get ready for winter - burrrr

It is hard not to notice it gets dark pretty early. Many of the trees have lost their leaves. Frost on the windows. It is time to winterize the home and tune up the snow blower. Hot chocolate at night and curl up to a book under a blanket. Winter is coming.

There is not much we can do about a shorten day, but we can get ready for winter. For walkers we can still walk outside with layers of clothes. Barb has ashma so we walk indoors. We have walked on an indoor track or at a mall but we do best with walk Cd's from Leslie Sansone. Some of my friends go to the gym and walk or bike. Walking can help chase away the winter blues. I also find ways to increase my walking at work. A pedometer can motivate you to walk 10,000 steps a day and that can add up to a winter where you lose weight and not gain it.

Winter can be a time where you can draw attention to those you love. We have holidays that can help us. I am planning to take out each of my kids and grand kids to an outing they would enjoy. Built into that outing will be a meal time where we can talk and share. I am also going to work on recording funny and interesting stories in my life. Years from now when I am with the Lord my family can listen to the stories of my life from my own voice.

Winter is also a time when Barb and I will go out to plays, dates and spend time inside cooking for the family and friends. It is fun when we cook together.

We have an ongoing Bible study in the life of Christ. Regular daily Bible study leaves the winter out into the cold. Barb has devotions in the morning and I have them at night. In the winter these times experience the warmth of God's provision in our Labri (shelter) when outside the winds howl and the north wind blows.

NET 25:4 "For you are a protector for the poor,a protector for the needy in their distress,a shelter from the rainstorm,a shade from the heat.Though the breath of tyrants  is like a winter rainstorm." Thank God for my home. It protects My family from the weather. We winterize and prepare for the days ahead. For Jesus and His disciples their shelter may have been their winter coats. Consider Matthew NKJV© 8:20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." They would have braved the cold nights outside. Many people talk of discipleship but fail to notice what that might of meant for the twelve who were in their thirties. They slept under the stars and not at the Holiday Inn. I know at times they may have had shelter but even then it was far from the comforts of most of our lodging.  Thank God for our shelters (housing) and our furnaces. Get ready for winter  but thank God we can rejoice in the blessings that God provides.

Lately I have  worked hard and helping the kids learn in the classrooms. I am rewarded with bonding with the kids and improve class room relationships, improve work in the class and a higher degree of respect and kindness experienced by student and staff. Knowing I have something to do with that is cool. We don't think of it but we can concentrate on the relationship in our work we know it is good for business and at the end of the day will better about work and ourselves. It can be a great time to shake the ice of winter off..

Tell me what ways do you shake the blues of winter away? Keep walking