Chicks and Mushrooms

Our dear prairie Rose's twelfth birthday.

She made her own apple cake drizzled with frosting.

 

One day last week we ended up with fourteen children here! Three children had stayed overnight, and five more came for a few hours while their mom was visiting the children's dying grandfather in the hospital.

Here our girls and friends are cutting up fruit and making sandwiches for lunch for fifteen people!

The children bought a batch of new chicks at Big R.

Timmy built a grass hut for them!

All getting a good meal!

Someone Jonathan has been working for wanted to give him some wild mushrooms his Russian wife had picked up in the mountains. He gave us a big paper bag heavy with these enormous, edible mushrooms.

This biggest one was eleven inches across the top.

The man told us his wife cleans the forest dirt off with a napkin, so I am trying to do that!

You do not want to get the mushrooms unnecessarily wet, especially if you are going to dry them. 

There were so many mushrooms that we figured we would dry some of them like he showed Jonathan, laying them flat on newspapers for a couple days.

You slice them about 1/8 inch thick and lay them out to dry.

The bigger mushrooms, you have to cut in pieces before you slice them. At least that is what I did!

These mushrooms are very tasty and filling, good protein and full of Vitamin D, the man said. 

These daisies are special. You don't find daisies very often around here, but we found these last Monday on our way over Vail Pass, when our car broke down AGAIN!

While we waited for it to cool down enough for Jonathan to fix the burst radiator hose, I picked a few of these daisies that reminded me of Pennsylvania. 

We always have choices in life.

We can choose to complain, or we can choose to look for daisies.

Usually you find what you look for.

And now what we looked for and picked is adorning our table. 

Camping, Worshipping, and Just Hangin' in There!

Rain forced an early stop from hiking at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and we returned to the camp spot we had paid for at the Canyon's campground. It was just $12 a night, very reasonable. We enjoyed seeing a mama dear with two fawns. Jonathan took the boys to the amphitheater to see a presentation about wildcats while we girls stayed back at camp.

 

Sunday morning was quietly gorgeous. We rushed to get ready to leave for the Western Colorado Holiness Chapel at Delta. Ever try to get nine people ready for church after two nights of camping and two days of traveling and hiking? Jonathan had tried to patch the overflow tank in the car, but it didn't work.

We had to ditch the overheating car 20 min. from the church, and three children and I piled into the travel trailer for the rest of the way behind the truck. We saw a police, but he did not see us.



We hoped we could sneak in unnoticed, but first of all, we were late, so of course we were noticed. And secondly, the speaker, John Zeigler, knew us because he remembered his and my family getting together and playing games when we were children, and also knew us from our recent pictures in the Arms Around the World newsletter. So here we are, a little fried from broken down vehicle, having sneaked into the back seat, and we still get called out from the platform with many kind and gracious memories about my family singing, and so on. We can't hide anywhere! But I think how gracious people are to remember good things! Their family sang very nicely together, and I managed to get a copy of the song "The Shepherd's Point of View," from Lianne.   It was interesting sharing memories and catching up on each other's extended families. After the afternoon service, last of the day, I managed to get a picture of their family outside the beautiful log church: John and Lianne (center), Janae (age 22, left), Caleb (17) and Jonathan (20). Not sure I'm spelling names right. 

The folks at that church are so gracious. Dave Rhoades said he lived only half a mile from where our broken down car was parked, and he loaned Jonathan tools to fix the problem and helped him with it. Dave and his wife then helped drive the vehicles back to church to pick the rest of us up to proceed with our journey to-----

who-knows-where!

We never know just where we will end up on trips like this. I sort of feel like Sarah following Abraham, "knowing not whither he went." And sometimes, like this weekend, despite all the cares and breakdowns along the way, we end up in bits of Canaan land! We did not have much gas and did not know where to camp, but at the top of McClure Pass, there was this pulloff and a little road leading off of it, which I took the car to explore.

Meanwhile, the children piled out of the truck to explore, too, and they found the whole mountainside ripe with wild raspberries!



What a delightful supper!

I don't suppose I am ever happier than when our children are contentedly doing something fun and profitable. We found a little campsite just a few hundred feet above the pull-off, hidden from view, and right against another hillside of raspberries! What a relief to just walk along little paths in the greenery while the children are searching for berries!

A little bit of heaven.

 

 Sometimes faith ends in sight--and taste!



 

That night, Jonathan remembered that for these few days, there is an ongoing meteor shower. So we all found spots to lie out under the stars, and had a great family time watching one falling star after another. It was a VERY special time.

 

The next morning, it was warm and sunny, and I enjoyed sitting on a rock in the middle of berry sprigs, reading for my devotions, while the rest of the family fanned out again over the mountainsides, quietly searching for more raspberries for breakfast! What a lovely morning! I hated to leave that beautiful spot with all its warmth, berries, ferns, and flowers.

On down the road, we had to stop at road work, and got a picture of Crystal with Crystal River in the background. 

Our destination for the morning was Hanging Lake, at which we arrived about noon. All parking spaces were filled, so we had to drop some children, take the truck and trailer back to the last exit to park, and bring Jonathan back with me in the car. We found a sort of parking spot which worked.

Then we started up the steep, rocky trail. The hike is 1.2 miles one way, not including the quarter mile walk to the start of the trail. 

We just took it slow and easy. The little ones collected snails along the way, as we reminisced taking this hike 8 years ago, when Timmy was 2 years old. He had climbed almost the whole way by himself! 

The hardest climb is right at the top. Sometimes it is the end of the trail that can get awfully rocky and steep...

and at the moment of writing this, my friend Audrey Zarkovacki called, asking for prayer because her elderly father is in the hospital after more strokes. The family has been told he is "at the end of life," and give him probably only a couple weeks. He cannot swallow, is partially paralyzed, and his brain is hemorrhaging. They are thankful he has not been in pain, but it is hard for Audrey and her mother to watch his life ebb away...It was hard for her to talk without breaking down.

May our precious Lord extend His hand to help the family up these last few, rocky steps, even as we helped our little one up these last few rocks.

We made it! Three children climbed on ahead to the top of the falls.

One of the most beautiful spots in Colorado.

Just a few hundred feet behind the falls is "Spouting Rock." Water gushes out of sheer rock face.

 



Just enjoying that water! You can walk behind it, and go on along a path to the top of the falls at Hanging Lake. What a beautiful place, and so worth the long, rocky hike!

May we be faithful in our journey to heaven, where we will forever enjoy Living Water!

As Rev. John Zeigler spoke about "Motives for Marching," Sunday afternoon, using Joshua's march around Jericho as a basis,

we need to keep marching and being faithful for our parents' and grandparents' sake, for our children's sake, for the sake of the those who need to be saved, for the sake of our pastor, for the sake of our having come out of Egypt, and for the Lord's sake.

Keep trekking! Don't let rocky trails intimidate you. Don't let failures stop you. Rest if you must, but keep on plodding!

Choosing Where the Stream Is

Last weekend we made a trip to visit the IHC services in Delta, CO, on Sunday, but on the way and back, we turned it into a family camping trip. Because our van doesn't have the power to get our travel trailer over mountain passes very well, Jonathan decided to pull the trailer with his truck while Crystal and I drove a little car she and Sam had purchased from a friend to learn to drive in. After close to four and a half or more hours of driving on Friday, we were on the lookout for a camp spot near Blue Mesa Reservoir. Afraid we might end up camping in a treeless campground with dozens of other campers.

 we scouted about, first checking out Dry Gulch Campground, which turned out to be just what its name declares.

The next campground back a little road was called Red Creek Campground, and there we found this cozy little nook all by itself. Only one other camp spot was back at the end of the lane.

 

As soon as I drove into that little road, a robin flew across our way, and then a mourning dove alighted on a branch. I knew something was different from the waterless Dry Gulch camp. There were birds and flowers galore back in there! Robins, dove, goldfinches, and all kinds of little brown birds that remind me of me. God knew we needed that little sanctuary spot to recoup a bit and enjoy His creation! We camped right next to a beaver dam! I was afraid of mosquitos, but it was not bad at all. What a blessing to choose a spot where water was as compared to a "dry gulch."

May we always choose to camp where the water is.



The next morning, it was comfortably warm while we cooked breakfast over the campfire. Then the older children wanted to hike up to the top of these bluffs on the other side of our camping spot. Jonathan gave careful instructions about safety, and sent them off with one of our two walkie talkies.

In the very center of this picture, three of the children made it to the middle of the top of the bluffs, by the lone tree.

Here, you can barely see them, but the same three are now on the very top of the rocks. Should have known they would not stop till they got to the very top!

Meanwhile, in the heavenly sunshine and quiet mountain warmth, Danny, Hannah, Jonathan and I started picking berries at some large bushes we found.

We still don't know for sure what kind of berries they are, but they are edible! We know because I just ate two berry muffins chock full of these dark blue/purple berries. The closest I could find doing a search on the internet was Juneberries. 

Danny and Hannah are good at finding every manner of bug, butterfly and beetle. 

Even Jonathan helped pick, or else pulled tall branches down low so we could pick. 

We said a reluctant goodbye to that beautiful spot, and went on our way.

Only to have our first of several breakdowns! The new, very old car, sprang a leak in the overflow tank of the radiator as we traveled up this long hill. Steam gushed out the hood. Jonathan was cruising along far ahead, and there was no cell phone signal.

I frantically texted. A kind man pulled over and found out the problem and wished us luck as Jonathan finally arrived back.



Then who should pull over next by the side of the road but our own Pastor Mosley!

His family had traveled over to visit the IHC service Friday night, and were on their way home. He graciously gave us a gallon of antifreeze, which we poured in, along with some water as well.

I will not even attempt to tell about all the other breakdowns the next few days, of which there were several.

However, we made it a little later to Black Canyon of the Gunnison, in photo below.

You can see the river about 2,700 feet below to the left of us. They say this canyon is just about as awe-inspiring as the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We climbed out at several of the hiking spots, enjoying new scenes each time before rain and an overheating car forced us to find another camp spot for the night. 

If you want to see more scenes of this amazing canyon, you'll just have to go see for yourselves.

Day of Delights

 

Last Saturday our home school group had a picnic and activities at Fox Run Park. Here the children are preparing for a relay race, carrying an egg in a spoon.

 



I appreciated that the leaders included even the little children in most of the activities.

It is a wonderful way to teach children how to show love and patience, and lets the little ones know they are valued, too.

The race ended with a wee girl trying to race a big teenage boy (from another family). The big boy, instead of hurrying to make sure his team won, poked along on purpose. The little girl kept dropping her egg off her spoon. So the big boy kept accidentally dropping the egg off his  spoon, too. The big boy did sidle in to win the race for his team, but not without giving the wee little girl a good chance to try!

I so appreciated the unasked for kindness of that teenage boy.

Kindness always wins.

This is the kind of behavior that makes me love our home school group.



Now the children must pour water from their cups into the cups behind them without looking!

The littlest girls, including Hannah, play with bubbles.

Web tag.

When "It" catches someone, they must hold hands and keep tagging--within boundary lines.

The web gets longer and longer, till all the boys are caught, and just one girl!!!

Frantically, she tries to catch another girl, until finally Crystal managed to be the last person not caught!

And if you think it is easy to run around tagging people with a row full of boys and girls hanging onto you, you better think again!

This relay race had a child from each team wearing just one big workboot!

Danny did pretty well!!

He must be well practiced at galumphing around with his daddy's work boots!

More practice galumphing.

The best part-getting ready for the water balloon fight.

Carrie and Rose, who had stayed overnight with Zarkovackis, had helped fill the balloons earlier in the morning. 

Splat! Splat! Splat!

Gathering for the picnic while raindrops begin to patter.

It was so refreshing to have other parents engaged in helping the children have a wonderful time. My hat is off to the Zarkovackis for putting this together so wonderfully.

Before the picnic, Rudy, the dad, asked the blessing, praying that God would help us parents to truly raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

We were fascinated with these little nuthatches flying about and skittering up and down on the trees.
It's been a long time since I've seen nuthatches! 



Our little puppy

I dubbed this iron my "Miracle Iron."

Sunday morning when I accidentally had to iron something quickly that I wanted to wear to church, my iron refused to work at all. We'd been having trouble with it, but jiggling the wire usually got it to work.  That morning it would not work no matter how much I jiggled the wire!

So I spoke to Jonathan about it.

And he said, "Oh, did any of the children bring in that iron I picked up yesterday--at the dump?"

What?

Yes, he explained, he was dumping his load of trash at the transfer station, when the guy in charge suddenly asked, "Can you use an iron? There is a brand new iron over there--still in the box!"

Well, Jonathan figured it might come in handy, so he picked it up and.....

the next morning my old iron quit working!

God knew ahead of time and provided!

Several times in the last couple weeks God provided in special ways for us, one day after another!

He is truly a wonderful God!

 

Below, after a busy morning of cleaning and vacuuming, I was having the little ones wash the baseboard. Hannah decided to do more and wash this dirty garage door!

She and Danny had such a ball scrubbing lots of woodwork and the door and...

the top of the freezer!

Or was this more about having something to climb?

How quickly woodwork and baseboards collect dust and dirt!

And how quickly do our lives also get dusty and bogged down.

Lord, wash us anew.

Renew our minds, refresh our spirits,  restore our souls.

Wipe away any dirt and cobwebs of sin or error, the dust and wear of daily use,

"Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with Thy free spirit."