A New Year Begins

Dear Friends,

I guess I'd better finish my New Year's post, since January is already half over with! I'm good at sticking pictures on my blog and leaving them for a week or two until I have time to type something.

We had a New Year's Eve "good riddance" party bonfire 31 December. We write down everything we regret about the past year (things we did or didn't do that we wish we hadn't or had), then burn them in the backyard. Since we don't have a fireplace in our home, we love every chance we have to smell wood smoke!

On New Year's Day Evangeline, Rebecca, and I took a walk in the woods by our house and found this deer skull, robin's nest made with grape cluster stems, and branch with tiny white shelf mushrooms, for our nature shelf. They speak of birth, death, and eternal renewal.

Hyrum just keeps getting bigger and cuter, expressing himself with his eyebrows. His "real" hair has grown in now, complete with Widow's Peak hairline.

The family "Rapunzel Club" keeps expanding, with Evangeline's hair getting just about as long as everyone else's~

Frankie has been keeping busy making duct tape armor and trying to find victims to sword fight with (He can scarcely wait until Hyrum is big enough to assail him)~



We love the feeling of starting over that a new year gives us, but most especially we love each new day that we are here together at home, seeking to better ourselves and to speak more love into each others' hearts. Life is such a precious blessing, and such a fleeting thing. May we truly appreciate the gift that it is!

Love and blessings to you all,

Marqueta

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Ode on Solitude

By Alexander Pope

 

 

Happy the man, whose wish and care

   A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

                            In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

   Whose flocks supply him with attire,

Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

                            In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find

   Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

                            Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,

   Together mixed; sweet recreation;

And innocence, which most does please,

                            With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

   Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

                            Tell where I lie.