A Snowy Joy!! No school! No school!

Yippee!! A snow day! Praise the Lord! Here's a few shots outside my front door this morning. Keep in mind that yesterday we only had only a couple of inches in the morning on the ground....

Yes, those are three little lanterns that I have on my doorstep....and you can see the road a little on the left there where the guard rail is. I have to go out and shovel the walk sometime today...but no rush, right? As you can probably tell, it's still too early for me to go beyond the front door...cause I don't have too! LOL!! Maybe the sun will come out soon!

In this other picture are my Adirondack chairs that I have in the front yard. Now, I was going to put those in the garage last week....but I was holding onto that little bit of summer and fall I had left over! Now I'll have to wait for a thaw! Can you guess what that bump is in between the chairs? Go ahead, take a guess! I will put the answer will be at the end of this blog entry! Hey no fair scrolling now! I have more to share!

The snow is very pretty! Even on a gloomy day! This is all the nice part of winter...the driving is not so nice. Yesterday took me over an hour to get home from work (I work 25 minutes away) and coming home from teaching class last night was horrible...but after my hour + adventure, I asked my wonderful hubby to drive me to class and pick me up, which he did! What a trooper! The blowing snow made visibility a joke! But between my brave man and the Grace of God we got home safely! Praise Jesus!

Now, you wonder, what will I do with my day? Well, I don't want to spend it all on the computer, so after this entry, I'm starting with my list! Yes, even on a snow day, I have a list. Oh, come on, you do, too!! What's on it? Well, sunflower toast and coffee, first of all! :) Then a bunch of paperwork (ewww) that I need to do for my college students (probably take all of three hours!) then some school work I would have done anyhow (minus another hour!) then some cleaning (boo! but just a little!) and then CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!! We don't have a tree yet...heck we have 20 more days to get one! But I do want it to be a little christmasy around here, so I'll drag out all the stuff!!! (minus a bunch more hours!)

And finally, I want to post some creations over at CHF from their virtual stamping party last weekend. Quickly, I'll show you just two things I 'whipped up' on Saturday in the flurry of the 'party'. This one is a purse....gasp! Don't say that! It was one of the challenges! No I am not just giving an excuse to show off another purse! It was!! We were supposed to try to use a backgrounder stamp instead of designer paper. This one was CHF's scalloped lace BG with some curls and a sentiment from their Kim Hughes collection, Cute curls. I used faux stitching with a gel pen and some white brads and ribbon and voila! A cute little purse card. You like it! Admit it!

This next card was a quickly whipped up sketch challenge where you try to use your own ideas but follow a pattern. I was literally rushing, so the picture looks a little rushed...sorry! Also, there's a dark spot on both pictures that must be some shadow, but isn't really on the card. What do you think?

Busy weekend! I spent most of Saturday having a TREMENDOUS time hanging out with some of my best buds from my old job long ago! We get together every year (this was our 14th, we think) to catch up on each other's lives and have lunch and a Christmas ornament exchange. We luncheoned in an old inn on a hillside. We got just enough snow on Saturday to make it pretty. I forgot my camera or I'd share a few pix! This luncheon really kicks off the holiday season for me, so it is a lot of fun! Sunday, we took our daughter on a college visit to an art college 3 hours away. The drive was snowy and icy, but it was a good time together with my husband, daughter and I. Who knows what the next chapter will be in her story? How exciting to find out!

I also really appreciate hearing all the stories of our childrens' life adventures, both joyful and difficult. We are all really woven together as a tapestry and the colors of our lives are both bright and dark, dull and sparkling. What a wonderful plan of relationship God has! We need one another so much, that it a shame when some small thing (or even BIG thing) comes between friends and family! We all have our histories, of course, but one there is one quote I heard at a woman's conference a few years ago that has really gotten me through a lot just in the past few years....

"Forgiveness does not mean that the person was right, it just releases the bonds from within."

Wow. To me that is powerful. Really think on that one; I am here to testify that it will change some of the relationships you have in your lives. By letting go of those offenses from others, we are free to be connected to them again. Free to love and free to let God work in the relationship. After all, we know the forgiveness we received from God wasn't because we were right, right?

Well, hey, I have a long list to get to today! But I can do it on my own time, so I will enjoy every bit of it! You do the same, won't you? Listen, only 21 days until we can sing Happy Birthday to the one reason we have Christmas at all! Jesus! Be blessed this week!

Love ya!

Kim

PS The bump between the chairs? My pumpkin from early October! I guess it's frozen pumpkin now! Tee hee!!