It’s been a beautiful week. I have so much to be thankful for. First of all, I’m thankful for being surrounded by absolute splendor each and every day. And, crazy enough, I’m thankful for the cold weather. It makes one not forget that they are alive. Yesterday, while Eric and I were driving the golf cart up through the pasture to unroll some big bales of hay for the livestock, and the wind was driving the falling snow into our eyes and making it utterly impossible to see where we were going, I couldn’t help but be overcome by hysterical laughter. My stinging fingers, cold toes, dripping nose, and snow pelted body were incredible reminders of being alive!And after that chore time during a snow storm, I was incredibly thankful to come into the warmth of my house and know that a big stack of good firewood, gathered so diligently by the whole family, was ready and waiting just outside the door.  I’m thankful for an overnight get away (however, not to the far reaches of the beach like you, Coree!) to celebrate Ira’s (belated) birthday… and for the amazing boy who is now 10 years old. Oh, my. (More on this topic next week…)I’m thankful for some time as a passenger in the truck to knit while en route to Three Creeks Farm to pick up a new Shetland ram for my wool flock. And I’m thankful to dear friends and neighbors on the farm, Jesse and Hannah, for watching the children while Eric and I made said trip. It was almost like a “date”.  Meet T.J. The new kid on the block. He’s still young (unproven in the language of the shepherd) but I’m going to thank him just the same for the prospect of being papa to a bunch of wooly little lambs in the late spring. Isn’t he lovely? I think so. I hope the ewes like him, too.