The Garden

These are before and after pictures of the garden.  I can't take all the credit for all that work.  I had lots of help from Antonio and his workers.  It has been many years since I have dug in the dirt.  It is hard work. I pulled up morning glory vines that were as thick as ropes.  I was dripping in sweat and the stack of vines was taller than I was. Sometimes we have to do some painful pulling before the seeds can be planted for new life.  Sounds like an analogy to life doesn't it?

I planted spinach, lettuce, carrots, broccoli and more to come.  Mom has bought some plants too so I'll plant those next week. There is something wonderful about planting in the garden.  We look forward with expectation to the signs of life and then the produce.  My friend Lori says we all need three things, someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.

This month I will be flying to Atlanta to see my dear friend Rhonda.  I haven't seen her in over a year and I am looking forward to spending time with her.  She is a friend that I have no doubt God sent into my life at the appointed time. We walked together and talked of being grateful and thankful for the many blessings in our lives. We kept each other encouraged to trust His never-ending love for us. I am so blessed to have so many Godly friends in my life that are loving and wise.  God has loved me as they have poured out of their hearts into mine.

Now that I am settling into this little community called Utopia I am seeing opportunities to pour into others.  I want to plant and pour the hope that God gave me back into others.  I heard Beth Moore say that we should see that bad circumstance in our life as a way to show the devil that it was one of the greatest changes for God in our lives.   He is certainly making the opportunities for that to happen by placing people in my path.

I will continue to work in the garden and I'll post more pictures.  It is rewarding to see the little plants coming up.  We have no control over that growth but we get to enjoy the bounty.  How good is that?    

Happy Sunday

It has been a wonderful weekend.  It started with a steady rain that filled the Sabinal River that flows at our entrance.  I love the sound of rain on the tin roof.  It is like the world is at peace.  I really can't imagine a prettier place to be than sitting on the porch of the barn at Lonehollow.

Blake drove over Friday night and we cooked one of his favorite foods - fried okra.  We watched a funny movie on my laptop with his Netflix account. It was so good to curl up on the couch and just have some "Blake time".

Saturday it stopped raining and stayed nice and cool so we took a hike at Lost Maples State Park.  We hiked 5 miles up some steep trails.  It was good to enjoy the beauty of the creeks, ponds, ferns, and shady trails.  We walked and talked and worked up an appetite.  Of course that meant some pie from the Lost Maples Cafe and then a nap.  We had a wonderful 5 course meal at The Laurel Tree that evening.

The rain started falling again and has kept at it all day today.  We had dinner on the grounds at church today.  It is held in the large fellowship hall so we stayed dry.  I sat at a table with some people I had never met.  I met a lady that loves to garden and talked to her about what I need to do with the garden here at Lonehollow. It is overtaken with weeds so I need to get busy pulling weeds when it stops raining.  It will be nice to have fresh greens this winter.

I worked on a stained glass project this evening.  I am using a piece of agate and I really like the way it is flowing.  It is good to do something creative, it makes me feel like I am going back to who I really am.  I don't know if that makes sense but I feel like I am being true to myself.  I put on Pandora radio and listen to good music (just discovered Needtobreathe and love them) and after a few minutes of getting settled I am in the flow.  The hardest part is going into the room and getting started.

Ryan and Tyler had birthdays this week.  Remembering the day they were born is a gift that only a mother can understand.  Holding that child for the first time and all the years of memories.  It is so special to see their lives unfold before your eyes. I am so blessed to have these boys in my life.

I have a busy week ahead.  I like that.  Dr. appt., women's bible study, staff mtg., women's group, competitive ride this weekend.  I want to live a full life and this week is going to be good.  So much to be thankful for...rain, son's visit, horses to ride, two sons' birthdays, spirit filled church, God's beauty outside my door, good health to ride 40 miles, room to create, inspiration, new things to do, new people to meet, God's protection, people to love and people that love me, good music, the best friends in the world. Have a good week everyone.

Friendship

I just got home from a trip to Kentucky.  It has been 14 months since I packed up my truck and horse trailer and headed south to Texas.  I was able to stay with my dear friend Lori.  This is a photo of the room I stayed in and yes, all those gifts were for me.  She spoiled me beyond my dreams. I opened a couple everyday and stretched it out over the three days I was there.  A 90 minute massage was pure bliss.  I am so grateful that she came into my life when she did.  She loves me. She makes me laugh.  She is wise and makes me think. She encourages me to be the best I can be.  I want to be that kind of friend. I KNOW that she is a gift from God.  

  

So now that camp is over I have 9 months of "normal" to work on life goals.  I want to work on getting to know people in the community and making friends, healthy exercise and eating habits, working on my art everyday, becoming a better rider, knowing God's character and hearing Him better. So that means structure, discipline, routine.  I have written out a schedule and will have to adjust it as I go.  Most of my goals are measurable but as long I spend the time working toward them I will be moving in the right direction.  I have a half marathon in March that I am registered for.  I have horse hair bracelets that need to be made and marketed.  I will join a bible study group.  I will find a trainer and take some dressage lessons.  I really hope to look back on this year and see that I have made efforts to improve and become closer to the person that God intends me to be.

As I listened to the iBloom calls tonight I thought about the qualities I admire in a friend.  

A good listener that is wise

challenges me to grow

uplifting and encouraging because they believe in me

thoughtful in word and actions

someone that has Godly values and walks them

they want to work toward their goals

like to laugh and have fun. 

I have so many friends that are all of these things.  I hope that I will always be striving and learning to be that kind of friend to them.  I have lived with 10 college girls this summer and that was a fun experience.  I look forward to the coming years and the opportunities I will have to be a friend to the people that cross my path. I hope they will see some of those qualities and feel loved and encouraged to be all they can be.

An idea is born

These are a few of the horsehair bracelets we made this summer.  I got the idea that it would be a meaningful gift for the Wranglers to make from the tails of their favorite horses.  I researched how to make them and bought the hardware.  We made thick ones, thin ones, one color, three colors.  They encouraged me to make it into a business so I am going to give it a try.   I would like to market them at horse events and have competitors bring me the hair from their horse and I would make the bracelet in about an hour. Hopefully, it would pay my expenses and I'd make a little extra too.  I would enjoy being around horsey people.
This is the final week of camp.  We are pulling shoes on some of the horses and moving them to the front pasture.  We wormed 30 of them yesterday.  It is hard to believe that this time next week this place will be still and quiet.  It has been non-stop activity since the middle of May when the Wranglers arrived. These young campers are so easy to entertain.  They say the cutest things.  Yesterday one of the boys noticed the brand on one of the horses and another camper said "that shows where the horse is manufactured".  They all got to ride in the pony cart today and loved it.  They got to meet their horses today and groom them.  They love just touching and loving on them.  Tomorrow will be their first day to trail ride.  I can't wait to hear what they have to say about that.
I am looking forward to going to Kentucky next week.   It will be so good to see the boys and friends.  I feel like I live in a bubble in my own little world.  I am so disconnected during the summer.  I don't mind missing the politics and news but I do miss being with the people I love.  It has been a good summer meeting all the campers and living with these wonderful Wranglers.  We have spent the last three months working long days in the heat, living together, eating together, we are like family, we know each other well and I love everyone of them. What a blessing and help they have been.

A Day In the Life...

I've been meaning to keep a journal of my daily activities at camp this summer but it hasn't happened yet.  I thought I would recap what I did today on my blog.  I have been walking at 6:15 every morning with Joan Croome, a camp mom I met last year.  We became good friends in just two weeks.  She loved the finches I had and went back to Houston and bought some for her anniversary.  She now has 4 and I have none.  The last one I had a camper let out of the cage.  Anyways, it is a great way to start my day because we walk over the big mountain and turn around and we can see the sun rising over the mountains in the distance.  I get to see God's awesome beauty in this place.  When I get back to the barn around 7 the Wranglers and I begin feeding the horses, we walk to the dining hall for breakfast and I usually have a meeting with them about our plans for the day.  I attend a leadership staff meeting at 8 a.m.  Meg told me the surveys are coming back from first term and horseback is getting great reviews.   I led the 2 hr. trail class on Indira this morning and Lily Lou came along too.  I had to get off and put her up in the saddle with me when she got tired.  At lunch today, I drove one of the Wranglers into Kerrville to get a new radiator for her truck.  We stopped at Hometown Crafts and I bought some jewelry clasps and beads.  I had the idea that all the Wranglers can make a bracelet from the horse hair of their favorite horses.  I hope to send them home with many happy memories and a momento. When we got back to camp I had a Wrangler ask me for advice on giving the sermon this Sunday.  I gave her my devotional book, Jesus Calling.  The Wranglers and I judged the crew yell, cleaned a slimy green water trough, picked up a dead dear on the I Spy trail, drove a injured camper to the health lodge.  Now I am sitting in my barn apartment while 4 Wranglers are watching the movie A River Runs Through It and a group of campers are downstairs touring the barn and listening to someone sing to them on the front porch.  It is 10:25 and it has been a long day full of lots of good things.  Speaking of good things one of the campers lost her Father in September and she has really bonded to one of our horses named Arrow.  I told the Wranglers that what we are doing goes so much deeper than just working with horses, we are blessed when we get to see little glimpses of God's greater plan.  Lonehollow is a special place to many many souls.

This is my job.

So I was moving a mare and donkey to the front pasture this evening and had the funny thought that this is my job. This is what I do. I feel like I live in a bubble sometimes and the rest of the world is out there somewhere running a million miles an hour. One of my Wranglers posted this on her FB page and I had to copy it because it really describes well what my day is like..
So tomorrow begins another day of hoisting children onto horses, answering questions like "why is he named speedy if he's so slow", tugging on horses to make them trot, and repeating phrases like "pull back to your hips", "kiss to him" "kick with both legs" and "look where you're going, not at the horse"; all in the hot Texas sun, and loving every second of it!

Little town with a BIG show!

The little town of Utopia put on a BIG show last night.  It was better than the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  One of the new Wranglers is from Denmark and I was so glad that she got to see such an impressive show.  I drove into town with Shanna, Peyton and Nina and we were surprised to see so many people.  There were people from Uvalde, Leakey, Camp Wood and other surrounding towns.
I love that Utopia is a beautiful town tucked away from the fast pace of the world.  It still has a simple innocent lifestyle.  This is the part of Texas I love and I get to enjoy it everyday.  I have a hard time believing I live here.
The last two evenings have been so beautiful because the moon has been full.  We rode down to the river yesterday at sunset and took the horses swimming in the river.  It was dark when we were riding back to the barn and the moon lit the way for us on the road.   It was so bright we could see our moon shadow.  It was one of those moments I hope I will never forget.  The warm Texas breeze blowing on us after swimming in the clear river.  The sound of the horses hooves walking along the road.  I am so blessed to be able to enjoy the simple pleasures of the country life.