Caught in the Busyness

Though my schedule looks bare and empty and forlorn, it still amazes me how you can just get caught up in the busyness of all that is life.

With potty training starting, and stopping and stuttering and going again over numerous mopped up puddles and wet pants and squeals of excitement over m&m's won for doing business on the all important pot, every day, every moment can sometimes feel a little anxious.  Have i waited to long to take her?  Is she hiding somewhere making a mess?  Will something be ruined this time or will i get lucky and find a puddle on the tile floor instead of a mushy step on the carpet?  Is she learning?  Are we starting too soon?  Doing the right thing?

Only God knows.

All i know is i don't love potty training.

Then there is pinterest.  A wonderful, maddening online pin board where you can find so many scrumptious looking recipes, fabulous kids craft ideas, amazing homes and DIY projects, and much of your spare time.  Yes, you can spend so much too much time there.  But boy have i learned some great things!  From amazing sock bun curls by wearing my hubby's dress socks to bed on my head, storing fresh chopped green onions in a empty water bottle in the freezer, cute hair ideas for Gwen, artisan no-knead bread, homemade and easy sour cream, and about 50 new recipes i can't wait to try.  Yes, i have lost time.  But gained a feeling of being smart and creative.  :)

And Oh!  Ice fishing.  Our new winter-time past time.  I have now went twice, and actually caught a fish this last time!  We have been blessed with mild days in which to go ice fishing without the freezing part, as the last time we went it was nearly 45 degrees.  Being on the ice still scares me, and it is unnerving that though you know the ice is thick after you see how deep your holes are, it still cracks and groans and sputters at you as you walk across it.  I must confess, some good loud cracks have sent me slipping and sliding for shore.  And it will be even more fun when we figure out how best to treat our most frequent catch, the Northern Pike, so we can actually bring fish home and eat them!  Here are some pictures of our most recent trip:

And the worst part of the busyness:  trying to figure out our housing situation, when we have a house that needs to be sold in a severely depressed market and we are hoping to buy in a market that is booming and growing and has little choices for higher and higher prices and tough competition with other buyers.  (sigh)  Though we know God has a plan, as He worked miracles to get us here, right now it feels a little impossible and depressing. 

But all in all life is good.  I have a great group of ladies who have taken me in as their friend, and we have already had some fun times together.  I also have been attending MOPS here which is HUGE as most mommies are stay-at-home here.  And a great deal of the people we are meeting are transplants, just like us, and so we all kinda feel like kindred spirits, and we all step in as each other's "family".  It has been a beautiful thing :)  I can't say we love everything about North Dakota, but it has been good to us so far and we praise God often for the blessings He has brought our way, here in the frigid praire of North Dakota.

Snow Fun

We really do love to snowmobile!  We were blessed with the ability to travel to Idaho last month for a snowmobiling vacation!  (that is how far we had to go to get some snow ;)  Our little one went to a very excited Nana and Papa, who have not seen her for the last 4 months since our move, and mommy and daddy jetted away to the snowy mountains of Garden Valley.  We lounged in the hot springs pool and played in the powder to our hearts content!  It was a much needed play time for me and my hubby and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!  Here are some pictures of our trip: