Persistence of the Ladybug

   Snow swirled around the big pine trees outside and blew around the half burnt out Christmas boughs still on the fence.  
  "Mom, there's another one of those ladybugs." Dexter said.
   Climbing slow and steady up to the top of the wall in the dead of winter was a dark orange  ladybug.
   "Maybe it's because we've had a mild winter."  I thought out loud, as I cringed at the cob webs I now saw on the ceiling. 
   I'm pretty sure this is about when the dog ran through the kitchen with muddy feet right past the piles of laundry.
   Not only did my house need obvious attention, but there were writing projects coming due that needed my time, and there's only so much evening to work on things.
   There are days when I feel like I'll never get it all done. Then I got a nasty cold,and had to spend my evenings  recovering from my days.  Finally yesterday I started feeling better, and wouldn't you know, there was another ladybug (Can you see her in the picture?  I know it's a horrible shot.).  It crawled slow and steady through the kitchen sink right toward me.
   I love how God's creation has so much to teach me all the time.  This time: just go slow and steady.

I know this is atypical & not  humorous, but I felt like I should share it.  More funny stuff is in the arsenal - no worries! 





  

Christmas Vacation Skating

    Dave and I were out shopping the week before Christmas and saw a little outdoor skating rink.  After I pushed beautiful Rockefeller Square skating visions out of my crazy head, I commented what the ice might be like without a Zamboni to smooth it. A man was pushing a grooming tool around on the rink surface. "He's the Zamboni." Dave said, and we laughed.
    I thought it would be fun to come back to skate sometime.  So, I looked up the info on it, got the hours of operation, and discovered it was totally free.  Even the skate rental  -  what a deal!
   So, my friend Tracey and I rounded up a few of our kids and headed out skating a couple days before Christmas with anticipation for a fun Christmastime experience. We arrived at the little skate rental sheds and put on the stiff plastic issue skates - but no complaints, it was free.

   I noticed a couple of the boys waiting for the rest of us, and they weren't moving on the ice.  I entered the rink carefully to get a feel for the slick surface and warm up my skating legs.  I love ice skating!  Then I realized that something was really off about the surface, I could hardly move.  Suddenly I understood what "Synthetic Ice Rink" meant.  Both Tracey and I assumed it meant something along the lines of man-made.  Which was close.  It was plastic. Giant puzzle pieces of white plastic, plastic just like the skates.  We alternated between laughing and true disappointment for the whole ten minutes we were on "the ice".  We managed to convince a young man to take a picture of us (and part of his finger) to capture the memory.
   The next day we were so wanting to ice skate, for real, so we gathered whoever was free to head over to the BGSU Ice Arena.  I noticed that the word synthetic is missing from their sign, which was comforting.  It was not free, but it was like running downhill with the wind at your back.  So fun!  And Dave was free that day too, so he came along.  It really was a nice thing to do this time of year.
   The synthetic ice made me think how there are many deceptions in life, many things I think will be good that are not good at all.  I am praying more this year for wisdom to see the difference - and that the lies will not snag me into bad situations.
   I hope and pray that your 2012 is a blessed one!!


More Christmas 2011 fun...

Bruce enjoying Christmas morning wrapping

Trev and Wes working on a Trevor's gingerbread house -a finished photo is on facebook.