Gorgeous Day!

Here in Minnesota we have been held in the icy grip of winter for weeks. Last week we had three days in a row where the kids were unable to be outside due to frostbite warnings. Our current warm up began on Friday and has continued through the weekend. We have little streams running down roads in search of buried storm drains, cleared sidewalks, and our parking lots are slowly gaining more spots.

When I first moved here from Utah I was thrilled to see that there were occasional bright and sunny days during our frigid winters. It didn't take me long to realize that sun and winter in Minnesota usually mean that your nose freezes shut if you inhale through it. Not so today! We had sun, melting snow, very little wind, and we had a great view of our nesting eagle pair on the way to church. We are lucky enough to drive along the Zumbro river on our way to church each week and we have a nesting pair close enough to the road that we can see them feeding their eaglets. I would love to tell you that this picture is "our" nesting pair and that I took it with my camera, but I cannot tell a lie.
I don't believe that any one can appreciate a day like today unless you have lived in winter like we do. Everything seems lighter, all things seem possible, and Spring seems just around the corner. I truly relish days like these because I know that a gray day will come again soon, Spring is definitely NOT around the corner (this is MN after all), but ALL things ARE possible no matter what the weather is because of Jesus Christ and that makes me smile EVERY day. Have a great day wherever you are and live it to the fullest. "This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be GLAD in it".

1:00 p.m. Church!

Warning:
This post has been infected with a bad attitude.

Does anyone really LIKE 1:00 p.m. church? Sitting or working through three hours of church on a Sunday afternoon is REALLY a test of faith. Yes, it is difficult to wake up early and make it to 9:00 a.m. church, but at least you have the rest of the day to recover. This morning I got out of bed at the perfect time...when I woke up on my own. If it was up to me, NOTHING would start before 9:30 a.m.

After being awake for a couple hours I thought we should all get dressed for church, but my husband informed me we had a couple more hours before we need to get gussied up. I gave up and went back to bed and read a book. Now, I'm not saying this was a bad thing, but an hour or so later I had to get back out of bed and get going to church. Aaaaagh! Here is what I think Sunday afternoon should look like.



This is what my Sunday afternoons look like currently:During the winter months 1:00 p.m. church is particularly difficult because:

It is cold, dark, and late when we get out of church. Let's face it! It is winter here a lot.

We have just one more Sunday until January will be over. Hurray! I will have just 11 months left. If you subtract two General Conferences, two Stake Conferences, a few weekends for traveling purposes, a couple sick Sundays for myself or a child, and I know I can make it to that golden 9:00 a.m. time slot. I will make it because God has promised that I can do all things with His help. I will not apologize for using a miraculously spiritual concept of being saved to explain the way I feel about 1:00 p.m. church.

New Socks and Shoes

Going to church is always an adventure. Don't get me wrong. I love attending my church meetings. I am lifted up as I study the word of God and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in the gospel. However, I have moments where my mind wanders or I may get distracted by something else in my life. Well this is one of those moments from today. I got some new socks and shoes a couple weeks ago and today is the first day I wore them to church. Aren't they cute?! Don't pay attention to the bright white stumps sticking out of the socks. I don't know who those belong to. I just looked at those legs again and I am embarrassed for that person.

So the shoes are J-41s which are some of my favorite comfort shoes. Last weekend I went shoe shopping with two of my sisters, Heidi and Leslie, and we all bought some of these and some mules as well. Yippee! This is the first time that we have all fit and liked the same pair of shoes.

After returning home, Heidi emailed my sister Bonnie to show her the shoes that we all bought. Not much later, Bonnie called and said she had bought the same shoes a couple weeks ago. You do not understand how amazing this is! It is not amazing that Bonnie had bought shoes, she owns more shoes than the rest of us combined. But we all picked out the same shoes for the first time ever!

Yes, we are all sisters. We were all products of the same gene soup, but we are VERY unique women. It is so much fun to get together and learn from one another, but I digress! Don't you love my new shoes?