Stretch. What a great word.

We can stretch so much in our lives, spiritually, mentally, and physically. It is a good thing to stretch ourselves in each of these areas of our daily lives. For they can all use a good stretch every now and then.

It takes deliberate action on our part to cause a stretch in our lives. Though sometimes life itself forces us into stretching and prayerfully, not breaking.

February is a hard month for me personally. Think it is cabin fever that is the culprit. So I must work extra hard to keep on stretching and not get bound up with sour feelings.

Time for me to get in some stretching before starting this new day! How about you?

“At least one year is what I commit to.”

Was the answer to my older sisters question about training the adorable new puppy she had purchased. Plan to commit one year for your pup to be attached to your hip if your goal is to have a good, smart dog that folks like to be around. Not a sweet, dumb dog that knows little to nothing of how to live happily with we humans.

One year of good deliberate work with a puppy will bring years of joy. I say one year because we have ‘life’ to work around as well. Little by little is the plan.

HoneyPie, our 10 month old Corgi, is coming along very well. There are things she and I still need to learn and sharpen. It is a fun, fascinating journey.

The rewards of being committed to this goal are outstanding. May I introduce HoneyPie to you?

Every so often the Old North winds blow long and fierce enough to give us some fun with a good layer of ice on the pond.

This past week has been just that. The best of it is that some of our grandchildren were here to be part of the fun. They had not been on ice before. A new experience!

The pond has frozen over several times in previous winters. This freeze though is the thickest layer of ice we have had since living here. It is over six inches thick! We measured it after one of our sons drilled a fishing hole in it. He measured the ice at over 6.5 inches thick in the middle! Ice is thicker in the middle of a pond than on the edges. The edge measured 5 inches, still plenty thick and safe for skating. Cool! Time to break out the skates. We have various sizes to reasonably fit several pairs of feet, adult or child. No professionalism going on out here on this little farm pond. Just fun.

Our greenhorns did a fine job for their first time on the ice. It must help that they have been on in-line skates before, as well as skateboards. Having this special time with them was terrific.

Before we got out the skates, we played on it with our families to get a feel for the ice!

Several days have now passed since I started this post, and alas, the ice is no longer safe to be on. Another good round of freezing weather yet may offer more skating fun. Only time will tell.

I wasn’t sure how to write about this word. The trials of my life have changed so much with the times. Time—golly, that’s a trial in and of itself for me…

I have always been acutely aware of time. And now, in my 60’s, it seems to occupy a good deal of my thoughts. Perhaps that is because I am in the short end of a good long life?

So this week—my trial has been to enjoy our frozen pond. We’ve had terrific cold weather for the past two weeks and our little pond has over six inches of ice on it.

So my trial this week? Enjoy our frozen pond, ice skate carefully, slowly, and have fun with this ephemeral time of winter…Glory to God!