Who's ready for spring?

I'm officially snowed out. I realize I posted some beautiful snow pics and raved about the wonders of the snow... and now I am ready for spring. We've had an especially long, cold winter here, so we are excited to be reaching upper 3o's lower 40 temps by this weekend and next week. I am ready for spring flowers, green grass, warm breezes, the sunshine to do its thing. On another note (kinda, I try to tie it in at the end): Why is it that when life seems to be going so smoothly, happily, generally great; we get hit/bombarded from all different directions with set backs, frustrations, an unexpected expense..? Is it God testing us? Is it Satan attacking us or both? Its so easy to get down. Life is so fragile, so precious, so...hard. I keep thinking of a quote from Joe Dirt, (that movie with David Spade) "Ya gotta keep on keepn' on!" Endure to persevere, ...I can do all things through Christ. Just as the earth gives us its seasons, life also gives us its seasons. Rainbows and roses, stormclouds and lightning, snow, rain, sunshine and breezes....

Max swimming at hotel pool. We shared a romantic valentine weekend...with Max. :)

And now he's all done. Was getting close to nap time and I think a little cold.

Swimming pool at home. Don't think we'll be getting in there anytime soon.

I wish, I wish with all my heart...just be patient my darling.

Taken from our front door. We see these five deer often.

Full moon, doesn't this picture just "feel" cold?

We ARE living in a Fairytale

(settle in for a read here)

One of my favorite stories growing up was Alice in Wonderland. A curious little blonde girl in a pretty blue dress who stumbles into a strange magical adventure. Like some of those dreams we have that are just so weird you have to try to remember them. Tim Burton has recreated the story into one of his dark, slighty creepy but still intriguing and magical movies; coming out this spring. I will try to go see this but will probably prefer the visions my own brain gave me reading the storybook. Anyway, as I have been thinking about this, I came to my next daily reading in one of my devotional books. (my newest one, thanks sister!) It is by one of my favorite authors, John Eldredge, and is a collection of readings from some of his best books. The reading went like this:

......Into this world God opens his hand, and the animals spring forth. Myriads of birds, in every shape and size and song, take wing-hawks, herons, warblers. All the creatures of the sea leap into it-whales, dolphins, fish of a thousand colors and designs. Thundering across the plains race immense herds of horses, gazelles, buffalo, running like the wind. It is more astonishing than we could possibly imagine. No wonder "the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). A great hurrah goes up from the heavens!

We have grown dull toward this world in which we live; we have forgotten that it is not normal or scientific in any sense of the word. It is fantastic. It is fairy tale through and through. Really now. Elephants? Caterpillars? Snow? At what point did you loose the wonder of it all? Even so, once in a while something will come along and shock us right out of our dullness and resignation.

We come around a corner, and there before us is a cricket, a peacock, a stag with horns as big as he. Perhaps we come upon a waterfall, the clouds have made a rainbow in a circle round the sun, or a mouse scampers across the counter, pauses for a moment to twitch its whiskers, and disappears into the cupboard. And for a moment we realize that we were born into a world as astonishing as any fairy tale.

A world made for romance. -John Eldredge from Epic

Whoa. Really cool. Stop and take a good look around. We Are in fact plopped down into our own fairytale. What an extraordinary Creator we serve!