Ice Fishing

This is one phenomenon that I still cannot wrap my head around. The lakes here have been frozen for a few months with A LOT of ice on top. I heard something like 20 inches the other day.

But. It's. Still. A. Lake. Why in the world would you drive a truck on it?

Better yet, why would you have a "fish house" with a heater in it? On ICE??? This Southern girl just can't do it yet. Maybe one year.

These pictures are of the same lake in Worthington that these pictures were taken at this summer. Blows your mind, doesn't it???

What If?

I was talking to Britney about this the other day and he said I should blog about it. If you're bored - blame him :)

Do you ever ask that question - what if? What if I fail? What if this doesn't work? What if you move to Minnesota and hate it? What if I make the wrong decision?

There have been so many times I've seen people paralyzed by this. They have to control everything in their lives and by not being "sure" of something, it keeps them from following what the Lord is telling them. Drives me crazy!

If you know me well at all, you know that I am not a worrier and that I have little or no patience for people who are. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. (Not that I'm saying it's right not to have patience - just want to let you know where I'm coming from if you're ever on the receiving end of my impatience...)

When I was in second grade, my teacher, Miss Cantrell, told us that we were not allowed to ask the question What If? I remember being freaked out about that because as a child I worried about EVERYTHING! My thoughts after she told us that were things like what if there is a fire in our classroom - how will we get out? A little dramatic for a 7 year old, I think.

But, Miss C's words have always stuck with me. It probably doesn't hurt that one of my spiritual gifts is faith either. And that my parents were pretty good models of having faith in the Lord to meet your needs.

I'm not saying throw caution to the wind and do whatever the heck you want. I'm just saying the next time you feel led in a certain way, pray about it and if you truly feel like God is leading you there - FOLLOW HIM! Even if you fail and fall flat on your face, at least you can say you had the courage to try and follow Him. I know I don't want to get to heaven and get asked why I didn't trust Him to lead me through life.

And, if you need encouragement or someone to pray for you when you're going through that - call me!

Another First

So, it seems I'm going with a theme here. Yesterday was the first time we went sledding. Our small group at church decided to do family activities once a month. This month the choice was sledding. What a blast! The kids trekked up and down the hill for a solid 2 hours. We only had one injury. Another little boy went right down the hill into a tree. He his with his shoulder luckily and not his head. It looked pretty bad from the top of the hill, but once his parents calmed him down and checked him over, it looked like he was OK - just pretty shaken up. His name is Abel, so if you think about him today, say a prayer for him!

The complete sledding adventure is here.

Now back to a normal day of playing and laundry :) It's beautiful here today - supposed to be in the 40's! It's like a heat wave!!!!

More Weather Updates

OK, so yesterday was a little short. Mostly because I was too cold and tired to write more. Today is better, but then again, I just got up an hour ago :)

Right now, the temp outside is -15 but the windchill is -34. There are warnings out for today that it is dangerous to go outside for any period of time without you skin being completely covered. We'll be staying inside :)

If I had remembered to put on my long underwear yesterday, it wouldn't have been that bad. But, I was rushing out the door to my Bible study and didn't even think about it until it was too late. Walking to get Ashlyn from school wasn't too bad, until I turned the corner and the wind was blowing straight at me. That got COLD!

In other news, Carter has another ear infection. I don't even know how many this makes in his life, but it's only the second one he's had since we moved 8 months ago. That's some kind of record! We go to the doctor at the little clinic here in Adrian because it's only 3 blocks away and I actually really like him. I don't know if I like the doctor more or the fact that we can go for our appointment, wait for tests to come back, get a prescription filled and be home within less than an hour. There were days when it took me an hour just to drive to the doctor in Georgia. And with as sick as my kids were, that was A LOT of driving in the car.

But the other thing that really impressed me when I took Carter in on Thursday is the doctor is concerned about why he keeps getting infections in the same ear. He's looked through his records and doesn't necessarily agree that it's because of allergies. When I take Carter back for his check, he's going to do a test on him to see if there is fluid staying behind the eardrum. After only TWO ear infections. I was floored and couldn't believe that after 2 years of fighting with the doctors in Georgia, two visits and he's ready to see what the underlying problem is. He may just be my hero.

One

That was the actual high today. Enough said.

Shoveling Snow

So, what have you been up to? Me? I've been shoveling snow. We haven't had much, but it's the first time I've had to shovel since before Christmas. We got about three inches last week, so I decided Carter needed some time to play outside. He decided he would do daddy's job for him.

I thought I would post these pictures for those of you who have never experienced shoveling snow before. It's usually not too bad. It's like throwing cotton across the driveway almost, unless it's iced over. Then it's like shoveling red clay. And the most fun part is throwing the snow on Carter. Yes, I really throw snow on him and yes, I'm a mean mom. He usually laughs and throws snow right back on me. Or on the garage.

On the day these pictures were taken, a mystery person came and cleared out the front part of our driveway. You see, our driveway is huge. We live on a corner lot and it circles around so that you can enter from either street. After our first big snowfall just after Thanksgiving, the snow turned to freezing rain before the storm moved through. So, it was like trying to shovel through six inches of red clay in freezing cold weather. You can imagine how far we got. We decided to just clear the entrance closest to the garage and leave the other side of the driveway until spring. No big deal.

Britney had managed to shovel a path for me to walk the kids to school without having to go through the deep snow. When I came home from school that morning, the driveway was still covered and our path was still there. While Carter and I were out shoveling snow, I realized that someone had come in the couple of hours we were up in the playroom and used their snow tractor to clear out the driveway.

So, to whoever our mystery snow blower is, thank you! To the rest of you, think of me the next time you hear there's a snow storm in the Midwest!

Three

My boy turned 3 today. Yep - he's no longer a baby. Three. Wow.

And can I just say that we did NOT bid farewell to the terrible twos today. Nope - they followed us right on to three. Hopefully it was their last hoorah and they'll be long gone tomorrow. Or tonight.

Carter, I love you so much! You're the only kid I know who can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' without skipping a beat. You can make me laugh when I'm so mad at you I could spit. You have the best personality in the world and I'm so thankful that the Lord entrusted you to me.

Now, tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully it will be a better one!