The morning filled itself with winter, holding on fast, but afternoon opened herself up to sunshine and snow melted off and we couldn’t keep ourselves from the back wood. We slash trails and we make plans for hiking and campsites and little boy fights dragons that look like trees and little girl sits on daddy shoulders and she is queen of this world..

Sun beams filter through the trees and somehow I know this moment is important.

I’m transported back to the wilderness of my childhood where I traced deer paths and the triumph of mountains conquered. I hear the sounds that will define home for my children; there are no meadowlarks here but stellar jays call loudly and pine trees sing.

I sing too. I sing praise and I make promises over this land…

May we bring glory to the One who made it.

May the children who conquer it glory Him too.

There are birds here this morning. Two robin red breasts and  a stellar jay dance on the crust of snow that has not yet realized it is time for her to go. We’ve been waiting on spring over here and I want to stamp that snow into the ground and watch something grow out of it. The icy grip is stubborn though and that crust seems to really love it here.
The birds chatter in the trees I’m sure they are saying “it won’t be long now friends. It won’t be long now!”.

So we wait.

We wait on sun to heat our slopes. We wait to see what this new home has to offer us. What this land will produce. What we can do with two toddlers and ten acres of wilderness to make into home. We wait.

I can hardly wait.

(5 minute prompt ‘on waiting’. No edits.)

‘ders mud in dem der hills’.

Like lots of it. It’s every four-year old boy and two-year old girls dream. Today we spent three hours building rivers and digging lakes. The kids hiked all the way down to the bottom of ‘switch back’ mountain and all the way to the top. They were absolutely COVERED with mud…head to toe. It was amazing. I wasn’t much better actually, Emily required the occasional ‘carry’. I can hardly wait to discover what is under all this snow and to explore all this place has to offer with my kids. Today…despite the mess…was long anticipated and enjoyed (though…I really need to track down a collection of splash suits and may need one for myself).

If you have kids who like mud or rivers of water, come for a visit…bring a change of clothes. We started our nature table today and I am on the prowl for a British Columbia plant identifier…anyone have one they aren’t using???

Happy trails this weekend friends! Hope your path is less muddy than mine. Well unless you have a four-year boy and a two-year old girl. Then I hope you have plenty of mud.

I hear little feet downstairs and crawl out of bed. They’ve slept later than usual and I am feeling energized. Even still, I always begin with the same ritual of heating up the coffee maker and talking about what is to come with my boy who needs plenty of warning, especially if the plans for the day entail leaving promptly. I turn around and leave him for a minute and he vanishes. He has been doing that often lately and I usually find him here:

We’ve moved to a cabin in the woods and when we thought about the floor plan we weren’t sure what we would do with the rather large loft. I have visions of someday creating a beautiful, well decorated library, but till then (while we have preschoolers) I wasn’t sure. It has had several variations already but I am settled now. It has become the favorite space for all of us.

The sun streams in different windows all day long and now, from my desk that sits beneath one of the windows, it is so bright I sometimes need to shield my eyes (not so easy while typing and I’m sure someday I’ll be able to shut the blinds but now my vitamin D starved body will not allow it). I love to watch cars wind up our switch back mountain from this window and breathe anticipation when I see headlights of husband coming home at night.

Down the other end of the room, my children play quietly with their toys. We were hesitant to put a play room in a loft but we’ve found our children are small enough that they only venture up when we all go together or when one of us sits down at the computer. There is something soothing and calming about the space. My children, instead of playing loud and boisterous, are more often found like this, quietly reading or ‘puzzling’ beneath the large windows. There is something about the pine trees swaying before them, the lake in the distance that causes even the souls of the small, to be still and quiet.

What about you? What are your favorite spaces? Where does your soul quiet and still?

Linking today with ‘Seedlings in Stone’ where she has issued “an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by…) you”. Join us!

Slowly getting organized in the cabin in the woods. Can hardly believe we get to live here. I am moving from window to window and gazing at the spectacular views. I sat down today in the midst of the mess of boxes I’ve yet to unpack, right smack dab in the midst of a shredded styrofoam box and I sipped my coffee. I feel at home here already.

I’m not able to sit down and write much in the midst of the mess, but wanted you to know I’m still alive…deliriously happy here.

Hope to get the blog going soon, I miss you!