Saturday, January 1, 2011

Off To A Beautiful Start

{New Year's Day sunset - no colour retouching -}

Jet Lag is no fun with kids. It was downright torture with an eleven week old and it is way easier with kids that are seven and nine, but it's always just hard.

All week we have been crashing by 5pm and then most of us are up and awake - wide awake - by 1 am. It makes for super productive mornings, but less so as the day goes on.

(Waaay less so. In fact one of the early bedtimes when the kids were brushing their teeth, exhaustion was running pretty high. One of my kids blurted out at the top of their frazzled lungs: "What you are doing right now is making me think very impolite things inside my head!" I have been giggling about that ever since. )

Yesterday I decided that this just had to change. My New Year's resolution was to stay awake until after 7pm.  We heard it was colder here where we live than in Anchorage Alaska and the usually bitter cold Mid-West. I thought cold = awake, let's try this out doors. What I didn't expect was how beautiful it was outside.

The turquoise sky and diamond stars were so pretty. The kids' cheeks were so cute and bright pink. Buddy and I got to run up hills together in the freezing air laughing and panting. The kids jumped on solid, crackling puddles and we examined incredible lacy designs on the frozen soccer field.

So after a breath-taking, gorgeous walk in the peach sunset with our family - we could even see all the way to Victoria Island and the snow-capped Canadian Cascade range were incredible! - I fulfilled my one and only New Year's resolution.

I made it to 7:05pm.


{An amazing P. S. : 

I had been cooking spaghetti sauce all day yesterday and was just beginning to boil the noodles 
and ladle our meal up when the phone rang. 
I thought about ignoring it because we were having a special family meal together, but answered it anyway. The man who was calling was ringing us on behalf of our local grocery store. The meat we were just about to eat in our bolognese sauce was being recalled due to e-coli contamination.  I just happened to be his next call. 
I am looking for God's jewels in my days this year, and I have been thanking him over and over since then for the timing of that call! 
May you see his jewels of love all over your New Year, too. In icy walks and his beautiful (perfect) timing. 

Happy, Beautiful New Year to you and yours! }

16 comments:

Jennifer Jo said...

So then what did you eat for supper?

Happy New Year!

Rita said...

Wow, that was close! I also just got my first jewel for the year. I went to the grocery store and dropped my wallet somewhere and only discovered when I got home. I had no hope, but the security guard found it and turned it in! What a blessing!

tonia said...

lovely....my favorite part of this is your heading out into the cold and night. i need to do more of that in 2011.

glad you are home safe. all the right rhythms will return soon, i promise. :)

looking for His jewels too,

tonia

kristin said...

this is wonderful. right down to the protection from e coli.

happy new year.

Misha said...

Jennifer Jo - It was funny. At the same time that the store called my husband was out grocery shopping for us. He picked up some things and we made an impromptu replacement meal. I think it was b/c he was doing that, that I even answered the call. I thought maybe he had ended up at a different store and it might be him!

Rita - That's amazing! Yay for New Year's jewels! : )

Tonia - Thank you for your encouragement that normalcy will return. It's like when we all had newborns - it some times seems sleep-deprived permanent! : ) ... And we did another icy walk last night. I think it may be a new favourite for us, too.

Misha said...

Kristin - you, too!

Helena said...

Happy New Year, Misha! I have been loving your posts, your thoughts, your lovely resolutions (not limited to your one and only New Year's resolution!).

The sunset walks sound gorgeous. It makes me think of our sunset walks over here—in a totally different temperature of course!—but the light is just as beautiful, just as glowing, just as inspiring. Lovely to think of your family walking in that light, just as we love to do, all the way across the sea :)

Hoping your new year is full of so much beauty you are overflowing. Best wishes to you and your family!

Cottage Mommy said...

Oh boy! I keep forgetting to check your blog because I haven't updated your new address on my little favorites! When I have some uninterrupted time I am so excited to read through your trip and see your beautiful photos! Glad you are back safe and sound!

Leslie said...

I keep forgetting to check over here too.... then I realize how much I miss your words.

so thankful for the answer to that phone call.

and friend... do you remember when you wrote a post about being a yes Mom.... does that ring a bell.

Im totally looking for that post for a friend of mine, we were having a conversation about it yesterday and that still rings in my head.

Amanda said...

That is an amazing story! Just stopping by tell you that we tried your shrimp and grapefruit salad tonight... so delicious! Thanks again for posting those awesome recipes this summer!

Misha said...

Thank you to all of you! I love reading your comments.

Leslie - I will look for that and get back to you as soon as I can with a link.

Amanda - that salad sounds like another lifetime to me right now. It's so, so cold here. I can't even find my beloved pink grapefruit right now. So reading your comment made me happy! : )

Ann Kroeker said...

Beautiful story of romping around outdoors and enjoying God's creation.

Also, I simply must find a way to quote your child: "What you are doing right now is making me think very impolite things inside my head!"

Ann Kroeker
Content Editor
TheHighCalling.org

Nikki said...

Your kids never fail to crack me up. And I love that your New Year's resolution was to stay up till 7:00pm--way to go with the reasonable, attainable goals! ;-)

Aren't you glad it's not so cold anymore?! (At least it isn't here.) It was so beautiful, but so so so cold when climbing into an icebox of a car every morning!

Kirsty Lee said...

wow, amazing pone call! :-)

Alishia said...

I'm wondering how they knew you bought it...and how they had your phone number.

Misha said...

Alishia - We are "members" of the local grocery store - do you all have that, too? Where you have little cards that give you discounts etc? That was how they had my number, I think. Because I used my key-card and it's linked to our number.

Ann - Yes, I have been using that quote a lot myself! : )