Oh, What do You do in the Wintertime, When all the World is Cold?

Our Tree of Change

This tree is what we view outside our upstairs hall window. We all have been known to call out in the morning at something exciting we see out of this window, such as a deer, a squirrel, the herd of horses that roam the fields, or perhaps a foraging pheasant. When we hear the exclamation it is customary for all to rise up and quickly go to the window to see if we too are able to glimpse the same as the caller. We consider it a great start to the day when we get there in time to share it. Other times, we aren't as fortunate, but we can always see this beautiful tree. This is how it looked in the autumn, a couple of months ago.

The nourishment that keeps me going.

Here is Charlotte after raiding the hair accessory drawer. She put about three headbands on and asked me if I want to "take picture Mommy?" . You Betcha! She is delish.

End of year catch up.

OK I need to get my act together and catch up here. We had a most wonderful Christmas with much surprise and that is an important aspect to me on Christmas morning. The favourite gifts are probably the Wii and the new bicycles. I was the recipient of a hip ipod nano and have just now started to learn how to use it. I think Ainsley and Sage have used it as much as I have even though they have their own mp3 players. They put a Stephanie Meyer book on it (The Host) which Sage read already but she can't seem to tire of SM books. The best thing about Christmas break was finishing the preparation for our church talks and giving them and the responsibility being over to do that! After that I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday. Everyone gave a talk except Charlotte. We were first asked to speak on the Sunday before Christmas, and then a week before that date, we were told they forgot they had asked someone else months ago and put us to the week following Christmas. So for three or four weeks I had (chose) to worry about getting everyone on board to sing and give a short talk about Christmas at church. It went well, we didn't really seem nervous on the day amazingly. The children and I sang 'Stars Were Gleaming' and 'Picture a Christmas' and I sang ' The True Messiah' as a solo before I gave my talk. I spoke of how the birth of the Saviour was a miraculous event and then shared two events from my life which were miracles for me.
Sage enjoyed doing a lot of baking over the break and it has conitinued on with her making brownies while I took a nap today. The bad thing about that was that she didn't ask me which recipe was a winner out of the many I have and she decided to do a variation of a recipe and then her sister decided it wasn't quite cooked when the beeper went off and put it in for another equal amount of time...that=rock hard brownies. They did taste good, because she used my gourmet cooking chocolate and there was a small under layer of the rocky layers that was chocolate and chewable:) I must say that I do love her initiative.
What do I feel about starting a new year?
Those of you who know my life story can say with me, we shed no tears for the passing of 2008. The energy of a new beginning is so much lighter and the events of the past have passed over us now. I look back with gratitude for blessings poured down upon our family leading us to the wonderful life we have now.