Boots and brrr!

It wasn't five minutes, but the weather did change.  Significantly.  I've never been so glad to work for a company that gives us New Year's Eve off as well as New Year's Day.

Unlike my garden gnome, I'll be tucked away inside.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

AMDG

Boots and beer, baby!

The weather around here has been a bit crazy this month.  Several days of temps in the teens and small blizzards followed by warming and gully washer rain storms.   The joke in this area has always been "wait five minutes and the weather will change."

The days leading up to Christmas, and Christmas itself, were frigidly cold.  So, when today dawned warm and sunny, we knew we had to take advantage of it.  We chose a new-to-us county park and headed out for a hike.  What a great day!

The park was lovelier than we had imagined.  There were open areas, a large lake with dozens, if not hundreds, of ducks and geese, and beautiful old growth woods.  Much of the time we had the trails to ourselves.  But, when we did run across other hikers, everyone was in a terrific mood.  What could be better than 50s and sunny in December?!

How about a beer on the patio when we got home?

Ah, the simple pleasures in life!

AMDG

And the winners are. . .

 

The hairy beast has decided and the winners are .  .  .

Stephanie Z

 

and

 

Quiet Light Morning Star

 

 

Please send me your snail mail addresses (donna1164 at gmail dot com) and I'll get the OLG medals right out to you.

 

Thanks for all your wonderful comments on the last post.  You are some really wonderful ladies!

 

 

AMDG

A blogiversary giveaway

Three years.  For better or worse, that's how long I've been writing this blog.  There are days it seems longer and on others it feels like I just started.  Some days I have so much I want to put down on paper, so to speak, and others, many of them lately, I feel empty-headed. 

The blog sphere is an odd place.  We get to choose how much of ourselves we want to reveal.  Some pass out little bits and pieces of their lives and others give us the full Monty.  Regardless of what or how much is shared, it's just that, shared.  I feel blessed at all the people I've "met" and things I have learned.


So, to celebrate on my favorite lady's feast day and  blogiversary, I have two Our Lady of Guadalupe medals to give away.  Just leave a comment and Saturday evening the hairy beast will determine the winners.

St. Juan Diego, pray for us!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

 

AMDG

Saints alive!

Last week TCIE posted a reminder about the saint selector over at Conversion Diary. I kind of hesitated doing it. I didn’t want to be disappointed in whatever saint was selected for me. Weird, I know.

The first year I did it, Our Lady of Guadalupe was my patron saint for the year. As I’ve mentioned before, she’s the depiction of Mary that speaks the most to me. I find her presence and her intercession very powerful.

Last year, when I clicked on the saint selector I received the name of a saint I had never heard of before. Nothing about her seemed like she was applicable in my life. So I click again and again and again. Every saint that came up was someone obscure and remote.

So, as I am wont to do when I don’t like something, I ignored it, well, her. To this day, although I remember it was a female saint, I do not recall which one it was.

And, that was my loss, not hers.

Who knows what might have been had I taken even a little bit of time to learn about her. Maybe she would have “spoken” to me in a way I could see how she figured in my life. If nothing else, I would have learned something about one of God’s holy warriors.

So, this weekend I put on my big girl pants and clicked that button.

And you know what? I still don’t know why I got the saint (or almost saint) I did. But this time I think I'll take the time to read something about him and perhaps figure it out.

AMDG