Yesterday, Laura and I planted some more bushes around the house. We’ve been meaning to for several seasons, but we could never really decide what we wanted to plant, and then it would be out of season or nothing would be on sale. We finally decided that we would go with Hostas, KnockOut roses, Mediterranean pink heather, and some variegated versions of our boxwood bushes.

After getting some water in our basement, it was necessary to build up a slope to the house with dirt. To make that look nice, we covered it with mulch and planned on planting some bushes. It looked lonely out there for a long time, like an empty canvas waiting for something to happen. Well, this week it happened.
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Laura is going to be planting a new garden in our backyard. We’ve always thought it would be nice to eat fresh veggies like tomatoes and jalapenos peppers with our dinner. I went to Home Depot and bought two 2×10’s that were 12 feet long and had them cut the two in half. It is nice when they will do that for us at the store because it saves me the hassle of doing it at home, is done at a better quality than I could do it because I lack the nice power tool saws, and they fit better in the small car for the ride home. I connected them together with some metal joints and filled it with dirt.

In the coming weeks, we’ll show the results here to see how it goes. Gardens can’t take freezes, so we’ll be planting things later this month, so stay tuned!

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In February 1910, Columbus Ohio got the most snow it was ever going to receive, at 29.3 inches in the short 28 day month. That was, until global warming set in (wink) and 2010 arrived. This year, we set a record for snow fall, at just over 30 inches of snow! I heard on the news that all this snow was evidence for global “climate change,” which is no longer called warming, for obvious marketing and political reasons. The theory goes that with warming, more water is absorbed into the atmosphere so there is more snow in the winter. However, the problem with this, is that a few years ago, the warming alarmists were predicting LESS snow, not more. Now, after the fact, the “science” was revised to say that yes, indeed there will be more snow. Pretty convenient to have both more AND less snow prove one’s theory. It just goes to show that the wisdom of God the creator can make our human “wisdom” look quite foolish.

I’m from Texas, so I love to see snow. I love the way it transforms the landscape, I love the cold, I love the white, and I love the reminder of “fresh beginnings.” The Bible reminds us that Jesus can wipe away our sin and make us as white as snow. Snow covers the dirty nastiness below, and makes the landscape beautiful, like Jesus does to our dirty, rotten lives. Just as a rainbow is a reminder to us that God will never flood the Earth again, snow is a reminder that His love covers all sin. If you don’t like snow, maybe the next time the sky dumps 10 inches of “global warming” in your driveway, let it be a reminder of God’s love for you and that putting him in a leadership role in your life means your sin is no more!

TobyLaura.com

For the second time in three years, my family visited the Gaylord Texan Hotel to see the Ice Show they put on there every year. This is not just a tour of some ice sculptures in a hotel lobby, it’s a full blown exhibit in a 10,000 square foot building chilled to zero degrees Fahrenheit (or -18 degrees Celsius). Black curtains create a pathway to wind visitors through a maze of bigger than life-size sculptures that takes about twenty minutes to walk through. Click on the photo at the top of this post to see more photos of the time we had. In a recent post of mine, I talked about the amazing ice sculptures and ice sculpting contests in Harbin, China. Reading about how the Ice Show at the Gaylord Texan was accomplished, it turns out the artisans were from Harbin. Pretty cool. They form over 2 million pounds of ice to make it all possible.
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