A Big Birthday

Someone had a BIG birthday!!!

He pretty much had 3 days of celebrating.  The day of his birthday, we took him to get his fancy running shoes and had a lunch party with Nana before going to church.  The next day, I took him to pick out his gift from birthday money received, another guitar!

And I took him to McDonald's, his favorite fast food place (I know, I know.) before an evening at karate.  Then on the following Sunday, postponed due to snow, we had another lunch celebration after church.

Every mother says this, but truly, where has the time gone???

A Runner is Born

For Ryan's recent 16th birthday, he wanted some running shoes.  I was happy to oblige him, as I think practical gifts are wonderful, especially since he planned to use birthday money from generous grandparents to buy another guitar.  Finally the weather cooperated as well.  Last Friday, two days after his birthday, I took him to a local park that has a mile loop track.  I walked and he ran, passing me twice.  Ha, ha. Anyway, it signaled to me the end of my hibernation, and the beginning of his running career.  Today we walked to a small park five minutes from our house, shot some hoops, and then came back home.  I am loving this spring like weather, although, they say it is going to snow Wednesday and be cold for a few days. That's OK.  We will make the most of the warm days and wait until they become the norm!

Happy spring to you all.
~Jenn

Here we go, again!

It appears as if we are in line for one more storm this winter.  At this point, it is just part of the routine.  Right now I am rooting for a big storm, because this could be the year we beat the all time record for snow.  Why not be excited?  I am ready.  This morning we stocked up.  My husband is going to bring home work so that he can be safely at home Saturday through Monday if needed.  Thankfully we don't have to go out in the messy weather.  We can even join our church live via the Internet. School will go on as planned, too.

AND... Never fear, spring will be here, winter can't go on for much longer!

Photo from Porch Sitting Union of America

I Have a Cold

Unfortunately, I have caught a cold.  I hate being sick!  This one is mainly in my sinuses.  Thankfully, I cannot remember the last time I was sick, and I really have not been down and out sick, either.  I credit this to the ingredients in the above photo.  Twice a day, I have choked down the following.

In 6-8 ounces of warm water add:

• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• the juice of one small lemon  

I have also consumed great quantities of homemade chicken stock, so yummy.  I have continued to exercise at half the effort.  I have cut out the sugar, which amazingly enough, I have not been craving as usual.  All I crave right now is sleep!  

I am really praying that no one else gets this, but yesterday, Ryan said he thought he was getting sick, too, but so far it is very mild.  He will not take my concoctions.  He will drink EmergenC, so that is making me a little happy.  

Oh well, this too shall pass, right?  If only the world would stop until I am well.  :)  

Things Are Coming Together

Two huge answers to prayer have come our way lately.  The first has to do with finding local friends.  I have been praying for a way for my kids to meet other Christian kids in our area, something I thought would be very difficult since we don't plan on changing churches.  And God provided a way!

We had two separate families who live nearby that we have known for a long time tell us about a youth ministry that has blessed them and their children in our area.  And finally, the younger two kids went last Friday.  And they enjoyed going!  They said the other kids were welcoming and the message was right on. Ryan's age group meets on another day, and we were not able to get him to his group, but hope to one day soon.  This is such a huge blessing and perhaps another step towards settling in our new town.

In addition, I have been praying about what to do next fall with our church commitments.  We have been very active in our church for years and we don't want to change that totally.  But, I think I have a plan.

Right now on Sundays, Grace serves in the first service at 8 o'clock.  A few times this winter, it has been difficult to get to church that early as the highway is not cleared of snow until later.  So, we are going to sign her up to work in the Sunday school second hour next fall.

Ryan already works the second hour in 5th grade Sunday school.  He wants to stay there.

Trevor will be in the Jr. High during the second hour.

We are all going to drop out of AWANA, most likely.  This will be an unpopular decision, but frankly, we can't afford the gas.  It's $10 round trip.  And with the local youth group option, I think it will be less an issue.

We are going to switch to attending the third service at 11:40 on small group Sundays.  This way we won't leave the house at 7 AM and get home at 5PM twice a month as we are doing now.

For karate, which meets at our church, my dear husband is going to adjust his work schedule so that he can get off an hour early on karate nights.  He will be able to take the kids or we all go as a family, and the two of us have a date night.  :)

Community life is so important when you belong to a church, but if you live 33 miles away, it can be prohibitive and stressful.  With prayerful adjustments, I think we can make this work!

Thoughts of Spring

Photo from Country Living Magazine's Facebook page

Yesterday, we received another 7 inches of snow, bringing our total to over 40 inches, which is the 4th snowiest winter on record.  Thankfully, we could prepare ahead of time.  Jeff brought home work so he could avoid the roads and work from home.  I had time to get food restocked.  All was cozy and warm on the home front.  

As I was reading our history lesson out loud yesterday, I came across this quote, and instantly I was transported to spring!  So, I thought I should write it here along with the cheery bouquet pictured above, to give us a little burst of spring.  

"When spring came, after that long hard winter, one could not get enough of the nimble air."  

~Willa Cather, My Antonia, 1918  

Just 42 days until spring! 

Another Dip in the Vortex

The experts say the coldest air of the season is on the way!  This is scary because we've already had some cold temperatures, like -15F cold!  Just the other day a water pipe froze.  We had the cabinets open and the faucet dripping, then I forgot and turned it off, and the rest was history.  Thankfully, we got some good advice and got the pipe to thaw without damage, that we know of.

My number one concern is for the roads.  The salt solutions don't work on the roads at these temperatures, so I worry about driving, about my husband driving.  We have stocked up on food.  The gas tank is full.  We put plastic on some of our leaky windows. We caulked some others.  I think we are as ready as we can be. The only thing to do now is wait it out.

This January has been the second snowiest on record, too.  I don't want to break that record!  We actually have had more snow than our usual average snow total for the year.  I know that it is not as cold or snowy as other places, but we are not used to this, so it seems more intense.  I am sure to not forget this winter!