Wow, its 2013 already?

 

A new year has started, I love everything new. New beginnings, new cars, new houses, new babies, new life, everything new is so much fun, so much to explore and learn about.

The hard part is to stick to the old… we would rather have new things and not appreciate the old. But sometimes we hold on to old draby thing and not get into the beautiful new garment…. Sounds familiar? Or am I just a bit confused?

It has been quite a busy 2012 year for me. Giving birth to my 4th child was pretty exciting, exhausting and made my life so full and so busy. With working full time and keeping my household running I believe I was lost a bit, or as far as blogging... just couldn't find a sec to update.... but this is life and sometimes we all have to stop in the middle of traffic and notice that flower growing on the curb... does this make sense, or am I still a bit confused? 

They say this is a bad flu season this year… wasn’t last year a bad year too? Or at least that’s what they said last year as well. They do say that a lot of people are dying, but its hard to get the statistics of that, and hard to pin point what people are dying from, could be the flu, could be medication overdose, or pneumonia, or some reaction to a cold. So it could be from anything, but they make it seems that it was only a very bad flu. I just don’t believe that. Working in a medical field I see how they make everyone get a flu shot to protect the patients, but then everyone seem to get sick with all kinds of colds, viruses, sinus infections, everyone are walking around coughing. I don’t know, it just makes me kind of suspicious and definitely makes me confused.

 

Life is busy with little kids, its so hard to find the time to read the bible, to pray, to just sit a spell for a second. I try to still find time to read books on occasion, squeeze in some time here and there, I do love to read. All the other hobbies will just have to wait until my babies are not so needy and time consuming. Of course I love them dearly and wont change a second of my time with them, but sometimes locking myself in the bathroom is the only chance I get for alone time... well of course I don't count the time I am away working outside of home, no wonder they miss me and rush to hug and be with me the minute I am home.

 

Everything else is going great, busy and full of life. Is this how life supposed to be? I guess its OK to be busy as long as we still stop and notice the things that really makes life precious. I read that book, Pollyanna, and she had her schedule so full at one time, that she asked her aunt, but when do I live? Doing all kind of things in life is not the same as living life with passion and doing things that we truly love and cherish.

 

I wish you all cherish your life this new 2013 year and spend time with God, with your family, with nature, and I hope this year will be even better than last year.

 

Stop and listen.

It’s funny how the everyday of life gets so busy that we can’t hear anything around us, everything turns into a big loud foggy noise.

 

Especially when we live in a big city, it’s so common for everyone to tune out all the unpleasant noises that surround us. I even know that people who live by the railroad train tracks get so immune to the loud noise of screaming, roaring train that they sleep through it, and don’t even notice them. Amazing what we tune out. We can tune our little kids as they yell and complain, while we play on the computer or watch TV.

 

We tune out the everyday of every minute that sometimes we tune out the every beautiful sound, like birds singing, wind whispering through the trees, rain beating on our window, or taking a walk through the dry fallen leaves and they crunch under our heavy feet. I noticed that the sounds of nature always seem to calm us down, while the manmade sounds are a bit nerve grindering and tend to make us tense and cranky.

Lets stop and listen next time you are outside, and hear nature speaking to your tired, rushed soul.

 

Gardening is a gift from us to others.

I love to garden, to dig in the soil, to smell the fresh earth... and now with fall and winter just around a corner, makes me sad to see all the flowers wilt, die and fall down. But knowing that as soon as January hits the calendar we can start planing our garden again. Here is a cool article I read about gardening, I am sure you will enjoy it too. From Curator magazine.

A garden is a gift to others, because it makes the world more beautiful, more peaceful.

The bees love flowers, so other people can have honey.

A garden in the city is like an oasis in the desert, a treat among the hectic lifestyle.

Only memories remain of summer....

Summer is almost gone, only memories remain... of hot long days, blue skies, there are so many things that spell summer for us....like fresh garden vegetables...

traveling, ocean, sand, salt air....

naked feet and swimming of course....

berries from the garden and a fruit cobbler from the goodness....

summer warm evenings, sunsets...

some garden fresh cantaloupes....

some elk viewing....

more flowers in my garden....

sand dunes by the beach....

and more beautiful summer flowers... cant have too many of those:)

love summer... but its almost gone, good thing I love autumn as well...:)

Sunflowers.

Why are sunflowers called that? I mean a sun flower... interesting.. is it because they are yellow?

The hot summer days are here. I love my wild sunflowers, they are a happy flower to have around.

A lightbulb for today.

Children are gifts from God to God...

Zucchini pancakes.

Have you ever had zucchini pancakes? This year we have an abundance of zucchini that our garden is producing. I keep giving them away to friends and family, so they can share in the green goodness. It is really simple to make them, all you need is flour, tsp of baking soda, a few eggs, some garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Just grate the zucchini add all the rest of ingredients, make the pancake batter and fry them in oil. Sometimes I add a grated potato and a carrot to make them even more scrumptious.

They are so good! Usually my kids eat them up as soon as they cool down a bit. Enjoy! :)