Hello Lovelies

Yes, you, I'm talking to you...How has life been treating you post holiday chaos?  Has the clutter been put away and the diets started and exercise begun?  We all do it...Are you starting to feel the effects of days just a little bit longer?  Tiny little increments of time added to each day mean that we are that much closer to summer, and I love summer.  Can I get an AMEN?  

Yeah, life can just kind of beat you up around the holidays.  My son and his wife moved back to College.  We helped them move into their apartment in 5 stinking degrees!  What kind of fool moves on January 1st?!  I mean seriously...I may or may not have fallen on the snow and ice...In 5 degrees, it just never melts.  But good news, I didn't spill the soda I was carrying.  They all thought that I was odd, but the truth is, even though I really like my coke, I just didn't want to be covered in cold wet soda in 5 stinking degrees...Do you see that picture above?  The one that says -11?  Yeah, we didn't move furniture then.  Your nose hairs freeze at -11.  They actually pretty much froze at 5 degrees, but so did my eyeballs, well pretty much my whole body.  Just sayin'

My baby has been accepted to college, she's excited but nervous about that.  Babies like their mama's...at least mine does.  Will I have to go back to college so I don't miss her too much?  I'll make a great roommate...But seriously who has time for that at my age.  I guess I'll have to cut the apron strings at some point.

KT has been a gym slave driver, but it's good for us.  It's nice to get back full force, even IF the scale doesn't budge.  At least I feel better.

What is happening in your neck of the woods?

Turn Toward the Light

Warm sunlight on my skin, turning my face toward the light, I feel the heat on my cheeks and eyelids.  I love the sun.  I'm a worshipper of sorts...with sunscreen, of course.  I can't get enough of it and soak up every bit I can in the spring and summer.  My home has to have lots of windows to let that sweet sunshine in.  It rules me and warms my soul.  I have a sing in my home that says "Live in the Sunshine" because that's important to me.  I should live at the beach, just sayin', all those sweet, warm rays...all...the...time.  But, I live in Idaho, and in the winter that means INVERSION.  It's like living in this dark clouded blanket.  Misty darkness even in the bright of day.  I haven't seen the sun in a week, and I'm feeling it.  There is one beautiful point, though, in all the freezing cold foggy inversion, and that is the beauty it creates on the trees.

This wintery frosty, Christmasy goodness is lingering on in nature.  I don't mind this beauty, but CAUTION, don't slip.

Purity and Nature

The trees and bushes are heavy with fog....Pregnant with it....White frost covers their branches  delicate...It is breathtaking...Beautiful...White...Pure...Unblemished...  It's as if nature is preparing.  Getting ready for the coming of the Christ child celebration.  He, in his purity, came to earth for us.  Lived and died for us.  So that we, the impure, may live.

In the hush of the thick fog, the quietness envelopes me.  As I look out my window and soak up the beauty of nature right now, I am grateful for my Savior and His coming.  We are waiting...

A Month Ago

One month ago yesterday...

I'm so grateful for 40° days in February.

January Funk

Source

Sometimes January just feels downright oppressive.  It is dark and cold and I don't exercise like I should and sometimes I just feel trapped.  The darkness of the short days in January weigh heavy on me, like a burden on my back.  I don't understand it.  It is just as dark in December, but we have such wonderful things to which we look forward.

January is just January.  

I try to find the beauty of January, the snow covered ground, icicles, frosty tree branches, but the underlying factors or overlying factors are all still there.  I express gratitude for those beauties, but I still just feel sad.  My husband comes home from work and asks me why I am angry.  But, then I feel angry because after almost 24 years of marriage you would think he could read me and see that I'm not angry but sad.  He wants to know what he can do to fix it.  But is there anything one can do about January?

I am in a funk.  January is funky.

I am so looking forward to February.  Not that there is anything special about February for me.  We really have never celebrated Valentine's Day.  February is still dark and cold, but it is one month closer to Spring...one month closer to warmer days and more sunshine.  I have been trying to decorate for Valentine's Day despite the fact that I haven't in the past.  It is giving me something to anticipate.  Maybe it is time to change up our anti-Valentine's Day traditions.  Love and hearts and pinks and reds make me happy.  (so does chocolate)

Days like today

Source:  ME

It's days like today, that I just want to pull on some warm sweats, 

drink cocoa and curl up with a book.

It's days like today that I want to bake spicey warm pumpkin breads 

that fill the air of my home with its fragrant smells. 

It's days like today, that I want to lie on the couch 

and watch a good movie with a bowl of popcorn and a blanket.

It's days like today that I'd rather stay home and do nothing, 

have no responsibility and just live in the moment.

It's time

Source

(Disclaimer:  That is not me, nor is that all my junk)

It's time to put this here Christmas away...I mean I already flipped the bird yesterday. Time to pack it up until next year...Clean, tidy and donate everything I don't want. Last minute tax deduction or a liberation? I don't know, you decide. It is all part of my Winter Solstice Celebration.

Merry New year!

Snow Day!

I love a snow day! I find them as exciting and fun as the kids. We got about 8 inches of snow here in Western Idaho. It was beautiful and a perfect way to start the first day of December. Despite the horrible roads, I had a hair appointment, and gosh darn it, I was not going to cancel. Don't mess with a girl and her hair...The kids kept busy shoveling, and making a snow man. Ladybug and I went for a walk later through the snowy neighborhood.

What did/do you do for a snow day?

Change is in the air...

I know we are well past the first day of fall.  I try to hang on to summer as long as possible.  I love the warm air on my skin and the sunny days.  I love the light glow of summer on my children's cheeks.  I wear capris and sandals until it is just too chilly to do it anymore, like today where it has gone from 90° to 50° in a day.  It is reminiscent of my former life in Colorado where it can snow one day and be 70° the next.  Mother Nature does like to keep us on our toes.  I think it's all a joke. 

I sense the crispness in the air in the evenings lately. The shadows are falling differently, I'm beginning to recognize the grass going dormant and the leaves starting to change color. I do love the beauty of each of the seasons. I love the colors and smells of fall. I love when everything is snow covered in winter. I do get excited for the change of season as now is the time to bring out different clothes, longer pants, boots, sweaters. Sometimes the change of seasons, particularly fall and winter, depresses me, though.  They bring with them shorter days (less sunlight) and cloudier days (less sunlight).  If you didn't get it, I like sunlight.  Without it, I tend to get blue.

Does anyone else get blue during the winter?  Any suggestions on how to survive the coming months without my beloved sunshine?