{"id":823,"date":"2013-04-18T19:11:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T19:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=823"},"modified":"2013-04-18T19:11:05","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T19:11:05","slug":"here-we-go-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=823","title":{"rendered":"Here we go . . . again"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is April 18th<\/sup> today, and my children were released from school early because of a snowstorm.\u00a0 I snapped this picture of my favorite goat (a tin ware caprine friend given to me by one of my favorite families).\u00a0 Poor Beauregard was\u00a0plastered,\u00a0prompting an immediate rescue.\u00a0 Hope springs eternal, and ol\u2019 Beau has seen more than his share of winter in the two weeks he\u2019s been back standing sentinel on the front stoop.<\/p>\n

\"goat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What he has witnessed got me to thinking about another time honored evidence of spring.\u00a0 Each year, we watch, waiting for our feathered friends to\u00a0alight\u00a0our yard. The arrival of robins in my neck of the woods also means the utterance of old time sayings.\u00a0 Most have something to do with the emergence of spring, but one in particular seems to be most fitting. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Gotta snow three times on a robin\u2019s (or you could substitute guard goat\u2019s) back before it\u2019s spring.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/i><\/p>\n

This year the saying is definitely true.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been verifiable a few other times in my life as well.\u00a0 Today marks number three for cold, white backs on our red-breasted birds.<\/p>\n

While the rest of us begrudge and bemoan what seems like the worst winter yet (basically because we were spoiled with virtually no snow and warmer temperatures last year), there are others like a dear friend of mine who are thanking God for the miserable weather.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it takes the wisdom of someone walking through a storm of life for you to really gain perspective. Chatting at church last night, my friend shared that she, too, was sick of winter, but then she figured God has a plan for everything.<\/p>\n

Turns out a little boy very close to her is doing battle\u00a0in his own body (Enemy #1 = leukemia).\u00a0 For the next so-many days, he is restricted to indoors\u00a0while the\u00a0war wages on.\u00a0 What\u2019s the best way to stop sick little boys from playing outside in the fresh springtime air?\u00a0 The answer: make the weather miserable so he doesn\u2019t want to go out.<\/p>\n

Wow! Talk about a different perspective.\u00a0 While we still have our struggles here, some snow on the ground or extra days in school are pretty small beans in comparison to fighting for your life.\u00a0 Yet, it took the words of a worried friend to give me new vision.<\/p>\n

Safe, secure,\u00a0and snuggled in with my precious babes, today I am going to look at each flake as a blessing from God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0And just in case we get a whole lot more blessings on any backs, I will let ol\u2019 Beau vacation a little longer in the house. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is April 18th today, and my children were released from school early because of a snowstorm.\u00a0 I snapped this picture of my favorite goat (a tin ware caprine friend given to me by one of my favorite families).\u00a0 Poor Beauregard was\u00a0plastered,\u00a0prompting an immediate rescue.\u00a0 Hope springs eternal, and ol\u2019 Beau has seen more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[233,250,256,312,358,412,474,540,572,587,591],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}