A Month of Pictures: 04

 

Blue sky, puffy clouds, brown landscape, and The House On The Hill.

In a few short months it will be completely hidden from view by the leaves! 

Bring on the green. 

A Month of Pictures: 03

 

Not sure there's anything that makes me feel more Proverbs 31-ish.....

Chris works an hour later two nights out of the week, so supper gets a little complicated those nights. I like to say that the reason I don't enjoy cooking is the fact that I want to make everybody happy, and at my house the differing opinions on food make that nigh into impossible! I digress.

Two of Chris's favorite meals are tator tot casserole and potatoes and ham. A couple of months ago I made a batch of tator tot casserole (minus the tator tots), split it into individual servings and put them in the freezer. Bingo! On the nights he works late, I often make food he doesn't particularly enjoy for the rest of us, and then pop an individual serving into the oven for his meal later (I do a few tator tots on the side to add on top).

Win Win!

Today I did a batch of potatoes and ham to refill my containers. 

A Month of Pictures: 02

I grew up in an area where driving on an intestate meant you were going on a long trip. 

If someone had told me I would become so used to driving interstate every time I go to town that I hardly thought of it, I would have found it hard to believe. 

I still don't love driving, and it's taken many bloopers and repetitions to get to this point, but here I am. 

A Month of Pictures: 01

 

Hehe.

I don't think this is what you imagined when I said a picture a day, is it?

Me either. 

This is what happens when you are sick of your bedroom being the catch all place, and you start the task of decluttering by pulling everything out of the closet. 

And then you discover old notebooks with the scribbles of a very whiney woman you once knew, and you hold your head in your hands, and wonder if she's grown up at all in the last 10 years?

I now have several satisfyingly full garbage bags and a clean closet..... and a long way to go yet on the catch all room...

February

 

Feb 3: Who knew the library could offer the hope of green, growing things?

I've been silent for a whole month again; I guess that's what happens when I stop having a monthly reading goal to report on. I listened to one whole audio book in the month of February: Watership Down. Looks like I still don't do very well at reading when there's no goal! 

A couple of February highlights...

I turned a year older on the fourth

(Yep. That's me and my birth announcement.)

Jasmine turned a year older on the eighth

We ended this year's Bible quizzing with a third place win for Isaac's team. They memorized the book of Ruth and John 6 and 7 this year.

He got to coach two of his sisters and their friends this year. After a kind of discouraging year, I was so proud of them that they made it to the finals! 

Following the quiz retreat weekend, was our school's week of winter break. We stayed at an airbnb for the weekend and spent a very laid back week at home the rest of the time. We took one day to go to the Carnegie Science Museum as a family. I remember how, as the youngest of six, I was convinced my family did everything fun before I was old enough to remember! Now, as a parent, I see how easily that happens -- Charles didn't remember all the times we've been to science museums in the past. 

It was a fun day... even though I hardly took any pictures. 

Today is a grey, wintery day. I woke up with a headache and the grey skies make me feel dull and listless. On a recent sunny day, when I felt bright and energetic, I got all caught up in a fun and exciting brainstorm about posting a picture on my blog every day in the month of March. Now the idea seems like a drag, and I have serious doubts about it being either fun or exciting. It seems much more probable that I'll start, and wish I'd never begun, long before 31 days are past! 

Does your brain do that too -- offer 559 reasons why a bright idea isn't a good one at all? I feel like my brain is way worse about that than it used to be (or maybe I've just gotten way worse about listening to it?) At any rate, whether it ends up being dull and boring or not, I'm going to act on the brainstorm. 

So, coming in March, one picture every day. It won't be anything phenomenal, just a way to stop and take notice of things -- funny things, pretty things, inspiring things, boring things, interesting things, dumb things..... my head is feeling less dull already!

A New Year

Happy New Year.... this third day in... 

End of the year / New Year posts are always hard for me to write. I always think I need the perfect words and the perfect way to say them. Somehow I can't quite just not write them either!

First things first: my 4 books a month goal is finished!!

December's books:

Top Left: The Other Half of Church.                        Fascinating ideas about Christian community and brain science, a lot of which was a bit over my head. 

Top Right: Do Let's Have Another Drink.               Another book to add to my list of 'Royal Family' books - all kinds of interesting stories and tidbits about The Queen Mother. 

Bottom left: The Queens Of Animation.                 Super interesting history about the world of Walt Disney Studios and the unsung heroes who worked behind the scenes. 

Bottom right: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.                                                         Inspiring story. I kept taking pictures of pages and sending them to Chris. 

I'm so glad I made my reading goal last year, and right proud of myself for actually keeping it! I don't think I'll make a new goal, but I hope I'll be inclined to keep reading in 2023. I still have a long list of book ideas that I kept adding to throughout the year. I think I will keep noticing book recommendations and wanting to check them off my list; we'll see. 

How can a year seem to have gone by so fast that one can hardly believe there were twelve whole months in it, and yet January 1, 2022 seems like so very, very long ago? Not sure how that works. 

Personal highlights from 2022 include...

Our trip to Florida over our school's winter break...

And Chris and my Anniversary trip in June.

There's been some big changes in our family in 2022 as well -- Isaac being gone for six weeks and then teaching school here this fall; Jasmine heading to Boston in August, to attend Sattler College for the school year. There is nothing quite like having your first child venture out into the world on their own! So many and conflicting emotions..... and this stage is only just beginning. I don't feel at all like I should be the mom in this story, but here I am!

I don't think there's a person alive who would claim to love change, and yet we are made to adapt to it. It's amazing how quickly we adjust to new schedules, new places, new people, new responsibilities, new ideas... It's actually pretty incredible the way God created us with the capacity to learn and grow and adapt! Our thoughts control so much of our life experience, including the way we respond to change. 

One of the biggest gifts of 2022 has been the huge step I took outside of my comfort zone when I joined a coaching program four months ago. I am forever grateful for all I have been learning through that experience. Contrary to what we tend to believe, it is worth it to invest in yourself!

And now, before this new year progresses any further, Happy New Year! 

A Bit of Nothing

It's a crisp, sunny, December morning. I have a sick child in my bed, sourdough bread dough rising, and piles of laundry to take care of. For the first time in a while, my week feels mostly empty, and I am not one bit sad about it! I think every single week in November had some Big Thing I was planning for or working on. December will have its share of busy, so I'm planning to enjoy this breather to the fullest. 

I wasn't planning to start the week off with a sick child, so we shall see how empty the week actually remains. 

November was a good month, in spite of all the things going. A few highlights were: being with most of my family for Thanksgiving day (and only needing to travel an hour and a half to do it!), hosting several different members of my family throughout the week of Thanksgiving (we were kind of a revolving motel and it was fun!) and -probably best of all- Isaac and Jennifer flying to Boston to be with Jasmine for several days and completely surprising her by Jennifer being along when she thought it was just going to be Isaac. 

I read/ listened to four books in November

Top left: Another one in the series that I've been listening to. 

Top right: Interesting story by Paul Stutzman about his hike of the Appalachian Trail

Bottom left: Another book to feed my intrigue with The Royal Family

Bottom right: A light, easy read about a young couple and the first hard years of their marriage

I have one, last month to complete my goal of reading four books a month in 2022!

 * * * * *

Take two. 

It's a dreary, grey, December day. I have a still sickly child napping in my bed, a clean load of laundry in the dryer and a sewing project scattered around on my dining room table. My week has gone from empty to possibly multiple days of going away and the few things I thought were on the agenda have all been re-arranged. Sounds about like normal life, right?

I have absolutely nothing of great importance to say and no pictures to show you of it either. Just a few random things....

Last week, in preparation for my Sunday school class, I listened the Chained to the Chariot sermon that I shared with you at the beginning of this year. It spoke to me just as loudly now as it did then. Maybe you would enjoy it again too?

Speaking of my intrigue with The Royal Family --

My daughter got to see the Prince and Princess of Wales while they were in Boston last week! Pretty sure it was worth standing out in the rain, perched on top of a trash can, to be able to tell her grandchildren someday, "I heard Prince William speak in person!"

I just saw that Daughter's of Promise is running a sale on their inventory of old magazines. I'm not a great fan of promoting myself, but I did write an article for their last issue. The theme was "Commitment", and I shared a bit of my story with foster care. If you're interested in their sale, you can find it here. Look under 'shop magazine issues'.

Last but not least. Wanna do something to make your significant other's day?

First, buy them a nice card. Then, get yourself a pen, a paper, and a stamp, and send them a good old fashioned letter in the mail. Doesn't matter how long it's been since they've seen that handwriting on an envelope in their mailbox, the sight of it will cause them to grin like a fool and may even bring a dampness to the eyes and butterflies to the heart. Or maybe that's just how it affected me. I think it does things to the heart of the writer as well. 

I think that's about enough random-ness. Maybe I'll go fold that load of laundry that's in the dryer and call it a day.