The calendar doesn't say springtime...

But the flowers here in Texas,

don't know that! ;-)

"The flowers of late winter and early spring 

occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."

  ~Gertrude S. Wister

What Makes Men Happy?

"To watch the corn grow,

or the blossoms set;

to draw hard breath over the ploughshare or spade;

to read, to think, to love, to pray,

are the thing that make men happy."

~John Ruskin

Christmas Break in Breckenridge

After Christmas our family took a ski trip to 

Breckenridge, Colorado

with some of Mr. H.'s family.

We drove up in a 15 passenger van and stayed in a wonderful cabin.

The snow and the mountains were beautiful.

This was only the second time to ski for me and the kids.

Mr. H. had learned to ski when he was a teenager.

The last time we went skiing was four years ago.

I did pretty well on some green slopes

and the kids learned a bit, too.

But on that trip...

Mr. H. had an accident.

He was racing his nephew, he hit a patch of ice, and his ski popped off!

Long story short, he broke his shoulder into a zillion pieces and it was dislocated 

for seven hours before a doctor could put it back in place.

He had months and months of therapy 

and recovered full use of his shoulder.

But, the fear of skiing I developed after his accident I haven't recovered from!

I was very fearful to go on this trip,

but it was ALL the kids wanted for Christmas -

to go skiing with their cousins.

The kids did great on the trip this year!

Mr. H. had returned to the slopes last year with his brothers.

And on that trip and the trip this year,

he didn't race ANYONE! ;-)

By the end of the trip, my girl was skiing blue runs!

This was her big smile after she had come down a blue without falling once.

Of course this is Mr. H. being silly. 

My son conquered several green runs without falling!

And me?

I decided to hang up my skis.

I just couldn't get over my fear of getting hurt.

So...

I switched my ski boots for snow boots

and my ski poles for my camera.

And had a blast!

I even got to ride the roller coaster at the ski slopes!

Which I was not afraid of - loved it!

I was a little down about "giving up" on skiing.

My usual, "if at once you don't succeed, try, try again" motto

was not working for me!  

Because, I was DONE trying. ;-)

Robert Louis Stevenson to the rescue!

"Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits."

Ok!  I could do that. :-)

I liked this, too -

"The men who try to do something and fail
are infinitely better than those that try to do nothing and succeed."
Lloyd Jones

I also remembered what my son had written on my laundry room bulletin board many months ago.

"If you don't try, it's worse than not succeeding at something you did try." :-)