~ Tucked away in a blanket of green is a creature waiting to be seen. ~

God's creations amaze me.

When Summer Fades

When Summer fades into fall there is a mixture of feelings jumbled about inside. First, I'm in denial that Summer could be over so fast and I think about the hardships of Winter (socks, shoes, sweaters, coats, hats and gloves). Then I think of all the flowers that will die and sink into the ground, then there is an excitement of change and the anticipation for fall colors and slightly cooler tempertures. Eventually I come to terms by thinking ahead to next spring when I remember that the flowers will come back up again, the trees will bud and the grass will once again grow tall and have to be mowed.

This made me think of our loved ones that have died and gone on. We can no longer gaze upon their beauty, listen to them speak or hold them in our arms and this makes us very sad and in the begining we deny that anything has changed, but over time we start to heal and we see the excitement in life again and we look forward to a new season in our journey when Spring will come for us again.

Take the time to explore the places near you. They are full of wonder and memories.

Hoover

Swoozy woke one bright winter's morning and stretched the sleep from her bones as she sleepily planted her feet on the carpeted floor. A peek out of her window revealed heaps of snow and an empty parking spot where her husband's car belonged, "Guess he went to work today," she sighed. Shrugging on her new favorite hoodie, Swoozy made her way to the bedroom door and the steps leading to the main floor. She hugged her sons and gave them a bunch of wet lipped kisses, their favorite kind of kisses which they promptly wiped off before she could even stand up straight.

When Swoozy reached the kitchen at last the only thing on her mind was, "Coffee." She hadn't even noticed the mysterious note left on the floor by her feet. It wasn't until she dropped the cap to the creamer and had to bend over to retrieve it that she gasped and pulled up quickly.
"What IS that?" she exclaimed as she took several quick steps backwards. At her exclamation all four boys came running to the kitchen to see what was the matter. "Stay back!" she warned.
"I don't know what that is," She said as she pointed to a furry, dirty mess on the floor.
"Did any of you boys do that?" All four boys shook their heads in disgust. She told them to go play so she could clean it up. Swoozy grabbed the broom from the corner and extended it to take a swipe of the mess when all of the sudden she heard the vacuum turn on in the other room. She ran to see what was going on, but there was the vacuum standing all alone by the wall not even plugged in. She thought she must have been hearing things so she headed back to the kitchen. She stopped short of the mess on the floor and noticed the mess wasn't just a mess, it was a message! In grey dusty hair balls it spelled out, "EMPTY ME!"
Swoozy had a sinking feeling in her stomach, for this wasn't the first time an appliance talked to her. Swoozy looked to Mrs. Refrigerator to see if this was her mischief but when she looked up she read, "Was not me!" in colored alphabet letters.
Swoozy groaned and felt another piece of her sanity slipping away. "Then who?" Swoozy asked Mrs. Refrigerator.

There, before her eyes Swoozy watched as the alphabet letters rearranged themselves to spell out, "Hoover". Swoozy slowly turned her head to where the vacuum "Hoover" stood against the wall. Sure enough she had neglected to empty the dirt compartment and dirt was spilling over the filter.
"Oh no. Oh. NO!" She swept up the dirt into the dustpan in a frenzy and spilled the contents into the trash. "This can't be happening" she mumbled to herself, "Not again, it just can't." She walked back over to the doorway and stood between the refrigerator and the vacuum, looking at both. Mrs. Refrigerator answered for her in bright pink letters, "Yes it can, it is," and beside this Mrs. Refrigerator placed the Mr. Yuk face. Apparently she liked being the only appliance to haunt Swoozy.
After Swoozy let it sink in she gave up trying to explain it all away, after all she already formed a "somewhat" healthy relationship with Mrs. Refrigerator, she had even gone so far as to ordering specially made kitchen magnets so that Mrs. Refrigerator could spell more words and use punctuation.
Swoozy threw up her arms in defeat and got to cleaning out Hoover. As she cleaned she hoped that she and Hoover would have a peaceable relationship much like the one she shared with Mrs. Refrigerator. Little did she know at the time, that Hoover was particularly picky and a bit of a neat freak. He would eventually leave many complaints all over the floor including in special hiding places like under furniture, driving Swoozy to store Hoover in a locked closet, something her husband questioned considering he had to buy and install a lock for the hallway closet. Swoozy was always pretty good at making up reasonable excuses for her strange behavior and over time she and Hoover formed a unique relationship of their own.

Spring in Winter

It's winter time here and we've had our share of sickness for the last two months so we've been sticking to the house more than we would like. I love the outdoors and nature and I've been missing it A LOT! So yesterday was a huge blessing.

The day started off gray and wet. I took one of my sons to preschool while the rest stayed home due to a teacher in-service day or something like that. Rain was misting as I dropped my son off at school but by the time I got home it was pouring! Despite the fact that it was winter and raining it was a beautiful day because it was warm. It felt great, the only problem was we couldn't play outside with it raining.

After picking up my preschooler the rain soon ended and by lunch the sun started to come out. How EXCITING! Then my husband came home early to finish working from home, PERFECT! He was able to stay home with the little ones while I took our two older children to a special place near home, with ponds, rolling hills, beautiful trees and nature walks. We were so happy to be outside and able to explore again. What a refreshing day it was, I just might be able to make it through the rest of this winter. :)

We had a few slips in the mud and it didn't take long for one of them to soak his shoe in a gigantic puddle (hehe) but it was all okay because it was winter and we were warm in the outdoors.

Up above in the picture is our oldest son holding a sheet of ice. There is a boardwalk that takes you through "The wetlands" where you can explore the plants and animals that live there. The pond was half covered in a thin sheet of ice and a breeze was causing ripples to float across the pond. This moved the ice over to our shore line, shoving the ice into the bank and causing it to break and pile up on each other causing them to then sink. The boys loved watching this, so we stayed here watching and picking up sheets of ice to throw back in.

We saw lots of mud and looked for tracks...nothing interesting to report, only boot prints, tire tracks and dog tracks to be seen. I was happy to hear two birds along the way. I'm guessing they were the only ones fooled by the weather. Soon we came to the creek where we like to wade in the summer. It was very full and rushing due to all of the rain and melted snow. A good time to share with the boys the dangers of flooding creeks. I think they understood me. We found a very shallow stream that fed into the creek so the boys played there, making a bridge of fallen tree limbs. Not surprisingly they slipped and soaked their shoes.

Sun slipping into the west, we made our way back, stopping to say farewell to the sheet of ice, looking again at the trees and seeing how different everything looks coming from the opposite direction. Back at the van we take one last gulp of sunshine and fresh air before climbing in and driving back home.

I hope you are able to take advantage of days like these. God made this day happen for me. The boys had off school, Becky was home to watch her kids, Nate came home early (which never happens) and the sun came out! He totally wanted me to enjoy the day that He had made. I had to say "forget about the treadmill, forget about a shower, get out there now or you'll miss it!" So I ditched all the things I had planned and had a beautiful day out with God and my big boys. Thank you God, for your creation, for knowing me so well, for always providing for me in all of my needs.