At Home in the Mountains

 The herb garden I'm trying to start on my kitchen window sill. So far thyme and dill have come up but nothing else. :( The 80 + degree weather following right on the heels of the 20 degree weather has been a crazy shift. I enjoyed the warmer weather for about a day before spring time temperatures reminded me that warmer weather means allergy season. I have been wiped out with allergies since Saturday. It is awful. If I take a zyrtec once a day and then pop a benedryl once or twice a day I can make it, but I am also a Zombie. So then I have to weigh my options Drippy Nose/Itchy Eyes or Zombie and somehow being a Zombie, though not a desirable option, always ends up winning. I guess it's the least miserable of the two. All of us have been suffering from allergies. Last night we all ended up in bed by 9 in Benedryl induced comas. Fortunately we have Mighty Maddy to come save the day every once in a while!  A friend at church made all the kids superhero outfits for Christmas. We

Today Today I will appreciate the things I have and stop wanting the things I don't have. Today I will take joy in the humble tasks that God has given me to do and stop wondering if He gave me the wrong assignment. Today I will enjoy each moment for the gift that it is and stop meditating on how tomorrow might be better. Today I will choose to focus on the needs of others and stop thinking about what I want. Today I will focus on my successes and stop obsessing over my mistakes. Today I will rejoice in the day the Lord has made. 

Our latest bout of winter weather said goodbye this week and 70 degree temperatures showed up just in time for a great weekend. I'm wondering if this is the last of our winter or if we'll see another storm before it's said and done. This weekend and beginning of this week make it hard to image that another cold spell is possible. During the cold weather we had lots of time so sit around the fire and read, talk, get fat on cookies and cocoa, and Maddy even let Tammy braid her hair. This is Maddy's 1st braid. On Friday we went to a family valentine party at our church. We had a spaghetti dinner and played games. It was really fun because Maddy is getting to the age where she actually enjoys these events. She loved clapping for the people who were playing the games. On Saturday, Granna and Grandad's valentine package came in the mail. It was so fun to watch Maddy open her package. She enjoyed every piece of it. Trying out sour gummy candy. I think the verdict

 So our winter weather continues....only this time we have snow instead of ice. DBU's campus has been closed since Tuesday so we have had four days off to just hang out at the house staying warm and spending time together. It has been great! DBU was planning to open campus at 10 this morning but since we got 5 INCHES OF SNOW instead of the 1 inch of snow they were predicting, campus is closed again today. Good thing because the snow on top of the ice is making things extra slick. Sad thing is we still have to go pick up Maddy's KAFOs from Scotttish Rite this afternoon or wait another two weeks to get them. Fortunately we have a Colorado native in the family who has lots of experience driving on nasty, icy, snowy roads. We started out the morning by building a fire. This has become the normal morning activity for the week.  Then we decided to take Maddy out to play in the snow, something she's never really done before.  Here she is getting warm clothes on to go outside.  

  I can't believe January has already come and gone! I hoped when the year started that time wouldn't go by as fast as it did last year, but it looks like it isn't slowing down any time soon. About the middle of January Tammy and I did the Hot Chocolate 5K in Addison. It was fun. The weather was great for running a 5K and we got these awesome mugs for completing the race. Neither of us had even close to our best time as we hadn't been running since before Christmas. School started in the middle of January as well. Aaron's semester will be much less stressful as his teaching load is MUCH lighter than last semester; however, I started my foray into the world of teaching college and it has been an adventure. I feel like things are going pretty good so far. All of my students are supposed to turn in rough drafts of their first essay this week so I guess I'll see how much of my blabbing and in class practices and assignments have been getting through my students litt