thursday morning

 (Eastern Bluebird pictures taken by Ian)

 By this time, it's mid-morning on Thursday. Lily has spent most of the morning sketching animals, using a You Can Draw Animals book she found on her Kindle. Ian has spent the morning looking through seed catalogs and playing with the dogs. I have spent the morning trying to work up the energy and motivation to attack the day. 

I have finally succumbed to this darn cold that I was so adamant in fighting off. 

So we'll get our grammar, math, and reading in this morning, and we will probably do some Netflix homeschooling after that. So many documentaries on there.  Good for a day like today when I'm feeling like going back to bed.

It has been a beautiful morning here in Western PA. Very cold, but beautiful. We have awesome views of the sunrises and sunsets up here on this windy knoll we live on. And this morning, the sun was actually out and the snow was glistening and glimmering. It was a sight. 

And we're warm here in our cozy little house, and I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful for my husband who faithfully works hard so that I can be here at home raising our kids. I remember my working days, and I don't miss those days at all. 

I spent time this morning really watching my kids, really soaking their personalities in, really seeing who they are growing up to be. Did you ever do that? Most of the time, I'm just going with the flow and too many times, I'm on autopilot. I read something this morning about a family that lost their 13-year-old son to an undiagnosed heart condition. It was completely unexpected and sudden. And as I watched videos of him in the days right before his death, I noticed how much he reminded me of Ian. You know, those awkward early teen things that boys do? I feel like that was a bit of a wake up call to me. Amber! Be more present! Cherish every single moment that God gives you with your husband and kids. 

Anyway, all of that has kept me quite introspective this morning. 

I want to live my life as God made me to live it. Free and full. Aware of the many, many gifts He has given me, given our family. Faithful to my calling as a wife and mother. 

God is good. He is faithful. He is the provider. He is Savior. 

I am so thankful for His presence in my life.

 
 Knitted Hat is The Vermonter (minus the purl rounds and the pom-pom)

the post of many pictures

We spent yesterday up north at one of our favorite places. We picnicked twice along the water, and enjoyed an arduous four mile hike through the forest. When I say "enjoyed", I mostly enjoyed it when it was over. We always take the hardest trails. Our kids are pretty much used to it. We've been hiking it since they were able to endure it on their own. Lily only requires a short amount of carrying, but even that distance diminishes every year.

Brad and I really do enjoy it. It's just a really hard climb right from the start. It doesn't level off until about 2/3 of the way in, and this year, well, we were both out of shape. Plus, there was something floating around in the air that was bothering all of us, including Ian who is not prone to allergies. I hiked those trails with a pounding headache and a completely stuffed up nose and ears. Half way through I decided that I either had to push on or they would have to send an ATV out to take me back to the ranger's station, and, well, that would just be mortifying. So I put myself into my "let's kick this trail's butt" zone and we finished it. I can easily walk four miles, but these trails are so much up and down that it honestly feels like you're hiking ten miles. 

But it did feel good to finish. And now I'm motivated to get myself back into some sort of regular work-out schedule that doesn't just include gardening, yard work, and shoveling manure!