Everyday Life--Winter

 First, I must clear this up with Patty!

This is the correct way to shovel snow! 

OK

(although, I'd rather shovel her way)

 I must show my mailbox.

My poor  mailman

 Yesterday, I caught the neighbor's Bobcat guy 

and asked him to make a big pile on our side of their driveway,

 so the kids could play!

 He did, you can see part of it here...

 The temps got into the low 40's today 

and we went coatless and hatless!  

It was beautiful!

 Little Red loved it!

Finally, it's warm enough to play outside!!

(it's only lasting a few days though)

 Everyone wants their picture by the mailbox!

(like my new header picture?)

 We have so much snow piled up, you can't even see our Mary statue or our steps!

Woo Hoo!!  No coats!!

I'm going to end this with one question!

Milk chocolate or Dark Chocolate?

I'll tell you what I am in the comments

Christine--I know you are milk chocolate!

Mailboxes--Link up!

 If you've been reading me for a few years, then you know my love for mailboxes!

I love them, because it is something that everyone usually loves to go to.

The kids get excited to get the mail!

It's always fun to see the mailman (or mail carrier)

Our mailboxes reflect us in some way

People go to their mailboxes to 

get their bills, their letters, even love letters, birthday cards,

magazines, junk mail and coupons, the newspaper and 

sometimes there is even a package!

 This one is surrounded in flowers

 This one has the flowers all to the side

 I love the purple Clematis around this one!

 Here is the type a lot of people use in our neighborhood, with no flowers around it.

(Good ol' Rubbermaid)

It has a secret back door to get your mail from

 I love this one, I love the wild grass all around it!

 I love this one too, with the cornfield in the background

I wonder if you can guess whose it is?

(it's Christine's!)

 

 This is mine again, from last year.

And here's mine again, Morning Glories in full bloom 

(from a couple years ago)

Now, for my first EVER Link-up,
on my own blog!!

Lent is More

I'm feeling a little like my mailbox here

Today is Ash Wednesday

I had big plans, big plans

(not really)

Well, they never got out of my head and onto a list

I'm out of scotch tape, 

(because of our Valentine's)

so I can't hang up our Stations of the Cross or

our Countdown of days til Easter

And that countdown of days?

Our printer is out of ink,

so it can't be printed anyway.

These little things can make me feel like my mailbox

It seems everyone in Blog world had plans

Big plans 

for Lent

Giving up things right and left

Writing meal plans for meatless Fridays

When trying to think inbetween kiddos

needing things constantly

(which is near impossible to get one complete thought out)

I decided that Lent is More

It's not less

It doesn't have to be "giving up"

It can be 

MORE

More prayer

More exercise

More sacrifices

More patience

More Love

MORE of anything that brings us closer to God

These little things done every day

can add up to be a very fruitful Lent

SO

I might not have all my meals planned for 6 weeks,

or great lists and links of things to do

or even any great spiritual reads

and

my lent might already seem like it's going to be a long 6 weeks

and things might not have gone the way I planned for today,

 

That's OK

God knows my heart

He meets me right where I am

Even if I'm feeling like my mailbox right now.

(for Lent Inspiration from past years go HERE)

 

Any Guesses?

Can anyone guess who's mailbox this is? You never know when the crazy blogging lady with a camera will be driving by your mailbox...no one is safe. Isn't it a cool one though? It's some kind of barrel thing. I think it's great!

Mailboxes!

Last Summer, I started a "Tour of Mailboxes" and frequently posted pictures of mailboxes. I love mailboxes!! I love thinking of each person and their personality and why they chose what they chose for their mailbox. A mailbox is a place where people go every day with hopeful expectation of good things, surprises or just something. It can also be a place where bills come and maybe not such nice things for some people. My kids love getting the mail, putting letters in and they daily fight over who gets to go!!

I'm pretty sure I pictured this one last year, but it's still one of my favorites! I'm not walking as much as last year (not walking much at all actually) so I haven't gotten as many pictures of unique mailboxes.

My all time favorite mailboxes are the viney ones, with Clematis or Morning Glories climbing up and around.

This one, too, was pictured last year, but it's right down the road and it's so beautiful!

Here's our mailbox the way it looks right now. Our Morning Glories are just starting to climb and hopefully by August, they will be fully grown and blooming every morning! Can you tell, I'm having a hard time dead heading this year? It's hard work to bend down, in this condition!

Here's our mailbox this past January!! This is Babycakes, the kids sure got a kick out of sitting right next to the mailbox!

This is Tracy's mailbox! She is the Queen of finding great mailboxes for me, she sends me emails quite often with beautiful mailboxes, and it puts a smile on my face every time!!

Send me your mailbox picture or post it on your blog and let me know! Even Paula sent hers, and it was great!!

Click on the highlighted words (except love) and check other mailboxes!

More Mailboxes!

Both of these great mailboxes were emailed to me from Tracy at Pinewood Castle. She has some great pictures of mailboxes, go see! I bet every one of these mailboxes has a story. Now, wouldn't that be interesting? I have to say, I do think Paula's is my favorite. I imagine her going to the mailbox and bears and snakes hiding in the grass, I can hear the crickets and grasshoppers everywhere. I love the country. Her mailbox is a perfect picture of country!

Keep them coming everyone! I love them all!

Another Mailbox!

This is Jill's mailbox!! I'd link her, but she has a private blog! She lives in Luxembourg and I can just imagine her and her 4 beautiful children going to the mailbox every day and hoping for mail from the U.S.! Thanks Jill for sending this photo!!

Anyone else?

Mailboxes (Part 2)

This is from Paula! I LOVE it!! Ever since I posted the previous post, I have been thinking, I actually love mailboxes, period. I love any kind, old ones, etc, they are cool and a daily part of all of our lives. They can bring joy, sadness, stress, hope all in a trip to the mailbox!!

This is our old mailbox before we moved last fall. I guess I couldn't wait to be able to plant flowers all around our new home's mailbox because our old one would not let me. You can see it is barely on a ditch, it has about 1 foot and it slopes down. All the water from any rain or melting snow would come down the hill and across the street to our mailbox and so it was impossible to plant anything that would stay. (believe me, I tried a few years!! Actually, I think I tried every year!) I would love if any of you bloggers would show me your mailbox on this mailbox tour, no matter what!!! I LOVE mailboxes!!

Tour of Mailboxes!

This is our mailbox. (above) I love looking at mailboxes. I love to see how people can be creative and make something plain be beautiful. The plant crawling up our mailbox is our Morning Glories we planted on May day, they are just starting to crawl up the back and by August will hopefully be flowering all over the top, kind of like this one below! When we moved here in Sept, our mail box had rock around it but no flowers. Yesterday we walked and took pictures of all the pretty mailboxes we could on the way to the park. (We took an extra long route) This one below is my favorite one. (although, I would do more of those bright pink flowers on the bottom!) I might have to get a Clematis plant next year! -They take so long to get to this though...

Won't you join me in this tour? If you have a mailbox to show off, take a picture and post it to your blog, I'd love to see it! I remember when I first started reading blogs, there was a tour of kitchen windows and I SO wanted to show off my kitchen window, but had no blog! (Babycakes was a baby and I had a picture of her in the sink by the kitchen window, she made it beautiful! I might have to show that picture tomorrow anyway!) If you don't have a blog, email me your picture of your pretty mailbox and I will post it to my blog, well, I will try to anyway!