colour my world/a Lenten musing

The first three photos were taken in summer of 2011 (I think) at my family's home in Illinois. Currently,  I miss colour. The world is white and brown, which is beautiful of course, since we all know I adore snow. But February is nearing its end now; I find myself longing to see green buds on the trees and hear birds singing in those trees. We have another snowstorm coming; exciting as always. But as I page through my Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog and pick what I will grow this year, I wish I could open the windows and feel a warm breeze. Spring breezes have a certain scent to them. I don't mean the ones that smell of manure and farms! I mean the other ones, those that smell warm.

Lent is also upon us. We sang the hymn in that last picture both on Ash Wednesday and last Sunday. When Lent comes so early, it's a bit of a shock; we think of Easter as being in the springtime. And it will be -- it comes on the last day of March. Easter, that is. So perhaps Lent being so early isn't a bad thing. As winter holds on and spring struggles to break through, we can be reminded of our Lord and Savior's struggle with Satan and death and how He won, just like spring overcomes winter each and every year.

Yes, I love winter. I kind of hate summer. Autumn is awesome. But spring is a good time to be contemplative, and that's something I look forward to as the weather warms up.

monday morning vignettes and inspirations no. 2

It's snowing again. Big, white, beautiful flakes. This past weekend my mom and youngest sister came for a visit. We didn't do much other than hang out and talk, though we did go bowling on Saturday afternoon. We all did really well; Mom especially with a game of 163!! All three of my games broke 100, of which I was very proud. Yesterday, Nate and I went bowling again, during the Super Bowl. Neither of us did as well, but we were tired from bowling the day before. Moral of the story: Bowling two days in a row is not usually a good idea.

My whole house is clean, another fact of which I am proud. Many organizational things still need to happen, but the biggest part of the job is done. One of the next things that I hope to accomplish is painting our bedroom. We're thinking of a shade of green; not too pale, but not too bright. More earthy than anything. Of course, then the curtains that are in there will have to go, since they are also green. Ugly green, I might add.

As it is February, when I finished cleaning on Friday, I cut out a myriad of construction paper hearts to tape on the cabinets and windows. I will never stop loving construction paper. So versatile. I will need to make a trip to Hobby Lobby in the near future though, because I discovered I have no glitter! This is a crisis, obviously.

The month of love is upon us. Though of course we should love each other all throughout the year, there is a concentration in February. I do believe Valentine's Day is to blame, though the beginnings of that saint's day were less than glamorous. I've never been a huge advocate of Valentine's Day, partly because the various boyfriends I had over the years were never good about remembering the holiday, and partly because it's so overblown. But you know what? I like hearts and bows and shiny things. And I love creating a beautiful day for the one I love most in all the world, my dear husband.

So here's to being inspired by love, crafted hearts, the cozy snow falling outside, and mugs of hot cocoa with heart-shaped marshmallows floating on top.

(All photos taken with my iPod and edited with the app Snapseed.)