This year

This is one of my favorite artists and a great song!

Let's make this year the best one yet!

This is my son and his oldest son, my grandson. We went to coffee today. It has been so nice to visit them in MI during our break from school. I'm at winter break from teaching and my husband, Dave, is at winter break from the Masters Degree program that he is in.

We've finished the course from last semester and we took a traveling adventure vacation for our break. We were talking yesterday about it and we haven't been on a break for this long in a very long, long time.

We left the day after Christmas and we flew to Canada. We left Canada on New Year's Eve and drove from there to MI. Tomorrow afternoon we'll fly to WA and then Saturday evening we'll fly home to Idaho.

 I always over pack on my trips. The only thing that I over packed this time was work out gear...one pair of shorts and a couple of t-shirts. I've used or will use all of what I have left. I know that I over pack so once I packed I took some things out. I've worn these boots almost the entire time we've been gone. The last two days I wore the tennis shoes because the weather was so nice, but today reminded us that it really is winter and the boots came back on! Maybe in WA I'll wear the tennis shoes again and maybe I'll get an official work out in...and where those shorts; but I doubt it. The weather forecast is more of the same! WINTER!

I'm beginning to enjoy winter. I am beginning to enjoy this season and the rest it brings. But I still look for those bulbs to pop out and remind me of spring!

This is the drive from my son's home to our home away from home during our stay here.

Frankenmuth, MI is a wonderful place to visit and a great place to live. My son and daughter in love really like their community.

Community is so important. I've been really thinking about this word a lot this past couple of days:
*In my hometown of Meridian, ID I've seen on my Social Media accounts that neighbors are helping each other get unstuck as the great Snow apocalypse is happening there...living out community
*On those same Social Media sites a friend posted on how many books she has read this year and the comments were full of regrets and others listing their numbers. I have given up this amount of books because God is drawing me into community more and more and that means less time for books.

One last thing: 

According to Wikipedia, "A zipper, zip, fly, or zip fastener, formerly known as a clasp locker, is a commonly used device for binding the edges of an opening of fabric or other flexible material, like on a garment or a bag.[1] It is used in clothing (e.g., jackets and jeans), luggage and other bags, sporting goods, camping gear (e.g. tents and sleeping bags), and other items."

Also, according to most sites that I looked up, the zipper cannot be repaired if the box (see picture bottom of zipper right side) is broken off.  Mine broke off (it's a long and adventurous story). My coat would not zip up, which was ok since the weather was not too cold...but then today happened. It was in the teens. We found the company that we purchased the coat from and they replaced the coat since it was damaged. And now I have a new zipper! 

This year...I want to love God and love people well.