We're bigger than you, I'll take that challenge- with a smile, This is my normal

1. I have their grain, so the horses gallop towards me. I always feel like this is a game of chicken. Will I flinch and turn or stand my ground? They stop on a dime every time and never run me over. How do they do that?!
2. The challenge: Drop everything when the phone rings at 8:40 am (I'm not even dressed!), drive 12 miles over the mountain through rain and mist to get Audrey from school. Then drive another 22 miles on the interstate, in rain and mist, with tractor trailer trucks, to the doctor's office. The catch- I must be there by 10:00. The clock behind the receptionist's desk reads 10:02 and we made it alive! Just don't anyone look at my hair.
3. It is evening and I'm pulling warm, spicy gingerbread cookies from the oven. This is more my pace : )

A little help decorating, Fun kids, Paper and scissors

1. The indispensable ladder, makes anything possible. (Along with a husband and his power tools.)
2. The younger folks gather at our house and make a party out of nothing. I thought the pantry bare, but they somehow make a feast.
3. I'm cutting paper snowflakes when the gang arrives. At evening's end, the table is covered with paper chains, paper dolls, snowflakes of every shape, paper crowns and a paper airplane. Ryan has also fit his body through an 8-inch square piece of paper. Again, they make something out of nothing. Imagination.

Freshening up, Raw materials, Nice cologne

1. Steve sets up the painting area for me. All I have to do is point and shoot. (With the paint sprayer.) The vanity chair we found yesterday is painted into a fresh, white gem.
2. We live two doors down from a Christmas tree farm and old Mr. Nelson gives us permission to cut pine boughs from his overgrown pine forest. Tess and I gather armfuls into the truck. Then we have an adventure trying to back the truck out of the field. I drive as Tess says, "Left, left, more left, even more left!"
3. Steve smells like Rosemary and cold air. The hose spigot is behind the Rosemary and he's been filling the horse trough.

Found treasure, What to eat the day after, Wintery pine scent

1. Someone has tossed out a mirrored dresser and a cute vanity bench! We make a quick U-turn and go back home for the truck. Steve is all for it and we make a good trash raiding team.
2. Leftovers...need I say more?
3. Twisting off the little metal cap from a glass bottle of Frasier Fir reed diffuser and filling the room with pine scent.

Quietly thankful, Twas brillig and the slithy toves, First word, If you bake it they will come

1. This is the first time in many years without guests for Thanksgiving. Even some of our children are absent for the first time. But it has been a pleasant, slow-paced day, filled with our favorite foods, only made in smaller quantities.
2.We crept into a dense, black wood that felt very mysterious. We are searching for the elusive pine boughs.
3. Chelsea asks Claire if the baby has said her first words yet : ) Claire says, "Well, she puts the "g" sound at the beginning of all her cries".
4. At 6:30pm two of the absent children detoured here for pie and coffee. At 10:00pm another child returned home and headed straight for the pumpkin pie.

Welcome Granddaughter!

1. Today our family welcomed a sweet baby girl into the world! I was so happy to hear Claire's voice over the phone telling me the baby is, "Really, really cute".
2. Wonderful son-in-law! Daniel sent photos right away.
3. Steve is reading my blog profile out loud and says I need to add grandmother to the description of who I am.
4. Thankful for baking, ironing, shopping and doctor appointments. Yesterday these were anxiety-producing activities, but today they were anxiety-reducing distractions.

Life 101, Where we live, Resting

1. I turn to Psalm 23 at the end of an exhausting day of doctor appointments and phone calls for our injured daughter combined with news of pregnancy complications for our older daughter. I know all will be well, we just have to get through it. The Lord is our Shepherd... and so much more.
2. Back roads take us deeper into the countryside on our special delivery. We pass several big, beautiful, but run-down farmhouses. One reminds me exactly of the Waltons television show. It's easy to imagine these homes back in their splendor days, full of families and farm life.
3. I hear the turn of his key as Steve finally gets home from work at 10 pm. Now doors are locked, lights are turned off, and the house settles to rest.