A month ago, we got several hard frosts–the mornings almost look like we had snow!–but this has turned into quite a mild winter. We’re averaging about 10 + degrees warmer each day than normal for this time of year. Sometimes I even have a hard time wrestling my crew into their hats–but this momma doesn’t play around with possible ear infections! {smile} So it doesn’t really feel much like winter–although conversely, it does really feel like Christmas to me for some reason this year! Go figure, right?!

Life on the farm has been a little topsy-turvy recently too. We’ve had the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lowest in the circle of life lately.

Recently we lost our good, old, faithful horse, Hokie. We had him for nearly 5 years and he was definitely elderly. I’ve said out-loud that he could leave us at any time. But he was always so healthy and problem free–other than a few dental challenges this year!–that it just didn’t seem real that he was 30+ years old. He just went from what seemed to be his normal heading-into-winter-slow-down-mode, to not eating (which was his favorite part of the day!), and he was down and gone before the vet could get out there.

It’s a bit of a shock to feel so much hurt when I kept telling myself we should “be prepared” because his health could start declining any time. Clearly I wasn’t prepared. And the kiddos were devastated although they’re doing ok now. The Ladybug and the Cowboy took it especially hard.

Then Mr. Fix-It is out there in the cold, dark night trying to handle the necessary arrangements (Hokie was a beloved pet, not “just” a farm animal, so he required some special considerations) and what does he see in a flash of light from the tractor…

Molly had her calf. That very same cold, dark night. Off in a corner of the field by herself. She’s just right as rain and didn’t need a speck of help from us at all. And the little one is doing fine, frisking around and dozing in the sunshine.

Isn’t it funny how life happen in the most unlikely ways?

Then I’m heading back to work after being out sick for a while, and a giant bird suddenly wings up out of the ditch right next to the truck and into a field. Now, I’ve seen a lot of turkey buzzards since we moved here (they are everywhere!) but they aren’t nervous around cars and you’re lucky if those pests will even hop out of the roadway when a truck passes. So I looped back around with my camera to investigate…

And sure enough, it was a juvenile bald eagle.

They are much more nervous around their kills than other birds. And when you see one take off, you get an impression of more heaviness and solid-ness of the body and wings than when buzzards start flapping. Well, that’s just my impression, but when you see one move you can definitely tell it’s not a buzzard.

Several cars whizzed right past me while I was stopped, snapping pictures. It gave me a lot of perspective to see each of them suddenly SLOW DOWN to check what in the world I was looking at out the window. I know most of them probably missed him, or just saw a blur but didn’t have time to turn around.

I watched him for a good, solid 5 minutes before he got tired of me and glided off to the treeline. I headed on to work, and saw him swooping back in the rear view mirror. And I thought, wow, I just saw an eagle on my way to work–and I don’t even live in Alaska or something. I’m so glad I took the time to stop and turn around!

This Christmas, I hope we all remember–life is in the moments–not the days, not the jobs, not the gifts, not the fancy food on the table. It’s in the moments that we stop and just be still. The moments that we just listen to our kids playing kindly together…just watch as a momma cow licks off her newborn’s little wet ears…just smell the shampoo sweetness of little wet heads after the bath…just feel the heartbeat of loved ones held close…

Funny how the best things in life are always free, isn’t it?!