Winds of Spring in Cincinnati

Last Wednesday night we enjoyed watching another several inches of snow make everything looks fresh and clean again. Last night - the boys were rollerblading in 62 degree weather. It's what I call the stirrings of spring - it's not here yet but we're heading that way.

My boys were actually upset for a little bit when it started getting warm - one morning they were sledding and by that afternoon the snow on their track had melted. I didn't get many snow pictures this year.

But I did shoot a lot of video of sledding at our place, out at my in-laws, and tubing at Perfect North.

This one I took but the sled left before I was ready, went in a direction I didn't want to go and I almost mowed Allan over.

I know this shouldn't make me laugh like it does but Daniel takes the prize for having the most unfortunate things happen to him. If he lives to adulthood it will be a miracle!

Both Allan and Daniel worked on snowboarding this year.

Through this winter our chickens have done great.....sometimes too great.

But then February hit with snow on the ground and subzero temperatures. I began running a heat lamp for them and put a heater on their water to keep from freezing. But then one morning I opened their side door to let them out - the first guy looked out, stepped back - the second one looked out and then stepped back and they all looked at me like, "You've got to be kidding! We are not going out there." And they didn't - for almost 4 weeks. Egg production dropped and the quality dropped (had one egg laid that didn't have a shell.....just the yolk and white in the membrane). This week they've been outside every day and production is back up. I'm very thankful they didn't get sick or have a lot of frostbite issues - we had some but not much.

I got my cauliflower, broccoli, geraniums (none of the begonias germinated) started in February.

Today I hope to move them to bigger individual pots and get my tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables started (little behind on them this year).

Then there's all the baking, cooking, homeschooling, cleaning, administering tests (for the Christian Academy here at GBS),  listening........if you're in ministry you know that much of your time is spent listening...which also leads to a lot of praying. There's been a lot of that going on this semester.

I also started a little business venture which will probably get it's own blog post soon. But that's what's been happening around here. It's soon going to be time to kick it into high gear......for whatever reason I don't feel like coming out of hibernation yet!