Incomplete thoughts

Happy 2015, everybody! From what I hear, the year is starting off white and fluffy and cold as can be for my world in The Midwest. As I sip my coffee by the open window, drinking in the smell of brisk 65degrees and fresh cut grass, I'm all too thankful to have migrated South just before the
Snowpocolipse. My next adventure finds me in Orlando, mostly hiding from the sub-zero, snow covered, wind blown, nothing but white freezing Iowa that usually brings on some sort of stuck-forever feelings of depression right about now. 

My knowledge of the northern, colder world is only a distant thing at this point, but for my readers who live there, trapped indoors and waiting for a mythical spring that is much like a unicorn, I shall entertain you with some stories of my adventures this far, in case scrolling through Facebook for the sixteenth time in a row has lost its appeal. 

First of all, upon my arrival into my cousins' driveway, I heard greetings and welcomings coming from on top the roof. That is where my youngest cousin was sitting by a pipe/vent thing, assigned to pull out dryer lint in order to help their dryer to run better. Leaving her, I went in the house to greet my other cousins and chatter and take we're-back-together-selfies and catch up on life. An hour later, my youngest appeared in the kitchen, explaining that she'd been stuck on the roof all the while and we had quite forgotten about her. 

The next day was sunny and warm and the perfect day for a nap on the beach by the ocean. Which was just what was done. My cousin, Carissa, read the book of James over us and I managed to stay awake for all of it up to the last sentence and then I was fast asleep atop a bed of warm sand, with a blanket of sunshine. The Lord was there and tickled my heart in a sweet, precious way.  When we all awoke 30 minutes  or so later, Cara suggested a walk along the shore, which was great. We avoided stepping on the washed up jelly fish and plant things, and watched the surfers and fishermen and the
kitesurfers.

Instead of building a traditional sand castle, we built a sand tractor, a sand pig, and sand barn. Obviously because, you can take a girl out of Iowa, but you can't take Iowa out of the girl. Our beach sculptures brought admirers, of course, with little children trying to copy ours and asking there mommy how to make a castle as big as "those other girls'". One man came over and took pictures, saying it was just the scene his little nephews would have enjoyed and that he missed them quite a bit. When we had taken enough pictures of our little Iowa scene, we told the little girls they could have our sand creations if they wanted, which they were thoroughly thrilled about and celebrated by jumping straight on top the barn and using the large mound of sand to cover their legs. 

On Sunday, we had home church and I got to debut my ukulele and help lead the worship portion. I loved the discussion we had on Elijah and our family prayer over each other. This first week went by fairly quickly. My cousins go to school during the day, so I spent some of my afternoons reading, which I've rather enjoyed.
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