Winter Ponds, Branches, and 2013!

Today is the last day of 2012! It's amazing, and there may be no physical change to be felt, but going into a new year leaves my skin tingling with excitement that something fresh is just around the corner!

And what a beautiful day it was today. It got up to a stunning 48 degrees Fahrenheit today, maybe even hitting the 50 degree mark, so I took it upon myself to grab my camera for the last time this year and truck about my front yard in my warm coat.

The pond in our currently-dormant garden was solid ice the day before, and when I went out to see it today it was covered in thin, crackled veins of ice hovering just on the surface. It was such a pretty sight. The highlight of today's shoot.

Winter is a beautiful time, a time of sleep and peace. In several months, the branches of the muskedines and the fruit trees will be budding with green leaves and flowers. Winter will be but a breath of cool air grazing over my cheek as it melts away into the sky. Its cool freshness will be missed, but Spring will soon have a loving hold on us, leading us into the warmer months.

I will be in school until late August. It will be one heck of a ride, these next eight months, but I know I can do it. I will be driving soon, and then I'll be a licensed cosmetologist before I know it. If I keep practicing and study well, it will be no problem. The Lord will care for me and my family this year, and He has never let us down. I don't even worry about tomorrow, because it is all in His hands. He is my loving Father, and I can close my eyes and walk through life knowing He is holding my hand.

This New Year's makes me smile. It may be hard this year, but I have the Lord and I have my family. I thank God for another wonderful year, and ask that this one coming be just as good, no matter how many ups and downs. I'll smile, hold my head high, pray, follow God's Word as best as my sinning soul can do, and love my family, and I will have a wonderful new year.

I have resolutions, and more will come as the year progresses, I know. But I'm not afraid of change.

May this year be blessed for you all. God has blessed me, and I hope that this year you let Him bless you too!

Happy New Year's, world!

Welcome, 2013!