Today I pruned my fruit trees. While we were loading up all the branches into the truck, I looked at all the wood we cut. There was a lot. And I thought, those were good branches. They would have produced leaves and fruit. Yet I knew as a gardener that my trees do better as I prune them. More light is able to get to the remaining branches, and the tree spends its energy to produce better fruit. There can often be too much off a good thing.

As I was pondering pruning, I realized that there was a life lesson in all of this. Just like fruit trees, I often have to get rid of good things in my life to make room for things that are more important and critical.

There is also a good time to prune: when the trees are still dormant. And it takes time to learn how to prune, but basically you need to have a vision of what you want the tree to look like. You prune trees to an open center, central leader, etc. Every pruning cut is made back to a bud or branch angle. And its sometimes better to take off two or three big branches rather than pruning 20-30 little ones.

I think there’s good application. First, take time when things aren’t so hectic to analyze your life and see what needs pruning. It’s hard to get rid of things when you are in the thick of things, just like pruning is a lot harder in the summer. Taking quiet moments to analyze our lives is necessary.

Second, have a vision of what you want in life, and be willing to get rid of everything that doesn’t fit into that plan. Look for parts of your life that you want to grow and get stronger, and put energy into those things. Protect those very important branches by getting rid of things that shade them out.

Third, don’t be afraid to make really big changes. Trying to cut back in little ways isn’t as effective as sometimes taking big cuts that get rid of a lot of unnecessary thing altogether.

For a couple of weeks, the weather was warm and beautiful. The kids went outside and played football and were covered in grass. Coats turned to jackets. I planted lettuce in the greenhouse. And then the snow has come back. That’s okay. It is February where days off should be spent sledding.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Other than that, we are chugging along. We have basketball most Saturdays, school, work, normal things.

• 

• 

• 

One of my favorite things to do in the winter is to go out on the lake. We don’t actually ice fish there, just walk and play. The kids ran from hole to hole that the ice fishermen had made. We went sledding on the beach. (That sounds weird, but that’s what we did). It was beautiful.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We traveled.

We went to Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon, Goblin Valley, Spiral Jetty, Bryce Canyon, Lava Hot Springs, along with more hikes, camping, and adventures closer to home including hosting a family campout.

We worked.

We grew a garden, raised a baby. We helped my sister build her house, and planted flower in our front garden, and finally got a round to fixing a few things in the house. Joe continued to work, Liz continued her graduate school.

We grew.

Curtis was baptized. The kids did swimming, basketball, football and baseball. We survived lockdowns, quarantines, and tons of canceled activities. We all got used to wearing masks anywhere.

I’m happy when I spend time outside noticing the beauty of the things around me. Even when it’s cold, and especially when it’s snowy.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The snow makes winter better. It’s more beautiful, there are fun things to do in the snow. I love seeing the world covered in white.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We made gingerbread houses. We tried using pop-tarts this year, and it was fun. Curtis made a mine and had the most backstory to his. Henry’s was supposed to be ruins. And the rest of ours was more normal.

• 

• 

• 

Henry had a birthday! We didn’t plan much, but had a great impromptu party with neighbor kids, pizza, and carrot cake.

Finally, we finished up fall basketball. When we couldn’t find a comp team for Peter, we made our own and I ended up coaching. I’m way underqualified, but I think we all learned a lot and had fun a time anyways. Even when we only won one game.

• 

• 

• 

We had a great Christmas. I didn’t buy a ton, just what the kids asked for. (And they actually didn’t ask for much.) It was a quite day with the family, and it was perfect that way. Earlier that week, we delivered neighbor presents and I loved seeing the kids fight over who was going to deliver them. We went on a little trip afterwards to Pocatello and Lava Hot Springs.

• 

• 

• 

• 

My sister took some awesome family pictures. And if I was somebody else, I would print them out on letter sized cards with a “Merry Christmas” banner on them and mail them to all my friends. See how long it took to even write a sentence about that? I have yet to mail Christmas card to anyone other than my grandmother, and that trend will continue.

But I still have awesome family pictures, and sharing digitally is easy. I just upload and publish. And I don’t have to pick a favorite or try to make a collage that looks good.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I wanted to get Thanksgiving and Halloween pictures up before Christmas, and return to more regular posting on the blog.

School this semester has kept me stressed out and busy. This semester hasn’t been the most amount of work, but it has been the most amount of stress. I had a class that I struggled with. It was a required class, but about a subject I didn’t care about. The expectations in the class were not clear, and we worked on a massive group project for most of the semester. For me, it was the worst kind of class I could have taken. But I’m nearly done with it, and I learned a lot even if it wasn’t the type of learning I expected.

Anyway, I am grateful for a cute family that supports and loves me. We have fun. Here’s a collection of photos from my phone that I don’t think I’ve posted. It includes Halloween, which we spent home on quarantine. Luckily, I hadn’t yet bought costumes, so we just had fun with things around the house. We trick-or-treated around the house, and had some neighbors that brought us extra candy.

Thanksgiving is also in there. We went up and spent the day with just my sister, and it was fun. Also there is a random picture of a huge binder. That is the result of years of being the music leader for children at church. My role at church has changed (I’m now doing activities with the boys), and I can eventually pass off this binder to someone else. (Covid means I’ll probably hang on for it for awhile yet.)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I’ve been busy. School has been a challenge. My husband tested positive for Covid at work, and we spent two weeks at home. (We also might have gone on a few walks far away from people…You have to maintain your sanity.) There were some symptoms, but all of us have had colds that were worse. It was entirely uneventful.

We were doing basketball but then they stopped that for a few weeks. Covid makes everything unpredictable. My sister wanted to come visit, but then there was a weird directive from the government that said that wasn’t okay. Instead we met up at a children’s museum, which was okay. I don’t think all the protocols make sense.

Today, I convinced the boys to go hiking with me. We’ve lived here for a long time (this is the house that Joe has lived in the longest), but have yet to hike the B. It’s a steep hike for the first part, and we all struggled. I though we might be unable to convince Henry. But we all made it.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I’m grateful that in spite of this life that has turned entirely unpredictable, I am surrounded by my boys that I love. It is so fun to see them growing up and learning to work and try hard. One day they wanted to buy a video game, and so they spent an afternoon and morning doing chores for me. That was awesome.