Hike to Elephant Rocks in Missouri--and How Heavy is The Rock You are Carrying?

These pictures are pretty old by now, but the Saturday that we were in Missouri, I went outside to help Joella hang laundry. 

I just love hanging laundry outside, especially with a sweet sister like Joella, who happened to have laryngitis that week and could only whisper!

 

Rose showing Grandma her glove she is knitting!

Several of us got together to help at my parents--stacking firewood, repotting plants, cleaning the garage, trimming the old mums, cleaning out the flower beds, raking, burning trash, putting up a bird feeder...

laying linoleum at my parents' place.

Jonathan, Craig, Ethan and Sam helped with that.

Carrie wanted to make fruit pizza turkeys! Candace helped her.

That afternoon, some of our families took a hike together at a state park called Elephant Rock State Park.

You can see why they were called Elephant Rocks!

There used to be a granite quarry here.

There were probably hundreds of people there. 

I loved watching the little children who might have been scared to crawl through this tunnel, but they scampered eagerly through because--

because their daddies had gone through first!

The precious security in knowing that Daddy went first and so it's safe!

Kezia's husband taking good watch care over his little children while letting them have a marvelous adventure.

It would have been nice to have more time, but it was fun to see what was there even though we hiked through rather quickly.

Here was an old engine repair stop building.

There were a number of rocks where holes had been drilled to put in sticks of dynamite.

Here's another scene of the rocks with dynamite holes drilled in it.

And yet another, with apparently a drill bit still stuck in it.

This spot was called Fat Man's Squeeze!

No need to squeeze!

Look out for David!

There he jumps over Fat Man's Squeeze!

My beautiful sister Kezia and husband and dear little Josiah.

The lake at the old quarry, 40 feet deep I understand.

An item of interest.

My Favorite Christmas Decoration This Season

It wasn't hard for me to decide which was my favorite decoration this Christmas season.

It was this little pair of girls' skates that I found while cleaning up the basement about a week ago.

I was about to send the skates to the Goodwill pile or to give to friends with little girls,

 when I thought of using them to decorate the little stand at the end of the hall.

I couldn't decide which looked better--the skates facing each other...

or kind of side by side. 

I ended up deciding side by side was better, but it's okay if you disagree.

You are free to your own opinion. 

The evergreens from our Christmas tree branches that we trimmed off, and the holly and red bird and pine cones completed the cozy little scene,

with lights to add just the right sparkle.

The skates were just something we already had. 

I used the skates just the way they were, except for lacing up the laces, something old and used and ready to be discarded.

But just a touch of imagination and creativity and light

transformed those skates into my very favorite decoration for this Christmas season.

Above is the sled-board snowman that Timmy and I made last year.
Another decoration made with just what we had.
I think of how Christ takes us just as we are--old, weary, weak, ready to be
discarded,
dispatched,
and disregarded.

Christ comes into the picture, picks us up like I picked up that pair of old skates,
and His merciful,
kind,
loving,
and amazing imagination just goes to town.

He thinks, "I wonder what beautiful trophy of grace I can make out of this person?"

And then He cleans us all up from our sins,
fills us, not with holly, but with the Holy Spirit,
and adds that sparkle of joy and light that comes only from His presence.

We can go through our week day resting in the light of His presence.

Studying, teaching and checking lessons, 

doing laundry, vacuuming, sorting Christmas gifts, dealing with vehicle problems,

cooking and shopping and stacking firewood and all the day's duties and delights.

"God with us--" Emmanuel.

It is Emmanuel who adds the flame to our candle wick,

the holly to our empty places,

and the sparkle to our discarded skates.

Christmas Tree from the Mountains

Two Saturdays ago, our family headed to the mountains to find a real Christmas tree.
Jonathan had purchased a tree tag a few days earlier. 

There were so many other people up there for the same reason, too! But we managed to find a spot back away from most everybody to hunt for our tree.
As you can see, we had our work cut out for us to find a tree the right size, with a trunk less than 6 inches in diameter, and one that didn't look too funny!

For me, it was a chance to have a fabulous family time out in God's creation, a time to hike and get fresh air and enjoy trees!
It was so beautiful that morning, just before snow came in.
Jonathan took this surprise photo of me rambling through this aspen grove, nearly knee-deep in snow some places.
I can't remember hugging any tree, but either I did in sheer bliss with the beauty--or maybe I was trying to just keep my balance!

We hiked through woods and valleys, through deep snow and through bare hill sides where the sun had melted the snow.

Carrie led us quite a ways to this tree below, which was perfectly beautiful, but whose trunk was a couple inches too big in diameter for the allowed size to cut.
How would we ever have lugged that tree out of there?

From there, we went on down a path we discovered through the valley.

And I found another tree.
It was very tall and very slender, but the trunk was just the right size, and we'd get to keep the extra length of log for a project Timmy wanted--maybe a hitching post.

Jonathan started the chopping. He had wanted to bring a cordless saw, but the children insisted on doing the job the old fashioned way!
Only an axe!

All the older children took a turn.

I stood there enjoying the beautiful carpet of brown aspen leaves.
Drank in the beauty of the woods.

The tree finally went down!

Then came the trimming part, and cutting it into two pieces so we could manage to drag it back to the truck.
It was too long and heavy to manage otherwise.

We weren't even sure where the truck was after all that hiking around in circles--or how to get back!
We had hiked all over the place and some of us had virtually no idea where we were--except Jonathan, who has a nose for direction.

He thought we should go back by way of a certain direction, and amazingly, within a few hundred feet, he found a path that would take us to the truck.

But it was a good long way up the hill even from there, and this tree was quite heavy, even minus the bottom ten feet, which we hauled up little by little as well.
Carrie and Timmy worked at hauling it up to the path/lane that Jonathan and the younger children had discovered.

I carried the axe and some branches of greenery and helped some with the tree.

Pretty soon  we were winded.

We had to keep taking breaks to catch our breath.

Also we were getting hungry! We should have taken lunch, rather than just a few snacks. This was taking a lot longer than we'd expected.
Jonathan came back down with a strap, and this is how four of us hauled the tree the rest of the way.

We carried the tree to decorate our home for Christmas.
We went to a lot of bother for this.
An artificial one would actually have looked better and been easier to get--simply to bring it down out of the attic.
But--this is about family time and getting out in the mountains,
and finding something real and having a wonderful time.

Christ went to a good deal of bother to come down from heaven on that first Christmas--and it had less to do with the Tree He died on--
as essential as it was to fulfill prophecy--and so much more to do with having a wonderful time with family.
He could have chosen an easier way--like to just dump us all and destroy all the sinners and make a new earth. 
But all His life, He was going through the woods and the fields and the hills--
looking toward a certain tree.
A real one.
A heavy one that He was going to haul
and then hang on.

 All His life He was looking forward--solemnly and obediently--to that Tree-

anticipating that final act of redemption.

It was a heavy tree, and one that He, in His humanity, could not carry alone.

Someone--Simon of Cyrene--had to help Him

(so don't be too distressed if someone has to come to your side this Christmas season to help you with a burden too heavy for you to bear, or with some heavy cross that you must carry). 

But He hung there alone--to pay the price for sin for you and me.

For the joy of family time, and of a real tree set up in our living room with simple country ornaments, we went to the trouble to go to the mountains and spend the day hunting and hauling.

And for the joy set before Christ, the joy of the redemption of the human race, and of being seated in heaven in victory over sin, death and the devil, Christ carried and endured the cross.

It wasn't so much about the Tree, or the Cross, as about Family.

He wanted to bring us into the family of God so we could have a beautiful, wonderful time in heaven with Him.  

Jesus, in this Christmas season, in the middle of our joys and blessings,

in the middle of our heavy loads, our burdens and cares,

we pause to thank You for coming that first Christmas!

Thank You for carrying that tree to Calvary for me!

What I Want for Christmas Can't Be Bought

This is the table that was set up at the family reunion for a fun family auction.

Different ones contributed all sorts of little things that were to be auctioned off, with the proceeds going toward a project.

There was everything from dishtowels to books to yarn to crochet hooks to shoes, home-canned jam or salsa, Christmas items, notebook, quilt strips, shoes, etc.

 Our Hannah had knitted these sets of dish cloths with matching scrubbies--and I couldn't help noticing how the prices were bid up nicely for these--just because a little girl had made them by hand and four different moms happily paid up for them.
I was proud of the way my family valued a little girl's hours of loving labor to make something beautiful and useful all at once.

 One person, we won't say names, kindly bid on anything that wouldn't sell,
to make sure it sold for something and the auction could keep going. He also gave some of the rest of us a run for our money! There was a lot of banter and fun and laughter--especially when Fain was the auctioneer with a corny remark for everything that he was trying to auction off!

 

"I think as you grow older your Christmas list gets shorter, because the things you want can't be bought."
That was a quote I saw on Facebook recently.

Gifts and things are nice, but what can't be gotten for money are what we value most of all. 

Family.

Love.

Forgiveness.

Laughter.

A merry heart.
 Kindness.
 Sharing.
Joy.
The ability to laugh at oneself when others tease or play tricks on you.
A grateful heart.
Appreciation.
Valuing one another.
One way my mom requested we value each other was to stay off any screens while together there for those couple days. It was a blessing to have family willing to cooperate. Everyone helped with the work, and everyone helped with the play!

 AND, of course, everyone helped with the eating!!!
It is always kind of hard to get the food line started because no one really wants to act like they want to be the first one. So Craig, my brother-law,  and I tried to help organize fun ways to start the food line.
Once we asked trivia questions about family history (like what year was the first set of bells gotten, and who was the landlord at a certain place and what was the second name of a certain cousin who was not present) and whoever answered first got to take their turn in the line plus choose a second person to go with them. Otherwise we'd have to wade through 50 different questions!

Another time, everyone with January birthdays were asked to go first, and then ones with February birthdays and so on. This helped things move along, while giving different ones a turn to go sooner rather than later.
**********
We had set up a table with little "sunshine basket" gifts for Mom and Dad.There were jars of homecanned jam or jelly or salsa or pickled beets or applesauce or honey.
There was a bird feeder built by Samuel Morley the week before while he was at our house, and a bag of used cards for my mom to go through to make again into her own delightful homemade greeting cards. She still sends out probably hundreds of cards and letters a year to friends and family.
I decorated this table with another of Carrie's strings of lit up autumn leaves.

We let Mom and Dad open a few of their gifts right away. Elon and Anita had brought Dad a much needed new, warm jacket, and for Mom there was a pillow that said, "Grandmothers give the biggest hugs!" And there were two sets of brand new flannel sheets.  I think my parents were quite overwhelmed with those brand new sets of flannel sheets. (Thanks, Gabriel and Elizabeth for your generous thoughtfulness with those!)
The other gifts were left for Mom and Dad to open one or two a day after everyone was gone back home.

After the auction, Fain had brought the most hilarious book I ever heard, The Wonky Donkey. He said Mom would have to read it to the little ones.
Well, Mom had never heard of this book, but Fain had all the little ones gather around Mom so she could read them the story.
Well, as you can see, more than the little children gathered round!

That simple, funny little story was a winner!
Definitely a highlight of the reunion.
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."

Candace got a whole bunch of us, (even Chris Jackman and me of the adults) to play Fishbowl.