January Highlights

January.

Full of so much snow, beauty, cold, more snow, sunshine, and lots of time indoors with incredible people.

One of my housemates, Derek, had a birthday while his wife was in the Philippines so I took it upon myself to make sure that he was celebrated in style.

His kids were quite happy to enter into the silliness.

They are a really great family and the quieter time of just the four of us in the house gave us more time to get to know one another. 

The cold and dreariness of this wintery month is also warmed by the teaching times I have with my sweet kids.  

Some of them are ESL students which is fun.  Their families have traveled here from Korea and Peru.  They are eager hard workers and super cute.

Some mornings I would rather stay tucked in my cozy bed rather than braving the icy roads and frigid air, but once I get going there is fun to be had and lovely times with my precious students. 

It's a dream job. 

In between the snowy dark days we are getting some stellar sunshine.

There's nothing quite like our white world juxtaposed with the canopy of bright blue. 

Those Jews are definitely rocking it with their theme of blue and white!

I took Mom for a drive on a lovely blue skied morning and the sun had worked it's magic in the city and the snow had temporarily disappeared in some spots.

We still have tons of snow up at the orchard though.  

Amazing how the altitude can create such a difference in temperature and snow pack.

I also took Mom for a drive down memory lane and here we are parked in front of the house we lived in way back in 1967! 

Wow - that's fifty years...

One Friday I threw together a true winter meal with all sorts of root vegetables and squash and invited my dear family/friends over for our new slim line version of a Gagenzeit night.

It was great to catch up, share stories and these dear ones gave me some good advice and prayer regarding an issue that had been troubling me.

Ahhh, so blessed am I.

My Good God and Father takes incredibly good care of me. 

All the time.

Dad's recovery has been anything but easy, but we are making HEADWAY!

An appointment with the specialist confirmed that things are coming along and there have been regular visits from nurses to monitor his condition and change his dressing when needed.

Plus they were able to sign the papers completing the sale of their condo!

WOOHOO!

That was another long, arduous journey, but it's done.

Immense gratitude was bouncing around inside of me over that!

Also had a delightful breakfast with this cutie. 

Liz had been talking about a pancake breakfast for awhile and wow - we really hit the pancake jackpot!

It provided two very delicious meals for me.

This picture sent to me from my kids made my heart so warm and happy.

I love knowing they are connecting and having sleepovers and hiking trips together.

I'm simply amazed at the grace and peace that I have about them all living at the coast while I'm living here!

I just can't say enough about my Good Good Father.

Learning to rest and trust more and more.

Experiencing the fruit of that discipline.

Wondering why I bother worrying about ANYTHING - EVER!