I sit here with tunes playing in the background and a sleek black ball of fur on my lap keeping me warm. Winnie is finally back to her normal self after having surgery. At first the plan was to have a litter of puppies, but after her first heat cycle and all that goes with it, she and I decided that was for the birds!

Keeping her from eating her stitches or licking her surgical site was quite the challenge, but life has finally settled down. I’m glad that her fun, rambunctious personality is the same as always, because that was a concern of mine.

My tree is up, and the house is almost all decorated for the Christmas season. I truly tried to wait until after Thanksgiving. I only planned to put the tree up, but once I got started I was like one of Santa’s elves sprinkling a little Christmas sparkle everywhere I had an available spot.

I have been cooking and freezing some of my tried and true recipes a little in advance. I put a couple more in my freezer today and am feeling quite accomplished. I learned a long time ago that is one trick for me to enjoy the holidays to the fullest.

After getting as frazzled as a young mother could with a husband offshore and three littles at home I decided to work smarter. I took a look at how to get through the holidays with a little more grace and came up with a few tricks that still help today.

I keep a calendar of all the extra events with reminders on my phone now. I start as early as possible with prep, and I always plan for fun! As I shared last week, I occasionally say no can do. In the end, we are captain of our own ships, and if we run aground we really have no one to blame.

When I put that on paper I realized that I was in error. The way to keep everything running smoothly and as stress free as possible is not to be our own captain, but to ask God for His guidance even in the little things.  If I’m smart I’ll step into the position of first mate with my Heavenly Father steering the ship.

At Sunday school yesterday we talked about listening to God and obeying promptly. On my way out the door I had thought about taking a happy to a sweet lady in my class who was recuperating from surgery. I had a gift on hand, and it would have been so easy to pick it up as I went out the door, but I just didn’t.

When I got to church and saw her, my heart sank because I could tell by her countenance that a little encouragement would have been appreciated. You would think by now I would obey that still small voice, but I’m thankful that God’s mercies are new every morning.