Living Color and Critters in the Winter

We have to visit Como Zoo and Conservatory at least once each year near the end of winter.  It just soothes my soul to see living creatures, color, warm air and growth during the long, sleeping, frozen winter here.  We've been going to this place since the girls were wee little ones, even babies.  J's colic would settle down when would we come here when she was a baby.  We've loved it ever since!

This is the cutest of all critters- the sloth.  Oh my goodness- he just hangs out in the openness.  He won't leave his perch.  He sleeps most of the time, but he was awake when we were there.  He moves in super-duper slow motion.  He was doing what looked like his morning yoga.  They need to have "Open hours for hugging the sloth."

Morning Yoga!

Rain Forest River Fishes.  Along with my husband who turned into a blow fish.

Just sittin' and contemplating my life

This orangutan gave birth recently.  If you look really close, you can see her baby on her chest.  The zoo keeper told us the baby will cling to her and not let go of the mother for the next several months.  What a beautiful thing to watch.

Mr. Polar Bear.  I love their new polar bear exhibit.  Very cool.

I can't get enough of the vibrant flowers and color in the conservatory.  It is all extra beautiful and spectacular during the winter.  Winter increases our appreciation of things that grow and blossom.

I just loved the contrast in the Japanese Tree Room.  The spectacular ancient Japanese trees in contrast to the cold world outside.  Very soothing and warm.

 And this photo is just GREEN.  Palm trees, banana trees, ferns- vegetation.  My escape!

A "Quiet" January and February

It was so warm that L and her friends were able to go on a walk AND take photos (meaning they didn't have to keep their fingers hid in mittens so they could work the camera).  I like to see their perspective and what they come up with.  The dog-- gotta love that!  Daisy looks so stylish.

I say "warm" with a grain of salt.  "Reletively warm" compared to last year.  But that doesn't mean we never felt the bitter cold, as you can see from this photo!

My cake stand business made it really close to Cake Boss.... woot!  Maybe someday he will order some cake stands (wink wink).

L found this photo from Halloween of the girls when they were little and took it to art class to paint.  When I find a photo of the painting I will post it.

Beautiful sky.

Pictures J's roommate took for her mission application.

New Beginnings for the young women.  I loved the theme about journeying through life.

Daisy.  Awwwwww....

A stop in Stillwater on our way to Hudson, Wisconsin.  That is the St. Croix River partially frozen over.

Meekah in the snow.  This is by far her favorite time of year.

Daddy/daughter date shopping for music.

Look what we found in our yard.  The neighborhood gang of deer.

It was a quiet winter that was "just right"- not too busy and not too still.  I must say it was a needed break from very harsh winters the last couple of years.  I love our day to day activities of living a simple life.  We are blessed with great peace in our home and relationships.  I have come to love quite winters.  I never knew what that meant until living here for so long.  It really is more quiet outside as the earth sleeps and there are less people outside.  I love that feeling now.  It has taken many years of living here for me to appreciate it, but it can be a very peaceful time of life.

What 10 cake stands taught me about choosing kindness

This happened way back in December, and as I was sorting through my photos chronologically as I've been undertaking my massive 6 month update, I knew I didn't was to forget this memory.

An event planner had contacted me in December to see if I could do a rush order for 10 cake stands.  I checked my inventory, and by some miracle I did have 10 cake stands in the exact size she needed.  So she went ahead and ordered them.

I got them all packaged up in their nice protective bubble wrap and boxed neatly in an open box for me to then take to FedEx to have them finish the packaging process and ship them.

It was an extra cold winter day.  I was fully bundled which makes you feel like a marshmallow, or Eskimo, or like you are wearing a giant quilt- any of those work- the point is you have no room to move nor feel much of anything because you don't want anything exposed to the cold.

Back to the point-  I must have slipped on some ice or something, I honestly don't know exactly what happened in my bundled state, and maybe that prevented me from feeling or noticing the ice.  All I know is that about 5 of the plates went flying out of the box.

This was my first mishap like that in almost 3 years of making cake stands.

I was dumbfounded, shocked, sad, worried, anguished all at once.  Part of the problem was it was a rush order so there was no time to remedy the situation.  This was also an expensive problem.

I hurried and looked at the plates.  I think 3 of them were damaged pretty badly if I remember correctly and two of them had a little damage but didn't suffer too badly and were ok.

I quickly contacted the planner and explained everything.  I found 3 more plates in my inventory that were a slightly different size to replace the badly damaged ones and she fine with those.  And then she gladly accepted the 2 that were somewhat damaged but still workable.  I did give her a little bit of money back for the damaged items.  Normally if it wasn't a rush order, we would have just started over and made everything over again so they would arrive in perfect condition.

I sent it off at FedEx and was so, so, so thankful that the planner was so understanding.  What touched me was she was concerned if I was okay, she was willing to work with a few scratches and knew the food on it would cover it up, she was still appreciative, she was willing to take the different sized cake plates to replace the damaged ones, and then she sent me this photo and raved about us.  Oh my Gosh.  Such kindness on so many levels.  It made me want to be a better person and treat others well when things don't go exactly as planned or when accidents happen.  I can't say how much I appreciate that lesson and being on the reciprocating end of kindness.  And the other important thing is seeing that it did not ruin the event and she still had her stunning display.  Looking back, I just got to thinking, what if she had acted differently?  Could she still have had this amazing presentation?  She handled things smartly, and it is just the right way to act for so many reasons, and I am grateful I could learn from this experience.

Finishing up Christmas Photos

Here are the last few photos from our wonderful Chirstmas time together.

A walk at the dog park with a little brushing of snow.  So much different than last year with all of the Polar Vortexes and blizzards (we weren't sure if we would live to tell our children those stories for fear of freezing to death ;).

Here is a photo of the tree that one of the girls took.  This is what it finally looked like once J got home and we could decorate it.

New Year's Eve Dance with 80's Theme

And then we had to drop this girl off at the airport.  It came with such mixed emotions.  We all cried again when she left.  There are parts of me that want to enroll her in a local school or follow her and rent out a dorm room next to her because then we would never have to seperate.  But most of the time I know she is where she should be, in the place that is best for her, learning and growing and maturing in beautiful and profound ways.  And that is the right path for us to follow and support, and I wouldn't change that.