The Start of The Day

Long before the sun arrived, I was awake. 5:30 am. The time change has made it easier for me to get up earlier, but also I want to head to bed much earlier in the evening.

Breakfast was made and set on the table while the sky was not yet that blue of morning, or even the pale gray of this chilly morning.

Sweet potato pancakes with fried eggs for Emery. Our chickens are laying good right now. There is no shortage of eggs for us. Soon though we will turn on the light in the chicken house that will help compensate for the shorter days and trick the chickens into laying more. It seems a bit like messing with the natural cycle of life, but we have always done it. Every day my basket is full of fresh eggs. For breakfast and last night with supper we had Nutcracker tea, by Celestial Seasonings. I think its our favorite hot drink right now. Sweetened with a spoonful of agave nectar. I love their Holiday teas ! http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/holiday-teas/ If you have little ones at home or if you like to do coloring, Celestial Seasoning has some wonderful coloring pages on their web site.

The other day I mentioned to Melanie that when I was in my 20's and could have spent the time on being glamorous, I didn't. It wasn't me. I have always been a no frills person, even when I try, it can't last because its not me. I told her in a way, I almost regretted that I was not into fashion then, at least a bit, because your 20's come only once in your life and I wondered if I had made the most of those years. Of course this was more of just thinking out loud with no real application to my thinking. I don't regret being who I was then or now, but then I thought about something... this journey of life is made up of lots of "once in your life" moments. There are many things that are not "do overs". Some might seem silly and some are major life choices. How you raise your children, you can't turn back the hands of time and say, "made a mistake here, lets go back and do that over." Same for how you choose to spend your money, once its spent, its gone. You can change these things for the future but really in many things in our life, its a one time thing. Sounds rather glum writing that out, but there is a way to avoid big mistakes, first carefully pray about your actions. And second know that you can always change how you spend your money now or be honest with your children and tell them you wished you had done things different. If they are still children, you can work on doing things differently together and if they are grown and the mistakes you made have caused strained relationships, saying you did it wrong and want to make it right, will go a long way. When I am disappointed in the outcome of some decision I have made, I retrace my steps, what was my first mistake, almost always it was going ahead on my own and not praying about it.

I told my son not long ago that if he and his wife will kneel together each evening and pray out loud with one another, that single act will make such a difference in their lives. Kneeling together is so different than say laying in bed together praying, kneeling is different some how. Shows more intent perhaps. I don't really know what makes it so much more intense. Praying for one another, praying for your family together, praying about the money you spend together, praying for direction as a family, asking for forgiveness together, just makes it MORE. More of everything real and true. For some, it might be embarrassing to take the step and ask our husbands or wives to kneel with us in prayer and maybe your spouse isn't even a person of prayer, in that case, kneel beside your bed while they get tucked in and pray for them. What love is shown by praying for a person.

Melanie getting ready to bottle feed the baby goats their breakfast many years ago.

Emery's breakfast this morning....thanks Melissa for the yummy maple syrup !