Engulfed in Joy: November 2011

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Christmas Festivities Begin

What a week it has been! With only Monday home, I feel like I have been running constantly. Packed into a few short days were dental appointments, eye exams, reading groups, piano lessons, baking, cleaning, 2 open houses and probably half a dozen other things I can't think of at the moment.

Thursday we held our Relief Society Christmas social. We spent a fair bit of time preparing but the party was wonderful. We enjoyed good food, a neat dessert (Pumpkin Pecan Dessert in a jar), a special program all topped off with a white elephant gift exchange. I love the feeling of belonging and unity that there is here in our little ward. It is always so good to see everyone, and they are all so willing to help and assist wherever they can. I love the Relief Society, it is a blessing in my life, and it is a joy to be able to serve there.

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

To Fairmont and Back Again

I love holiday's. They are so intensely family oriented, and filled with fun, that who could not love them? A couple of weeks ago we went to Fairmont in British Columbia and stayed a week. I posted different activities during the week but I never finished the trip, so, here is the Back Again story.

One of the first things we did when we got to Fairmont was to attend church in the little chapel they have on the hill. We loved church and felt it was a great way to start our holiday. As the week progressed we engaged in lots of hiking and exploring. On Tuesday we went over to a friends condo to play games. As we left she grabbed a coat and sent it out the door with us, Charity nearly left it behind. Well, the next day, Charity could not find her coat anywhere! I hadn't realized that Breanna had brought 2 and Charity had been wearing one of them for the past 2 days. It took us until Saturday when Charity wondered aloud if she had left her coat at the church on Sunday.... so we went to find out. Of course the church is locked but there was a window in the coat room and so we could see perfectly that Charity's coat was hanging nice and neat on the hanger inside the church. Lucky for us dad was there and would be attending church before he came home so the coat made it home but not with us.

The day before we left Fairmont we expected it to snow, so we went on a morning hike.

Looking back on our condo

Scenery on the way up

Naomi, Alisha, Breanna, Melodee and Myles

Exploring up close to one of the warm waterfalls. Below, Naomi is melting a chunk of ice she found

Melodee

The weather begins to change. This was our view on the way back to the condo

And a group picture of the kids who ventured out with us. Beth and Charity had opted to stay inside during the morning.

So that sums up Friday, Saturday morning we came home. It was snowy and frosty but the roads were good. We tied things onto the top of the suburban a little differently this time and as such we were able to leave the Bumble Bee Band behind. The drive home was beautiful. This is some of what we saw...

When we hit the Alberta, BC border the kids were getting a little antsy, so we pulled over and let them run around a little. It didn't last long because it was cold.

It would have been fun to leave a completed snowman on the border there, but the time we had was short and the wind was cold, so all we made were chunks of snow. Breanna was the most determined, but even she opted for the warmth of the car after a short time.

Once we got closer to home, we stopped by Shylah's and Alisha, Naomi and I went with her to Magrath. Chad and the rest of the kids ran a few errands and then went to surprise their cousins also in Magrath while they waited for us. This is what we were doing in Magrath... Yup, grad dress shopping. We didn't actually buy anything though, Alisha wasn't totally in love with anything she tried on so we will keep looking!

We got home late, but what a wonderful week we had had.

I love the mountains, the trees, waterfalls, and especially all the colors that come with it. It seems like the colors change with the light, and I love it!!! I find such joy when I am surrounded by the beauties of nature, it is absolutely wonderful, and made even more so when I get to share it with my family. What a delight it is to experience and explore through the eyes of a child. Life is good.

Warmed by Wood

Well, anyone who lives around here knows it has been rather cold the last week or so. Today is warmer but still chilly if you don't wear a coat. So yesterday, we decided we better make some serious progress on the firewood situation before it decides to get intensely cold. Chad filled the truck with logs and then we had the kids helping to stack wood in the wood shed and downstairs in the wood box while he split it. This was the site that greeted me when I went downstairs after the work was done!

What a wonderful site. I love the warmth that comes off a wood fire. It is so penetrating and cozy. The fireplace is definitely one of the central places in our home where our family gathers during the winter.

I once read that firewood warms you thrice. First when you cut it, then when you split it and of course once more when you burn it. Well it warms my heart too. I brings back fond memories of Christmas's spent with my grandparents in northern Alberta. The smell of wood smoke will always evoke those memories for me. Who could have thought there would be so much joy in the gathering and burning of firewood...

Monday, 21 November 2011

Hope

What would we do without hope? Isn't it a wonderful word? And when I think of the word hope the words faith and trust come almost immediately to mind. Today I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes from Richard G Scott. In his wisdom he has taught us about the trials and challenges that life dishes out to everyone.

When you pass through trials for His purposes, as you trust Him, exercise faith in Him, He will help you. That support will generally come step by step, a portion at a time. While you are passing through each phase, the pain and difficulty that comes from being enlarged will continue. If all matters were immediately resolved at your first petition, you could not grow. Your Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son love you perfectly. They would not require you to experience a moment more of difficulty than is absolutely needed for your personal benefit or for that of those you love. - Richard G Scott, November 1995

There are some beautiful sayings and messages about hope, so I did a search for some of them and this is what I found.

They look nice and they are uplifting and they inspired me, so I found a quote I loved and made my own...

I am reminded of a saying that I found years ago. It said, "To believe in God is to believe in wonderful surprises." I KNOW that that is true, and that God is good and even though we have to endure hard things, we ALWAYS come out better for them. Today I find joy in this knowledge and am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for it.

Friday, 11 November 2011

Paintings and Puzzles

One of the last things we wanted was a week spent with bored kids, so we planned some activities that could be done indoors as one never knows what the weather will be like. We've actually had beautiful weather allowing us to thoroughly enjoy the outdoors, but the other day we decided to enjoy the outdoors a little using paints and papers. So before we could paint we had to get our puzzle done. It took just over 3 days to do, but we did it!!!

This technique is done with water colors and spray bottles and the results are always varied and beautiful. The pictures below show off the beautifully colorful designs the kids created.

This one is mine - one that I did when I first learned the technique. It's a lot of fun, and amazingly easy even for the kids. Now we just have to paint in a foreground and the painting is finished. We'll probably have to do that when we get home though.

I find a great delight in the vibrant colors of nature and I love how this painting technique captures them. I am amazed at the awesome beauty and wonder of this wonderful world we live in. What joy it brings me, and what a blessing it has been to be able to look out our front window for a week to such a wonderful view as this.

Thursday, 10 November 2011

What a Stink!

So when we hiked around the pool the other day, we met a fellow that told us about some natural hot pools near Canal Flats. We thought we'd check them out as they seemed quite interesting, so in the afternoon we went exploring. The road that takes you there is a logging road so the big trucks are quite frequently seen. We started out doing a fair bit of climbing and then we started dropping into the Lussier River valley where the hot springs were. Sitting in the passenger seat, I happened to look out the side window of the vehicle and about flipped. I couldn't even see the edge of the road, all I saw was a major drop off that made me dizzy. It was weird, I wanted to look, but I didn't... so mostly I just didn't! When we got there we had to hike down a fair distance to where the hot pools were. It was pretty neat, but it really smelled awful! The kids complained loudly, but were not deterred from climbing into the water.

This is kind of a weird but neat picture - the kids like to play with the settings on the camera

Some of the scenery on the drive up - sorry, no up high pictures from the side of the mountain road!

A real picture of the family enjoying the warm water in the lower pool.

Beth, Naomi and Charity

Checking out Alisha's CTR ring - it was sterling silver, but here she had just discovered that it was now gold. Some kind of reaction with the minerals in the pool. It wiped right off though.

I love the golden colored evergreens or tamarac trees. I can't seem to get enough of them!

So you might wonder how long we stayed to enjoy the hot springs. The little kids lost interest first. It was kind of chilly but I'm sure that's not what drove them from the water. It was the smell of sulfur! They hated it and didn't want to be around it. So they put on their shoes, wrapped a towel around their shoulders and hiked back up the hill to where they could change in to dry clothes. We might have been there 30 minutes.

Afterwards we talked about our excursion and I was amazed at what the family learned from it. The main lesson everyone seemed to come away with was how easy it was to go down the hill to the pools, but the hike back up was steep and difficult. Sin is like that, it is so easy to make mistakes, and one leads to another and when one wants to change they have to climb back up the hill and it is difficult, hard and definitely not fun. Hiking back up that hill represented the process of repentance. Repentance is not easy, and one has to work at it, but the rewards are so worth it in the end. After hiking back up that hill, we thoroughly enjoyed the view and splendor of the mountains around us. What joy there is in the atonement and the divine gift of repentance that is freely available to us all.

The Wonder of a Steamy Waterfall

So the exploring truly begins. I was anxious to hike around and discover some of the areas I had only seen pictures of on the internet. The first place we saw was like a bathtub on the top of a hill. The water was warm and quite nice, though all we put in were just our hands. It was neat to see it bubbling out of what was otherwise a solid rock mountain...

From there we hiked over to the pool and across the bridge, and down below following the creek. This allowed us to see the area where the hot pools are allowed to spill over.

Then we hiked down a little further and found a beautiful waterfall that is also hot. We walked around the base of that one a bit.

Later that evening we went over and played games with some friends that were nearby. The kids had a great time together - even though they hardly new each other.

I marvel that such hot water can come out of the ground. It is not only amazing but beautiful. The minerals build up and create some pretty amazing formations as the water cascades over the rocks. Water is a pretty amazing substance, it can be cold and refreshing, or warm and soothing. Sometimes life is hot and sometimes it is cold, but always there is joy to be found in it.

The Fun Begins

Monday we began to explore the area in earnest... Well I should clarify, even on holidays one cannot get away from an internet business, so while I wrote and published a stamping newsletter my family did some exploring and came back with some tantalizing tales... I could hardly wait to get out and see some of the area myself.

So while I was doing this...

A Christmas ornament or two...