Eagle Interest

Excitement is gaining as we enter the month of December tomorrow and have plans to eagle watch the day after Christmas. Our son, the bird lover is truly ecstatic about it. We have eagle books on hold at our nearby library to pick up this week so he can learn more. For now, today we're reading all about them here:
Wolf_Lodge_Bay Eagle Watch - (following passage taken from their site): Each winter from November through February a migrating population of bald eagles visits the Lake Coeur d' Alene area to feed on spawning kokanee salmon. The BLM began counting bald eagles around Wolf Lodge Bay in 1974. The number of eagles returning to this area varies from year to year.  Kohanee Salmon Facts  and Bald Eagle Facts pages.

Rain may have washed the snow away one day but its again visited us with all its glory dusting the ground and trees so beautifully!

 Happy Sunday!

Birthday Exploring

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband today....although we technically celebrated last weekend with at the $3 dollar movie theater seeing Guardians of the Galaxy and then a little shopping trip we still gave him wishes today for a happy day and asked him what he wanted to do. Sleep in and go hiking to explore all the way to each corner of the property. Perfect fun. So slept in he did, we all ate some lunch and then we got our boots on and jackets to explore the woods of our yard. 25 acres- he brought his tablet and put up a map of the property and gps for our location to find out how far we could go. Trampling through wooded area's then back onto the paths covered in sticky mud. The rain had washed away all the snow and all that was left was watery muddy puddles in the paths so we did our best to walk along side them. Upon our hike we stumbled across some old equipment on the property engulfed in long grass and weeds. And then traveled back home for some warm fire and hot tea. A few good books in each of our hands and we settled in on the couches for the afternoon watching the rain that came just after we stepped inside. A beautiful day.

Letting our son capture some photo's he says 'Mom the tree's are so big they don't fit in the picture!'

Love these enormous tree's!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So many beautiful posts on facebook by friends this morning. It's hard to put in just a few short words my thankfulness for this life, for everything in it. Blessings come every day, big and small, you just need to look for them. I wake up each morning, thankful for a new opportunity a new day to do good, to be a good mother, a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter, a good person. In prayer I thank the Lord each and every day for all the blessings he has given to us. Even in hard times, even in sad times there has been purpose, there have been things to be thankful for as the Lord leads us on the path he wants us to be on. We have faith and trust in that. So on this day of thanks I could make a list of each thing in my life I'm thankful for-  but the most important thing is just 

family. 

That one thing brings me more joy than any other and I'm most thankful for. My husband, my children, and each and every person in our family and extended family. 

Fun with my Buddy

Sister slept in late...super late..so this morning my buddy and I ate breakfast together, got the animals fed, took the pups out to potty and explore and headed out in to the yard with the sled again and then for a little snowy hike to look for tracks. Its nice to get some quiet moments with both the kids alone. This afternoon brings our son's robotics class at the library that he does with his daddy each week and our daughter and I get to read and relax together in the midst of new stories. A relaxing and fun day in between some schooling and working as well.

Beautiful snow filled day again. Loving our white winter wonderland.

Dusk Snow Drive & Sledding

I imagine from now on for the next few months there won't be any other type of pictures except snow filled ones if we're capturing things outdoors...we had a sunny day Saturday and now there's only snow in the forecast ahead. Yesterday before the sun was to go down we took a short drive, we laugh that usually as we exit our gravel road we go right to head into town and last eve we decided to go left...take a drive up further into the mountains towards the lake. We traveled in all about an hour- it was much more snow filled and we didn't want to venture too far due to it becoming dark early. The drive was pretty- gorgeous snow covered pines lining the road and every once in a while it would open up to a snow filled pasture and we'd gaze out at a farm, a barn, livestock, horses and cows trotting about in the snow. Beautiful. I still gaze in amazement at the shear size of these tree's....amazing.

Today back to work and school but still fun was had...a little sledding out in our yard since we have just enough slope! Our son demonstrated a few sledding moves and asked me to join him! Oh boy...sledding we did...down the hill super fast, falling out onto the snow and laughing so incredibly hard we were both in tears. What fun! A little lunch and a board game by the warmth of the fire and some afternoon quiet reading and drawing for the children while momma finished up some work. Another incredible day together.

 Finding our family rhythm again of school, work, family time, play time balance.

More Snow....

Its funny how yesterday was so sunny and clear, how the day before the rain washed nearly all the snow away- and now today, the snow has been falling, heavily. Happy Sunday to all, we are all so incredibly blessed. A few snapshots to share of the pups in our snow...

Exploring the Out-Buildings

The rain came heavy last night but no more snow so pretty much the rain washed the snow away with only little tidbits left over on the grass, and ground. None left on the tree's leaves. But snow is again in the forecast for tonight. This morning the sun poked its head in and out of the clouds and gave us an opportunity to go explore the several outbuildings around the property.  There's a shed turned chicken coop, a huge dilapidated barn and a men/women double sided outhouse. We only can go into the shed as the others aren't safe but it was fun to take pictures, walk the perimeter and look through open wooden slats and windows. I love old buildings, especially barns. They tell a story, you wonder about what was kept there, what a farm looked like in its hay day. There's many old broken down barns along the country windy roads here as you travel from town to town.

 The old barn.

 The shed turned chicken coop...

 The outhouse, over taken with tree's.

Nature is a beautiful thing, taking back what once belonged to it before humans over took that piece of land...growing into every old building, window and roof top eventually covering it with trees, grass, leaves, and shrubs once again.

{this moment}

Linking to Soule Mama

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Logs, Robotics, First SNOW

Every day seems like something new whether it be a new bird in nature we spot out the front window, a drive into a new nearby town, a class or new book at the library....this week I finally got a few shots of the logging company down the road so our family and friends could see, of course not the great shots as we were moving along in the car! We also ventured to the library and our son joined a robotics club/class that meets weekly for 1 1/2 hours- they have volunteers and parents work with the kids- they get to start from the beginning and learn all about simple machines then get into programming and building more complex robotics as well- right up our son's alley plus that time gives our daughter more library and reading time which she loves. We had our first snow fall this morning, starting out light and continuing- I can't wait to see what the rest of the day and week brings, more snow fall I'm sure. The kids were ecstatic, playing in it already even though it barely covered the ground- writing the letters 'snow' in our driveway, eating it of course. Such fun. The beauty of the seasons just keep astonishing me- so gorgeous whether it be the leaves turning colors and falling when we first arrived a few short weeks ago or now the cold crisp snow, pure white falling to the ground so gracefully. What a blessed life.

 Silly boy not wanting to be in the picture this time :)

 Momma needed some snow boots!

First snow is a big deal for two kids that have never lived and hardly traveled to the snow before!! Such FUN!