Ice-coated Winter Wonderland

What I saw out of my bedroom windows this morning immediately made me think of the term "winter wonderland". Why's that? Well, what I beheld made me wonder: Can winter get any prettier than this?

Two days ago it rained//sleeted and the temperature got above freezing. Yesterday, in the morning it warmed up a tad and rained a little bit, and then towards evening the temperature got colder and it snowed some. Today, the sky is cloudless, and the icy coating on all the trees makes them sparkle like diamonds when the sun shines on them. When the wind blows on the trees the ice crackles on the branches! Here are a few photos.

 

 

Mom's artificial flowers remind me of all the color that I hope to see outside soon...

Can you tell I'm already looking forward to spring? :-)

Ice is nice, and it makes everything outside look very pretty, but I am looking forward to the kind of weather where I don't have to put on ice grippers on my boots when go out. Mud season will be here before y'know it. :-)

I think our cats are also looking forward to the warmer weather...

...especially the temperatures where the water is liquid again!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! Not many new things have been happening at Green Gambrels during the last month. I've started getting into running (more like jogging right now!), and icy roads are not very conducive for that. Oh well. Over the last year or so I've working on getting in shape, reforming my eating habits and learning more about fitness and healthy food. There are foods that I eat now that I hadn't even heard of a year ago, or if I had heard of them I thought they were "weird". But as I learn more, I'm amazed to see how God made so many different kinds of foods that are incredibly beneficial to the health of the body. Anyways, maybe in a future post I'll write more about my favorite "weird" foods. :-)

I've been involved with several Bible studies that we have going on during the week. On Tuesday night I attend a young peoples' Bible study hosted by a friend of ours from church. We've been  studying the book of John, and it's refreshing to go through it again and see different facets of the same gems that have been in there all along. On Wednesdays I and a few other church friends go to a nursing home and visit the folks there. We sing, have a Bible lesson and sometime I do some fiddling for them, too. On Friday nights we have a Bible study there as well, and more and more people are interested in coming to hear the Bible read and the gospel preached. It's really exciting! We also have a Bible study at another friend's house on Sunday nights. We've been studying Romans. With every study I feel like I'm understanding a little bit more of God's grace, wisdom, power and plan, and more of my own position as a believer in Jesus Christ as my own personal savior from my sins. On Wednesday afternoons, after the nursing home visiting time I'm involved in study of the book of Revelation with my Mom and two other ladies. It's quite an interesting book, with lots of things in it that I don't understand! However, there are things that I can take away from it that are practical lessons/reminders for everyday life. For example, in chapter 22 Christ reminds us that He is coming quickly! I'm really looking forward to that day. The beauty that I see in the ice on the trees in winter time will be nothing compared to His glory!

The Sunset

I never cease to be amazed at the beauty of the setting sun. It seems to be exceptionally pretty here at the farm! :-)

This is our view out of the kitchen window.

The heavens do declare the glory of God!

Lunar Eclipse!

Get ready for a total lunar eclipse on Monday night! Or rather Tuesday morning. The eclipse starts on Nov. 21st at 1:33 EST. According to this NASA article the moon is completely engulfed in the earth's shadow at 2:41 and lasts for 72 minutes. They say that if you only have a minute to slip outside into the cold and view the eclipse that 3:17 would be the best time to do that.

It sounds like it will be a neat display! Wake me up at 3:17. ;-)

Sledding!

Today I went sledding for the first time this winter! It was a lot of fun. I went with my sister and some friends of ours on a looooong hill in town. On of the things we like to do when we go sledding is to make trains, where we line up the sleds, either side by side or front to back. Our goal is to make it all the way to the bottom without breaking up... it's not often that we actually meet that goal! :-)

The snow was powdery, so we had to pack it down a bit to make good sled paths. It was actually snowing some while we were sledding!

We're supposed to get 4 to 8 inches of snow tonight, and 12-16 inches tomorrow! I guess a lot of snow plowing/shoveling will be in order pretty soon. :-)

Oh, here's a picture that my Dad spotted and I took a couple nights ago. :-) The flash went off (by accident) and it ended up coming out pretty good... not quite what I wanted but I still like it.

Psalm 74:17

The Star of Bethlehem showing

Tomorrow our little group of believers is hosting a Star of Bethlehem showing tomorrow (Friday the 18th) at 7:00 PM at the Center Theater in Dover-Foxcroft. You can check out the theater's website Here.

You can read more information on what the Star of Bethlehem is about. As a short summary, the Star of the Bethlehem is a documentary by Mr. Rick Larson that delves into the mystery of the star; was it a real event? Was it really a star?
Mr. Larson uses high-tech astronomy software to travel back in time and discover that truly, the heavens declare the glory of God.
You can visit the movie website here: http://thestarofbethlehemmovie.com/
You can find out more information about the star here: http://www.bethlehemstar.net/

Please be praying!

First snowman of the year!

Here is my first snowman of the year!
He's a very happy snowman.

Just as Dad was going to get a picture of me next to my snowman, he fell right into my arms. How tragic! We were able to rescue him and prop him up, though, and he is still standing to this day.

Kittens!

Today we're picking up two kittens! They'll be outdoor barn cats. They certainly will have work to do in the mouse department! I went out to the barn today and some snow got blown in (we got about a foot of snow) and I saw some little tiny footprints... :-)

Anyways, there aren't any goats in the barn anymore... just chickens! We're working in insulating the coop, so Poquito, Brownie and Chickie are enjoying the luxury of the barn.

So anyways, I'll probably have some photos of the kittens in a little while. We're actually picking up four of them, one for a neighbor and one for someone else (we don't know who yet!).

Snow! Almost...

Up here in Maine the seasons tend to turn pretty fast. The longest season around here seems to be... you guessed it! Winter!

Today we got some snow. I'd say it's about an inch or more. There's more in the forecast for tomorrow, but the forecast also says that it'll be sunny on Friday. But anyways, even though it is still Fall, the air definitely has a winter chill to it. Time to turn on the heat and the gas stove! That's as good as we can do for now until we get a wood stove... or rather, a metal stove that burns wood... :-)

Just to in case you've never seen a Maine winter, or have forgotten what snow looks like, here are some pictures from this past winter.

Yes, it is a regular sized fence! ;-)

That's what I call a real snow shovel!

After the ice storm