More snow!

           This morning welcomed another 3-4 in of snow! Thank goodness we shoveled last night, I am not sure if our shovel would have made it as long as it did yesterday if we had had all of this new snow too! Our tools this morning included the snow shovel - minus the handle (it broke last night), a garden hoe turned ice pick, and a shop broom. Our mission: clear the driveways and sidewalk. Participants: Caroline, Natalie, and our neighbor boy whom neither Caroline or I can remember his name...:(  Sad and shameful I know. I think our neighbors must have felt bad for us and sent him over after they saw us "shoveling" with the broom and broken shovel. They are so thoughtful!
           Church was canceled due to road conditions so the four of us had our own little worship service in our pj's on the couch! There is something wonderous about being able to worship wherever you are, whether it's in a church building, a make-shift church building, outside, at home, and with thousands of people, four people, or alone...He never changes...He Is and that's all we need to know. As long as He Is, then it doesn't matter where we choose to come before Him.
          We read from The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing, by C.J. Mahaney for a devotional and then sang a few hymns. The chapter we read from juxtaposed talking to yourself and listening to yourself. Mahaney illustrated how he ends up listening to how he feels about things or a situation more often then he talks to himself and focuses on who God is and on His truths regardless of what is happening in his life. For example, in the morning when he awakens his mind immediately beings to think about having to get up too early, the arguement he had with someone the day before, how everywhere he looks something needs to be cleaned or fixed....and so on and so forth. He is so busy thinking/feeling about things that he doesn't have time to pray or spend time with God before the day begins. Inevitably, any of us who begin our day this way usually walk out of the house already in a hurry, stressed and flustered. I can relate. Can you?
          Mahaney challenged us to talk to rather than listen to ourselves. By talking to ourselves he doesn't mean walking around looking like a loon, he simply means meditating on what we know to be true about God and who He is, what He's done for us. Food for thought, no?
        

         Here are a few more pics of the additional snow and the first blue sky we've seen in weeks!

Our patio has turned into the dumping ground!

Our stairs have disappeared!!

Reference point......do I have 'man hands'in this pic?

Carolina working on her latest sewing project inside!

Beauty, look at all of the interesting lines in this shot!

So the sky really IS still blue above all of those clouds! What a joyous sight!

Welcome back sunshine, we've all missed you! Do come again soon!

Snow!!

So it's been snowing quite a bit this week. I am loving every minute of it! Our little street was so beautiful tonight when I went out to shovel our driveway and sidewalk. It's hard to see in these pictures but we have a few inches of snow....except at the entrance to our driveway where I've been dumping all of the shovel fulls...we have about a foot piled high stretching the length of it! :)
Our Geman neighbors are so neat a tidy...they even shovel neatly. I have piles all over the place while their snow is no where to be seen in excess. They are also so very kind and neighborly, tonight they all came over and helped me finish our second driveway and even offered to salt it for us!

Here I am standing in our driveway and working to clear it, next I did the sidewalk here and then the driveway to the right of the garbage can...our shovel lasted until this last part and then decided to be 'kaput' as my neighbors kept calling it! :)

Our backyard and forest!

The little nut after her nap and before I went to shovel! She's such a funny little girl!

It's been amazing to see/hear all of people's reactions to the snow here, especially on base. Base is a melting pot of people from nearly every US state, some of which, obviously, do not see any snow. That being said, I was driving behind a Chevy pickup this morning that was going about 25 km/hr in a 100km/hr area... I am all for following the speed limit and for going slow when conditions are poor, but when the roads are clear and you're driving a 4-wheel drive truck...I think it's okay to at least go the posted limit.  :)

Watch, I've just jinxed myself....my next post will inevitably be of my fender-bender.  

I hope you're enjoying winter wherever it is you are and in whatever way it so chooses to express it's self! Meanwhile, I am here....enjoying our winter sanctuary of stillness.....gute nacht my friends!

Our Soldiers

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to send out a quick post to ask you to pray for our service men and women who are serving here in Germany and in other parts of our world. God has put it on my heart to share with you some of what I am noticing and experiencing while getting to know these amazing people.

 Since being here I have met many very enthusiastic, dedicated, and caring soldiers. I have learned about the types of jobs they do, what they do for fun, where they've traveled, where their from, and about their families. These are ordinary people, just like you and me, the only difference is that they have chosen to dedicate this time in their lives to serving the United States in the form of joining the military. And as we all know, with that decision comes the chance of being sent far away from all that you know and all that is familiar. While at work I can't tell you the number of times I have had a conversation with a soldier that began with "when my husband gets back from Afghanistan...," "I deploy this afternoon to Qatar for 6 mo so...," "I miss my wife, she gets back from Turkey on Sunday," "I'll be gone for 6 months to Iraq...," "I've calculated that my wife is 1,293 miles away, so while she is gone for a year I am going to run that many miles," or "I had to bring a guy back from ___  and I've been stuck in transit at the airport for three weeks and am trying to get back to ___." These types of conversations are so common here. There are many many men and women who are sacrificing so much to serve our country, some with their lives and others with countless hours away from their families and homes. These people need our prayers. I believe they not only need our prayers for their safety but for their happiness, spirits, and hearts as well. I haven't the slightest idea about what it's like to be a soldier so I can't say that I understand what they are going through exactly, but I have seen the faces of those who ARE experiencing these situations and their eyes say more than their words. Please pray for them.

   Along with these soldiers, please pray for their families at home (wherever home might be), it can't be easy to be away from your wife, husband, fiance, dad, mom, gf/bf, kids, friends, etc for 6 to15 months at a time. I have spoken with people and have heard them talk about adjusting to having their loved one leave for a period of time and then having to readjust to having them back after their time of service is over, it's difficult. Listening to teachers talk about the types of struggles that their students deal with while a parent is absent is so foreign to me. There is now a brand new generation of children that don't know what life without the effects of war is like. How difficult it must be for them to fully understand why their dad or mom has to leave and why they can't be there to tuck them in at night. Please pray, pray for families like this one who have had to say goodbye to their husband and father while he is at war.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/333915.html

   THE NEWS TRIBUNE. Published: April 13th, 2008 01:00 AM.

Kathy Fendelman tries to comfort her twins, Samantha and Benjamin, 9,

on Saturday after saying goodbye to their father, 1st Sgt. Barton Fendelman.

 He was leaving Philadelphia for eventual deployment to Iraq.

The soldier is a member of the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade.

It will be his second tour of duty in Iraq.

I have heard stories of the number of infidelities that occur while people are separated by deployments, it is so heartbreaking. There are so many temptations in the world already, throw in lonliness, stress, distance, and change and Satan has his ideal playground. Even for believers this is difficult, imagine what it must be like for those who don't have Jesus to lean on for strength and support.

   So I ask you to join with me in including these special men, women, and their families in your prayers. I pray that 2010 is a different kind of year for these soldiers, one that is refreshing, full of renewed strength, and that they might find a fresh sense of honor, duty and patriotism that will be a source of preserved determination to help them perservere through this calling that they have had to serve and protect our great nation.
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this petition and thank you in advance for your prayers!

Blessings,
Natalie