getaway

Last weekend (Friday to Sunday... not the extra Monday for the long weekend), Eric and I took off for a much wanted and needed weekend.  Maddy was away at Youth Quake (I can't even begin to tell you how it delights the heart to have your kid come home from something like that so passionate about Jesus and serving Him.... that's good stuff, people) and the others went to Uncle Brent and Auntie Glenda's.
For my birthday Eric gave me a weekend at our brother-in-law's cabin.  I could have gone by myself (extremely tempting) but I kind of like having Eric around, so I took him too.  It was sooooo good.

Driving there, we saw a gorgeous sunset.  Through the slightly sparse trees, the sun was blocked enough that we could look directly at it - a great round glowing ball sinking over the horizon.  Not 5 minutes later, on the opposite horizon, the moon retaliated actions.  It looked the same size as the sun - huge - but a muted glowing pink that slowly rose.  Eric commented that if we were on a rise, we probably could have see the edge of one going down while the edge of the other came up.  It was amazing.

The cabin is great - simple but lovely.  We got snugged up for a cozy weekend of fires, snow, reading and watching olympics.

Saturday morning Eric made french toast.  He always makes it way better than I do.  I'm pretty sure that the reason for this is the extra cup of butter he uses to fry them.  And I really don't think I am exaggerating here.  Never underestimate the power of butter.

Usually I pray for large, softly falling flakes of snow..... my favourite.  And that is what happened in the morning.  Later when we went for a walk, the sky was bright blue but there was still snow.  Perhaps the light wind was just blowing individual flakes, but there was snow.  And it looked like a snow-globe.  Tiny little flakes, glittering and reflecting the sun floated down.  Not hard to see the snow on the ground glittering - that happens all the time (and always breath taking, in my opinion), but while it is falling?  Almost never.

Once we hit the lake (and saw what looked like hundreds of ice fishing shacks far out on the lake), I lay down for a snow angel and rested there a bit, looking up.  It was such an amazing sight.  Snow flakes falling distinctly seen against a perfect blue sky.  Awesome.

We also climbed around the side of the house in snow past our knees.  So great.  At night when I couldn't sleep (around 12:45 - 1:30 a.m.) I went outside and sat on the side of the deck in the deep snow.  It was so mild out and the moon was so bright (full), it was calling me to enjoy it in the silence of what felt like the whole-world-but-me-sleeping.  The highlight of my weekend.  It was awe-inspiring.

And how can you go wrong with a cute man (being your husband of course....), gorgeous weather, a real-wood fire stove, snow, silence and this:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
The Bible by God (totally non-fiction)
a journal from Marlo (sniff, sniff.... I miss her)
and
the movie Defiance.
Good stuff people.
When we got home and went to pick up the kids, they made it clear that they did not want to come home (I didn't have the heart to tell them that I didn't want to come home either).  They had a very good time.  They had just went outside to work on a snow fort (built with "bricks" from packed down ice chipped off from the driveway!).  We figured we'd join in with the fort building.  And while I thought I would have rather been snuggled up reading more good books, that was a pretty fun way to end our time!