God & Spring
It is early this morning and I am sitting next to the fire with a hot cup of coffee. The rest of the family is soaking up the remaining morning in peaceful slumber. I couldn’t sleep. Too much on my mind. Life has been rather busy lately and I have been out of the woodshop for the last couple of weeks.
The days are getting longer and slightly warmer, although we were blessed with a late March snow shower yesterday. I have transitioned to the outside work around our house trying to get ahead, instead of falling behind. Of course the girls are busy with spring sports and horses. I am trying to fit time into the day for cleaning around the outside of the house, and preparing for next winter by cutting fire wood. I have a neighbor that has a woodmizer mill and I enjoy the off cuts or “cants” and use those as firewood as they are easy to cut and you can’t beat the access.
Preparation this year carries a lot more significance. April 25th I will be going in for a Total Ankle Replacement. About 18 years ago I had a ladder slip out from under me. I was misdiagnosed as a bad sprain, when I had actually broken part of my ankle. Over time the break has created a massive amount of arthritis that has limited my movement of my ankle and has created pain and discomfort. I made the decision around the first of the year to finally do something about it. Unfortunately, I will be down for recovery and off my firefighting job for close to 7 months. This has caused a lot of anxiety, and also has made me want to prepare for the inevitable. I welcome prayers, support, letters of encouragement and mostly support of my family as we go through this wild adventure. I have faith in God that all will be well and that we will be fine.
Again and again like clockwork Spring comes around. The bitter and cold winds of winter relinquish to the warmer sun filled days. Flowers are blooming, trees blossom with the promise of shade in the hot summer months, birds and frogs are wild with excitement. There are times that I just try to soak in the beauty around me and thank the good Lord that I live in the Garden of Eden. I hope you take time to enjoy the beauty around you and the abundance of new life.
I promise you that I will make it back out into the woodshop and be able to share more beautiful pieces. But first I must take care of a few things…….