Welcome Winter!

Welcome back to Wisconsin winter!!

Tis the season for giving

I would say I have a giving personality. I like to give to others, not to please myself, but truly help those around me. Lately though, some of the people I like to give to, take and take, and then criticize the gift. It is HARD! I try very diligently to continue to give with a smile and a positive attitude. How can I be more like the Lord? He has no qualms about giving everything to us when we criticize and do not deserve it. How can I have that same attitude? How much (not so positive) feedback can one person take? Perhaps I am to keep to myself and give gifts that don't have a repercussion or need to be done by the individual. There are many things I can learn...I just want to feel needed.

Well, I'm all over the place with this one... Merry Christmas and I really think it is the season for giving, no matter what!

Is it the Seasons?

I'm inside, curled up underneath a blanket, sipping hot chocolate and reading my email. Today it is supposed to snow 4-6 inches. The wind is blowing and I can hear it hit the house. I love winter. I love that you can see your breath and that when you were little you would try and try to make a ring with it. I love that you can have a snowball fight and run around for hours just trying to stay warm. I even love the stupid ice that is on the road making it hard to drive, it makes me leave early and actually get somewhere on time.

I also love the summer. Sipping iced tea on our porch swing listening to the cicadas sing back and forth to each other. I love the clouds that come rolling in and cool things off in the evening. I love hot days where you sweat walking to get the mail, it just feels right that it is summer. I love just reading a good book on a chair outside basking in the sun trying to bring my freckles to life.

Spring is beautiful. Flowers in bloom. The smell of freshly cut grass. The fact that evenings get later and later. The energy you have to spend the day running or just being outside. I love the feeling I get the first day after classes are over. Relief.

Autumn may be my favorite. The colors and the weather are astonishing. One minute it will be 60 degrees and the next will be 40. Vests are acceptable and used :) Love is blossoming with people at school meeting each other for the first time, or the first time in a long time. Football games and caramel apples. Mmmmm...

When I think about all of this and why I love the seasons so much it is unclear. Do I love the seasons themselves, or do I love the carefree moments during the seasons? As I am looking to graduate in may, I'm starting to picture the rest of my days...working and stressing over work. Is this really what a year is all about? Waiting for time off and hoping to enjoy some of these timeless moments from seasons past? I'm not that terrified, but listening to friends and family talk about how Friday cannot come soon enough scares me a little. Will I enjoy my job? Will I get a job?

Seasons are wonderful. 'Weather' or not I will see them as i do now, I can only hope.