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.

A different kind of normal

My village

Hello everyone.  I am sorry I have been a little negligent on the blogging front.  It has been an exciting couple of weeks since Christmas.  I do want to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year.  Our New Year started with a new baby.  No, no, not me (thankfully).  My sister and bro-in law had their beautiful daughter on New Years day.  How absolutely perfect and I was so excited for them.  Labor went well and the baby is absolutely perfect.  She is soooo cute.  Enough of that.  You see, I have jumped ahead again.  All right, grab an ice pick to pry your fingers off the keyboard if you live here in New England.  If not, have a cup of something warm on me!



Toby and Logan, very cute

My parents made their way up to us in the north before Christmas.  We were able to show the sights around here a little bit.  My mother does not like to travel around much anymore.  They were able to come to church with us through and watched Logan in his yearly debut of one of the shepherds in the nativity story.  It was very cute.




 They also got to hear their daughter's debut as accompaniment to one of the singers.  I just found my old recorder and thought my mother would appreciate if I joined.  So I did.  It was pretty fun. 

Mother and daughter

Where are we on the page?



 

 

We got to spend some nice time with my parents up here in VT and drove to NY to spend Christmas with my sister and her husband.  We were waiting for my sister to go into labor, but it didn't happen.

  We definitely encouraged her (walking stairs, stress, cooking, squatting down to pick things up) but, baby Sydney arrived pretty much on time.  We were probably the last ones to know that Eiki was in labor on New Year's day.  Sydney Christine was born at 3 PM I think.  I was able to go down at the beginning of the month and was so enchanted by the little package.  Boy, she really is cute.  She has both mom and dad wrapped around her little fingers already.  My sister is a great mom.  It was really great to see how she is around the baby and she is a natural.  She takes it all in strides.  I spent a couple of days with them, spending time with my mother as well while my dad was visiting a friend in Tennessee.  It was good to get back home and the first night, my kids entertained me by scaring each other, after we were trying to get to sleep.  Guess who instigated it?  Yup, you guessed correctly (SEAN). 

 

Since then, we have had to adjust to a new kind of normal.  Tom has been able to drive for the school bus company.  There was a problem with trying to hire him, the paperwork wouldn't go through and all that jazz.  Well, he started on a Friday without knowing it.  He just kind of got thrown in the deep end, but he managed not to come home with any extra kids.  We are thankful for that. He has been driving the basketball teams to all their games.  It was nice because he ran into our realestate agent, who sold us the land.  We hadn't seen him since we bought the land.  He is also a Christian.  They got to catch up with each other. 

Tom did not get  his bus stuck!
 

Logan and his game

 So now instead of all of us being home at night, we have to adjust again to a totally crazy schedule of people working at night.  I try to stay busy while Tom works and when both the T's work I try to stay in town.  Some days we watch a movie on Tasha's lap top or I work on something.  So today is another one of those days so Logan and I are staying in town. It is nice to have some Logan and mom time. 




 So the rest of the family is doing really great.  Sean is working a lot.  He is working with another fellow out of NH twice a week and working with his old boss three days.  He is happy for the opportunity to see another farrier work and get acquainted with more people.  His business is doing not too bad.  I think he has about 30 horses.  Not too shabby.  It takes a while to build up a clientele and to get your name out there and we all know how peculiar horse people are.  Oh, you didn't know that?  They are, just I am normal (hello, of course; that goes without saying).  Talking to a friend who is a vet confirms that Sean is indeed in the right business.  He is getting a reputation of being really good with difficult horses or not so difficult horses.  Gee, not patting myself on the back, but where did he get that from?

At a wedding taken by Katy
Charlton (via facebook)

 Natasha is a continual blessing to both Tom and I.  Her wisdom and love is great for us to see.  She is pursuing a new job, which is more up her alley than working in a pizza place (which she loves!).  Our dear friend Kathy suggested she check out a possible opening at the co-op.  She dropped off her resume, felt really good about it, and is waiting to see.  Prayers would be appreciated for wisdom and guidance.

That brings me to the last but most important part of my blog.  ME!  I had a chance to talk to my  sister-in-law Nichole yesterday and the question came up how I was doing spiritually.  I was not so sure what to answer.  In fact this is the first blog where I really didn't have anything to share with y'all spiritually.  So thanks Nichole.  I now got something!  Hold on to your seats!!!!!!  Here it comes:  You can't "escape" God!  That is it. Have a good day. 

Christmas eve

What!!!!  Don't leave us hanging here (this is what you are thinking all right, so go with it just to humor me and make it more interesting).  All right, I will humor you.  A couple of days ago we were at a friend's house playing Romey Cube, which is a blast. ( Mami you should try it.)  As we were sitting there I just felt a little sad.  I now was responsible to building up a new friendship and to be transparent with my new friends.  Argh, that is so much work and all I want to do is have someone whom I'm familiar with and just to be comfortable with them.  So, basically I miss you guys in CT a lot!  That is not to say that I am not meeting and having blessings with new friends here in VT, and to my new friends I have to say, hold on to your seats.  You are in for the ride of your life.  This went into this thinking on my part.  God put us here, I have no doubt whatsoever.  But I have also brought my luggage with me from CT.  Just because I am living without much worldly things, I still have things that date back to CT that God has to reveal in me or that I have to come to Him with.  Believe you me He is working overtime on me.  I love that. 

But I am rambling on.  Sorry, told you this was not going to be my normal, organized straight to the point blog (Here you look at yourself in the monitor and shake your head, saying she has lost it.  The cold is getting to her brain).  So just because I live in the sticks in VT doesn't mean I didn't bring my stuff with me.  And the "closets" of my heart were kind of full of junk.  God has cleaned out so much of that junk and He can now see the floor.  I like that a lot.  The point I am so eloquently trying to make is if you are trying to hide from God, ha!  Sorry, I meant HA!  Oops, no that is not loving.  Emmm, hehehehe?  Are we getting the picture of who this God really is?  I just plugged into a wonderful study on the fundamentals of Christianity.  Very nice so far and I am enjoying meeting with wonderful people (getting out there again).  He is here, there and everywhere from before the beginning to beyond the end of time.  He will not stop existing!  He existed before time!  He knows you before you were even a tiny speck in your mother's womb.  He knows what is in your heart.  He already sees you at the end of your life.  To Him life is like a blade of grass.  And He loves you, me and myself!  He took His right arm and send Him to be Emanuel, God with us!  God with us!  That should give us pause as to how much we curse the driver in front of us, because "big brother is watching".  But this big brother wants us to come to Him so He can sooth our wounds, our fears and worries, if we let Him. 

To recap, I am finding that no matter where I go, God is with me!  I am so glad about that!  Could you imagine me going off to VT or to make new friends by myself?  Yikes, I have made some messes of that in the past!  But God is with me when I step out of my very comfortable circle of me, myself, and I to reach out to others.  God is with me when I am having a bad day because our pipes are frozen (got you, we don't got no pipes hehehehe).  God soothes me when I just can't deal with having to do dishes again or when the school day just drags on.  He dries off my tears when my day is really bad.  As long as I allow Him open access to me, no matter what is up. 

"I need a friend to lean on"
Katy Charlton and from facebook

I think I have said it all.  I hope this is not just thought provoking but also convicting.  We have but one life to give. 

Hope the weather where you are is cooperating.  The kids and I are off to NY next week.  I haven't seen my niece in a month and my brother in law is going out of town.  So I thought I would keep my sister company (she has running water!).



Have a wonderful remaining day.  I went outside today (it is a balmy 27 degrees outside) and heard more and more bird callings.  Spring is on its way!  Yehaa, bring it on!