~ 2022 Reading Challenge ~

 I went over my goal of reading 45 books this year! Reading is so relaxing and therapeutic for me.  A lot of my life is full of noise or talking so the quiet from reading is blissful.  :) 

Catapults

 As a group gift I bought this catapult kit from Amazon.  It came with supplies to build two catapults and some little bean bags to launch and targets to hit.  BUT amazon didn't ship it in an amazon box so the kids saw what it was.  It was last Saturday and still pretty cold so I let them go ahead and put them together. 

I'm really pleased with this kit, the catapults work great and the kids loooove them! 

~ All is Calm , All is Bright ~

 

During the snow storm some of the kids started sleeping in the living room.  So sweet! 

~Snow Days~

 

We got some cold temps last Thursday and 35 mph winds! But, Saturday it was 18 degrees and not windy. I love cold sunny days.  Some of the kids and I went outside for a walk. Sherlock our cat joined us.  This same day Clayton took the kids sledding (what a great Dad) but I don't have any pics of that. 

                                                             Look at these sweet kids!! 

Boaz says these are mouse tracks, the line is their tail. I thought that was cool. :) 

I looooove these last two pictures so much. The kids were so proud of their snowman! And as I write this, a week later from when all the weather started, it was in the 60s today, we had the windows open, and I wore sandals all day...that's the midwest. 

We did have some frozen pipes and flowing water under the house so we called someone to look at it. What was weird is we had water on the cold side of the kitchen sink but barely any from the hot side. Even though we left a heat lamp on in the well house and a drip going through the night.  I guess it was just that cold.  Thankfully the flowing water under the house was not a burst pipe but a drain from the HVAC that needed to be repaired. The guy fixed it, and got the hot water going again but the water pressure is pretty terrible he said we may need to get a new faucet because it may have some rust buildup. So...we'll have to deal with the bad water pressure for a bit until we buy a new faucet. 

We are so thankful for our wood stove, It would have been so cold without it. 

~ You don't have to have the bust stuff or the best circumstances to have the best life. ~ 

The Dead Don't Dance...

 Oooooh I loved this book so much! Charles Martin's style is so nice and easy to read, I don't know how he does it.  His characters are so relatable and lovely.  Dylan Styles, a country boy with a PhD is trying his hand at farming with his spunky wife Maggie.  While Maggie is giving birth to their first son there are complications and he is born stillborn, Maggie never even got to see him let alone hold him before she goes unconscious. The story is about how Dylan survives the months that Maggie was in a coma.  He ends up teaching English at the local community college part-time. And through a series of events and learning other people's stories and burdens he begins to believe that maybe God was with him through it all. 

New Lamp

 I found this lamp for $10 at our local antique shop.  I went by there yesterday hoping to find one.  The picture is so sweet and I like the shade that came with it. 

That morning light...

 

I really love our little home and thank God for it. He gave us this home when we didn't know where we would live, it was the first time in my life I truly did not know where we would end up.  We had searched for a home every day for a year. The market was so bad here that rarely was anything new posted and if there was a new listing it was something like a dairy farm on 100 acres.  That trial taught me God will always provide, and home and a sense of security are very important to me.  Not only could we not find a home to buy we also could not find a home to rent. So when this little house came on the market we were ecstatic! 

You don't need the best stuff, or the best circumstances to have the best life.