Saturday, December 31, 2005

Manatees

We drove up to Orange City Saturday morning to see the manatees at Blue Spring State Park. A fresh water spring (dark line in the pic at right) puts out 100 million gallons of spring water per day at a constant temp of 72 degrees. The spring water runs into the St. Johns River and when the river temp gets low, the manatees migrate into the spring.

There were 109 manatees (the park rangers count 'em) at the spring this AM. We saw over 70 sea cows while we were there. The water is very clear, the sky was overcast so we could see into the water easily, and the early time - got there about 9:15 - meant very little wind to ripple the water. When the manatees aren't there, people can scuba dive down the rift way into the limestone cave...not my idea of fun! Lots of black headed vultures around also.

We spent the rest of the day taking down the Christmas decorations and taking care of Saturday stuff. I cut the grass and got the lights off the house - no slips, ankle twists, or pratfalls! Temps were in the upper 70's this afternoon, which we enjoyed.

May God bless you abundantly in the new year!

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

We Like Christmas!

I think that there is a direct relationship to the length of time we anticipate an event and the speed at which that event flies by. We have been looking forward to Christmas with all of the kids / grandson for months. Now that it's almost over, it seems that the time has taken wings.

We visited Leu Gardens Friday afternoon - saw many wonderful plants and flowers, especially roses. We had supper on the deck Saturday night and included our Orlando kids, Matt & Jill. Everyone attended Conway Community Pres on Christmas Sunday for worship and a great turkey dinner later in the day. On Monday we showed the gang our downtown stomping grounds - walked through the First Pres / Christ School block and the toured Lake Eola. We went to SeaWorld on Tuesday and enjoyed the dolphins, penguins, sea lions, and of course, Shamu. Spectacular!

Great food, beautiful weather (60's during the days) and blue sky, shared stories, games at night, lots of Luke time, family jokes rehashed, and we even got in The Princess Bride. All good stuff! Thank you, Lord, for family!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Projects


I finished my table this morning -- rock solid! It took about 6 hours and less than $25, so that second table is a real bargain. Bob's enjoying the deck; we had lunch outside. Note the shadows; sun and warm with temps in the upper 60's.

I power washed the chairs today. After a year packed away, they needed to shed the critters and dirt that had claimed them as home.

Tomorrow Bob and I are going to clean the water fountain and stream in the back yard. BJ likes playing in the water, and I bet Alec & Luke will too!

Saturday, December 17, 2005

...And It's Vacation

We had a half-day of school yesterday. That meant a special chapel (half hour); the usual library time with a special book presentation by our librarian (half hour); a special math probability exercise with 4 pennies (half hour); cleaning desks (half hour); filling bags with necessities for Compassion Corner, the next-door mercy ministry to the homeless (half hour); a cookie exchange and class party (1 1/4 hours). Interesting note on the desk cleaning - one boy came up to me with a surprised look and the comment that he had found a paper from September! No wonder he couldn't fit his books in the desk. I also spent many minutes untangling kids' puzzles that I had given on Thursday as my present to them. I knew that these brain teasers would come back to bite me, so I gave them the puzzles a day early so I could undo the damage that many of them did trying to figure out how it came apart. It's also sort of payback...

Today I'm going to fix one of the Christmas presents that Gayle and I gave each other. We had ordered a folding teak octagonal table for the deck in early November so we could have it when the kids came at Christmas. It finally came the day after Thanksgiving, left in our entry while we were gone. The box was a mess, many large holes and retaped poorly. When I opened it, one of the legs was broken and the leg part completely missing. It took nearly two weeks to sort it out, but we were told that the shipping company did not want to pick it up, we could dispose of the table, and a new table would be shipped to us. The new table came Thursday. My project today is to dispose of the old table by repairing the leg. One of the definitions of dispose is "to put into correct form." Works for me!

By the way, Bob the Christmas Rabbit is home...

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Ready for Christmas




Yes! We're getting ready for Christmas...

The lights are up, the tree is decorated, the house is ready!










The weather is great!

Now we need some kids...