"Snow, snow go away.
Come again some other day.
If you don't, I don't care,
I'll still be here in my underwear."
This is the song being yodeled around our place by some boys, not-to-be-named, in their underwear as they are doing the "Snow Day" dance. I joined in the first day or two (fully clothed mind you) but after that I was over it. So. Over. It.
I am a summer girl anyway and in my opinion all is not right with the world when the weather is so cold, snowy, freezy, and icy. I'm all about cuddling up with a warm blanket, hot chocolate, and a book in my hand but I like that best when I've simply turned my A.C. down really low.
Feeding cows in the winter is rough. But that's nothing compared to when the frost-free hydrant goes on strike and refuses to fill the water trough any more which then leads to us having to pack water to the cows a couple times a day. Not fun packing water to the cows.
The chickens are giving all kinds of new meaning to the words "cooped up". As in, they don't leave their coop if there is snow on the ground. As in, the coop is ripe with chicken body odor and The Pecker (a.k.a. our rooster) is having a hay day standing on top of the waterer and crowing. Only problem with that is he poops up there which slides down into the water (the idiot) and so I am constantly having to kick him off and clean out the waterer (in sub zero temperatures mind you).
Things are so bad my grandma has not been able to go to Bingo in weeks now. No bingo is a bad thing. A bad thing indeed. Her lucky bingo blood needs an outlet because when it doesn't get used, bad things start to happen. Owen loses his voice. Caleb grows another inch right after I bought him new pants. Mark slips and falls in the driveway and threatens to kill any who might have laughed at him. You know, bad stuff.
I'm pretty sure it's why the Seahawks lost yesterday.
All this snow time has given us a chance to work on this year's goals though and I guess that's a good thing.
Goals are what this family does - no resolutions around this place. We like to look forward to new things and opportunities rather than reflect on things we want to "fix" about ourselves. Where's the fun in that?!
As the year goes on, we also learn a lot about ourselves. For example, last year a goal we had was to go on more bike rides as a family . When we looked back over our goals, we realized that we had went on exactly zero bike rides as a family. Hmmm... we are obviously a family that doesn't like to ride bikes together. Time to sell some bikes!
We also had on there that we were going to participate in 4 races as a family. The boys and I signed up for a Valentine's Day 5k and we were all looking forward to it. Before the end of it, I swore it was the last race I was ever going to do with my children. Throughout the three miles I had to pretend I was a zombie chasing them, a Halo soldier trying to capture aliens, and at one point, a mother chasing her children so she can beat them with a stick (not too far from the truth on that one!). The boys complained the whole time and gave an entire new meaning to "Are we there yet" in reference to the finish line. As soon as we were done, they were off RUNNING around with their friends! Seriously! So our goal ended at 1 race for the family for the year.
This year we have some new goals! We will hopefully accomplish most of them but we will possibly toss some over our shoulders and never look back. Goals are fun!
So without further ado, here are our 2017 goals:
Faith:
* Read through Romans together as a family inductively
* Encourage one another in our faith walks by praying for each other as a family (we do this by drawing names each week and writing down prayer requests for that person)
* Write down prayer requests and reflect back on them to see how God has moved
Family:
* Family dinners once a month again with extended family members
* Choose a service project together 4 times a year (once every 3 months)
Finances:
* Save 3,500 - 4,000 for Disneyland trip
* Stay within budget and not give in to wants (Hardest for me, not gonna lie!)
Health:
* Be aware of sugar intake - dinner desserts only on weekends or special occasions
* Begin to teach meal planning to the boys and have them cook 2 times a month
Home:
* Finish the shed - insulating, wiring, painting, cabinets, porch
* Plant 3 more trees and landscape another are of the house
* Put in pavers on the dirt between the back porch and firepit area
* Look into building a hay shed and garden fence
Nothing major (except maybe the desserts) but I am excited to see what this year brings! We have been blessed in so many ways that we are always working at making sure we appreciate everything we have already.
Even when it is cold, snowy, freezy, and icy and the rooster is pooping in his own water.
Even then!
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