You Get What You Get

It's definitely not our intent, but there are times when we come across as being this great family that lives out in the mountains and everything is just perfect. You may believe that we go on daily hikes, lots of fishing trips, and pretty much whatever we feel like doing, and then we make some glass in between and the orders just come rolling in. 

Well, God is good and we do have it good out here, but it's probably not good in the sense that everything is great all the time. Our plans often turn out to be just that, plans. Where's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

 And our lives are probably a lot like your lives. Maybe a little different in detail, but similar in that we often go through life focusing on the big things, preparing for that perfect trip, hoping that it all falls in place, hoping that we'll have enough money, hoping that everyone that you want to be there can be there. Then when it doesn't all come together we get bummed out. And sometimes we get stuck there for too long. 

It's when we look back that we discover those invaluable little things that happened while we were wishing, wanting and waiting for that bigger moment. Not that our dreams and hopes or the excitement of adventure can ever be replaced, but it's so easy to miss the unexpected and little things that we actually have right now, because we put our whole focus on what we hope is going to happen.

 Well, our Christmas was a little bit that way for us this year. Our hope was that it would look like this. . . 

Jenelle's parents would be here Christmas day and the following week. Jenelle's dad built himself a new muzzleloader and Caleb and I would do some hunting with him in between all of the festivities that come with Christmas.

Jenelle's sister and  husband and two sons would join for several days of great skiing. 

Then, after all of that, we would get together with my side of the family for our Christmas on New Years Day. We were all so excited.

Well, it turned out that Jenelle's dad had a really tough battle with covid. It brought us to our knees and we thank God that he came out the winner!  But because of that they weren't able to make the 14 hour trip. So that put a damper on Christmas and the idea of interspersing Christmas with hunting, kind of went out the window.

The  great skiing turned out to be three rainy days of forty and fifty degree weather. There were people skiing on the mountain, but when we considered the cost, the slushy snow, the thought that we might be miserable the whole time, we decided to skip out on skiing.

But looking back, we had a really good Christmas. It started out with a Christmas Eve service at church followed by going home and getting into our Christmas stockings, drinking eggnog, and just being together. Christmas day was more gifts, waffles and ham, chilling out with the family and a friend that we had over, followed by going to my parents for a bit in the evening. Sunday afternoon Jenelle and I took a much needed hike and set out a new trail camera that the kids got me for Christmas. Then Jenelle's sister and family joined us for a few days. Even though we didn't ski, we had lots of fun playing games, doing puzzles, playing on the Wii, shooting bows, and taking hikes between rains.

Thursday I put in a good day of work. 

Friday I went muzzleloader hunting with my son Caleb. I really wanted to get a deer. I hadn't harvested a deer in 2021. I wanted Caleb to get one too. Not that it mattered as we have plenty of food. But it would be the first time since I was in my teens that I didn't get a deer within a year's time. How terrible is that?! Saturday we would spend the day with my family and so I wouldn't get to hunt then. 

Well, Friday was really warm and the deer weren't moving. We didn't get any deer. I was kind of bummed, but really. . .

And that kind of helped to spawn these thoughts.

As I was thinking and grumping about the deer that I didn't get, I couldn't help but recognize this year as possibly one of the best years I've ever had hunting. For me the thrill of the chase is better than getting something and the whole season was full of excitement! I missed a big 10pt that I shared about in one of my blogs. But even better was a big 8pt that I was after most of the year. I had seen it several times and on November 9th (my favorite day every year) he chased a doe close by and actually walked straight to the base of my tree, ate a leaf at the base of the tree and then walked straight away. I try to only take ethical shots with my bow and I wasn't offered one so I didn't shoot. If you're a bowhunter you can identify with me when I say that my adrenaline rises just thinking about it.

And then I was with Aiyana when she harvested a nice 8pt on youth day. I decided to not hunt much in rifle season. I would pick up the bow again in January to continue chasing after the 8pt if he could somehow survive all of the hunting pressure that's on state land during rifle season. If I hunted much during December, it would be with the kids. We were really busy making glass as well.

So the first day of rifle season I took Blake out for a morning hunt. I packed the stove, hot chocolate, Swiss cake rolls, and he packed the gun. As luck would have it a big 10 pt came up out of the laurel. Blake made a great shot and the buck turned out to be much bigger than anything we could have dreamed of. For you hunters out there, we measured it at 144" gross. Here in the mountains that is a really big buck. So really, it was a great year! 

With the new year rolling in, whether you're struggling with what you've been dealt, or if you're right on track with your plans, take some time to search out those good things. If you're only focusing on your hopes and the way that you want things to be, you'll probably miss out on a lot.

So take what you get and find the joy in it!