In The Winter

I'll be honest, when I moved from the New York countryside to a farm in Tennessee, I didn't care if I ever saw snow again. Well folks . . . I didn't get a choice this winter. 

So . . .life happens?

At least that is going to be my excuse for not blogging anything in the last couple months.  Last semester ended very well for me.  I worried way too much about keeping my GPA up,  but it looks like I get to keep it how it is for at least one more semester.  Spring semester has begun.
 There are lots of new things going on. 
1.  My sister is getting married in May!  We are all SO EXCITED.

2. Connor got into Upper Division for Nursing!  Praying hard that the same happens for me over the summer.
3. My mom is coming home!  Not that she really left, but her job has kept her so busy that we have hardly seen her since a few days she took off at Christmas.  She is done with her job and will be returning home in time to help with the gardens and get the house back in order.
4.  Baby goats have been born!  Four bucklings, its true, but a blessing none the less.  Rachel named these two Archibald and Edwin.  We shorten it to Eddie and Archie.

It has been the craziest few months of my life.  This semester is much harder than the last.  Anatomy and Physiology is the hardest class.  I made above average on the first test.  The average was a 57%.  It was sad.  Other than that, it has been good for me to be studying.  The weather is pretty now.  Somehow, I acquired a sunburn in the 10 minutes it took to hang laundry and feed the babies. :) The perks of being fair skinned.

I'm sure that more things have happened, but I cannot recollect them now.  Maybe  I shall post again soon.  I won't promise though.  It is much more likely that it will be silent around here for another few months. Especially since everything is getting so green.  Have a blessed Day!

 

Last Week, This Was Me

And. . . that is part of the reason ( or at least a really good excuse :) for not posting in a really long time.  I'm not super busy, but there is always a test to study for, or a paper to write.  I am so excited about Christmas break.  It will be amazing to be at home and get to spend time with the whole family again. So this is me after every single quiz or test.  It's pretty ridiculous.

Those bygone Days

Even though my classes are keeping me busy, and the days slip through my hands almost before I realize it, I still feel stuck.  I am suspended in time, watching the rest of the world whirl around, speeding toward an end.  Only I stay, because Autumn is the time of year when memories batter their way into my mind. Some of them are memories that I wish would go away forever, but the other memories are the ones that I want to come back year after year until I am in heaven where they will all make sense.
 The changing leaves are my favorite part of Autumn, and luckily, we take quite a few pictures of those. This is just as they were beginning to change last year.  I'm still waiting for the ones this year.  There was a time when my sister and two brothers would make a huge pile of leaves at the base of a tree and jump into it over and over again until we were tired, then we would make " houses" by raking lines on the ground.  Four walls, and you had a room, then you just kept building.  Our poor parents were then dragged on tours of each house, tediously weaving through their own yard ( You never entered a house without knocking, and no one stepped over walls. Ever).

Winter will be coming soon, and while the cold is not fun, the snow and coziness of the season are worth it.  And Hot Chocolate.  It is definitely worth Hot chocolate :)  My family always makes a ginger bread house, and the rule is that everything must be edible, though some questionable items have been put on it before. ( my brother argued that pine needles were edible. Chewed one up to prove it, too ). Before we moved, we would hike up to the cabin after snowfall to start a fire in the woodstove, then sled and skate all day.   By the end I couldn't feel my fingers, or my toes, but we were all laughing together, so I wouldn't give that day up for anything.

 

The most dismal thing that comes to mind right now is the fact that Summer is over and my days probably won't look like this for long.

But it is okay because snow is so beautiful, and winter must come before Spring. 

Well, nothing quite like reminiscing to prepare me for Chemistry homework. . .  now that is one awful thing that I wish I did remember from high school. 

 

Since I haven't posted in a very long time, I decided that the day before College starts would be an excellent time to do it.  My Summer job was finished a couple weeks ago, so it was nice to have some time to order books and organize some stuff. 

The highlight of the month?  I GOT CATS!  Or kittens, rather.  They are adorable, and I love them to the point of being ridiculous. :)

This is Sasha.  She is completely black, but her eyes are the most brilliant gold.  She thinks she's beautiful and acts like she owns the place already.  Juniper is "my" kitten. . . officially.  Everyone else in my family calls her Juju, because Juniper sounds too grown up for the little Dustbunny.  And look! She went exploring.

Her Mamma was so proud . . . until she had to remove the evidence of her expedition. [you can see part of my finger too, because me and our camera don't get along very well]
It will be sad for the first few days at college because I won't get to play with her as much.  Luckily, I am attending a university that is less than 10 minutes from my house.  God knew what he was doing when he had us move here.

For your weather update, the sunrises have been beautiful. . .not that yours truly actually saw them.  She was exhausted and slept in until 7.  But her amazingly motivated sister was up and armed with a camera.  Here are the results.

Perhaps I'll see it tomorrow.  Maybe.

I Thought it was the Greatest Thing

You know what I think is amazing about the state I live in?  The sun shines in the middle of thunderstorms.  Silly? Yes, but I had never seen it before.  The thunderstorms here are very. . . energetic ( for lack of a better word).  Then in the middle of the crashing and earth shaking thunder, the sun will come out.   I even attempted (let's just admit that photography is probably not my future career) to get a picture  of it because I was so amazed. It is one of the most beautiful things, though I have begun to get used to it. :)

Sometimes I laugh at the simple things that leave me so astonished.  :)

Farm Style Fairytale

I live on a farm.  And that little fact defines a lot about me.  "Fairytale" means dresses, princesses, and prince charming to a lot of people.  To me, it means sunshine, a cool breeze, and herb gardens.  It means not wearing shoes, picking flowers, and smelling like the sage you just hung up to dry.  That is my kind of fairy tale.
  

 It is no secret that farming can be less than thrilling at times, but today I'm pretty sure God designed the weather to remind me how much I really love it.  Work doesn't always seem like work, does it?  There are those days when all I see is the dirt that won't come out from under my finger nails, or the mosquito bites, but then I'm reminded of the stunning earth I am privileged to live on.  It is amazing when you think of the miracle that turns our front yard into a garden every Spring.  So laugh if you want, but today seemed like a chapter from a farmer's fairytale.