488. A husband who can fix anything
I forgot what I asked B to fix, but afterwards I said "it's so neat you are able to fix anything. Well, maybe not computers." His response: "Whaddya mean? I can fix computers!" (pretends to slam a laptop down on the ground and stomp on it)
489. Rock giants
We took the kids to Vedauwoo (a nearby park) when their cousins Robby and Kyle were here for a visit; the park is full of amazing formations of giant rocks, so much fun to climb and scramble around on them. Dreamer said "the rocks are giants that come alive at night." (Can't wait for when she reads the Hobbit).
490. "Just to make all the ladies feel good about themselves"
Barrel racing is a ladies' rodeo sport, but B. has raced his horse Ally around the barrels a few times for practice, because she's really good at it, and he hopes Blaze will get interested in racing her. When we went to the ranch rodeo for the 4th of July, Blaze opted to stay in town with my parents to visit the 4th of July party in the park. So B. decided to barrel race Ally himself at the ranch rodeo "just to make all the ladies feel good about themselves" (a couple women got faster times than him, but he still did pretty darn good, if you ask me)
491. Trail ride with my five-year old
My favorite part about the ranch rodeo is that I can go on a trail ride anywhere on that beautiful ranch, in the magnificent foothills of the mountains right on the border of Colorado and Wyoming. Serious, one of the twins, has gotten so good at riding my old horse Rebel that I let her come on the trail ride with me. She did great! Later her and Starlet had a lot of fun riding Rebel in and out of a stream.
492. Flag flying at the front of our house
I love the 4th of July for many reasons, a major one being that it's our anniversary (13 years), but also because I'm very patriotic and I love hanging our flag by our front door. In fact, I love it so much I left it up for a whole week.
493. The smell of sage after rain
We've had a large forest fire just 30 miles from Laramie, near Woods Landing. It burned for about a week, thousands of acres, but finally, we got two days of rain that put it out (the first rain ALL SUMMER). I love going for a walk after a rain, everything is so fresh and sweet-smelling; rain-washed sagebrush is a Western perfume I love as much as the scent of roses.
494. Alis volat propriis
This is a Latin quote, "she flies with her own wings" that I found in a new book this summer, "For Darkness Shows the Stars", by Diana Peterfreund, a retelling of Jane Austen's wonderful love story, Persuasion, with a little science fiction twist.
495. An original dragon story
Dragons are one of my favorite mythical creatures, and I can't resist a story with dragons in it. Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, is another great book I read this summer, I think the most original dragon story I've ever read!
496. Summer camp
Blaze's 4th year and Dreamer's 2nd year Table in the Wilderness summer camp. They love this so much! - especially the zip line, but also the rafting and other adventures they get to go on. And I love it because it's a Christian camp, and they brought home a notebook they'd filled with favorite verses and other things they learned.
497. My stepdaughter calling our home, her home
Stars (17 years old) has been staying with us now for almost a year. But when she went back to visit her mom and her other siblings this summer, B and I wondered if she would decide to stay with them. After a couple weeks she was back with us and happy "to be home." One neat thing while visiting her mom this summer, she said she went to church a lot with her nanny, and she really liked that church. She hasn't been happy about going to church with us for a while now, so this was encouraging to hear.
498. Understanding the Bible's "plot"
As a great reader and writer of fiction, I thought it was neat to see "the plot" of the Bible described in this quote from Frederick Buechner:
For all its vast diversity and unevenness the Bible is a book with a plot and a plot that can be readily stated. God makes the world in love. For one reason or another the world chooses reject God. God will not reject the world but continues his mysterious and relentless pursuit of it to the end of time.
That is what he is doing by choosing Israel to be his special people. That is what he is doing through all the passion and poetry and invective of the prophets. That is why history plays such a crucial part in the Old Testament - all those kings and renegades and battles and invasions and apostasies - because it was precisely through people like that and events like those that God was at work, as later, in the New Testament, he was supremely at work in the person and even of Jesus Christ.
Only "is at work" would be the more accurate way of putting it because ... his work goes on still, and at one and the same time the Biblical past not only illumines the present but becomes itself part of that present, part of our own individual pasts.
Until you can read the story of Adam and Eve, of Abraham and Sarah, of David and Bathsheba, as your own story... you have not really understood it. The Bible... is a book finally about ourselves, our own apostasies, our own battles and blessings.
499. Light multiplied a million times
I made this connection while studying 2 Peter this summer with my friend N. In 2 Peter 1:19 it says the Word is a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. God gives us glimpses of His light, as guiding light along the path of our life, and also sometimes small glimpses of the light of His glory. But on that day when we see Jesus face to face there will be a light rising in our hearts as the light of a star! Compare a lamp to a star! We will experience again, the same wonder of our salvation, but multiplied by a million times...
500. Jesus Friend of Sinners by Casting Crowns
Well here it is, my 500th listed gift (two and half years since I started), half way to the goal of 1000 gifts. I plan to keep adding to this list for the rest of my life, so if God wills for me a long life, I'm excited to see this list not only reach 1000, but maybe 5,000, or 10,000 -- who know??? Whatever number I reach, it is nothing compared to the God who numbers all the stars and every grain of sand and every hair on our head.
This summer I have fallen in love with this song!
Jesus Friend of sinners we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to
swing
Jesus friend of sinners the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
Jesus friend of sinners the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring your people to their knees
Nobody knows what we're for only what we're against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and love like You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me a grateful leper at Your feet
'Cause You are good, You are good And Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks Yours
And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet
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