So, at the beginning of February, I had this idea
to show some of my collections over the month. I thought that I would
post at least 20 times . . . ahem . . . that didn't quite happen.
This picture is the same collection as the one I started the month with. My kids and I had fun arranging by color and type of rock.
So, February didn't go as I had planned. In many ways.
Here is a little February wrap-up ::
One
whole week was spent in counseling and arranging for a couple from our
church to move out of town to a place very far away from alcohol, a
place where they will receive 24-hour support and encouragement and
counsel and life. A place where the people love God above all else and
help others to dig in to the Word and see what living for God's glory
really looks like.
Another big part of February was arranging
for our Pastor to take a one month sabatical, or leave-of-absence. He
has been having some serious health issues and needs to try a different
climate to see if he can find some relief. Ben meets with our Pastor on
a regular basis and has been helping plan the logistics of the coming
month. Ben will also be preaching the last three Sundays in March!
The
last half of February brought us many sunny days! And I am just
praising and thanking God for that. I do not do well with grey for days
on end with no end in sight.
February was also warmer than January had been. So we did a lot of sledding and skating!
Maddie
and Isaac love story-hour at our local library. We decided to share our
story-hour trip with my brother's kiddos last month. He and his wife
have 4 kiddos, so I decided to take them, one at a time. It was really
fun to have time with just one of them. And they each felt so special
to have their day to go with Auntie and their cousins. We turned it
into a longer day, too. After story-hour we stayed and looked at books
for quite a while. Then we returned to our house for lunch and time to
play and a little movie. I think we'll do this again - starting today!
I
finished some projects upstairs in our house. I'll show some before and
after photos throughout this month. Lots of painting and furniture
moving!
Ben built a handy-dandy little exercise box, and I have
been doing some extra (extra, as in, above and beyond the regular
laundry and house work and playing with my kiddos) exercising a few
days a week - right in my living room!
Then there are the things that I actually did blog about in February!
And since I'm doing a wrap-up kind of post here, I'm going to look at my list from January, and see how I'm doing. Care to join me? Here goes ::
:: slow down (hmmm . . . still wanting this) :: write at least two short stories :: attempt a collaboration with a friend on a children's book (THIS is in progress! the story is written! the illustrations are begun!!!!!!) :: listen to more music (this is happening. we have music on more often throughout the day, and i like it! so do my kiddos) :: take more pictures of my children - at least one a week (i'm doing this, too. i'll have to share some pictures of my almost toothless girl!) :: read through my Bible (i'm still in Leviticus, but i've read all of Ruth and 1&2 Timothy) :: share something from my reading here each week :: finish Maddie's quilt :: finish Ben's quilt (it's still almost done) :: do learning/school work with my children at least 4 days a week (we are getting 3 days for sure of really focused time . . . then there is real life - which is always a learning experience) :: share some tips and tidbits about our learning here :: stay home all day most days (still working at this, too. though i think we have been around home more) :: really utilize my etsy shop :: use less natural gas (keep my fire stoked! - i go in streaks with this . . . ) :: go on more dates with my husband (we went on one little one and one bigger one in February)
:: finish going through all those boxes of papers that have followed us
for 9 moves in the past 8 years . . . :: stay in this house! :: go on
at least 3 camping/backpacking sorts of trips :: help Ben loose 40
pounds :: organize my blog - so you and I can find things in my old
posts :: write at least one handwritten letter per week :: be an
encouragement :: find the bits of sunshine in every day ::
So
there. That felt good! I'm two months into the year, and even with
extra happenings in February, I think I'm off to a pretty good start!
Did
you make goals for this year? If so, have you revisited them to see how
you're doing? You should! You might be encouraged. And if you haven't
done so well . . . you still have 10 more months! Now that's a bit of
sunshine.
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For those of you who saw the Ben post the other day . . . it's a work in progress and accidentally got published. You will see it again. When I have it finished.