Winter and Banana Bread

I know a lot of people don't say this, but I love the winter. Don't get me wrong - I'm also crawling with cabin fever for warmer weather and the chance to play in the sun without 5 layers of clothes on - but there is something about the snow falling that is so quiet, magical, and forlorn (I don't know if that's the word I mean, but something along the lines of a peaceful sadness?). So it snowed here again (not too much) and has been well below freezing for the last few days, even with the sun shining all day. Maybe I get the chance to enjoy the snow a little more because Pele LOVES it!
This is a picture of her making friends at the dog park. When there's snow on the ground this dog thinks it's heaven! She can't wait to be outside and once she is, all she wants to do is run! She is so happy and full of energy that it helps me to love the snow. But the snow also reminds me of a song a friend introduced me to a few years ago. It's called "Winter," by Tori Amos. The song is so hauntingly beautiful, talking about a little girl and her father and how he wants her to learn to love herself enough that when he can no longer be there she will still be happy and brave. So I always think about that when I see the sun sparkling off of new snow. It makes me think of my relationship with Heavenly Father and that part of developing faith in this life is learning how to love and be happy, even when it feels like he's not right beside us or we hit a spell of winter in our lives or things are just hard.
Which leads me into the next theme of this entry. Jeremy and I have had a rough last couple of weeks. So he's on nights right now, meaning he works from 5:30pm till 7:00am and gets home about 7:30. Now, that's not too bad, except the fact that someone has found a way to get into our bank accounts. You have to fix problems like that during business hours, when he needs to sleep. And I can't do all of it on my own because he has to be there to open the bank account as well and we've been doing some tag-teaming to talk to all the other people we had to. We thought we got it all cleared up by closing our account, opening a new one, and re-doing any of our on-line billing accounts. Someone got into the new account. Each time it was a different online financial group that made 2 miniscule deposits, then began withdrawing once the deposits cleared. CREEPY! So we're a little concerned now about identity theft and I have never been put on hold so much in my life as I've called everyone from the bank, to the police, the county attorney, the FBI, the different credit agencies that run the credit reports, our internet provider, our router provider, the online companies that had the account info (Allied Wallet and OnBank - sketchy!), and, once again, any company we'd set up online bill pay with. So we have to open a new account again tomorrow, which is semi-silly since we'll do it again in four months once we get to New Hampshire. And we're trying to apply for a home loan amidst all of this. Ha, ha. In between being put on hold, I noticed our bananas were a little brown so I made banana bread today. Or tried to.

I swear I greased the pan. But for whatever reason, it decided to come out in pieces. However, before I cried in frustration, I tasted it and laughed. It tasted great. So it looks like the dog chewed on it first - so what? It still tastes good. So this had me thinking about everything that's going on and realize a few things. So nothing is perfect with all of our efforts to be in good financial shape so we can buy a home. But there are some very good things. 1-The fraud was only caught because Jeremy is so meticulous with our finances. He's so good at making sure everything's in order he caught these people before things went too south for us. Bless his sleepy head. 2-As crazy as all of this is, life is still good for us. Jeremy has a reliable job, I'm able to stay home, Kate's been healthy all winter long, we have food, hot water, and a warm house - things really are very good if we remember what matter's most. 3-The very good thing about all of this is it helps you realize how little control you have in life sometimes and it drives you to your knees to help you remember how much you depend on God for your very existence. We need His help so much, sometimes you forget and begin to think it's all your hard work if you don't get a wrench thrown in the works now and again. It's a blessing to be taught to be humble.