happy Friday!

 Happy Friday from these two goofs!  

photo from our cabin trip last weekend 

What are you doing this weekend?  Which day will you rest?  I'm hoping for a Saturday of planning house projects and a Sunday of worship and rest.  

Kelly

polar bears in action

I think they count today among their best days ever!

 Hope you've had a good day too!

Kelly

grateful for this week . . .

big kids who have fun ideas and can execute much more of them themselves

birthday cake dreaming for my sweet almost 6 year old

cake idea from this book

sweet friends

lip licking good hot cocoa on an unexpectedly snowy afternoon

hand me down dresses that are so much fun to wear, green lantern symbols drawn on by her brother and that smile

aunts who quilt and give generously and a daughter who likes to play pretend

that homeschooling can happen anywhere and that our car dealership service area has a fish pond

also, that my kids are enamored with and curious about nature wherever they may find it

another aunt who gave us a chick-fil-a gift card which led to a fun treat of breakfast out after taking the car into the shop

the "after a library trip quiet" that comes as they pour through the new offerings

a fixed and ready to go car, fun kids to spend my days with and that we were all still smiling at this point in a long day!  

Nana's who host St. Patrick's Day parties and fun cousins building leprechaun traps!

a visit from Granddad!  

that all of our grandparents love, share and promote reading

really good friends and the unexpected discovery of a whole patch of blooming crocus in our neighborhood!!!!!  

that I get to homeschool . . . I am very grateful for this life . . . 

bracelets from Kenya

braids

the margin in a day to try hairstyles before hiking

the young woman she is growing up to be 

(and her fashion sense!)  

my strong boy

handsome husband and that my kids love their grandparents

pretty girl

good friends

her enthusiasm and all her words

stop me in my tracks views during errands

spring meals coming up

their insatiable appetites for learning and trying new things

What are you thankful for this week?

Choo Choo by Petr Horacek

I nostalgically checked this book out of the library and read it to my kids.  It was one we read with David when he was an itty bitty guy.  I really enjoyed reading it again although I think my kids were a bit baffled.  If you've got a train loving little boy I highly recommend it!  Now I'm researching trains that take you to the beach . . . you'll  see when you read the book.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  

After spending a long weekend at the beach this past weekend I think I've got spring/summer fever!

What are some of the things you're most looking forward to about spring/summer?

Kelly

snowy morning walk

We love our neighborhood and are so thankful that we continue to meet and get to know more and more neighbors.  Since the summer my friend Abby and I have been walking together once a week in the mornings and it has been such an encouragement and a blessing not to mention incentive to actually get outside and move, take in nature and the changing seasons.

Last night we got SNOW!  It was such a beautiful morning to walk and we were some of the very first ones out in it!  AND I am so thankful that it is light again in the mornings!  We have been hefting the maglite along on our walks the past month or so.  

On my way home I enjoyed the thrill of hearing a crow caw and another crow distantly answer. 

icicles!

I am thankful for the state that we have adopted, for amazing friends in the same stage of life, for the amazing and varied creation God has made and the enjoyment I am finding in learning more and more about it.  

Now to for breakfast, read alouds, math and writing!

Have a great day!

Kelly

Christmas Home Tour

I have been enjoying the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes each year since I began blogging back in 2007!  (although I believe BooMama was hosting it back then)  

I really enjoy "visiting" with others in blogland and the exchange of visits and comments that goes on as well as seeing everyone's different styles of decorating and also sharing/recording for myself to look back on how I decorate for Christmas around my house.  

This year though, Myquillyn wrote the most thoughtful and wonderful post about the tensions between our lives here in America and celebrating Christmas and what is happening in Aleppo, Syria.  I really encourage you to read it.  You can find it here.  

I enjoy sharing our home with you but even more than that if you haven't heard of the work Preemptive Love is doing, I would really like to encourage you to check them out on Instagram, the web, etc.  I have been following and learning about this organization for over a year and I think very highly of them and the ways they love and serve well.  

Here are six things they shared tonight on their instagram account:

preemptiveloveThe situation in and around Aleppo continues to develop rapidly. Here are six things we can share about the crisis and our ongoing response.
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1. Our emergency feeding program is continuing, thanks to you. Already, your support has allowed us to double our response as more displaced families pour into the Aleppo countryside.
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2. We’ve handed out thousands of sleeping bags, just as winter is setting in. It’s 34 degrees in Aleppo tonight, and snow is expected on Sunday. Each sleeping bag can accommodate a mother and two children. “No one has ever told us they were cold in one!” our response leader said today.
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3. We’re working with a coalition of partners inside Syria, to reach as many as possible with lifesaving aid. We are better when we serve across sectarian, religious, or national lines. Our response is more sustainable when we share capacity, knowledge, and resources locally. We’ve learned this through nearly a decade of serving in Iraq, and we are taking the same approach as we serve in Syria.
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4. We’re one of several organizations responding to the Aleppo crisis, but the needs are greater than all of us put together. More needs to be done. A lot more. But thanks to you, families are being fed. Lives are being saved.
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5. This is a volatile, rapidly changing situation. Reports from the ground are changing by the hour as evacuation deals and ceasefires are made and broken and made again.
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6. We serve everyone in need, period. If you want to know what side of the conflict we’re on, we’re on the side of families whose lives have unraveled in all the violence. We’re on the side of the bombed-out, driven-out, desperate children and mothers and fathers who lost everything. We’re on the side that says violence unmakes the world, and it’s our job to remake it. We will keep showing up with tangible acts of love for as long as it takes.

And finally, a little bit of our home . . . 

David was on top of things bringing in the logs that he has been playing with all summer just as it began to get cold because he wants fires this winter to roast smores, etc.!  

cut out piece of "door art" bought many years ago in Canton, TX and a fantastic book page wreath made by my talented mother-in-law

the hammock swing corner . . .

the hammock chair was a very special birthday gift from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, stars bought ages ago at the Samplehouse Warehouse sale . . . those were such fun days when they had that . . . 

and the color!

water color and oil pastel original art by yours truly :) 

made at our very own Fine Arts Center here in Colorado Springs

busy wall of Christmas cards and all the garlands 

"stockings"

colorful Christmas coffee table

Merry Christmas!  

Kelly