To our friends scattered to and fro,

Hello from the Beautiful Shenandoah Valley.. One evening recently, Mother and I were out attempting to deal with the fact that all the water in our calf house was frozen and there were 25 babies expecting warm milk sooner rather than later.. Finally I’d had it.. And I proceeded to explain exactly how cold I was and how miserable this is and how SICK I am of winter.. And Mother- in her calm wisdom had two points to make.. #1: Kendra is the only one in the entire state that has had to deal with cold weather.. #2: it’s only been like this since the first of Nov.. We are all sick of it..

The forecast looks rather foreboding..  Not sure how it’s gonna mix with the fact that we have a number of plans to travel this week..

We tried to keep the dogs from knowing that ANOTHER snowstorm is headed our way.. But somehow Detroit must have discovered.. “I know, ol boy.. Kinda feel the same way myself..”

I was really concerned I was going to cry at Julia’s wedding.. We obviously all were, because Emily googled “tips to not cry”. Google has wisdom for everything.. They suggested looking at the ceiling, focus on your breathing, doing multiplication in your head.. Basically think about something other than what is at hand.. So before she walked up the aisle, she turned and whispered to me “What is 284 x 7..”  So I guess I’m using the same idea to combat being fed up with cold, wet, drab time at hand.. I need to focus on something else.. On things to come.. Times of warmth and sunshine and beauty..

And so I went to Scripture.. Here’s a few thoughts that blessed me.. And -of course- Paul’s testimony: “I have learned, in whatsoever state (or season) I am, therewith to be content..” Still working on that one..

For lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone: The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing of the birds is come. And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green leaves, And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one and come away.. Song of Solomon 2:11-13

O sing unto the Lord a new song; Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name.. Declare His glory.. The Lord is great.. For all the gods of the nations are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary..Give unto the Lord glory due unto his name.. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; Fear before Him all the earth.. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.. Before the Lord, for He cometh..to judge the world, with righteousness and his truth..  portions of Ps 96

Hang on there, my friend.. Warmer days are coming!! Blessings, Kendra

Bonus tales:

We were on the way home from a wedding last night that was 2 hrs south of here. Julia and Sherman took our GPS because Father knew the way.. So we started out following them, and Father said “Give Sherman a call and tell him that I have never travelled through here without seeing radar.. Sherman should, maybe, watch his speed..” So I relayed the message.. Within about 20 minutes, we were coming down a hill into a construction area and before we had even entered, we saw the lights come on and knew we were nailed.. Ah.. Father did his typical-jump out of the car, and apologize and confess and all the other things that I hadn’t seen for a long time since we don’t travel together as much, and he hasn’t met up with that type of authority in an impressively long time.. From our perch in the back of the van, Deborah commented that it looked like this State Trooper was Asian or something.. The cop was very kind and asked what we were travelling from and let my dear dad off with a much lesser fine.. And we went on our way-pondering how Sherman had skated on through, how many of the people from the wedding had passed by, as we sat in front of the blue lights,  grateful the cop had been kind, but a little frustrated because we try to be law abiding.. Probably not 15 minutes later, Father’s phone rang and it was one of his friends.. “So you met a little Chinese fellow just a little bit ago?” To make a long story a little more brief- Our cop friend had discovered another speeding minivan, and had asked “Are you coming from a wedding? You have the same accent as the last guy I stopped..” Business was really booming.. And the Treasurer of the State of VA smiles as those yellow tickets return with cash in hand..

Julia and Sherman have been so blessed by generous people.. One of the last gifts they received made them smile.. Sherman was exclaiming over how neat it was, and Julia called to his attention that it was the exact gift he had selected for that couple at their wedding almost a year ago.. 🙂 what a coincidence.. Another instance of “what goes around comes around,” I suppose..