888. Mutton busting
Dreamer, Serious and Starlet got to try riding a sheep (mutton busting) for the first time at a Labor Day ranch rodeo - discovered it's a lot harder staying on a sheep than on a horse!
Also at the ranch rodeo the girls found a baby horned lizard, barely an inch long
890. B. reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
In one day, no less! I've only known B. to read one other book (one of C.J. Box's Wyoming mysteries) since we've been married, and I've never known him to read anything so fast. We both absolutely loved this book, it is so funny and a little sad, too... about a 14 year old Native boy who leaves the Spokane reservation to go to high school in a neighboring white community where he can get more opportunities - but at the cost of being rejected by his friends on the Rez
891. A bright sunny morning after the rain. Glistening streets and sidewalks
892. Keeping track of triumphs
This is something I learned at an OA meeting: looking for little (or big) triumphs during the day: resisting temptation
893. Sharing my favorite verses for home school
We've been studying each book of the Bible, the major themes and events, and also my own favorite verse from each book (based on my highlights over the years). Here's my list so far
894. The stars singing in the Magician's NephewGenesis 50:19,20 Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Exodus 14:14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Leviticus 9:23,24 The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering...when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Deuteronomy 6:4-7: Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
Joshua 1:8,9 Do not let this Book depart from your mouth; meditate upon it day and night so that you may be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord Your God will be with you where ever you go.
Ruth 2:12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. (love the imagery of the Lord having wings!)
One day during home school I shared a verse that had recently stirred my heart during my daily reading (Deut. 32:10-13: how the Lord carried Israel like an eagle that stirs up its nest [stirs up our lives] and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them, and carries them on its pinions" - and told them my hope was that someday God would show them special verses that would become their favorites, too. Dreamer asked me to share the verses God gave me when I got saved, so I read Job 38:1-8 to them.
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:And Blaze said, "Oh that's like the part in the Magician's Nephew when Aslan sang the stars into existence and the stars joined in his song!" When we had read this part a few weeks earlier, I had mentioned how this part of the story meant so much to me, but it was especially wonderful to have Blaze remember it, too!
“Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out – single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it , as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing
895. Trail ride in the fall colors of Happy Jack, just B. and I
896. B. fixing my car's brakes and saving us so much money
897. Pop up camper
B. bought me a used pop up camper last year, and we finally got to use it this September when we visited his sister Melissa's home in Kansas. We all loved it!!! It fit our family just perfectly and was surprisingly roomy and comfy to sleep in, but it still has that "tent" feeling to it that I love, closer to nature than a regular hard sided camper (those feel too enclosed for me).
898. the Mommy tax
On the long drive back from Kansas, whenever we would stop for snacks, I'd ask the girls to share just a little of their treats with me - we call it the "mommy tax"
899. Blaze's first "three phase event"
We missed the Laramie three-phase event earlier in September because we were in Kansas, but we able to make it to the one in Cheyenne at the end of September for Blaze to compete in. Eventing involves three phases: dressage, cross-country jumping and show jumping. Blaze loves the cross-country phase, which is where the jumps are spread out over a large (several mile long) course and include obstacles like water jumps, ditches, jumping off banks, and jumping uphill and downhill.
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| Blaze and Spring practicing at the warm-up jump at the Cheyenne event |
900. the darklight
One of my favorite part of autumn are glimpses of "the darklight" you get in a forest when the sunlight shines down through changing autumn leaves and evergreen trees. I got a glimpse of this magical light on one of our trail rides and then again when I took the girls up to Happy Jack with their nature notebooks. I snuck off on my own, while the girls were on their assignment to sketch, to enjoy the peace and quiet and lose myself in the beauty. I first remember doing this when I was in 6th grade and my class spent an over night at a lodge in the woods. On a nature walk I purposefully fell behind everyone else so I could on a little footbridge over a stream and just soak up the beautiful autumn. Later in high school on another school trip to Allegheny State Park, I went off on my own again in the forest to have some time alone in my autumn revelry, lying on the ground and looking up through the trees, watching the play of golden and darklight.
901. finally understanding a confusing Bible verse
from Sarah Young's Jesus Lives: I have new insight into the parable of the three servants the Master gave talents to, a parable I've always struggled with understanding. "I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground." The harder the circumstances, the more treasure there is to be found if we don't shrink back but go out and invest what God has given us. It is He that multiplies it.
