Sunday, January 31, 2010

Curious Combination, But Don't Dismiss Us Yet! :)


Hey Everyone! Here's a picture of the snowman Abby and Benj made today. I think it's the biggest one they've ever made!:)

Psalm 147:15-18
"He sends out his command to the earth;
His word runs very swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes;
He casts out His hail like morsels;
Who can stand before His cold?
He sends out His word and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow."



Psalm 148:8
"Fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds fulfilling His word."

Here are some verses that Sarah just put up about snow and how God uses it to perform His works. The latter has always been a favorite verse of mine. I walk around dramatically quoting it. Actually, one time when the house had been really loud and I was merely quoting that most thrilling verse, Mama looked at me and said, trying to be patient, "Would you please stop quoting lines from movies!" I guess I was a pretty good actress! : ) Now, sorry to add onto Sarah's very pretty verses, but here is something that has nothing to do with that. Sometimes joint posts don't match well! :D
Okay. Please someone, tell me I'm not crazy and that you do this: when I read a book, most of the time I will not cry when I read it, because I don't like crying in front of people, and since I'm usually in the center of all the action, I am seldom alone. But I have a lively imagination. It can be a fault, and a damage to my health ;) Because I was reading the second book in the Scarlet Pimpernel series, and a young woman was about to tell a great secret that would send someone to the guillotine, and Sarah was trying to talk to me. I listened not. In that moment I was living the scene and I couldn't bear interruption. My eyes absolutely flew down the page, I had a raging headache, and my cheeks were flushed, my heart pounding. I then finished the chapter, and was reluctantly able to talk to Sarah rationally. Perhaps I am too easily pleased- these are not harmful thriller books from the twenty-first century. Nay, these are remarkably historically accurate books written in 1902 about the French Revolution. I assure you, they are some of the most exciting books I've ever read. And I am a huge reader. I have devoured most every book in my house and the Walkers, and on Morgan Wilson's shelf. (Just ask Matthew of Morgan, they'll tell you.) I really think Matthew, by the way, that The Scarlet Pimpernel and the other books in the series can vie for the most exciting book with Duncan's War and Co. ! I am not kidding! Thanks King's Daughter for doin' the interlibrary exchange thing so that I could be transported with delight reading something that I hadn't read and that I didn't make up, and that I could devour at my leisure!
In case anyone is wondering, the books center around a mysterious Englishman who calls himself "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (an English wild-flower) and who, along with his trusty band of 20 young men rountinely snatch the aristocrats to safety right under Robespierre, and Merlin, Focquier-Tinville, and others noses. They are so very good books in my opinion, and Daniel's, and I suggest you read them. The only thing I should warn you about, is that there is a bit of language in them, but the more I read British literature, the more I wonder if some of the words we consider bad here in America are bad there. Can anyone clear that up for me? Anyway, thanks for allowing me to go off on a rabbit-trail there. Laugh at me if you will. I laugh at myself, but I am a passionate lover of books, and I do not read them- I swallow them whole! ;) -Rachel (and Sarah)

...And The Entreprenureal Spirit Lives On

Yesterday, instead of spending the entire day playing in the snow, Daniel and Sarah found a way to use it for their benefit. During the afternoon they went out to a neighborhood around here with shovels on their shoulders, and cleared people's driveways and walkways for money. It was hard work, but they were each rewarded with a nice chunk of money. Today Daniel and I are going back out, and we'll do more clean up. My only problem is that it froze super hard last night and everything is really crusty and icy! Dad has set a good example of a provider with this storm. As you would expect, winter is a pretty tough time for landscapers. Nothing grows, so no one needs our help! So Dad saw this storm as a good way to make extra money and leverage our income with his Kubota (sp?) tractor. He got 4 of 5 jobs to clear parking lots. (Blockbuster's, a vet place, two churches, etc.) He was pretty excited, but you can pray for several things: first, that the tractor will work correctly, second that Dad will be safe driving on these roads with a huge trailer and tractor behind, and third, that he will stay plenty warm! We are going to make the Wilson's chicken pie for him for dinner! Well, hope you all are staying warm and enjoying the snow! -Rachel
p.s. although I didn't get chance to go out with Daniel last night, I did wake up at 6 this morning and saw the most beautiful full moon shining on the snow. It was SO bright out there! I was half tempted to go right then in the dark and take a walk, but then I realized that 1) nobody knew where I was, 2) I could get hypothermia or something ;) maybe tonight!!!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

My Favorite Illustrator

Hey guys! Before you read this, make sure you go on down to Sarah's post below and see all the pictures of our snowy-day fun! Okay, most of you know that I love Tasha Tudor's illustrations. They are so timeless and beautiful! One of my dreams-that-will-never-some-true-since-she-is-deceased is to write a book and have Tasha Tudor illustrate it. But anyway, Mama found a really neat website about their family, and about her home, and it sells a bunch of really neat things, so if you want to learn more about this intriguing lady, click here. Also, here is the recipe for snow-cream. It tastes so good! I just made it with Gracie, and it is so much cheaper to make than icecream!

Snow Cream:
One gallon (16 cups) fresh, clean snow
1 cup heavy cream or sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix all ingredients and return outside to stay frozen until you eat it! Yum!

Aaahhhhh, SNOW!!!!!!!!!

This is sweet little Gracie in her first snow (or at least that she remembers:)
Here we are enjoying the snow time.


Here are some tracks we found. I wonder what they belong to?;)





What shall I say except that hoped for and delightful word: SNOW!!!!




Yep. That's right! We have 4 inches on the ground right now and it hasn't stopped snowing. We figure it's been getting an inch deeper every hour or so!!! This morning I was awakened by delighted screams of the younger ones as they looked out the windows to see if "the bald weatherman" ;) was right!!! We had set out our snow gear last night and got all bundled up right away. Rachel and I played around as if we were children frolicking and romping in the snow. It's a very dry snow, which isn't that good for snowman and balls, but we still find ways to get each other thoroughly covered in that fluffy white stuff! We had a little trouble finding the newspaper for Grandma June at the end of the driveway. But hey! What can be better than coming into the warm house, shedding your snowy clothes after romping around for 45 minutes, and getting a steamy mug of homemade hot cocoa???!! Well, I should go now, because everybody else is having a snowball fight and I can't miss any of the fun!!! I hope everybody else is having as much fun as we are!!!




-Sarah

Friday, January 29, 2010

I Spy Something White and Fluffy and 12 Inches Deep! (I hope)


Hey guys! You already know the thought first and foremost on our family's mind today! (SNOW!!!!) Yes, finally, us poor Southeastern Virginians will get snow! They are saying the most we've had since 1989! Whoopie-doodle! I will echo Daniel and Abigail's sentiments that I am looking forward to being childish and undignified! I will play with the rest of them and sled with the best of them, and generally act much younger than my 17 years. Snow! Snow! Glorious, fluffy, white, snow! I am quite giddy as you can see! There is really nothing quite as white as snow! Aren't you glad that Jesus makes us as white as the whitest sort of snowfall you've ever seen? I certainly am! "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow"
When it comes to rare snow, I am not at all a Robert Frost who wants to quietly watch his neighbor's woods fill up with snow with his little pony who thinks he's strange. So, what sort of things do I look forward to in the snow? Let me tell you: Iceskating crazily with the girls on puddles, plunging through and getting muddy, seeing a spot that is totally innocent of footprints, and after thinking about how awful it is to mess it up, purposly plunge my feet into it and make a snow angel, playing fox and geese with a freshly tramped wagon-wheel shape, making a snowman that is round for pity's sake, getting at least one snowball in my face, and having a grand snowball fight with Daniel who always wins, stripping off my wet outdoor accoutrements and tossing them in the drier to dry while I thaw by the woodstove and drink hot cocoa, making ginger cookies that warm you from the inside out with their spicy goodness, cuddling up with a thick old volume of the next three Scarlet Pimpernel books, (pure bliss!) writing a letter in reply to someone elses (if I receive any letters today) guessing what animals make tracks in the snow and where they lead, everyone having extra-rosy cheeks, thinking about how I wish I could be sledding on our old hill, but having lots of fun just the same, watching a movie as a family, and last of all, winkling Daniel into taking a moonlight-snowy walk with me, and enjoying a world transformed by both! (pretty please dearie Daniel? :)
Well, gotta go make lunch, and believe me, I will be on a rampage tomorrow and the weathermen shall know the chill, cruel wrath of Rachel on their little bald heads if they are wrong and the ground is just frozen and bleak tomorrow! I am getting worked up already! I might have to temporarily label them "Provoking toads" if they are wrong! (just kidding! I wouldn't say that to any person.... I might think it for a split second though!) -Rachel
p.s. the picture above is NOT our house:) Just some clip art. -Sarah