Cue Wild Life

And i'm not just talking about those mountain goats~  Arriving in Prince George we were surprised (and maybe not so surprised) to find just as many different "animal types" (tehe) living/sharing our motel space with us.  Tree planters are of a different breed and among the expected dread locks, plethora of ugly sweaters, and Birkenstocks were the not so expected jugglers, juggling flaming batons and unicycle riding in the motel parking lot.  We have truly seen Prince George's best wild life attractions (and or circus folk? we are not so sure).  Here is a picture of some of our new friends and crew members lazing on the tarmac watching the circus happening outside the motel.




Spotted.  Tree planting types filling up 'piss packs' at the local watering hole/dirty stream off the side of the highway.  (Yes, these are their actual names, and my apologies for the profanity...lord knows there is much more where that came from...) 'Piss packs' are used for putting out forest fires.)  - no joke.
                           

Today is day 3 of planting and although I am a bit more cheery, today was a tricky day.  Wee confession, I am currently sitting in a second cup taking a much needed quit time, waiting for Cait to bring Matt home from the airport).  Its amazing what hot tea in my little paws in a real (not paper) cup does for the heart.  Alas, here's a little glimpse of this silly little day.

Shovel, screef, tree, stomp .  Today my shovel sings out many times, hundreds of times, hopefully tomorrow thousands of times (groan) throughout this day as I hit hidden rocks, frozen ground and sneaky root systems stretching wide below a ground blanketed with mossy.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp.  These little sneakers are my earthy enemies masked under a graveyard of old rotting logs and littered stone.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp .  Pain creeps up my forearm and I growl (actually), as my streams of thought become conscious, I am wakened from far off places of the most depressing kind, a wallowing of should have’s and could have’s, which I am quite content bathing in at the moment.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp .  Today is a day which looms long, and although the sun is beautiful, I disregard it’s gentle hello because it is much easier to cloud over God’s goodness with the fact that muscles I never knew within my body scream profanities in my direction.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp .  The earth smells sweet of moss and deep dark soil and my watch reminds me that it’s only 10:30am.  Gah! How can it only be 10:30am!  Is this really my life for 3 whole months! Shovel, screef, tree, stomp .  It is in this moment in the middle of a field, I reprimand myself for thinking that tree planting was similar to riding a bicycle because oh gash OH GASH, it is not (not sure yet what its is like yet...).  but what a bummer.   I wrestle with this false expectation all day today and I wrestle it good until I realize that the stealthy enemies below the soil who have made this day all the more difficult are also those who surly hold my feet firm.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp .  So I give thanks (groan) Shovel, screef, tree, stomp.  and I scrounge deep to see blessings among sore feet and tired arms and what musters from the bowls of my soul, deeper than any rooted tree is the depth of God’s grace as he loves me up and down.  I cannot avoid this redemption given so freely, in this day, in this moment alone, breathing through these hands and then heart.   Oh growing pains, thankyou lord, even for those.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp.  And we will turn this ugly land beautiful.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp.  Shovel, screef, tree, stomp.  

Tomorrow Day 4.  Bring it!

  

Cue Mountains

These little snapshots were taken on our adventure from Edmonton through Jasper all the way to Prince George.  I cannot tell you how exciting this was to see wild animals unbridled, no fences no nothing, just being.  And we got sooo close to these little cutties too.  Among the mountain goats we also saw a lot of deer, possibly the backside of a moose (in a ditch) and it is up for debate but we think either saw a silver fox or a wolf.  This little billy walked right across the road behind our trailer.  bahhhhh.

 These little guys were just chillin by the side of the road...nbd

Magical.

Pop Rock Well wishes

Notice our sleepy passenger in the back! tehe

Wombmate Hospitality

My sister Maggie is one of those special people that makes life all the more sweet.  She is kind and thoughtful giving so freely and joyfully to whom ever is in need.  She is one of those people that are life giving, and you cannot help but breath in glimpses of heaven when you are in her presence.  Maggie inspires me to practice radical generosity she so humbly weaves into her daily life.  I think I won the jackpot when it comes to sisters.  I woke up to this glorious sunlight on Saturday morning, and it was such a treat to snuggle up to my sister and gab about life and all things good.  

On to PG.

Glory Days

Alas! We have arrived in Edmonton! Eeeep!  And today is our day of rest after 4 days of driving.    Today we will have baths, we will read, we will eat and probably sneak in another shower, lounge and rest and lounge and read some more.  Tomorrow is another long drive, and then we work.  5 days on, one day off (repeat).  I thought since I've been capturing moments along the way, I will share from the beginning....

Here is us celebrating after a battle of wills, with a stubborn pair of rusted old screws, holding hostage a licence plate imperative for our trailer's drive back home from Penetanguishene.  Little did we know in this picture that we would meet our first (of many) mother trucker of hills.  So what does any rookie standard driver, sans experience do while confronting a steep incline you ask?  Well, you reverse into a smallish ditch, you crank the wheel and then you roll the heck back down the hill, swearing to avoid all hills from that day forth.    

Enter, Peniel. Or 'Penny' for short.  She's a beaut.  And she is our pre-loved summer home.  'Peniel' means 'face of God'.  And while this old girl rested outside for many years, she will actually be our saving grace on this trip, as it means we do not have to sleep in a tent for three whole months!  eeep!  When we opened her up for the first time though, I may or may not have doubted her potential as she had a lot of holes and needed repairs.  With many gracious hands, we wrestled with her walls till she had no choice but to be a blessing and mighty home!  Sewing holy holes anew, repairing tricky door locks, ripped screens and scrubbing molded vinyl squeaky clean, Penny has been restored with much much love.  When we look at Penny she will truly beam the face of God because she has been made new by the body of Christ (which is you kind friends), so thanks for being part of a holy restoration!  

I also looked up where Peniel comes from, and for those that are curious, look through Gen 30:32.  Peniel is the name Jacob gives the place where he wrestles with the Lord, unwilling to let him go until the Lord blesses Jacob.  He names this spot of transformation and blessing 'Peniel' because it is where he "saw God face to face".  My prayer for this adventure is that we encounter Christ in all things, face to face, eyes open, determined to see and know all of God's blessings.

Day 1 blessings:  Firstly, our friends came early in the morning to send us off on our way.  This entailed gifts of 90 hand sewn cutie envelopes with letters for each day we are gone (Goodness knows we are loved muchly!). Cait hand wrote ALL of our driving directions!  What a dedicated driving companion!  Upon our arrival at the boarder, we realized (or should i say Cait realized) that my passport  was expired!  Three cars away from border patrol, we actually thought we'd had to turn around and go home, but by the grace of God alone, our guard was more concerned with the fruit we had in the car (4 apples...tehe) and needless to say we crossed the border just fine.  After that....easy breazy!  Welcome Cait and Jussie to America!                                                                                                

Later that evening when we got to Chicago, we ate at the all American, Denny's (whoot whoot) which was an exciting first for me!  Denny's taught us two main things.  That the fine people from Illinois don't eat plum sauce with chicken fingers (wtf?) and even more shockingly don't even know what plum sauce was! *Gasp* aaaand secondly, they got it bad for bacon!  Needless to say, we did not indulge.

Day 2:  Who knew driving could be so fun!

 Day 3.  Enter Rob, our fellow road tripper extroardinaire and crew member.  

                                          

The prairies are something one must definitely see in a lifetime.   So so beautiful.  Rolling through this part of Canada was one of my favourite parts, we sang loud, we talked passionately and we were treated to one of our fav radio program's with Jian!  On this particular day, he spoke about all the chaos happening in the news as of late...majority governments, a death of a political figure, exciting hockey games blah blah blah.  His point was, that he felt over burdened with news, that the airwaves were completely saturated with information and that he just wanted and needed to slow down and take a breadth and give people a gift of silence for a change.   And then he did just that. he took a long, silent and beautiful breadth on national radio and it was glorious.

Looking out over the prairies, listening to beautiful silence was so fitting because to me the prairies seem almost like a visual breath.  The prairies are the absence of everything chaotic with it's vast and open spaces and empty roads that go for miles and miles.  It's in the nothingness of the prairies that make them so grand, and breathing in all this openness was surly a gift of God's abiding glory.

You can never take too many pictures of God's glory.  Don't worry Steve, these ones are sans colour correction :) 

                            

    

   

And this brings us to where I am now.  Plunked on the floor, enjoying this peaceful day.  Love you all, onward and upward and to Prince George we go!  85 days left.

La La La Freedom!

So I realize I don’t write on this blog very often, or really, at all… actually J  sigh…

But today is the day where a certain sub section of excuses I love using are no longer valid.   Because today friends, marks my first official day of not being a student! Eeep!  This means I will soon (sadly) become just another one of those suckers out there in the ‘real world’ doing that thing called working?  Eeesh.  Fortunately, I found a loop hole in the system! and am prolonging this whole entry into the ‘working world’ by hiding away in the boreal forests of BC and Alberta starting May.  This is all to say that I have a whole month of doing nothing but sitting around in my underwear all day writing, reading, playing music!  Weeee!  

So if you will allow me to percolate in this moment long enough to put some thoughts together, I will be back sooner than later. (although, this is not a promise, but I will make a valiant effort) ha!