Ever-so-Green

 

We all love this time of year.  Snow falling, cold winds, mittens, sleds, warm home, fire crackling, hot chocolate, and more snow falling (and more and more).  And then there is Christmas.  What a fun and meaningful holiday.  The birth of our Savior!  We enjoy decorating our home and we have kept it very simple.  But to the point - Jesus!

The weekend of Thanksgiving - - the tree goes up!  It use to be just Brian and I putting the tree together and hanging lights so that the next night the children could decorate it.  Not anymore.  Everyone pitches in and it has become quite the event around here.  Christmas music is playing and everyone helps with the branches. 

Even Tessa helped out.  I wish I would have had the video going for this pic because she practically fell in the box reaching for that branch.

She finally got it! And with great pride and excitement she is giving it to her daddy.

Elizabeth ~ The Tree Princess

Light of the World

Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness.
Opened my eyes, let me see.
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You
Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me
King of all days
oh, so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor...

Absolutely amazing what He has done for me and YOU!!

Sidenote to Orlando

 

If I were to measure the fun of our trip.  I would measure it by pounds.  And I would say that we had 4 pounds of fun. 

Oh. my. Goodness!! 

FOUR pounds gained in one week.  How is that possible?  It takes me at least one week, sometimes more, to lose just one pound.  And yet, I managed to GAIN a whopping 4 pounds in 7 days.  I guess you can tell what we did most of the time.  And now you can guess what I will be doing more of now that I am home again - Exercise!!  And less pigging out eating!!

And that will be easier said than done now that it is 8 degrees outside and we are in the midst of the holidays and partying.  Self-control...Kick in, Now!!

Oh my. (sigh)

One Week...

O.K.  You know that we went to Orlando.  And you know that it was Brian and I that went.  So, you may be asking, "Did they take their children?"  The answer to that question would be - No.  So, where were the children while we were gone?  Four of them stayed at our home with Nana (my mom).  Three of them went to their cousins house (my brother).  And one went to S.Dakota with Papa (my dad) to pheasant hunt.  All 8 of them had a wonderful time!!  Thanks Papa, Nana, Grant, Shannon and family!!

They enjoyed the snow while we enjoyed some of this...

 

The Players

Greg and Sheila (Brian's sister)

Greg is director of a camp in Arizona.

Deanne and Scott

Scott is the Program Director for Big Canyon and Deanne helps me cook for the campers.

Brian and Me

Of course, there were about 600 other people there for the Christian Camping Conference also.  But, it was the 6 of us "tearing up Orlando".

The Activities

Before the conference started on Monday night, we spent the day at Kennedy Space Center.  L.O.V.E.D it!!!  We all learned so much.  I just wish I could get my children there.  They would love it too.

 

 

The Rocket Garden (the different rockets used through the years)

 

             Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). This is where the rockets are built.  565 ft tall  (Statue of Liberty is 305 ft tall)

 

The Crawler.  This machine carries the rockets from the building to the launch pad.  When loaded it travels one mile per hour.

One evening, after our conference session, all 600 of us loaded on buses and went to Epcot Center.  It was dark so I have no pictures except for this one of the huge Christmas tree at the entrance.  We learned quickly that we 40 somethings don't do rides.  The first thing we did when we got there was ride "Trip to Mars".  We were all so sick.  Wimps!!  Most of us recovered but we still had weak stomachs the rest of the evening.

 

So, our guys decided to plan and take charge of one mornings activity.  Our guys took - - -

us girls on an airboat tour to look for gators in the wild.

 

All fine and dandy but it just so happened to have rained the day before and this day was freezing.  We layered and bundled up as best we could with all of our beachwear.  And jumped on the airboat.

Here we go!

To the water forests filled with gators.  Except for this day.  It was too cold and they all stayed in the water where I am sure it was much warmer.  I know because I was outside of the water and freezing.

However we did see a few Bald Eagles

and cows!

It was a great and fun experience. Just too bad we didn't see any hungry, ferocious, human eating alligators.  Ahh shucks!

We did see bears and Scott almost got mauled by one. (at the Bass Pro Shop)

 

This was our home away from home.  A very nice villa provided by a Big Canyon board member.  Thank you Bill and Debbie!

We did a lot of this...

eating, drinking, talking, laughing. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the conference.  We went away with great ideas and a renewed excitement for this coming year.

 

I am Still Here!

I have been somewhat missing in action. There is a reason for that.

So, you are probably asking (or not) - - what has happened to me?

On Sunday, here are a few of the things I saw...

Hmmm...

Six hours later, this is what I saw.

Orlando, Florida!!!

Yep! Brian and I are in Florida!! We are at a Christian Camping Conference in Orlando. Scott, our Program Director and his wife, Deanne also came. We are having tons o' fun.


More later!

On Loan

Meet Casey!

He is the future daddy of our spring baby goats.  Yep! He is the man. We have him on loan from a friend.  We will let him spend some time with our ladies (female goats).  If all goes well, 5 months later we will have babies and lots of yummy goat milk.

The little girls call him "the big goat".  Hard to tell in these pics but he is much bigger than our does (females).  They like his long beard.

If you are not familiar with goats then you don't know that bucks (the male) have a really bad "manly" smell. We humans do not like the smell and it is impossible to wash off.  BUT- the female goats love the smell.  And that is a good thing. They get all cuddly when they get a whiff of him.   Anyways, until we have a better farm set up, we prefer to not keep a buck on site. 

Therefore, we borrow one for a short time.  Thanks Judy!!!

These are the does-in-waiting.  Go to work Casey!

The Mail Room

With our ministry at Big Canyon, we have many faithful prayer warriors and financial supporters.  Without them, Big Canyon would not be where it is today.  So to all of you supporters - - A BIG Huge Thank You!!!

For this ministry, we like to send out a monthly newsletter.  Thought you might like a peek into our mail room and see the helpers at work...

If your envelope happened to have an upside down stamp, or a stamp not placed perfectly in the right hand corner, or if the letter was not folded equally - - you now know why!!! 

We appreciate each and everyone of you!!

God's Sweetest Blessings to YOU!!

Off the Mountain

One more thing...

With Hudson's deer, I had told you I was retired from the processing.  Apparently, I am not!  I was needed again; for two reasons --  1. Brian hurt his back getting out of the 6-wheeler helping with the elk.  2. There is so much more meat on an elk and it was "all hands on deck" for this project.  We ended up with 80 lbs of meat.  You might also appreciate the fact that we started our day with the elk on the mountain  at 6:30am and it was in the freezer and the kitchen cleaned by 5:30pm.  That was a full day of elk. 

This elk was so big and way too heavy for us to drag.  We had to quarter it and carry it in pieces up the mountainside, through brush and scrub oak to the 6-wheeler.  Not an easy task.  I know this because I watched them do it.  Don't be too judgmental...  Someone had to take pictures.

Abbi and Hudson with a quarter.

 

  

Evan with a quarter. I am so glad he came to help or this may have been me.

Since the meat was quartered we decided to finish the job and get it in the freezer.

             Cutting meat off bones                                    Grinding the meat

Weston and Maggie ground the meat.  Elizabeth bagged it and I vacuum sealed the bags.  I also cleaned out the meat freezer.  Organized and defrosted it so we would have plenty of room.

It's a done deal!  Our freezer is full. And we have organic meat to eat.

On the Mountain

 

O.K. I know most of you are not going to be able to relate with me here on this one.  Hang in there.  Try to share my excitement...

I think you know by now, we like to hunt.  My guys are the shooters and us girls love to help with the processing and even the eating (except for duck). 

My dad and brothers hunted (and still do) all growing up. So, I have been around it all my life.  I am good with it.  And I love that my husband is a hunter and is teaching our boys.  They all really enjoy it.  Caleb and Hudson both have their Hunter Safety and are of age to hunt.  Weston is younger so gets to enjoy hunting through his brothers for now.  AND you hardly ever see him without some sort of rifle, pistol or gun (play ones) in his hands or hanging in his belt.

Oops. I strayed a bit there. Back to my exciting story.  Caleb shot a cow (female) elk Saturday night!!!  Yipee!  He shot her right at sunset so he was not able to bring her home that night. That meant they would have to go up first thing the next morning and bring her down off the mountain.  I really wanted to go.  Here is the exciting part of the story...I went!  (Are you feeling the excitement with me?)Wow!!   I was so impressed with all that takes place in getting such a huge animal cleaned (gutted) and back home.  I am very proud of my boys and I loved being a part of it all. I was of no assistance. But, I did take pictures. Don't worry, calm down, I cropped the pics so it would not make ya'll sick.

Driving the 6-wheeler as close as possible

Hudson and Abbi

 

Hiking up one side of the mountain...

 

so we could hike down the other side. At this point, I think all of our hearts started racing. We spotted her below us on the hillside.  She looked huge!

 

Evan (friend) and Caleb

 

She looked huge because she WAS Huge!!

Let the Biology class begin. Home-schooling at its finest.  Caleb cutting. Brian coaching. The rest watching!

Learning more ~ closer up

My Guys

 

 

Thanks for enduring through another post of this nature.  You are awesome!

This was the view from where I sat (while they worked). Breathtaking....

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the love for those who fear him"  Psalms 103:11