Back in the Saddle Again

It is time to start blogging again.  To be honest, I got into sort of a rut, doing the same thing day after day and not really finding anything to be excited or joyful about.  It wasn't bad, or sad, or depressing, just sort of blah.  In all honesty, I think I forgot to see the blessing in the mundane.  We had no major trauma, no deaths, to big changes.

But we did get to go to Vegas and visit my mom for Thanksgiving.  We had a beautiful trip, visiting friends along the way.  We got to see a few of the amazing hotels and the fantastic fountains at the Bilagio.  We went out to the Red Rock National Park and spent a day climbing rocks and looking at God's incredible creation.  We were able to visit one day with my sweetheart's family. The kids took turns between staying with us in the hotel and staying at Grandma's house.  We even got to go to a chocolate factory.  We traveled by car the whole trip and had no vehicle challenges what so ever. We drove into good weather where ever we went, with rain or snow behind us or in front of us.   We had plenty of money to do the things we wanted to do.  What a blessing.  We even did laundry the whole time we were there so I didn't have a boat load to do after being gone so long. 

We did start our speech club.  I must say I was a bit nervous going into this.  I was not able to find my materials or contact list for a long time.  I was not able to procure a building.  I was not confident at all that I was going to pull it off.  But it all came together.  We have a small club with three families and some gifted young people that meet at my house.  (Which means my house gets mostly clean once a week ^.^) We went to our first competition and Josh moved on to Regionals with one of his speeches.  The rest of the kids did much better than they thought they would and had a fun time.  Enough so that they are already prepping for the next tournament with excitement and joy. 

Our schul moms got together and started a Yeshiva.  This is definitely something I was praying for.  I so struggle with foreign languages and Hebrew is so different from English. With one who had never really attended Yeshiva getting ready for her Bat Mitzvah, this was such a relief and blessing.  Now they are all learning Hebrew or brushing up on everything they forgot they knew.  The Yeshiva also includes a Bible study. We have studied the fruit of the Spirit and are now working on the armor of God. I have been teaching the 4 to 8 year olds their aleph bet.  Easy and slow for my mind ^.^.  I have been working with the 13+ year olds in the Bible study.  Again, this has been scary and amazing at the same time.  Teens have never been my favorite, until mine became them things.  It has become such a joy.  Watching how they are growing into mighty women and men of God has been so rewarding.  To see them open their Bibles and read and try to make sense of God's word, applying it to their lives and seeing the consequences of their behavior in God's eyes is so fulfilling.  Wow.  They are wonderful.  They made a totally fun video for Hanukah, creating and performing a song. I am so proud of them.

Chicken owning has left the honey moon phase.  We still love the chickens and get much joy from them.  We watched them go through a molt.  That was weird.  Raw meat running around the backyard o.O.  We expanded the pen and they no longer roam around free in the backyard.  I got tired of stepping out the back door into giant puddles of chicken poo.  How do such small animals make so much poo? Any way, they now have a nice big pen and are full of feathers again.  We are still getting eggs even if they are smaller.  We have also determined that they are not nearly as smart as we gave them credit for.  Even with it being so cold and wet outside, they have been "forgetting" to get into their house at night. The kids have to go check every evening to make sure they get in.  The one night we didn't get home til midnight, Em and my sweetheart went out to check on them and found four of the five still outside.  One of them was so cold that when the others went in their house, she didn't move and he was able to just pick her up.  They brought her in, we wrapped her in a towel and fed her some meal worms and she perked up.  Stupid chicken.

So you see, I have had lots to be thankful for.  Living life day to day, I forgot to look at the big picture and see the blessing instead of the day to day drudge that makes it all happen.  In honor of the season of New Year resolutions that I seldom make, I am going to work hard at looking up from the drudge of every day and see the blessing that is the big picture.