Miracles Still Happen....

    First I want to say, I don't write in my blog near enough. However, if I am to follow the example of my sweet Lisa, I would do it more and consider it a sort of journal, so I have decided that's what I will do. I will try and keep up on this better so it is a living photo album and journal of our life in McCall, by writing in it at least once a week. So with that, I will tell you a little about why I am on here at not quite 3 am.

    We are renting a house situated in a neighborhood nestled amongst tall Ponderosa Pines and Quaking Aspens. Over the last couple weeks, it has become a Winter Wonderland. It is only the 5th of December and young trees are already bent over like tired wanderers, trudging through a blizzard. The shrubs and Aspens are huge doilies, their snowy branches weaving intricate lace designs.
I really feeling like I am living in a Thomas Kinkade painting!
    Our home is very small...in real estate terms "cozy", and I am having my first experience of living with a wood stove. I will admit, I had misgivings....mainly bred by my dear Mother. She hated them, said they were messy and she never wanted one. (yet she lived with coal heat for over twenty years when we moved to East Carbon, UT when I was a teen...ugg!) So I really wanted a fire place instead. We had had one of those in a house we rented in Montrose. I don't know why I thought a fireplace would be different, but somehow I did. Yet, in the scramble to locate a house quickly when we moved to McCall, we ended up with a house with the dreaded wood stove.  After all, we KNEW we would regret not having some way to burn wood, come winter, if we didn't. A way to offset high heating cost, as well as a central place to get warm.
    Well, I am here to tell you, I love our wood stove, even with it's drawbacks, (Limited size inside, so logs must be placed strategically if they are a little on the long side) but no different then a fireplace, as far as ashes, and the wood chips strewn around. The advantages out weigh the disadvantages immensely. It has a glass front so we stillhave the the ambiance, yet because of the way they are made, the heat is much more efficient. There is little to no smoke and lighting it is fairly easy and there isn't all that much ash.
    So MOM, I love  you but you were wrong, they are not bad at all! In fact, when we build a home, I want an in-set wood stove, that way I can have a mantle to set pretty's on and hang stockings....
    Just in case you're getting tired of my rambling about the wood stove, you will have to bare with me further, because it is the inspiration for my writing right now. You see, it has to do with a miracle I just experienced.
    Most nights, Bridger ( my little Yorkie, for anyone who doesn't know who Bridger is) usually wakes me up around 3 am to go potty. While I let him out,  I take a peek at the stove and usually add two or three logs. That way, we still have a fire come morning. Just a little bit ago, I went through my routine. I put Bridger out our sliding door that is goes right out from our bedroom and then ran quickly to the bathroom and then out to check the stove. Upon inspection, I knew it needed a couple logs. Poor Bridger is still out in the snow, so I hastily throw a couple logs on. One is a little longer and a pain to get in and I have to nudge it some just to get the dang door to close. It ignites quickly into flames when set on the red hot embers and I dash back to my bed room to let my freezing little pooch back in. It feels nice to snuggle back into bed, and quickly I am cuddled against Peters warm back and Bridger has snuggled in against the crook of my legs. We are a snug as a bug in a rug! However, as I am laying there, I just have this feeling to go check the fire. Before I can get out of bed, I see in my minds eye, the door to the wood stove is open. With that thought,  I now scramble....just about knocking my poor dog off the bed.
    When I get to the wood stove, it was just as I had seen in my minds eye...the door is open about 6 inches and the flames are roaring from being fed so much air. In my haste, I had not gotten the door latched completely and it had popped open. Since at night, before we go to bed, we bring in plenty of wood, there is not just wood stacked beside the stove but in front of it as well. Had I not gone out when I did,  that wood could easily have caught fire and we would have had an open flame with lots of wood to burn...a bon-fire right in our front room!
    I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost. This is not the first time I have been blessed by those "gut feelings" of the spirit, which spur me into action and I am sure it won't be the last.                                                                                 
    Miracles happen everyday in my life. Sometimes in the simplest ways. Others I am very aware of and can see what might have happened as clear as day. Some are those life altering kinds of things.; A fatal accident avoided on the road, or a child saved from drowning.
    I am not saying we would have died today, but I am certain, there would have been damage and a beautiful winter morning would have started out very different.
    So, this early Sabbath Morning, I am writing with much gratitude in my heart. I am blessed in many ways and most of all, know I am loved and cared for. My Heavenly Father still blesses me with miracles in my life so that I remember He is always there. I am in His care and that I am of His fold.
    Thank you Lord for once again, another Miracle in my life.








\