Family Fun in the Snow

With the unusual amount of snow we have gotten so far this winter has come the opportunity of making use of it...
Abe piled a big pile of it with the tractor bucket and then he and Damaris proceeded to make an igloo, of sorts. It has two entrances. The room Abe dug out is quite big. Here are the girls, inside.

I so enjoy watching them all playing together... also like the guy in the cool shades...! :)

Abe got the girls to try riding the scoop shovel down the path. If you double click on the picture and enlarge it, you will see the expression on Chloe's face!

Oh yes... I crawled in there too. It's big enough inside that I could lay down full length in either direction. Can't say I'd actually want to live in one, though! A bit on the chilly side!
Who knows how many years it might be before we get this much snow again?

I intend to enjoy it while it lasts!

Snow From Heaven

Isaiah 55:10

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven..."

I love how it traces every twig...

"Stopping by woods on a snowy evening..."

Out from under the pine tree... a place of refuge... maybe one of the many shapes the "wings of God" take...?

My little neighbor from the springtime long ago abandoned her home.

We have more snow right now than we have had for quite a few years. So white, so clean, covering so much... It makes me think of love, covering a multitude of sins.

Our yard has a lot of work to be done. There is still a cement mixer out front, a pile of sand, a couple bins of discarded stones, weedy piles of topsoil... it is still a work in progress. The snow covers it all so beautifully!

Is that like me?

"She is not afraid of the snow, for all her household is clothed with scarlet." Proverbs 31:21

Is being covered by His blood what makes me clothed with scarlet?

I have been reading the different references to snow in the Bible, and I cannot say that I have it figured out. All I know is I have a feeling of affinity growing, a sense of God saying something through it. Even if my mind is not grasping it, it feels like my heart "gets" it.

May the "work in progress" that is "me" be as sufficiently and beautifully covered as our unsightly yard!

This verse has been precious to me lately... "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power MAY BE OF GOD and NOT OF US!" (2 Cor. 4:7) He did it this way on purpose!

More Snow

Rosehips from the mulitflora rose bushes that grow everywhere around here. The bane of every farmer, but a haven for the birds. They sure have a sweet smell when they bloom and the tiny red hips are beautiful, edible as well...

Along our drive there is a wealth of wild blackberry canes and multiflora rose bushes. To date, the berries they yield and the beauty they provide here, persuade me to not mow them down in favor of the neat, trimmed look.

What say you?

List of "LOVES"

January has come and gone in such a hurry! It's hard to believe we are already into the second month of the year.

February... probably best known for the holiday in it... Valentine's Day!

I have been thinking about the "loves" in my life, both large and small. Sort of another way of "counting my blessings", I guess... so I'm starting a list (not in order of importance).

I LOVE...

feeling known by God in intensely personal ways...

the smell of Lily of the Valley blossoms...

Abe, of course...

the way God brought us together and also the way He has kept us together...

Hadassah with her chocolate eyes and her creativity...

Damaris and the way she cradles my hand to her heart when I pray with her at bedtime...

my Dad and all he has given me...

watching seeds sprout...

the memory of Abe's first most original, non-traditional gift to me... a fingernail brush!

to smell my hair! :)

the special dogwood tree in our yard...

Chloe and her 100 watt smile...

Abi and the way she says "axlydent" for "accidentally"...

Abe's gift to me of a huge wind chime hung in the dogwood tree...

chocolate covered raisins...

our "marble" walk-in shower...

my freshly plumped feather pillow...

the colors green and blue and any variation of the two...

my sister Monica and all we share together, from conniptions - to in-laws, - to passion for loving the truth and being who God made us to be...

books that make me laugh and cry and also that strike a chord in my own heart experience...

the way my brother Dalen enjoys my girls, being daddy to two of his own...

canning jars full of good food on my cellar shelves...

that there is so much to be discovered yet, about God and this world He's put us in...

the smell of fresh roasted ground cornmeal...

Abe's love for our girls and the way he plays with them...

zest...both lemon, and for life...

secondhand shopping... otherwise known as treasure hunting...

hot chai...

my friend Charity's example to me of loving God and having an open heart, trusting Him with her life!

spending the day checking our vending machines with my Mom, the talking...and sharing a Heath Mocha Frap...

that the ways of God are "past finding out"...

words fitly spoken...

our home and all the miraculous details that God worked in building it to it's present state...

my sister Paula and all she adds to my life by daring to follow where God leads her...

neighbors/friends... both past and present... whose lives have contributed to mine in countless ways that make me treasure them all the more...

my niece LaCaysha and her cheerful help when I need her and, of course, dueling it out with her at the ping pong table...

memories! Of people, places, and things we've done with them, in them!

our local library. :)

the tender mercy of God!

Carolie, every memory of her and the anticipation of seeing her again...

my dictionary, a gift from my favorite grade school teacher...

my brother Justin who will somehow always be my little bunny, as hard as that might be to imagine...:)

words, poor vehicles though they be sometimes, to convey meaning...

knowing that God has a plan, that if we only knew the extent of it, it would take our breath away...

my nieces and nephews, big and small, and how each one contributes to our family just by being themselves... especially Little LuLu as the baby!...

that we have no say in the date of our birth or death, but that we are given the choice of how we spend each one in between...

that by starting this list, I am amazed to realize the sheer volume of the goodness of God to me!