The Outdoor Hour Challenge this month was to find the extraordinary in the ordinary in our December world. Our Northern Utah weather did not disappoint in the least! We had a beautiful snow storm and I only wish I had a good camera to capture the awe of what we were able to witness. I love to go out on my front porch and slowly take in the scenery around me, smelling the fresh air and feeling the cold air on my face. Then hop back in my warm house and be grateful I have heater and some hot chocolate.
Here in Utah, we never get ice storms, but this year was a little different. We had an ice storm that coated everything in ice and then it snowed on top of the ice, leaving the trees and bushes covered in this gorgeous white for days.
We went out in the early morning before the sun had melted what we call "God's Artwork" from the car windows. The children were fascinated by the frost designs when we took an up close look and found something very extraordinary in something so ordinary in the winter. We were also amazed at the sea of "crystals" so prominent in the backyard with the morning sun shining on all the fresh fallen snow.
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Big woman noticed an "ice tree forest" along the bottom edge of the car window, big man was just interested in making his own designs in the frosted window, and I was fascinated by all those "diamonds" sparkling in my backyard.
When we came inside the kiddos opted to use thenotebooking page Barb provided while I used my nature journal to record our observations. After drawing our pictures and journaling, we added a little glitter glue to our pages for the sparkle effect the snow and the frost gave in the sunlight.
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And then of course, after school time all the children had to go back out and build a snow cave and pull each other on the sled through all those "ice crystals".
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I feel so blessed to have a Father in Heaven that loves us so much to give us all this beauty to enjoy through the dark, cold winter.
