.  I love being whom God has made me into.  I am free not to be just a woman, but one who was created in the image of God!  I can't say that I am ashamed of that, can I now?

 

Meant to thrive

And a happy early summer/late spring day to you, my friends and family.  I hope you are enjoying the weather as much as we are out here in the wilderness.  Kidding, on the wilderness part, sort of.  It has been a while since I bothered you last with my reports, so I'm sure you have missed me.  We have now reached summer time even here in Vermont.  The last couple of days have been beautiful and we have had the great pleasure of swimming and biking and doing a lot of summer fun things.  More of that in a moment. 


We were able to plant our raised bed, thanks to Natasha, and we don't have to scramble down to the river every time because Tom fashioned rain barrels for our garden.  They work really well.  We have had a bunch of huge weeds to contend with and Sean was so kind to give his father a weed whacker for father's day.  The garden looks so much nicer again and we can now get to the beds.

I don't want to have Logan drive!

Logan and I finished school, and got a good report from our evaluator.  We are always happy when that happens.  Now Logan is spending time in his favorite pastime, reading.  We were able to go to some historic sites and Logan had the great pleasure of being able to take a trip with Tom to Canada, Plymouth Plantation and Six Flags this spring. 

 Natasha and Sean are busy with their jobs.  Natasha is enjoying her job a lot still and is working a good many hours.  She is usually very tired and her feet hurt when she comes home.  But she always wears a smile, whether she is having a good day or not.  That makes her so special and such a blessing to me.  Sean has recently given his notice to his boss, Roland.  It was time for him to take the next step in his life.  He had been praying about it for a while and it seemed that God moved him away, finally.  He is now only working for one other person and mostly for himself!  That is such an accomplishment and at 23 years old, I have to hand it to him.  He has the beginning of a thriving business, with over 70 horses to service.  He works hard and long hours but he does it with a great attitude and care for his clients and their animals.  Aww, that's my boy!

So now we come to me, myself and I.  We are all doing pretty good.  We are having a good time with each other (just kidding).  A couple of weeks ago I had this idea for this blog.  I have been listening to the music of Casting Crowns and one of their songs really touched me, Thrive.  And I started to think about what is the meaning of thriving.

From a worldly standpoint we are not thriving!  How could we?  Come on, we have no running water (still not), no electricity, no real bathroom, and none of the luxuries we are so used to and expect to have wherever we go.  How can we talk about thriving in a place that lacks those basic needs.  On top of everything, I ran over the chord to the charger to our phone.  The company is being difficult so we now don't even have our home phone.  How is that thriving?  And still, I know we are thriving. 

As I mentioned earlier Sean is now 23 years old and Natasha is 19.  They should be out on their own!  How ridiculous for them to be living at home still.  And yet... it is my great pleasure to have my grown 'children' (please forgive me for calling you children) staying with us.  Not because we make them stay with us, but because they are happy to do so.  There is something special about having them around, and those who have the pleasure of grown children around, can testify to that.  We are thriving.  We have been put together into this situation and we are not moping about (okay we sometimes do mope) and complain about what we don't have or how they want to move out because their parents are crazy(all right, they do mention the parents are crazy sometimes)!  I see more and more families living in the same house and I think it is pretty cool.  We are thriving not because of what we have or don't have.  We are thriving because we know where our hope is.  That hope is not dependent on our situations.  We may have bad days when nothing is working out, but we are still thriving.

Tasha and I are reading through a book called "Kisses for Katie" together.  I mentioned it before and have read it before, but it is such a great reminder of thriving where you have been placed.  There are bad days, believe me I've had a couple of bad ones recently.  But I worked through them, not alone but with someone pulling me along with Him. 

The other day I was feeling pretty low and just wondering again what the point of moving up here away from friends and family was.  To live in a house not finished, to live off the land (yup we wanted it) isn't always easy.  I had just had a couple of really great days.  After starting "Kisses for Katie" I really didn't look for opportunities to see people, it just happened.  I was able to give a smile here and a kind word there to perfect strangers.  That was pretty cool. 

And then Saturday happened!  It ended up being a good day, because I did something I would normally not ever have done.  I had gone into Claremont to do some shopping and to get a chord for my phone at Verizon.  Turns out that I was not able to get it, even after returning to the store several times.  By the time I left the store I was steaming mad!  How dare they treat me, a customer, so poorly!  I had rights (again those rights)!  And then I was driving home, steaming mad, and the thought started nagging at me.  If that had been Natasha who was serving you, would you have spoken to her like that?  We are hearing a lot of stories from her about people with not so good attitudes.  I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me, hey Christ died for that guy too.  He was just doing his job, to his best ability.  I was half way back to Springfield, when I finally couldn't stand it anymore.  "All right already, I will go back to the store and apologize for my crappy attitude."  I turned around and as I was getting closer to the store I started rationalizing that I really had rights and didn't have to go back.  The clerk had it coming to him.  I almost chickened out!  I needed courage!  So I took a deep breath and prayed quickly for intervention and walked yet again into the store.

The clerk saw me coming and gave me a half smile, probably thinking oh great, her again.  I just quickly walked up to him and apologized for my bad attitude and thanked him for helping me.  He asked if I got the phone all squared away and I told him that I hadn't.  It was just a phone!  That took him by surprise but at that time I was out of the store already.  So, what did my going back do?  I have no idea!  It's not up to me!

And that leads us back to the other day when I was down and lonely and feeling sorry for myself (I was focused on me, myself and I not on what God had for me).  The kids rode their bikes down to the river, and I was getting milk and picking them up (all downhill to the river, but up back to the house).  I sat down and it hit me.  There was nowhere in CT (no offense) I could have taken the kids to swim in a river like this.  The setting was so quiet, so beautiful.  I turned my perspective back to what God had given me, instead of moping about what I didn't have.  That is thriving!  The next moment my friend Sandy pulled into the parking spot next to us.  She had just felt led to stop and chat.  It ended up that her kids came down and they all had a great time swimming that day and the next!  Thriving!  Not because I could have come up with this great plan for my day, but because He came up with the great plan for my day!  How cool is that?  I'll take it any time over having a completed house.

I hope you thrive wherever you have been put.  Have a wonderful day, week, month, year, life!  Thrive!

 

Be still....

Soaking up the sun

Snow!!!

 Hello again my dear friends.  How is everyone?  I hope everyone is doing well and entering another exciting season of their live.  Yes, I have to admit, spring does exist.  But here in Vermont winter didn't want to let go!  It fought and fought but, alas, it lost.  The days are a little warmer but still there is a pretty good chill in the air.  We have not planted anything outside yet.  However, we already had some strawberries from our hydroponic garden in the basement.  They were good (or so I was told, since I didn't get any yet).


Snow is gone!!

Things are pretty exciting up here right now.  Tom is working 7 days at this point splitting his time between bus driving and truck delivery.  He likes the bus better, I think, but the hours are just not enough. So God provided another job right then and there.  He is so faithful it is great to watch Him work.  We are all plugging along.  Logan and I are trying to stay motivated to finish off school and do so with joy and enthusiasm.  Natasha still loves her job at the Subway.  She is getting some nice hours in, filling her bank account just a little more.  She is saving for a car, since we only have one vehicle.  It gets a little challenging carting everyone around and coordinating the pick up times and drop off times.  But this will soon pass too and then I will miss taking my beautiful daughter to work every day and picking her up.  So, I cherish the time, plus I get to give rides to her co-workers.  Sean's business is really picking up new clients and now has 60 horses (I think last time I checked) on his own.  That is a lot of work.  He still works with Roland, out of Chester, and Brendan out of Walpole, NH.  So there were a couple of weeks when he would just come and go to sleep.  I didn't see much of him, which was a little bit of a shame.  But that is all good, and I am so happy for him that he gets to start his business in earnest now.  He is planning on taking some time off in June to visit a friend in Texas.  Yes, Texas!   He just made a huge purchase for his business. He bought a new truck.  Yes, he let go of his little baby and found a really nice upgrade.


F-150 TRUCK

So now he is driving a real truck.  Just kidding, Sean.  It is a really sweet ride.  Sean bought it on a weekday and by the weekend he had put three hundred miles on it, going from client to client.  He mentioned that after that, the newness of the truck had worn off just a little.

So now you are up on what is going on here.  The house, you ask?  Well, we do have running water.  It is called Tom.  Hahaha, get it?  Tom runs to the spring and gets the water.  No no, right now the name of the running water is Anne, since Tom is a little busy and I don't want him to be doing just another project we can take care of.  Over the winter he did little experiments on how to get some electricity but they all didn't generate quite enough to depend on just one source, so he has a sure thing he is doing right now.  But it is just a prototype and we haven't tested it out yet.  But the testing will commence in a little while.

So, I want to share what has been going on with me since the last time we talked.  This be still thingy..... it is so hard.  About a month ago, I was impressed that I need to be still and not run ahead with my own ideas and thoughts and things that I want to do.  I was moved to wait.  Wait for what you might ask.  Well, I was impressed that I need to wait on God.  Hehe, sure.  I'll wait for what?  So I just sit still and not do anything?  Pretty much, yeah.  I was impressed that in our desire to 'serve' God we forget what out most important service project is.  It is purifying and presenting our own heart to Him!  To serve God means to come before Him with all our heart poured out for Him.  We are supposed to surrender everything to Him.  Yes, yes, I've heard that one before.  Move on already! 

Well no, hang on there.  I was blessed this past weekend to spend some time at a women's retreat with some pretty cool ladies.  I was not even sure if I was going until the last moment.  You see, I had determined to be still and know that He is God.  The morning of the retreat (it was a three day thingy) I was still praying about it.  I was not about to make up my mind that no matter what, I was going.  I was keeping my heart open for God. I had been listening to my own thoughts a lot lately.  Not a good thing really because my thoughts are not always directed from above.  And sure enough, they weren't.  I woke up and my back went out because I stood up (I hate to admit it because that means I am getting old).  So I was really praying that if He really didn't want me to go, I wouldn't.  I didn't say, "I guess I'm not going" but was leaving it open.  I prayed that if I really was not to go something really had to stop me.  Tom was not feeling well and I thought, yeah well, I guess I am not going now.  But I didn't close that door, still praying about it, trusting that if I was not to go, there was no way I was going to. 

Suffice it to say, I went and was totally blessed.  We are to bring all our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.  Well, what exactly does that mean?  It means that when we have a thought, bring it to Him and have Him decide what to do with it.  Negative thoughts go right there.  But sometimes those thoughts make sense to us.  Still bring them to Him.  He will make our path straight and remove all the obstacles.  Tom was sick, my back was out and yet I still said, you will let me know.  The moment I stepped into my friend's truck my back was better.  When I got there it was back to normal.  I could have stayed home, been afraid of my own shadow, but no more.  I can do all things in Christ which strengtheneth me!  Yeah!

So what I have determined to do now, and I pray that I don't forget or move away from this determination, is to wait on Him.  I am learning not to step ahead.  That means I will go ahead with what is right in front of me, until He pulls me over to the side.  It also means that I need to be prudent with my time and give that time to Him.  I don't have to be running around, serving on ten committees at my church or serving a meal to every poor I meet.  If God leads me that way, then yes, I am available to do that.  That is what all this is about; being available to serve God by allowing Him to move the obstacles out of the way.    

I hope you have a blessed day, week, month or year.

I don't believe in spring or let it snow cont'd

That is not frost, just dust.

Evidence of winter not letting go.

 Hello again and I wish I could say happy spring, but I hesitate.  I have every reason to hesitate.  As you can see that was the temperature one morning (actually it was 41 but I had been struggling with the fire for about two hour at this time).  So everyone is telling me that it is almost spring and I just can't seem to believe it.  I have really good reasons.  They are scientifically sound, and I can prove that spring is not on its way.  We just had another six or ten inches of snow in the last forty-eight hours. This time the snow is so high that we don't have to step off the snow to make it up onto our little front porch.  We can just step over.  Our coolers are covered completely and now I am not sure I can reach any of our food in there because the snow is so high around them.  As you can see I have plenty of evidence in terms of pictures.  There is no way, none possible at all, that spring is actually real up here in the beautiful cold state of Vermont.

poor pup

When it was so cold in the house I ordered the kids to stay in bed for a while.  This is what Logan told me.  "I won't get up until it is 65 degrees."  Usually people don't get up until it is certain time, but in our house it is degrees.  Pretty funny, isn't it.  And then there is the pup.  Yes, he too has had enough of this winter.  I had to cover him the other day again.  He was shivering!  Poor baby.  So, you see there is no way that spring is real, not in my mind and not by what I can prove!  Try to disprove that spring is not real up here.  And yet....

Strawberry blossoms and fruit

 I have a good idea in the deep down of my heart that spring is real and that it is only a matter of time that it will come around to us here up in the north.  I mean the air does smell sweeter, it is a little warmer than it has been and the snow is melting.   We, that is Tom, was playing with hydroponics .  Tom wanted to see if plants could be grown in our basement during the winter.  At first they didn't do anything.  In fact only a

tomatoes

few of our plants popped up.  But lately all the plants started growing like mad.  Just yesterday I discovered that indeed we have strawberry blossoms coming up.  I was so excited about that.   So perhaps there is something about this spring thing anyway. 



You got it, I am going to relate this to something spiritually.  How often do we say that there is no way that a good God exists in this world and where is He anyway when so many bad things are happening around us?  Who hasn't questioned the existence of God?  I know I have.  But I know that He exists.  There is so much evidence that He does exist.  There is spring, for instance.  Everything is reborn, just like happens to us when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior.  We are regenerated, turned into perfect creatures in His eyes.  And then there is the fact that whenever I am going through something rough, He is right there with me, guiding me along, taking my hand and soothing my tears.  My heart tells me, if I chose to listen to it, that God is real, because He has put a part of Himself into our hearts.  And if I just take a moment to listen to that really, really, really quiet voice I may discover that He is indeed real and that He just needs to be given a chance to grow, just like our garden.  We can't plant outside yet but as soon as that white stuff disappears, plants will go into our raised beds.  So start gathering evidence that God exists.  You will be amazed at what you missed!

  So happy spring to everyone and open your heart to the possibilities of God, Who is out there.

Let it Snow, let it snow

Sean in his new "corner".
Or his new naughty chair.

Brotherly encouragement

For all those of you Treckies out there.  I was one once.  Not anymore but I just still get a kick out of Jean Luc Picard.  It is the bald head.  I stumbled upon this and I can't get enough of it.  Too funny.

By now everyone will know how much snow we have gotten up here in VT.  If you can believe it, this is a normal year for them.  It reminds me actually of our first year up here building our shed.  There was still a ton of snow in March when we started building it.  To tell you the truth, I love it.  I can't believe that I am saying this, but looking out there from the warmth of my living room, the heat pouring in through the vents, I love watching the pristine white covering.  Logan and the boys were having such a great time out there when it was coming down a lot.  The older two (and I include Tom as one of the boys) even went skiing when the snow was coming down pretty good.  The story goes like this:  Sean is missing skiing, a lot.  So when the snow was coming down he couldn't help himself.  He grabbed a backpack, his skis and boots (hence the backpack) and donned Logan's snow shoes.  He then told me to call his cell for dinner.  He needed to go ski in the powder.  So he started hiking up the mountain.  Ten minutes Tom got the urge to do something crazy, grabbed his father's old cross country skis and followed his oldest, up the mountain!  (Last time I skied cross country, a big mistake, uphill was totally unachievable for me.  I was ten)  Logan was going to follow his father but once he fell into the snow a couple of times, he was out of energy!  Mind you he really had to work to get himself out of the snow.

I had a similar experience shorty after, mind you another storm had showered its bounty on us by then.  By then all the snow from the roof had come crashing down, and I mean crashing down, and caused the snow outside our door to be just about as high as our front steps.  But we packed it down good.  One night I needed to go outside and didn't bring a flashlight.  Hey, the night before the moon was super bright.  But not that night!  It was pitch dark!  I stepped off the beaten path into waist high snow!  It took a lot of work to get out!  I was laughing all the way, but pretty cold after.

Tom ordering tickets to Germany

Tom is off this week and as a result we now have oak beautiful went covers.  And now he has a sinus infection.  Hehehehe, here I come with my home remedies!  He will not have that too long!  I digress again.  I don't know, maybe it is because I have to do ten things at the same time and can't focus on one thing anymore.  Anybody with answers out there?


So, I love Vermont.  I had a chance to take a drive this afternoon, and granted it was a beautiful day but this really is a beautiful state.  I am so glad we are here.  So that brings me to why I am writing.  I have been thinking a lot these days.  My prayers are more talking to God and sharing what is on my heart rather than presenting a list, nice and neat, and expecting with a count of three for the first three items on the list to be answered in 24 hours.  I really felt that it was not my position right now to be dictating to the Lord of the universe, call me crazy!  So here we are, almost 2 years in Vermont.  We are actually settled.  I was marveling at that the other day.  There is a peace again in our house.  There is not this crazy energy, this unsettled feeling.  Don't get me wrong, we are far from finished, but we are settled.  And now comes the craziest thing of all.  What happens when I get settled?  You guessed it, I need an adventure.  Last time, I prayed for one and got more than I expected.  This time I am thinking a little bit more in depth.  I don't know why I need an adventure, constant change in my live.  I know that when I am in the depth of craziness, of things falling apart around me, I dig my heels into Christ.  I cling and scrape my way back to the top.  But, that is not the way we are supposed to live.  It is in the little things we are supposed to live our live for Christ.  The fact that I am recognizing this, is a really good thing.  I can now share this with my Lord and He can show me another way, His way.  It is in the little things and the ordinary things we are living for Him.  I have such trouble with that.  I feel really bad, but I am not feeling Christ looking over my shoulder when I am scrubbing my pots and pans.  But that is really where He is.  He is right there beside me as I sweep my floor.  And he smiles when I sit down with Logan to teach him Christ's ways, and even math.  And it is in those every day things that I can find my security in Him, not in the adventure. 

Natasha digging for
the trash can.  She found it!

I hope you have a wonderful week.  In everything give glory to Him.








For all you Frozen fans this is totally hilarious.  Nichole sent it to me on facebook and I just can't help sharing it.  That is about what it has been like here in VT the last couple of weeks.  A quick update, Tom is back at work and feeling better.  This morning our neighbor tried to make it up his driveway and had to take four attempts, it was so icy.  Seriously have a good laugh at this one.  I keep having to watch it.