Embracing Winter 2019

We have chosen to embrace winter!

Minnesota is our home and winter... 

is unavoidable, 

when you live here!

It's just part of the package!

We truly love the change of seasons! 

Here is the morning view out of the master bedroom!

And the view down our driveway, to our home!

(the fall pic is the BEST)

 Love the blue sky in the background!

And morning sunrise on a new fallen snow!

Thankful, grateful, blessed comes to mind!

BUT

just an FYI...

I may not be saying this in the end of March!

Ice skating has become a winter passion!

Jake started off needing this for balance 

but has now moved on
to skating independently! 

The first time on the ice,

 Hubby and I stayed clear of each other...

neither wanted to be held responsible for

"bringing the other one DOWN"!

Now we can skate together and hold hands!

Luke is a natural at skating!

Sam is too!

Madeline did great but her skates broke-

 she continued on!

Sarah, Mia, Melissa loved it!

Ava, too!

Except when they all decide to stop and congregate...

We can cause a bit of a traffic jam!

We are thankful to have a sledding hill right in our own yard!

We got 4 inches of snow, then rain, then 4 more inches of snow!

A layer of ice was just underneath the last snowfall!

Sleds...

are overrated!
(According to Ben)

More snow continues to come

and the snow tubes we bought years ago, 

worked out great!

We bought these thinking it would be sooooo fun

to go to different hills in the area and go sledding........?

Until we realized...

how on earth can we get 16 children and 16 snow tubes 

to a hill...

we'd need a moving truck!

It was a bit of a light bulb moment!

Just thankful this works 

and it's convenient-

right outside our door!

 Our middle schoolers have taken advantage of homeschool ski day!

It's once a month and it's not crowded!

They LOVE it!

Grace and Ben were blessed with an adaptive ski day

sponsored by Gillette Children's Hospital!

Thank you sooo much for this wonderful experience!

Skiing would otherwise,

be impossible for Grace.

She has a few major muscles that just don't work.

Grace loves to go sledding so we figured she would LOVE this!

And she did!

She rode the chairlift up to the top of the hill 

(while in the sled).

The instructor skied behind her with 

bungees attached to the sled

and she "gracefully" leaned 

to the left and right upon instruction!

It was actually a beautiful sight

to see her slalom down the hill!

She had the time of her life!

Ben had been skiing a few times already

BUT

stopping and turning to his right... 

just wasn't happening for him.

He had a private lesson on how to use 

his hip and thigh muscles to be able to stop and turn!

They even taught him how to shift weight 

and slalom ski a bit!

He had... 3 instructors!

What a blessing!

Since then, he has gone skiing and 

was successful at turning and stopping!

It is a blessing to see 

GOD at work 

through kind people!

The other morning 4-5 crows 

were outside of our bedroom window,

frantically cawing.

I peeked out to see what was the matter?

This lovely barred owl was sitting in the tree!

Sights like this...

take my breath away!

We quietly lead as many children 

as possible to see it, 

before it had had enough 

of our gawking,

and promptly flew away.

It's wing span had to be 6 feet...

I do NOT have a green thumb

BUT

for some odd reason this orchid

likes me!

3 small ice cubes every 4 days

and it's as happy as can be!

It was completely baron

and then sprouted a stalk 

that produced 12 blooms!

Now, that's a miracle!

These two love the snow

and unfortunately the golden one...

loves poopsicles!

The kids are dog sitting for our neighbor!

They love taking care of Snoop!

And while they are doing that 

they are earning money to go to 

Extreme Faith Camp this June!

I'm proud of how hard they are working to go to camp!

Look closely!

On the left,

 is an eagle in flight!

We were driving to the library and I looked to my right.

There was an eagle perched on a dead deer.

It had been hit by a car.

I couldn't help myself and had to turn around to get a pic!

This was the best I could do!

Unfortunately, he wanted nothing to do 

with a humungous van 

filled with people 

staring at him!

So he took flight immediately!

And landed across the street in a tree!

Sledding, skiing, skating, have kept us busy and joyful this winter!

We have been blessed with many indoor activities, too!

 Will be sharing that in the next post!

God is soooo good!