January Love

I have absolutely LOVED January this year. This is not the norm. Norm often involves me suffering from seasonal depression. Not this year. This year, I have been motivated...got a lot of stuff done and reorganized and started and cleaned out. It's a great feeling!

And every weekend...we've been lazy. Enjoying family time. Replenishing. Soaking in togetherness. We've been able to get outside every weekend this month, the unseasonable warm weather has been amazing! Today involved a quick trip to Wilson's Creek.

Look at our very unique find on our walk. Any guesses? 

We thought it was an egg of some kind. Good thing Mike was with us, 'cuz he was foolish brave enough to pick it up! The other side had the markings of watermelon rind, this side apparently had some fungus on it. It was hallow, like a dried gourd. 

We came home and the girls insisted on making dinner. Well, okay, twist my arm! This was the kitchen when they were finished (to which my dear husband remarked "it looks the same as when you cook!" - ouch, sometimes the truth hurts!) Oh and by the way, Morgan even made my favorite pancakes for me - chocolate chips and pecans! Yum!! 

We've completed two puzzles this month. One very difficult one took us three weeks. This one we cranked out in just three days!  

As you can see above, we've been converting the area under our stairs to two American Girl 'studio apartments' - they are still 'in progress' - and it's hard to get a good picture, but they both have bunk beds in them. This weekend the girls worked on painting the walls. Sarah's is pink and white diamonds, Morgan's has green splatter painted walls. 

And the other thing is that we've had some absolutely gorgeous winter sunsets this month. My camera fails to capture the brilliance of the colors, but there were four different colored layers in the sunset tonight. Here is a picture off my back deck. 

Lastly, I just got a new devotional called "Jesus Calling" and I am very excited about it. It's been speaking to my soul, and that is good! And here comes February...birthdays, hearts, GS cookies, two weekend getaways...oh it will be good!