Spring, in all its simple joys, arrived early in the Eastern Townships. My heart sings as I listen to the gentle breeze whispering among the trees, watch the unfolding beauty of buds springing to life, thrill at the sight of birds darting about, and relish the new life manifesting itself all around me.  Words are insufficient to describe the wonder of this joy-filled season.  Pictures do not do it justice either, however, they do capture a glimpse of it.

   This year the birds especially have come under the scrutiny of the camera lens…

Some birds do not like sharing the feeder very much…

   Some of the birds we have seen have so far eluded the camera. The dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, and several others have yet to be photographed.  Perhaps I can improve my photography skills (or lack of them).

   “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

   The weather Tuesday was so beautiful, that we called it an “outdoor project day.” Something that has needed doing in a while is painting the balcony. As the pictures show, the participants in this task were having a good time…

   Some people had a little more fun than necessary…

   No, actually it was accidental.  Though frankly, it is no wonder with the strange contortions he made to reach certain spots:

   While some were out front painting the balcony, William was out back painting what was a dog house and is now destined to be a calf hutch.

   At the same time, the garden was also being turned for the first time of the year. This is outstandingly early for this activity – usually the garden is either mud, or still covered in snow in April!

  Oh, I nearly forgot the picture of the inspector…

   Recently, I photographed an interesting flower.  Can anyone guess what it is?

   Apologies for the photo quality…  Yours truly needs to take some photography lessons from her older brother!

   This post is rather overdue. At the beginning of February, some work was begun in the basement. The work progressed quite rapidly with a whole team on it. First, waterbarrier “paper” was put up on the walls.  Then horizontal studs were screwed on to the NUDURA so that there would be space for running wires.

   For doing the dry walling, we rented a gyprock lift which saved an enormous amount of time and labour. It was amazing how quickly we were able to work with that help!

Many hands make light work.

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might…” Ecclesiastes 9:10

   The most important kind of construction, however, is not that of working on a house, but that of building in the lives of those around us. “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” I Corinthians 3:9

   The mid-March weather was unseasonably warm.  The sun was shining in all its glory, the snow was melting at a prodigious rate, and a number of us began itching to get outside. One of our favourite summertime activities (for it truly seemed to have gone straight from winter to summer) is bicycling, so since the weather was lending itself toward this, several of us took off. Our first trip of the season, not counting the little 30 km excursion Stephen and I took together in February, was across the city and out into the farmland beyond to return a couple CD’s borrowed from some friends. What began as a pleasure ride, turned out to be quite an adventure. Not far down the road, we were faced with a flat – and no spare.  Thankfully, a bicycle shop nearby was open and we were able to change the innertube.

   When we arrived at our destination we were delighted to learn that we would have some extra company for the return trip – complete with a little detour to visit a wonderful, Godly widow friend.  Her yard was still covered in snow. A couple people took advantage of the easy “bicycle rack.”

   The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we enjoyed God’s marvelous creation as we travelled.

   This first trip made us all the more eager to get out again. About a week later, another trip was planned: beginning from our home, we would circle around the south of Sherbrooke, stop in Coaticook for icecream, and finish up in Cookshire – a total of nearly 100 km.

   Our route took us primarily through farmland. The rolling hills of open fields bordered by thick woods, the farm buildings dotting the landscape, lanes running beneath the overspreading branches of huge trees – it all seemed to lend itself to photographing.

Seeing sap buckets hanging from trees without any snow around was a little odd, but it is the right time of year…

   This trip, too, was not without adventure.  Less than 30 km into the trip, a bike accident (thankfully inflicting only minor injuries) necessitated a rather lengthy stop as we sought to repair one of the bicycles. In due time, however, we were again on the road to Coaticook.

   Lunch break was well appreciated by everyone, particularly as it was somewhat later than we had anticipated. When we had finished, we rode down the street to the Coaticook icecream manufacturing plant.

   While a few pictures were taken while riding…

… the cameras came out most often when we were paused to rest or talk.

Can anyone tell me why photographers like photographing each other?

   As I reflect again on the time spent enjoying fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ and marvelling at the magnificence of God’s creation, my heart is filled with gratitude that God has given us the capacity to know and understand the reason for it all – His glory. He has chosen to display His glory not only in nature, but also, and more importantly, in lives surrendered to Him.

“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another…” Isaiah 42:8

“I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.” – Psalm 13:6

How I have longed for and awaited this day!  Ten years ago, the Lord worked in my heart to give Him my desires and aspirations and to start praying daily for my future life partner.  Five years ago the Lord brought someone into my life who would, in time, become more dear to me than anyone I have yet known.

In the years I have spent among groups of godly young people, I have met thousands who are seeking God and His ways.  One internationally renowned preacher described these groups as “the Godliest of the Godly young people” he has ever met.  Nevertheless, I have not found even in these circles anyone I can look in the eye and see that their heart is truly and fully dedicated to the Lord and His ways.  To see the fear of God exemplified in the same life, to discover an unshakable faith and a godly love that overflows onto all those around, to find responsibility, determination and endurance has been far above my expectations.  To know and be known of such a person is a privilege and an honour beyond my merit.  I believe that only God could have worked such a wonder.

It is my immense pleasure and honour to announce that I have now been officially granted by Mr. Taylor a courtship with his daughter, Erica Ashley Taylor.

This has been long in coming, and we have already spent much time with each other’s families.  Perhaps I will make another post soon with more details.

Some noteable posts from our blog: be sure to read between the lines; you may find some interesting statements and/or pictures.  
http://www.createdinchrist.com/Blog/post/More-concerts.aspx
http://www.createdinchrist.com/Blog/post/Friends-and-Fellowship.aspx
http://www.createdinchrist.com/Blog/post/Bicycling.aspx
http://www.createdinchrist.com/Blog/post/Hiking-the-White-Mountains.aspx
http://www.createdinchrist.com/Blog/post/Friends-Photographs-Valentines-Day.aspx

Erica, I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy because of your fellowship from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about you, since I have you in my heart and you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

We haven’t had much in the winter this year.  Up until recently, we probably had a total of about a foot or two of snow.  But although there hadn’t been much snow to shovel  most of us do like to have at least one or two big snowfalls.  We finally did get some snow last Thursday, and it was just the right consistency to roll into large snowballs…

So, we made two large snowmen.  We had to get creative to lift the snow balls (they were quite heavy), but we did finally do it with just our own muscle power – and some old pallets that happened to be not far away.

The taller of the two snowmen stood 10 1/2 feet tall including his hat.

The snow melted a little after that, so they both tumbled.  All we have now is one big ball and two smaller balls stacked beside it.  But it was a lot of exercise.

Isaiah 55:9-11 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

   Over two and a half years have now gone by since we began building an extension onto our house.  Though closed in before the winter of 2009, much work remained to be done.  Over the winter months, many things were accomplished indoors and the coming of the following summer took us again outdoors to finish the siding.  However, as time progressed and the large room upstairs was rendered fully functional, activity diminished and the construction all but came to a standstill.  After a long stretch of time, a few things took place: the installing of the staircase leading from the large room upstairs to the basement, and, more recently, the plastering, painting, and installing of mouldings between the old and new sections of the house, completing the upstairs part of the construction other than the area around the stairwell.

   This past week saw the beginning of another step…

… the basement! Actually, the work began during the early part of January when Evelyn took the initiative to start cleaning the place up so as to make space for construction activity. Thank you, Evelyn, for once again putting your God-given organisational skills to use for the benefit of others! And before you say, “That is cleaned up?” concerning the above picture, let me assure you that, yes, it is remarkably cleaner than previously. I’ll leave you to guess what how the place looked in December.

   The first wall to go up was the one by the stairwell. This was a little finicky because the drywalling had to be perfectly flush both with the stairwell and the not-yet-installed wall. So, though it may sound odd, the drywalling was placed before the framing for the wall.

   After that, things took place in quick succession.  The wall dividing the basement in two was built most of the way across.  For the moment, we are leaving an access through it. The reason for this will become evident later on. The hardware store delivered the wrong size of drywalling – 12′ sheets instead of 8′ ones – but we are working with that.  It can be a little tricky to lift it into place, but Nathanael knows techniques that make it easier. Thank you, Nathanael, for all the time and work you have invested here!

   Rapid progress was made Wednesday and yesterday as wires were run, strapping was nailed to the ceiling, and two dividing walls were put up.

   It is exciting to see the construction recommenced. Even as we build, we are reminded that though we may labour to build, we labour in vain unless the Lord is the One Who builds. (see Psalm 127) And there is more than simply the physical building going on in a home…

   “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16