This has been a colder spring than we've had for several years. Heavy snow fell late this year on Easter, and cool weather has continued into this second week of May. We've also seen a mix of rain and snow, and freezing temperatures down into the low 20s. I am grateful more than ever for my greenhouse as my seedlings continue to grow safely inside the greenhouse until it will be time to plant! Indeed, signs of Spring are here with daffodil blooms. the buzzing of hummingbirds, and abundant green grass, but still the garden waits patiently for the slow Spring dance to end, and summer's warmth to arrive so planting can begin.
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| Daffodils blooming around an old tree stump in our yard |
Our Easter Sunday was so blessed and full of wonderful things! Our church holds an Easter Sunrise service every year at 6 a.m. When we got up to get ready to leave, it was still snowing. We received about 6" of snow, and it really was beautiful, although out of season. It is Spring after all, but we truly are in the season of Springter as I call it, and sometimes it seems more winter than spring!
Resurrection Sunday Thoughts
As we remember Calvary’s work over 2000 years ago, the centrality of the gospel message speaks to us today, perhaps more clearly than ever before. Even though 2000 years have passed, the message is still the same. Eternal life was bought for us in a way that our humanity would never have chosen.
Happy first week of April!
This year is moving right along, before you know it, half the year will have passed. We are enjoying beautiful spring days here... sprinkled with lots of rain, and mixes of sunshine, and snow/slush/hail, and then beautiful clouds in the skies. This is spring in North Idaho!
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| Crocus springing up in my garden! |
Our calendar officially says it is spring, and most certainly the days are getting longer, and the sunshine is warmer too! Our snow is melting, and more and more ground is becoming visible. I still have some snow in my garden, but now... tulips, crocuses, and daffodils are working their way through the ground, and soon we will have beautiful blooms from bulbs that were planted in faith last fall.
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| Crocuses making their way through the soil to share their beautiful purple blooms! |
Oh March! It is that silly month where winter and spring dance around each other, and from moment to moment, you never know whether it will be spring or winter. Now, we are in the muddy season where the melting snow is not so pretty, and we have lots of mud and ice. However, we are very thankful to have gotten more moisture this late into March, and my garden is still covered in snow, which will be good for it later on in the spring and summer.
I walked over to visit with my neighbor's horses recently, and I thought you might like to see their beautiful faces ...
Hello dear friends, today is the last day of February! Can you believe it? Already, we are heading into March 2022. Amazing how fast the days slip by, one after another!
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| We've had some beautiful sunshine days here! Oh it is glorious to have the sunshine in the midst of winter! |
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| An incredible sunset coincided with the incredible February Snow moon moonrise. |
For the past month, we have enjoyed balmy temperatures, at least for our area! Snow has melted, and dripping sounds have been heard from rooftops. Bare patches of ground have appeared, and I've heard more birdsongs too. However, there is a mass of polar arctic air that has come to visit us, and we've had to put off thoughts of spring for another week or so... as we will have very bone-chilling temperatures here for the next week. Usually, we don't get wind here, but this week, we will have a windchill all week. Time to bundle up and stay warm and cozy! So as I drink a cup of tea today, and bring you a few pictures from last week, I hope that your week is not as chilly as ours will be!
This past weekend we had two brilliant days of sunshine with skies so blue I felt I could drown in their depths, with the sun so bright and all the sparkling snow jewels; it was beauty that one's soul just soaks in every drop!
As I was on my way to a neighbor's home, I saw two large animals standing on the side of the road. It was a momma moose and her calf. They turned when they saw my vehicle and ran back to the fence line, where they munched for a few minutes on tree branches as I watched in my vehicle.
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| Did you catch a glimpse of the moon the last few days? Wow! It was shining during the day here with blue skies and sunshine, so amazing! |
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| Blue brilliance! |
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| Truly I can say I've seen the blue moon! |
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| Do you see how bright the moon is in the picture! It was just stunning to see! |
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| I've been able to do some cross-country skiing lately... |
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| My favorite place to be... on skis with brilliant sunshine in the forest :) |
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| Especially when the views open up, and the river comes into view. |
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| I am so blessed to be able to ski out my back door into this paradise! |
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| All things wrong with the world become a far and distant memory in the light of this glorious sunshine view! |
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| A blue moon in the bright blue sky... |
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| Evening shadows begin to fall and I reluctantly leave this beautiful place and turn homeward. |
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| I wanted to stay longer to watch the sunset from this view, but I knew I didn't want to be skiing in the darkness, so it was time to head home. |
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| This unique cloud caught my eye as I neared home. I thought it looked like praying hands? I was praying and praising as I skied... I think the Lord can give us pictures in the skies as part of His blessings on us :) I also think I see a heart... What do you see in this cloud? |
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| Back home from the ski... my little Tinker Belle (she has lots of nicknames) was waiting for me. "Where have you been Mom?" |
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| Our church hosted a lovely Valentine's dinner... |
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| I made Strawberry Shortcake Trifle for the occasion. |
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| Oh yes! It's that happy time of year, when seeds have arrived, and I am making plans to begin sowing seeds this weekend. For the area we live in, I start peppers on Feb. 15, and tomatoes on March 15 (approximately). |
I do love winter so very much, and I know that most don't agree with me on that one... but it is true. However, come the middle of February, my heart begins to yearn for spring, and as the days get longer, the time draws closer to when I'll be back in my beloved garden again!
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| I will share more of my process with you after I get all set up this weekend. It is quite exciting though to be thinking of spring! I ordered most of my seeds this year from Baker Creek, as many of my gardening friends in the area have had great success with their seeds, so I thought I would give them a try! They are all heirloom seeds too. Here are some pictures that I've taken recently... |
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| Blue skies and clear roads... |
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| Blue skies and gorgeous sunsets! |
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| Blue skies, mountains, and water... what more can the soul need to see than this? |
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| Another incredible sunset... God's art gallery in the sky... how can I not share it? Each day... a new masterpiece to enjoy! |
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| Can I share another beautiful sunset? The days are getting longer now, and I was able to capture this sunset around 5 p.m. Since December, our sunsets have been around 3-4 p.m. |
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A neighbor's hillside... always a spectacular view. This was early one morning as I walked. Now our sunrise is happening about 6:45 a.m. How happy we are to see the days getting longer again!
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| Visiting with Danielle in her new home. I took the dogs with me, oh how they loved getting to explore the new home! |
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| We went for a walk after drinking the coffee treat that I brought for us to enjoy. This lovely old barn caught my eye! |
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| We are so very blessed to have a local naturopathic drug store that provides such incredible support to the community. This is where we purchase our vitamins and supplements. |
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| They have an entire section devoted to preventative care as well as supplements that you can take if you do get sick. If any of you would like a copy of the handout that they have readily available, please let me know. I can email it to you. It is one of the best I've seen. |
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| I just had to share a picture of my sweet kitties! They have the art of sleep perfected :) |
Blue skies have blessed us with their presence in the last few days, as the sun races across the sky, gaining 2 minutes of daylight daily. How wonderful it is to have daylight now until 5 p.m. ! When winter solstice arrives, our sun doesn't rise until 7:30 a.m., and it sets around 3:30 p.m. Those are some very short days! But... once we cross that line, the sun really does seem to gather speed as daylight increases each day.
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| This is my view whenever I need to run a quick errand into our little town... pure delight always, but especially with those blue skies! |
As the days of January's winter drag on, the landscape remains encapsulated in a fog that grasps the world in its wispy embrace. Our area has a weather system that has been with us since January 10th, when the fog arrived. This is not uncommon for our area, as we live between mountain ranges, and oftentimes weather systems get "trapped" between the ranges, and stay for days. Soon, they tell us another weather system will move in, but for now, the clouds are low-hanging, and fog dominates the landscape.
Hello friends!
I hope you are all enjoying cozy days at home as Winter settles in for the long haul. It seems Winter has paid a visit to most everyone across the country, and certainly, is it is here to stay for a while too! We have gotten a lot of snow over the past month, which is moisture that we did need.
Watching the snowfall is such a captivating thing, as it falls so gently and softly here - no wind! Then after the storm passes on and the sun comes out, all the world becomes a glittering jewel! Oh, when that happens, I just can't stay inside, I must get outside and walk!
Come along with me, and we will go on some winter walks together :)
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| Glorious skies! |
Good morning! As promised in my last post, I want to announce the winner of the Family Cookbook Project giveaway.
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| My completed Moseley Family Cookbook |
Through the span of approximately the last five years, our children have moved away from home and then back again. You may remember our daughter lived in Spain for five months as an overseas student. Our son had taken a job that required him to commute quite far from home so he moved into an apartment an hour away from us. Soon things changed, and he came back home to work with us in our family business, but he has his own separate living quarters on our property now. Our daughter married a year ago, and has her own home now, something we are all very excited about. Our son became engaged over the New Year, and there will be wedding bells ringing in 2022. Exciting times for our family :)
So, through the years, as our children were on their own for periods of time, I would often get requests on how to make special family treats and meals. The recipe would be jotted down and sent off. Sometimes, however, the recipe asked for was one in my head! There was NO recipe for it! The struggle was real :)
Have you ever experienced that? You've made a favorite family meal for years, but have never taken the time to put it together in a written format?
That became my dilemma. I really needed to put some of these recipes into a format that my children could continue to enjoy for years to come.
I began a search for an online cookbook that would allow me to enter my recipes, and print them off for my children. I did a lot of research and settled on this amazing company, the Family Cookbook Project. I can only speak with the highest regard for this company. From beginning to end of this project, I was encouraged along the way with incredibly helpful videos, how-tos, and newsletters. I found their website very easy to navigate in order to complete our family cookbook.
Here are some pictures of the cookbook I created. The front cover was a designer paper created by the amazing KerryAnne at Shabby Art Boutique from her Handmade Club designs.
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| I gave the cookbooks to the children at Christmas... but look who was also excited to check it out :) Our sweet curious kitty, Miss Ash. |
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| A closer look at the cookbook. I loved the layout options available. |
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| The spiral binding is wonderful, the book lays completely flat and is easy to use. You can add pictures wherever you desire. |
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| The website is so easy to navigate. You can easily put your recipes into categories where they are easily found with a Table of Contents provided. |
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| The options are really endless as to how you would like your cookbook to look. |
I went with a very simple and clean design for my cookbook. You can make the book as customized as you like, adding stories, pictures, tips, and more. I loved all the options, and the website design page was very easy to navigate.
After receiving my cookbooks and seeing the excitement my children and I felt as we looked through the cookbook and talked about the special recipes included, I knew I needed to pass on this joy.
So just a few days ago, I called the Family Cookbook Project, and spoke to Chip, the creator of this website, and asked him if he had a promotion or giveaway that I would be able to offer my blogging friends. He was so agreeable and helpful and came up with a very generous giveaway for you, my readers!
Chip has graciously offered a giveaway for one of my blog readers! The Family Cookbook Maker's regular price for a lifetime subscription is $99.95. Chip has generously offered to give away ONE LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION to the Family Cookbook Project! Isn't that awesome! I was not expecting such a generous offer, but how appreciative and thankful I am for their generosity!
So... here are the details for the giveaway! Starting today until next Sunday, January 16 the giveaway will be open to anyone in the WORLD! If you have access to the internet, this is open for you. The only rules are to leave a comment below, and if you feel so inclined... share a favorite recipe of yours for all my readers to see... I think that would be fun! We will keep things simple though, your comment gets you entered into the drawing :) Please make sure you are commenting with an email where you can be reached should you be the winner. 😊
Please drop by the Family Cookbook Project website, and poke around. There is a free trial where you can try out the cookbook project to see if it is something that you would like to do. You can use this link here: https://www.familycookbookproject.com/mts
I will share the winner in a post next Monday, January 17th... so please share and tell your friends and family about this post, or even just share this link to the Family Cookbook website!
Blessings to all!
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