13 DAYS! It can't possibly be that long since I posted here!  I've done nothing but sleep, commute, work, commute, eat, sleep, repeat.  I haven't even talked to any of my family since Christmas.  We've had LOTS of snow and the last storm gave us a little extra treat... ice.  On Wednesday I was driving Mr. D's car to work 'cause he was getting mine inspected.  After getting nearly all the way I stopped for gas.  When I did the car made this horrible clunking sound.  I thought for sure it was the CV joint and so I called triple A to tow it home.  2 hours later I was at work, but poor Mr. D had to pull the car all apart and work on that all day in the cold after I got him up at 5 to plow the driveway.  Thank you sweetie... I love you!

This morning we got up to another 5 inches of new snow.  We had run out of propane during the night, so there was no hot water.   The snow around the camper is up to my thighs now.  At 5 am trudging through the snow to light the water heater so I can have a warm shower worked better than the alarm clock.  I've been wide awake ever since :)

I have 4 gas cans and one 30lb propane tank to fill today and they are all in the back seat of my Neon.  On the way to work I discovered I hadn't taken the matches out of my pocket from lighting the water heater... so if I get stopped tonight on the way home... they're going to think I some sort of terrorist or pyromaniac.  YIKES. 

I've been thinking about things I could do this year to get a little more organized.  *chuckle*  I first of all got a small notebook and titled it "Household Management".  It includes such things as daily/weekly/monthly goals,  Bible reading schedule,  memory verses, notes from church and prayer requests, general information/phone numbers/phone card number and various other emergency information.  I am hoping this will make my life a little easier, but already the thing is BULGING.  I may need to get a bigger binder, but then I'd need a bigger thing to carry it in.  At my age, you'd think I could keep this stuff stored in my brain, but it seems the older I get the harder it is to remember.

The next step... get a good supply of string.  Problem is, I only have 10 fingers... or should I say 8 fingers, 2 thumbs.

Now for some pictures.  I haven't taken too many, but thought you'd like a few of snow and a couple of Christmas and maybe a few random shots. 

Here's Mr. D with his "Christmas Tree".  Of course we have no room in our camper for a tree, so he grabbed the flyswatter and stuck an ornament on it and proclaimed it to be our tree.

Thankfully Esther, a friend from church, came to our rescue and loaned us a very small tree... so here he is with the real tree.

On December 27th was Joanna's birthday and we decided to go do something together.  That day we got the first big snow and so we were delayed getting together, but we did get to a thrift store and KMart and a latte.  Here is her little camper in the woods when she got home...

Driving on all the back roads made for a fun night.  We have lots more snow now.  I'm sure her little camper is now well insulated.

This was the cross stitch I made for Mr. D.  I found this pattern of his favorite hymn and knew it needed to be done.  I will hang this in his office when we get into our home.

On Christmas Day we called Heather and Dexter.  We also talked for a little while to Brandon.  In some small way we are all together... Joanna, Doug and I talking on the phone to Heather.

Here's little Esther one of our neices, wrapped up in a blanket from Aunt Jean and Uncle Peter.  Perfect!  We had a wonderful weekend in Maine January 1&2.

Well, this post has officially come to an end.  I must return to my duties and have been having issues adding each picture today for some reason. 

Hope you are all staying warm.  Keep thinking about spring... it's just around the corner.  Break out the seed catalogs and a hot cup of tea and sit before a roaring fire dreaming about summer gardens.  Except the "roaring fire", I'll be doing the same.

Love y'all.

Cool Party and Giveaway....

Make sure you visit Prairie Flower Farm for a wonderful party.  If you have not signed up to get her email updates you're missing many encouraging words.  Make sure you visit today 'cause there's not much time left.

First Week

We had a wonderful trip to Maine last weekend.  I was a little shaky about going 'cause our little furnace still isn't working, but don't you know... God took care of everything.  We had weather so warm it felt a little like spring.  On Saturday Dad looked at the thermometer and it was reading 60 degrees.  The little girls wanted to go sledding, but came back in soaked 'cause the snow was melting furiously fast.  No need to worry about anything freezing here at home.  All my anxiety was for nothing.  One of these days I'll throw out all those anxious moments and realize that God is able.  How many, many times I have doubted.  I'm far worse than Thomas! 

I've been keeping up with my 90 day challenge so far... barely... hope I can keep up.  I've been giving our neighbor a ride to work in the morning which gets me up about an hour earlier than usual.  This is not a bad thing.  I just sit in the local coffee shop with a hot cup of morning coffee (the only shop that gives you a bottomless cup for .80 still), and pull out my Bible and read.  It's a little noisy, but after teaching school all those years I have learned to read or study with noise around me.  It's not ideal, but it works. 

It's been busy at work with a new logistics system in place and we're all trying to get used to it.  I am doing the daily upgrades on data entry such as new customers and gps locations making sure the orders are all entered correctly.  We generally take about 250-300 orders per day.  On any given day there may be 25+/- that have some errors.  Doesn't sound like much, but this new system must meld with the old, so all the data needs to be exactly the same.  Soon everyone will know how to enter data accurately and there will be fewer errors.

We've not had any significant snow since last weekend's thaw, so all around the chicken coop is icy.  We lost one poor hen who froze in the ice.  We didn't see her at first because  she had tucked herself in as close to the coop as possible, but apparently didn't have the strength to find the entrance.  Inside the coop is quite warm due to a deep litter.  That will all be cleaned out in the spring and we'll start building it up again in preparation for next winter. 

Seed catalogs have come and we've been shopping a little for the garden.  We do save seeds, so thankfully there isn't need for much this year.  With all the mechanical repairs that need to be done, we have a much depleted budget.  I did order some new items and also some strawberries and raspberries.

I promise to have picture on the next post.  I mistakenly left my laptop in Maine.  Mom and Dad are bringing it back when they come back in a couple weeks. 

A friend of mine emailed me this funny about a week ago.  Thought it would make you smile today and no, I am not eating donuts with my coffee... we have plenty of that at work.