Monday, January 24, 2011

Baby, its cold outside!

My husband and I stayed up to watch a movie last night...late. It was cold and we were cozy, eating cereal on the couch. Suddenly the whole place went dark. No TV either, so no movie ending. First thought..oh no, the power is out and the sump pump is going to need help. Hubby rushed out to the garage and got the generator going. It is a small one but does the job. Then we lit candles and got the gas stove going downstairs, put extra blankets on the boys, and got ourselves to bed. I lay in the dark and prayed for every one that was experiencing the same thing we were. Thank goodness, somewhere in the dark some hydro people left their warm beds and worked through the night so we could wake up to heat this morning. We are, as fellow homeschool mom Alyson reminded folks in her blog, so blessed to have the luxuries we do.

The day remained cold but this evening, I stood by our back door and looked out at this.

Beautiful. A ball of golden fire in a cold gray blue sky that somehow reminded me that spring will come. In the meantime I am going to enjoy the family closeness that winter brings and keep nourishing those apple seedlings in my window sill.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Of Winter Things.....

The European starlings came to visit this morning. They landed in a great dark cloud of noisy bodies and invaded my feeders. They polished off a loaf of bread in 3 minutes!

Then they waited on the roof for more!

And here are our apple seedlings. We have labeled the cups and are measuring heights each morning.

This is Sweet Basil. I will have to transplant some of it I'm sure, but for now we are excited just to see it sprout...and already it smells good!

This guy was quite a task to make. We had to slice the middle ball in 1/4's just to lift it up. But the finished result made us very happy! Hope he guards our house until spring!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Beneath the dark and winter skies, spring lies waiting to arise!

So there is still plenty of this white stuff on the ground and it sure keeps the boys busy....

But meanwhile, in my refrigerator, some little apple seeds began to sprout, so I planted them here and put them in a sunny west window to continue the process. 

I know...I know..we still have lots of winter left, but as I hang on to the last bit of sunshine for the day, I know that very soon, the earth will start responding to God's gentle promptings and spring will be upon us.

Monday, January 3, 2011

And On We Go...

The older I get, the faster the years slip by. So hard to believe it is January again.

  It is early Monday morning, not 10 yet and already I have made a trip to the local landfill site, cleaned out the garage, and fed some hungry faces. The hungry faces include some rather rude squirrels and our rabbit Beatrix. (Our daughter's rabbit really, but feeding her is a bit of a family affair.)

Have I mentioned that I love the humdrum days? Well, I do. I love the housecleaning and the homeschooling and the time for a cup of tea with my devotional time with the Lord. I love to wake up and think, "No appointments today, no distractions, just the lovely routine of life." Thats not to say I don't like company because lets face it, I am a bit of a chatterbox, but I like being free of the constraints of time. It fits well with my procrastinator nature.

All that said, I am joyously heading into a new year and eager to watch God at work in our lives. Isn't He amazing?
One of the hungry faces I feed each day.

I wish you all a happy and blessed 2011!