300 days of beauty, day 22

Snow day number two. Read. Paint. Shovel. Sled. Repeat. Plus a few hot cocoa fixes.

This painting sharply contrasts the scenery behind it...

We "celebrated" Groundhog Day and watched Punxutawney Phil make his prediction. 

[Spoiler alert: Early Spring!] 

We remain skeptical as we still have ice and snow from December that we can't get rid of. But in the spirit of learning, we watched the Wild Kratts episode on groundhogs, followed by Peep and his episode on the groundhog, plus painted spring pictures, and we constructed a super-cute craft D put together for his sisters (with measurements and everything!).

The kids were thrilled that their dad came home early to build a snow fort with them. We went sledding with friends until we couldn't feel our fingers, and Belle lost a tooth when her daddy threw her in a snow bank. She was very excited.

Also, the kids were able to serve neighbors by shoveling. D has struck up a very sweet friendship with our neighbor, Joe. It started with shoveling and has turned into so much more. Today, Joe asked D if he could come run errands with him. D returned beaming and so enjoyed his time with Joe. They went to the bank, stopped at Starbucks and Joe bought D a hot chocolate, picked up a prescription, and then some groceries. Joe even bought Dawson a very nice shovel so that he would have the proper equipment when he shovels the neighborhood.

Because we homeschool, D is always available and it has made a path for this relationship to blossom. This is not to say that serving neighbors is dependent upon homeschooling, not at all. For us, we happen to have quite a few retired and elderly neighbors and because we are home during the day, we have been able to build these relationships and serve them in the daytime hours. It's good for my kids and I believe a blessing for our neighbors also. We are so blessed to have the neighbors we do!

P.S. This morning as my husband was shoveling with our kids, using our sub-par shovels, he decided to pray for a shovel...for God to provide a new, high quality shovel to better serve the neighborhood. This may sound strange--we could go to the store to buy one. But for us, the shovels we had were functional. Encouraged in faith by reading God's Smuggler about Brother Andrew, my husband, in faith prayed for this simple and seemingly insignificant provision. When he arrived home, standing by our front door was a brand new shovel. He had no idea that D had spent the afternoon with Joe and none of us knew that Joe would buy a shovel for D. We knew nothing of his prayer either.

God is active. He cares about the little things. I needed this reminder so very much. And I pray this provision etched Truth onto the hearts of my kids too.