What is it about the long winter days of January that call me into the kitchen? I do find something quite comforting about spending time in the kitchen, baking and cooking up wonderful things for my family to enjoy.  

Recently I enjoyed an outing with some of my dear friends to a local Greek restaurant.  It was a lovely way to spend a drizzly, rainy day in January.  

If you are a local to the Post Falls area, most likely you will recognize this restaurant for its incredibly good food... that is FULL of garlic! Oh yes, this restaurant specializes in all things garlic... and they have a reputation in the community for their amazing food!

 Here we are, friends! We've made it into 2021, and 2020 is now truly a year that is in hindsight.  How thankful I am for the many mercies and love of the Lord on our family throughout the past year, as He always has.  And whatever this year holds before us, I look into this year through a "glass darkly" yet with complete faith and trust that the Lord's provision will be sufficient, no matter what our earthly circumstances or political stage looks like.

When I walk each morning, it gives me a chance to spend time in the Lord's creation, and to bask in the beauty of His world.  There is something so comforting about looking upward to the skies, and to the horizon beyond me, and to the world in front of me, and to realize that our Lord does ALL THINGS WELL.  It is in those times of walking with Him, praying, and spending time in the Word in the morning before I leave, that I find the strength, peace, and joy to carry on with each day He has given me breath to enjoy. 

As so often is the case, here in north Idaho, January can be a very foggy, gray month.  The fog hangs low and thick, and the horizon often may not stretch much farther than the breath you breathe.  And it can seem in those gray, foggy days that the skies, mountains, and familiar horizons have forever disappeared into the mists that surround your present being.  Yet, in our heart's mind, we know those familiar landmarks are there, even when they cannot be seen. Soon though, in its own time, the sun will break through the clouds, and shine its light onto the world, illuminating clearly that which could not be seen just moments (or days) before.  

The reality is that the sun is always shining, 

up above the clouds, 

and it is just the clouds obstructing the sun's rays 

that prevent the light from shining.  

The mountains have not moved, the horizon has not changed, nor has the forest disappeared from sight.  It just takes the sunshine to bring back into focus what we knew was there all along. 

Just as it is at night too... many times in the darkness of the hour, it is hard to believe the reality of what we know to be true.  Sometimes the darkness can cause us to doubt what we know.  Yet... without fail, the dawning of the day always comes, and sunlight floods into the darkness, and truth is made known. 

January Fog

Each year, it has been our tradition to make a yearly trip to Texas to see our families and dear friends.  We have always flown, because it is just so much quicker, well most of the time.  We have been delayed our fair share of times, along with missed flights and lost luggage.  However, most of the time, it has been the fastest way to travel.

This year with covid, everything has changed. Flying did not seem to be the best option, and so we decided we were going to drive to Texas.  There were some states that I had never driven through, and we were excited to see the views and make our way down and back to Texas. We chose to go through Montana, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and then finally Texas.  

I've tried to condense the 900+ pictures I took during the trip to the few I would like to share here.  We saw so many beautiful sights along the way and enjoyed every moment with our families.  Most everyone in our family in Texas has already had the virus, and we had the virus visit our home and community here as well, so we decided to make the trip happen.  Dan's mom is in a nursing home and has not been able to get out since lockdowns began back in March.  We were able to spend a lot of time with her, as she stood or sat at the glass door, and we gathered under the portico of the nursing home entrance and talked on the phone to her.  It was a blessing to see her and to spend Thanksgiving with her in this way.  

We celebrated three big milestones in my family, with my Mom's 70th birthday, the celebration of our daughter Danielle and son-in-love Zak's marriage, and my niece's graduation from RN nursing school, along with the usual Thanksgiving festivities.  So it was an important trip for us to make in every way, and we are so thankful that we were able to go and see everyone. 

We left after work on the Friday before Thanksgiving and drove about 5 hours, making it into Montana.  The skies serenaded us as we drove.

Saturday morning we turned south on I-15 and drove through Montana and then again into Idaho.

The morning skies dusted the mountain tops in rosy whispers... a delight to see.

At a chilly 7 degrees, the landscape was crisp and still.

Our son and my husband did most of the driving.  I was on "camera duty". {smiles}  They enjoyed switching off driving.

Soon we entered the beautiful state of Utah, and I was enamored with the red sandstone mountains.

Windmills became a common sight to see as we traveled.

Highway 6 through Utah took us through some incredibly beautiful countryside, winding through the mountains with views in every direction.

We drove into Arches National Park, and enjoyed our short visit.  Because we had so many miles to cover, we did not stay long, but did get to get out and walk up to several of the lookouts and views.

We drove through Utah, into Colorado for a few miles, and then entered New Mexico.  We made it to Gallup, New Mexico Saturday night.

The next morning, we drove into the sunrise over Albuquerque, New Mexico. What a brilliant sunrise it was!

Through northern New Mexico, the beautiful rock outcroppings continued, so beautiful to see them as you traveled.

We stopped at Whataburger in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my husband's favorite place to eat a fast food breakfast.  Whataburger is a Texas hamburger chain and Albuquerque is the farthest north on our route that you can find one.

Soon we entered the great state of Texas.  This northern area of Texas is wild and desolate, with many pieces of oil machinery as the only landscape markings to see.

We dined on Chicken Express for our evening meal, another great Texas fast-food chain.

We made it into Kerrville, Texas Sunday evening around 8 p.m. We were quite ready to crawl into this comfy bed!

The next morning the sun was shining beautifully! We gathered with the family at the nursing home to see Dan's mom.  She has been on lockdown since early March and was so delighted to be able to visit with us.

We then drove to see my sister and her family, and they treated us to a meal at Salt Lick BBQ.

If you want all you can eat Texas BBQ, the Salt Lick is where you need to be... amazing food!

Then we made it to my parent's house the next day, and Mom prepared a wonderful meal for us.

Thanksgiving preparations were well underway!

The next day, Mom cooked homemade pizzas for all the family, and everyone came to eat and visit,  the night before Thanksgiving.

My nieces made a charcuterie board for everyone to enjoy.

My brother and his wife hosted the Thanksgiving dinner in his covered sunroom overlooking the pool. It was such a perfect place for us all to sit and visit, and eat way too much food!

We had way too much food... our plates were groaning!

My brother's neighbor's cows come every night to his fenceline to get treats.  They were fun to feed!

Mom and Dad enjoying some special swing time with one of the grandkids.

Our family always enjoys playing the White Elephant game after our Thanksgiving meal. This year we were able to play it outside in the beautiful setting under the gazebo by the pool, as the weather was beautifully warm.

We gathered around the fire as evening shadows fell.

Somehow in all the excitement, family pictures were a last-minute thought. My mother had already taken the littles back to "Grammie's house" to spend the night, and didn't get to be in this picture.

The day after Thanksgiving, we had three big milestones in our family to celebrate... my Mom's 70th birthday, Danielle & Zak's marriage, and my niece's RN graduation. It was another big day of celebrating family! My brother and his wife were so kind to host two big family events back-to-back! He barbecued for us all on Friday and we had another big day together.

My mom had help reading her birthday cards from two very smart readers! {smiles}

Danielle and Zak enjoyed all the special attention from the family, who were not able to be at their wedding.  This was Zak's first time meeting our family, and he was loved by all!

My niece will be graduating from RN nursing school this month, so we celebrated her hard work and achievements as well.  Needless to say... it was a big day of celebrating!

The day after the celebration, it was time for us to return home.  Back on the road, the west Texas oil fields and machinery were our view for many hours of driving!

I am always amazed at how different the view can be on the way back, even though it was the same way we came, not to mention that some of the roads we traveled were in daylight now whereas before we traveled them under the cover of darkness.

We stopped at the Wilson Arch just outside Moab, Utah.  We decided to climb up to the arch. It was a bit of a steep climb, and a great way to stretch our legs after spending long hours driving.

The views from the top of the arch were incredible! I don't care much for heights, and the uneven ground at the top, coupled with the steep slope once at the top was a bit unnerving, so while I was happy to have made it to the top, I was quite happy to make the descent back down to the level ground, ha!

I'm a pretty adventurous soul, but the steep, uneven ground at the top of this arch tested my spirit for adventure!

Standing at the top... you can see how the ground slopes downward.  There is no real "even" ground to stand on.  The rock is very slippery too.  I didn't have "climbing" shoes on as this was an unexpected stop, and would definitely say that you probably don't want to make this climb without decent hiking shoes.  I'll be honest... I was happy to be there, but really glad to begin the descent back down from the height of that arch!

Ryan took a picture of us once we reached the bottom of the arch.  It was a great experience!

As we continued our journey towards home, the snow on the mountaintops reminded us what awaited on the home front we were heading to :)

More views as we traveled home.

December's Beaver moon serenaded us morning and night as we drove.

The roads were beautiful for the whole trip, dry and clear.  We ran into snow on the Montana side of I-90 as we went over the pass.  The snow was light that was more wet than anything.  Thankfully we crossed both passes without any issues with the snow.  We heard that later on that day, the snow had continued until they began requiring chains to be on the pass.  We were glad to have made it over when we did!

With great thankful hearts, we made it back home safely, in the midst of the snowstorm.  Our animals were overjoyed to see us, although they had been well taken care of by our wonderful neighbor. It is always wonderful to travel and see family, but even better, to come back home to happy animals, and to sleep in our own bed once again :)