Sierra Discovery Trail – Nevada City, California

We drove up to the snowy mountains on Thursday (1/09/20) in the Jeep. It was fun to drive without worrying too much about the road conditions. Ever since Bailey got his Jeep in the television series Party of Five, I’ve wanted a Jeep. We really enjoy driving it. E recently replaced the mud tires that it came with and we’re now using all-terrain tires instead. We followed a snowplow for a little while on Calif. Highway 20.

Then we had to make a pit stop and drove off the plowed road for a bit.

Our original destination was a ski trip to Soda Springs Mountain Resort. We’ve been there several times in the past and really enjoyed it. This last experience there was so unpleasant that we will neither return or recommend it to anyone again. It’s a long story that I’ll summarize by saying the conditions were not ideal and the interactions with the employees were much worse. So after a miserable experience at Soda Springs, we attempted to salvage the afternoon with some playing in the snow.  We headed back to the Sierra Discovery Trail where we had made a pit stop earlier in the morning.  Our family motto seems to be:

When life gives you lemons 🍋, make lemonade.

(*The beanies in these photos were handmade Christmas gifts from my mom.)

We had packed a nice lunch and while I was assembling sandwiches, we chatted with the couple who owned the Subaru parked next to us with these cool AutoSock things on their tires. Apparently, they work like snow chains but they are easier to put on.

We built snowmen, had snowball fights, went for a short hike through the snowy woods and made snow angels.

There’s nothing quite like making fresh tracks in the new-fallen snow.

Sierra Discovery Trail was a snowy winter wonderland. It was a wonderful gift to be able to end the day on a high note. The snow-covered trees reminded me of a favorite poem by Robert Frost.

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

“Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

-Robert Frost

You can find this poem and 364 other nature poems in the book, Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon, selected by Fiona Waters.

I’d like to share a passage from my current grown-up book of the month, The Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming by Sally and Sarah Clarkson.

To cultivate beauty is to act in keeping with my faith in God’s goodness rather than my doubt.  It means to fight tooth and nail, day by day, to keep alive my faith in a love that transforms the ordinary and, in that transformation, offers a glimpse of a one-day ultimate redemption.  The beauty I make is the way I picture and offer my ultimate hope right smack in the middle of messy, ordinary days.  I put on music when I really just want to despair. I laugh over housework instead of screaming about it (which I usually want to do). I open my eyes to God’s creative presence in the earth when busyness could easily distract and rob me of wonder. I reach out to needy people and unresponsive friends one more time.” (2016, Clarkson, pgs. 83-84)

The disappointments, bad days, and discouragements of this life are, unfortunately unavoidable.  We hope this post inspires you to use your God-given creativity to choose to look for and to find beauty and joy in the midst of ordinary and even bad days.

Thank you for following us or stopping by our neck of the woods for a visit!