Winter Blues And The Hope of Spring

Here it is almost the end of January - will 2011 speed by as quickly as 2010? Seems to me like everyone I know has the "winter blues". Tired of the snow and the cold, still shell-shocked by the extra spending at Christmas and fighting the depressing things we hear on the news daily. I think everyone should take a breather and shut off the TV, internet and radio so we can refresh our minds with quiet. Take a snowcation, ask for an extra day off of work to relax and enjoy :)

Now the hope of spring - it will come as it always does. And with it the promise of new life and color and beauty!! I am ready to garden and camp and just be outdoors. We are already making plans with the grandkids for camping and adventure at Starberg. The picture is our cabin that we will be getting moved out there as soon as the weather permits. So between now and then we will continue to persevere and give thanks for our blessings - tomorrow we will celebrate Max's 3rd birthday (maybe the reason he was born in the middle of winter was to brighten it up) and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I have just started a new bible study by Joanna Weaver and it is as amazing as the last one - puts my thinking into perspective and keeps me on track. Looking forward ..............

My Favorite Time Of The Year

I just love it, love it, love it! We have had some beautiful weather over the last few days. Let's see if I can get caught up on the last month, I am starting to believe that winter will be the only time when I have the spare minutes to blog my heart out. Spending lots of time with the grandkids the last few weekends (all 3 spent the night at once - whew!!!) Went to a couple games to see my nephews, Caleb and Keaton play high school football. They are such handsome young men and amazing football players. They will most likely finish the season as the 2 high scorers. The Ladies Bible Study has resumed and I am knee-deep into developing my Mary spirit in this Martha body lol. And of course fall is harvest time - we have canned and frozen to our hearts content, this weekend we put up Vegetable Soup and it is the best (sorry to brag) that I have ever tasted. We have also canned Beef Barley and Chicken Noodle Soup. Would like to make some French Onion, Chili and who knows what else in the near future. I am still in the energetic fall cleaning mode (I hope it lasts a long time) so I have been sticking close to home when possible, I put up these new kitchen curtains yesterday and I would surely love to get the kitchen cupboards organized, not my favorite chore :( Our little Maggy was dedicated at church this morning - what a precious little girl and sweet family they are, I consider it the "best blessing" ever to be a part of their growing up years, as our Amish friends say.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Hm, that is what I strive to do - "Bloom". I so love this time of year, I become re-energized and excited. Plenty of sunshine, but not the blistering heat of summer and winter is still far enough in the distance to push it to the back of my mind. This picture is of my small flower garden outside the kitchen window, it seems to take most of the summer for the flowers to grow and mature, deciding which ones are going to take over and which ones will struggle to survive. I have no rhyme or reason to the design - whatever I had at the moment was planted. If I had only known how everything was going to look maybe I would have rearranged a little. I guess I am so amazed that I can actually keep these beautiful flowers alive I don't care where they are :) Maybe the Guardian Angel in the middle helped. Perhaps that is how we should all view our lives, we are where God planted us and whatever the circumstances, or whomever we were planted with - we should just all "BLOOM"

End of Summer .......

Well here we are at the end of summer, a new school year begins. We have so many nieces and nephews, friends kids and the oldest grandson starting school. What this means to me is the start of fall - my absolute FAVORITE time of year. Now if the weather starts cooperating and cools down just a smidgen I will be happy. I want to enjoy my flowers for a couple more weeks then I will be dragging out the fall decorations - I can't wait!! Busy week coming up and I am so looking forward to the Labor Day weekend. Adam and Salena will be here (unless the Marines pull something stupid) Hopefully we can spend most of it at camp. Then Sunday we are having Raymond's 7th birthday here. (How can I possibly have a grandchild this old??) The pics are from our weekend of work, we canned tomatoes, marinara sauce and froze corn. When I came home from work Friday night my hubby and oldest son had been shopping and there were 7 bushels of tomatoes and 4 bushels of corn on the porch - no such thing as a relaxing weekend around here. Tonight we are making home-made chili sauce.

Flowers and The Back Porch

Love the sign?

Birthday present from Mom & Dad

Love my porch !

Container Garden planted by hubby (fake eggs in the nest)

All the way from Adam & Salena in NC

I am going to pretend that it is not rainy and dreary again this week .... and share my summer "retreat" with you all. That would be my back porch, I waited 25 years for this porch and it is my own special sanctuary. We live at the end on a lane so it is fairly private and weather permitting this is where I am all summer. We spend very little time indoors between the garden and the porch. I relax in a rocker to read, sit on the swing to watch the humming birds, or tinker at the table - I just love the fresh air and beauty of God's creation all around me. Everyone thinks I am crazy because I start my flowers so early, but I just can't get enough of them. We have an amazing emerald green hummingbird that we are trying very hard to get a picture of, it looks like something from the rain forest - the only problem is that he has been too fast for us so far. Watching the sun rise and set - waiting out storms and just enjoying the peace and quiet are so soothing and peaceful. Quiet time, that is what everyone needs, when you clear your head of the busyness and feel your heart quicken to the world around you and find an appreciation in your soul for the life you have been given. I hope you have your own "retreat" to enjoy this summer.

Sunshine Heavenly Sunshine

I know we really need the rain (especially for our garden) but I am soooooo happy to see the sunshine back this morning. It is a bit chilly but look at beautiful blossoms on our crab apple tree - this is the tree that the bee hive settled in last spring. It does attract the biggest bumble bees you will ever see. And then I got up close and personal with my lilacs, I wish they could last year round. Hubby told me last night that our pear trees we planted last summer have blossoms too. I am really excited about that! Looking forward to our own home grown fruit. How life affirming spring is.

Starberg

Here are some pics the hubby took of some property we own, yes it really is known as Starberg, a 540 acre parcel of land that was gifted to us by my parents. The name is fitting because the view at night is amazing. Now comes the hard part - being good stewards of this land. We want to mow some hay and plant some fruit trees this year. But first and foremost it is for the men a hunting sanctuary. We are planning a small camp "retreat" for the family to enjoy. There is so much to explore, I am sure we will spend many years discovering its treasures. My Mom's favorite spot is a beaver dam that has been on the property for years and there are several ponds for them to enjoy. The game commission has relocated some that were considered nuisances elsewhere. We spot them once in a while travelling from one pond to another - it is so much fun to watch them walking down the road. We need to always keep in mind that it belongs to the Lord first and we have the privilege of enjoying it during the short time we spend here.

Extended Family

Wow, when I think of all the family we have been blessed with I am awestruck. We often joke about how difficult it was for our kids to find dates because they were related to everyone in town. And in the case of my 2 daughter-in-laws there are people they are related to twice now because of this, not by blood of course:) We have 8 nieces and nephews on hubby's side and 8 on mine. Over the last few years we have been blessed with great-nieces and great-nephews also. Until Grandma Doc passed away in 2006 my grandson Raymond had 14 living grandparents - amazing huh! And him and Max still have 13. My hubby was talking to an older friend the other day and he asked Ray how our kids seem to be so well rounded, and Ray told him because they have been exposed to so much- they have had grandparents and aunts and uncles and extended family beyond measure involved in their lives. All people of different occupations and interests who have shared their knowledge and experiences with them and taught them so much more than we could have on our own. What a blessing for them! This is a picture of my newest great-niece Addison Nicole who I had the privilege of babysitting this afternoon and she is only eight days old. I hope I can contribute to her life in the same way others blessed my own children.

Happy St. Patty's Day

"May the road rise up to meet you,

may the wind be ever at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face

and the rain fall softly on your fields.

And until we meet again,

may God hold you in the hollow of his hand."

Spring Has Sprung!

This may not be as exciting to everyone else as it is to me, but yahoo - I have my rocker back on the porch for the summer!! I bring them in to protect them from the severe winter weather in addition to the fact that they might end up in Ethiopia or somewhere from the wind we get here. I am so looking forward to nice weather; seeds are ordered for the garden, we started working in the yard and I am getting the planters out for spring flowers :) Have to wait a little while to plant the flowers - we can have frost here through Memorial Day. Just the fact that I think all the snow has finally melted is such a relief. Spring is not my favorite season (I'm a fall girl) but I am surely loving it this year.

Hubby's New Girl

Here is Cat-O (the name that Adam picked out when he was 7 years old because he thought that it was Spanish for cat. lol) and the hubby. Cat-O has mainly been an outdoor cat until 2 months ago when our other pet cat, Baby Shadow, (Cat-O's son) was killed in a malicious attack by some wild barn cats. A traumatic experience in our family for sure. Ray heard the ruckus but until he got outside and beat the wild cats off him it was too late. We think baby Shadow died protecting his Mother. So we brought her indoors immediately to keep her safe and now we think that she believes she is Ray's mate. She talks to him and rubs noses - follows him around the house -cries for him when he is outside etc.... She loves it when he puts breath mints in his mouth, she just sniffs and sniffs at him, which is what she was doing here in this picture. I think we have a standoff between Cat-O and I - she tries to worm her way in between us in the bed at night. But we love her and she is around thirteen years old so we let her have her own way, the frightening thing is now Ray is purring back at her ☺

Mother of One Daughter

Sugar and spice and everything nice ..... that's my girl - NOT!! She is a tough one, had to be -remember she was the crash dummy and target for my three sons. Katie is a unique girl, she decided to wait until she was 25 to choose what she wanted to be - an architect. She attends PTI in Pittsburgh and lives with the love of her life - her dog Petey. She says she is not looking for a perfect man just the perfect man for her. Hm - smart girl! She loves outside more than inside but seeing that she is accident prone that makes her life very interesting. Speaking of accidents you should see her poor little Dodge Neon - dents and all, she truly believes it is an animal magnet (several deer, possum, a raccoon and one porcupine) have had encounters with the Neon. One thing for certain you usually don't need to try and guess what Kate is thinking she is quite willing to inform you:) I love that we have reached the point where we are friends now not just mother/daughter. I thank God that in this house full of testosterone He sent me an ally!

Bible Study

It never ceases to amaze me how energized I become when we start a new study. Tonight was the first meeting for our study "Having a Mary Spirit" and it was great. We have a wonderful group of ladies enrolled and always have room for more. But here is the amazing thing - I am the one who suggested this study and after the books were delivered started having second thoughts .... why would I do a study on the one part of scripture that I struggle with? The story of Mary and Martha is so well known, I mean here we have two ladies entertaining our Lord - and Martha is rushing around making sure everything is fit for a king (which He is) and Mary is sitting there listening to Jesus like she doesn't have a care in the world. For anyone who doesn't know me personally - I am sure you can guess which personality type I am. And what does Jesus do? He rebukes Martha for wanting a little bit of help! BUT - I am learning!!! And taking comfort in the fact the there is a time and place for each personality. Each one had their shortcomings and THAT is the essence of the study - whatever personality you are blessed with - we all need work. Not one of us has it all-together. Here is a quote from the book that pretty much says it all "I am so glad we have a Saviour who loves us just as we are, but loves us too much to leave us that way." Joanna Weaver

WORK

Today I just feel like rambling about my job (while I am on break of course) I wish I had one of those jobs that when someone asked - What do you do? I could say I am a __________. Instead I fumble for the words because it is so difficult to explain what I do, I wear many different hats on any given workday; from bookkeeping, mail clerk, office manager, executive administrator, facilitator, accounts receivable and payable manager, editor etc ..... See what I mean? Actually I work for 2 manufacturing businesses (we sew all American made gloves, and a gas meter test and repair plant), a natural gas production company, commercial leasing business, real estate holding company, a rental business, real estate company, certified appraisal business, and in my spare time a development company where we build modular homes and commercial buildings. I really do use two computers all day long! I took a picture of my desk in the middle of the work day and I hope to share another that shows what the goal is to achieve by the end of each day :) Hey see the picture on top - clean desk!!!!!!!!! I made it though another day - now I get to go home and think about what I might have forgot to do.

Heavy Heart

This is quite a depressing post and I am trying to find something uplifting to include. My heart is heavy today for my brother Brian, his wife Sue and their kids Jacob and Rebecca - as they will be attending the funeral of her cousin, Sgt. David Smith, a Marine who died from injuries incurred in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan. Then I get a phone call from Adam - who's close friend Darin is in Afghanistan, he has been confined to base work and now they are being sent out into the heart of the fighting in Marjah. Adam's unit is scheduled to deploy in January 2011 - this probably won't affect him because he is scheduled for discharge that summer. I don't think he will re-enlist :) That would be the uplifting part!! Why do our children have to fight and die - I guess war will be a part of life as long as evil exists.

Jimmy Stewart from the 1965 movie Shenandoah;

I don’t even know what to say to you
I’d like to know who’s winning the war.
The undertakers are winning the war.
The politicians they talk about it and glorify it.
The old men talk about it and they say we need it.
The young soldiers – well they just want to go home.

Blue Monday ....

That is what they call this day each year. It is almost always a bad weather day. Most people realize they spent way too much money on Christmas (yep, I feel the guilt) and the next paycheck is too far away (aren't they always lol) and no one feels like working - so there we have it "Blue Monday". Now it is my duty to fight the blues .... and count my blessings - count them one by one...