I love spring. The melting of snow. The warmth of the sun. The awakening of plants and trees from their dormancy. The grass turning green. The newness of life.

The thing is, we’re still waiting for those things here in the Great White North! I shouldn’t be surprised. The last week or so brought some snow. And winds. Together. I’m not sure how much snow we got, but enough for our car to get stuck in it. Twice. In two days. That is a first for us, after 2 winters here in Canada. And, I had to trudge through a foot or more of snow in our back yard to take this picture:

The plants are getting ready to look alive! I took this one from our front window on the first day of snow because it was too cold and crazy to go outside:

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but over a foot of snow built up on our railing. Funny, yes?

Spring will come. Or at least summer will come. In the meantime, we’re just trying to enjoy the pretty white stuff a little longer. And, we’ll be traveling around TX this spring, so I’ll get to wear my flip-flops soon enough!

Life is full of little blessings. I try to notice them.

Remember them. Enjoy them. Thank the Lord for them.

This week has been especially full of sweet things.

Fellowship. Friends. Laughter. Prayers. Hugs. Chocolate.

I made a cake and some cupcakes for a party:

A friend brought us some tulips:

Maren turned 3 Months old:

And Evan asks to hold her all the time. These two are really beginning to “play” together, and it makes me happy:

I say it often, but we are so blessed.

I got back on Saturday night, and look what we woke up to on Sunday morning:

Brrrrrr! Most of that has melted away, but I hear there’s more to come this week. Hello, Winter!

What a joy it is to see the sun shine on children’s faces. It almost inevitably means smiles will be the order of the day. And, it was. Evan and I got out to play together in the park. And though Suzanne is a little “under the weather,” the Lord gave us great weather to play in. He was just running and running and running and running. Oh, did I mention that he ran a bit?

Here he is going through his routine of “On your mark…Get set…Go!!!”

Oh, thank you, Lord, for your beautiful creation you’ve given us to enjoy!

See more pictures of Evan at the park on flickr.

This post actually has nothing to do with the previous post
We decided that some fresh air might do us some good, so we ventured out to the mountains for Labor Day. It turned out to be quite overcast and cool, but we had a great day anyway. It was refreshing and fun, and such a reminder of God’s majesty.

“Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.” Psalm 36:5, 6a

There are more pictures on our Flickr.

After supper tonight, we decided to venture outside for Evan to get some energy out. We try to get outside as much as we can these days while its still warm enough! We were walking around the neighborhood while Evan rode his “bike.” We were stopped on the sidewalk, once again, so Evan could get a closer look at a wheel, because, you know, they all look different. Lots of the same cars are parked on the street each time we go on a walk, and each time we stop at almost every car to look at the wheels…enough so that I can tell you which cars have Firestone tires That’s my boy!

Anyway, I get off on tangents a lot, don’t I? Well, this particular time that we were stopped, I looked in the grass next to us and saw something moving.

At first glance, I thought it was a bee. But it was actually a caterpillar - a strange looking one. Joe went home to get our camera as I reminded Evan about one of his favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Joe came back and picked up the furry creature, named him Mr. Withers, and had visions of keeping him as a pet. I, on the other hand, admired the thing from a distance. I figured he was harmless, but I don’t think you can trust creepy crawly things. I did have visions of this thing rearing up and showing us its fangs just before it attacked my face because I got too close. So there you have it. Now you know more about my dramatic, paranoid side. I think it liked Joe, though.

In an effort NOT to pass on my irrational fear of bugs to Evan, Joe helped him hold Mr. Withers.

It is kind of cute, but I think it will be cuter as a butterfly.

We’ll post more pictures from our outing on Flickr.

“The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.”
- Psalm 19:1, 2 ESV

At 2:50 this morning, I woke up to go watch the lunar eclipse. I had it all laid out and ready to go…camera, camping chair, jacket, snacks, etc. The only thing I couldn’t find was the camera attachment for my tripod. So, I had to take pictures while resting my camera on my car. Boo.

A cluster of stars or a nebula or something.

Suzanne was quite happy to stay in bed sleeping, so I drove off into the country (to get away from the “city” lights). The sky was clear and the temperature was a brisk 3° C (37.4° F). Brr…

Despite the missing tripod attachment and the cold, I did get a few good photos and enjoyed a decaf double-double (2 creams, 2 sugars) and a lemon-cranberry muffin from Tim Horton’s. Below is a progression of the shots I got.

A photo progression of the lunar eclipse of August 28, 2007. (Medium | Large)

“And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.”
- Genesis 1:16-18 ESV

Very good, indeed!