Word of the year

For the last few, I've noticed this is a "thing." A "thing" that hasn't spoken to me . . . until this year, when several things came together to hit me on the head with my word. The song of Lauren Daigle's that I shared yesterday; a three-month study on the book of Job at church; the deteriorating state of humanity in the face of polarization, greed, hate, war, terror. My word is TRUST.

We'll see if picking a word for the year becomes a tradition for me. I do have other New Year's traditions – well, two. #1: Start the year on the back of a horse. (Check; Lance and I had a lovely ride through the woods this evening.) #2: Eat black-eyed peas. (Check; for supper I created a well-received stew of black-eyed peas, onions, red potatoes, green chiles, green beans, corn, butternut, garlic and Tabasco sauce, photo on Instagram.) Actually, I did both of those things on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, so I am covered – I have finished as I mean to go on and started as I mean to go on. ;-)

And today's treasure is this, the first foal of the year (in Rick's practice at least):

She couldn't be any flasher, this palomino quarter horse filly with a blaze and four white stockings. Her yearling sister (same dam)

with bald face and stockings was named "Fancy," so this year's flashy baby needs an even fancier name. Her sire is named "Shine," so I suggested "Champagne Dontcha Shine" or "Auld Lang Shyne" (I can't help it; brainstorming names is a favorite pastime).

As you can see, we had some sunshine today . . . and rain, and snow, and sleet. The temperature hasn't dropped as predicted, but Rick got things ready just in case. Besides putting heaters in both horse tanks, he set up the nice sheep-sized tank we bought from Tammy with a heater in the boys' wooded lot, put a heated bucket in the Ram-ada Inn lot, and set up the chicken water heater we bought for the cold snap before our Christmas trip.

Thanks, Honey!

Happy New Year from . . .