Blessings on a Blizzard-y May 2nd.

Though today might have seemed bleak, I am resolved to find the JOY in it. What I love about today... I loved watching my kids do the dishes. Yes! And not complaining...even better! I loved seeing my husband leave the house to run his own business. I love living with a happy man :) Even though the heavy spring blizzard had wreaked havoc on my lilacs and other bushes,I may get a chance to plant something new! I am thankful for a warm home to shield us from the cold and a plethora of windows to view the wreckage. I am grateful for bird feeders outside a window that all the children can easily see from. Today, chipping sparrows enjoyed the seeds, while 2 wet starlings sat on the phone wire. I was wondering what they were thinking. Birds must think. I can easily imagine funny little bird voices. Yes, they must. Finishing Ruth Stiles Gannett's books with the kids and making collage/ "stained glass" crafts. I am thankful for delivery services. Thankful for relatives that love me and send me birthday cards to let me know. I am also thankful for Bollywood movies, because they are different and I love different. I am also thankful for 4 wheel drive. Lets have a moment of silence for all the people without four wheel drive.........Amen. Mother's Day is coming up! One of my very favorite days. Though I get uncomfortable and wriggle around in my life, I know we are in a good place. Right where we should be.

About Spring....and stuff.

So, every year when spring comes around its like dejavu. Like, "Um, this feels familar, like a dream I had long ago. Is this really happening? Hmmm." I remember being a kid, rolling down the car windows for the first time of the year and waving my arm out in the wind, smelling the thawing dirt, hearing the robins cheerily-ing in the evening. It all comes back alive in the Spring doesn't it? Everything, including us. Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn't kidding when she wrote "The Long Cold Winter". Minnesota, I do love you, but jeez! Looking forward to long peaceful evening walks, floating down lazy rivers, and green grass under bare feet, digging in the earth and planting seeds. I certainly wouldn't mind being a snow bird, flying south-ish for the winter. (Yes. Please God, let it be so!) E-hem. Did you hear something? Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yes, Spring is here! Hooray!

around here you might see.......

An amazing building, probably at least 100 years old, (that would cost a couple million on the west coast, at least, and would make anyone a GRAND home) used for storage.
or



a peculiar antique shop the sells the old things that the old house used to hold.

I like to copy rachel (because she is the coolest)

so she is doing some thing involving writing down daily graces- blessings. so here i go.

-I got to read to winter this morning to help her with her presentation today- in peace!!! this is a miracle. ( i am usually interupted 50 times per page)
her presentation was on JOhn Deere- the man. , for her entrepenuership class at homeschool coop. She had to pick a person, she picked him. pretty cool i thought. very winter. she was sad thought that she couldn't find her john deere shirt, which is also very winter.
-last day of coop, ahhhhhhhh, all done. it was cute to see her standing next to all her art- very proud like. I love to see her grow, and learn. She is an amazing girl.
-i got and hour on a great playground today with serenity and issac, it was glorious, warm, and tons of fun.
-and.....playing silly games with lots of funny people tonight, and good friends.

now i must go to sleep, besides, my battery is almost dead!

ODE TO GRANNY/ open letter

My Granny can cook up a mean country breakfast, and she always has cookies in the gallon jar. She can knit and garden, bake home made bread, you name it she can do it.
She told me once that she used to make bed sheets from old flour sacks, and sew her own underwear.

She’ll always greet you with a strong hug saying, “Give us a squeeze.” And she doesn’t mind pinching anyone’s ass. She’s not afraid to say what she thinks, and don’t worry, she will.

She loves to tell stories from the past and I love to hear them. She talks about her sisters and brothers, her parents, their siblings, and on and on. She has photos, too. She’d love to show them to you.

She is strong, and will overcome anything. I know a few young ladies who have inherited that gene.

She has poured out her life in service to others, whether helping raise her own siblings, or working as a nurse, having her own family, to caring for ailing in-laws, and serving her own brothers at the farm.

Though life is hard, Granny always knows it could be worse. You can always count on her to joke around, no matter what the circumstance.

Crooked Creek Church is where she wants to be Sunday morning, just like she has been for so many years. Of one thing I am sure, Granny has faith, I can see it in her eyes. And when things are hard, and we can’t find words to express, I am comforted to know, that this is where God still speaks in his still small voice.

May God Himself be your comfort through this time.

We love you.

A Father and his child.

The other day we were at the skating rink in town. It is an indoor rink, where many award winning skaters are born, as well as champion hockey teams. We were there at an open skate, just fooling around, giving our kids the chance to get comfortable on skates and have fun. At one point I was on the sidelines with my youngest, and i looked up and was awestruck. Now don't get me wrong, there are talented skaters even in open skate- spinning, twirling and lutzing around. That is fun to watch, but this was different. It was as if everyone on the ice was in slow motion, and here was a young father, probably a star hockey player not long ago, bobbing and weaving, soaring above and below everyone, round and round the rink, at a speed at least 10 (probably 20)times faster. I don't even know if those around saw him, they certainly didn't seem to. He was just so fast, but we had an outside view and it was stunning. Not just his skating, which was so powerful, and graceful at the same time. I don't know if I've ever seen that before, but it was the fact that he was holding his son, probably 2 or 3 years old. He had skates on too, and his father would hold him up high and then low so his skates could touch the ice. A perfect dance. And to see the look on his son's face, hands held out. He knew he was flying...no he was soaring, carried by the strength of his father. All thrills and joy, no fear. Complete trust. It was beautiful. I couldn't help but cry. I'll never forget the mixture of grace and strength the father had, and I'll never forget the look on his son's face. The purest joy on earth.

I want to soar like that.

25 random things about me.

1. usually i take bugs outside, instead of kill them. (unless they are house centipedes, because they are hideous!, and make my skin crawl, i think they are a result of sin entering the world)
2. I love burnt orange-it's my favorite color.
3.I think about the ocean alot- huges waves, rocks- i yearn for it actually.
4.I grew up on a dairy farm, and am pround to be a native minnesota hillbilly.
5.i have a really wierd dent in the back of my head, i have a friend that used to rub it for good luck.
6. i used to be in gymnastics and volleyball in junior high.
7. I almost always make decisions based on feelings, which is confusing sometimes. especially to my husband., he is like a rock to me, when i am tossed about in emotion.
8. Sometimes i think i want to have a farm with chickens and sheep, and a huge garden.
9. Other times i think i might be lonely in the country, and am thankful for city life and next door neighbors.
10. I spend alot of time thinking about faith, and jesus, life, and death.
11. I get restless alot, especially sunday nights.
12. I have a big scar on my foot from sliding down the car windshield and getting stuck in the windshield wiper, when i was 3.
13. I have a really strange story about being electrecuted while i was sleepwalking. (you can ask me sometime- hence the scar in my lip)
14. We lived so rural growing up, that my birthday parties were in the newspaper, along with who attened, and what was served.
15. I like graveyards.- but not in a dark sick way.
16. I love to travel, and see new places, new people, new everything- but i also like coming home.
17. I love everything creative.
18. I have ridden in an ambulance twice.
19. I have been in lots of car accidents, .............and gotten alot of tickets.
20.I love to look at nature close up, like the delicate patterns on a leaf, and then look up at the sky, and think about the cosmos.
21. I haven't been to any of the 10,000 lakes in minnesota, ...yet. ( which makes me feel like a tourist in my home state.)
22. I would rather pay a little more for something quality, but i buy most things second hand, or get them off freecycle.
23. I like eggplant- mostly because its purple, and shiny.
24. I love books, when you find the right one at the right time.- but not fiction, really.
25. I barely ever have matching socks, unless i grab them out of my mom's sock drawer.