Disturbed 6 October 2015

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What disturbs me? Disturb: “To interfere with, to alter the position of, to upset the balance of, to destroy the tranquility of, to throw into disorder, to alarm” (Websters)

After reading that definition, many things disturb me:

The television turned up too loud, things that are left out-of-place, times that I’m caught off-guard. I don’t think I’m easily frazzled, but I know myself to be an orderly person. I’m disturbed when I feel unorganized or when I don’t get as much done as I planned.

I go to bed at night with an internal checklist that goes something like this: coffee set up IMG_1622for morning-check, running things out-check, dishes done & kitchen cleaned up-check, laundry dried, folded and put away-check, grading done and emails responded to-check, cattle and horse chores done-check, clothes for school out-check, heat turned down-check, wrist watch on-check, doors locked-check, things I need in the morning ready-check, meat I need for the next night’s supper thawing in fridge-check, and any of the day’s projects finished or put on tomorrow’s list-check.

If I can’t check them off, I feel disturbed until I do. I know I’ve written before about my love affair with sticky notes. Where would I be if I couldn’t write all of these things down and check them off? Sleepless. Even after I pray myself to sleep, anything I’ve forgotten niggles at the back of my brain until I get out of bed and make sure it is ready or put away or written down to remember in the morning. Only then can I sleep, undisturbed.

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Mist 5 October 2015

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Misty fog was the norm this morning and I felt like I was running in a tunnel. I could see the sides of the road, but that was it. I know my routes well, but when I walked out into that fog, I took the route I know best. Even the big light I can usually see from our place, wasn’t visible until I was almost parallel with it. It gave the

I haven't seen Bubble-Up in a long time!

I haven’t seen Bubble-Up in a long time!

morning a mysterious air and made me speak my prayers somewhat louder than usual!

We’d had a great time at a small engine show on Saturday. We reconnect with a lot of our friends and met some new friends as well. One fellow spent the morning making IMG_3959mini-donuts for everyone in this really cool donut maker machine. We heard lots of engines running and a neat old player system which gave a kind of ‘fair’ setting.

I went for a walk after we had lunch and met a nice older gentleman

I came across this fuzzy kid on my walk.

I came across this fuzzy kid on my walk.

who was watching his sons and grandsons pick corn. We chatted about farming  and how the corn was doing. It was wet at 21 moisture, but the stalks had some bad rot from all the rain, so they were picking it before the wind brought the stalks down. It was a beautiful day and we said our goodbyes and headed back home in the afternoon, arriving late but satisfied with the fullness of friendship and enjoying some things we love.

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Pioneers 1 October 2015

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If I could live in any century, I’d live in the late 1800s. I’d have traveled west to homestead and settle on my 160 acre claim. I might have lived in a dug-out the first season or two until I could raise a crop and afford lumber for a simple two-room cabin.

I’d have horses and a faithful dog. Life would be difficult, physically, but simple IMG_0908and good. Days would be full of hard work, but nights would bring the peaceful rest that comes from honest work.

I know I completely romanticize this kind of life, but I would have thrived in it. I know a strong faith would be required, yet somehow God would be much more present because there’d be fewer distractions between me and God.

Can you even imagine living in a dug-out and being around for these firsts:

DSC00071the first stationary engine, known as a “barn engine” came out in 1812 and powered a corn threshing machine, among other things, the first steam-powered tractor came out in 1868, and in 1892 in Iowa, the first gas-powered tractors were being used!

So, I could have my horses and my antique tractors…only they’d be new, then. My beautiful Prairie Gold tractors were not to be around until 1929, but that would give me a goal to work for on my little farm. Ha!

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evaluations 30 September 2015

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Of course we all face them: evaluations. We are constantly evaluating our lives, our work, our hour-by-hour existence. Do we measure up? Do others measure up? Do our families measure up? To what exactly, we may not be able to define, but for starters: to the neighbors, to our colleagues, to our bosses, to our lovers, to our friends, to each other, to the check-out clerk, to the driver behind you, to our family members, to our children, to our parents, to someone else’s standards, to the committee we serve on, to the people in the meeting with us, to “them”, and to God. DSCN2883

Today, in my brick and mortar teaching life, I had a formal evaluation. As a teacher, I’ve been through many of these and they always make me nervous…will I measure up? I don’t change my normal plans; I simply move on with wherever we are and with whatever we are in the middle of trying to accomplish. In this case, we’ve been taking a snapshot of our own humanity in the 1930s and with To Kill a Mockingbird. I’m working on a theme-based semester and how bias, stereotype, prejudice and injustice cause dehumanization of both the one with the bias and the one they are bias toward.

IMG_3875We finished a section of the book yesterday which included the first two witnesses in the trial and the questions we were addressing today centered around the lynch mob and the way Scout brought the men back to humanity, disintegrating the mob mentality with the innocence of everyday conversation.

I always wonder what my principals think when the first five to seven minutes of class are students writing silently and with me writing right along with them. An incident at school had many of them writing about the injustice they perceived had been done and that led right into the DSCN1363discussion of the novel. My students were incredible. All I did was to wander from group-to-group and listen while they articulated their ideas and offered evidence from the reading to support what they had to say.

I think I heard angels singing some kind of alleluia. I hope I measured up.

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Tractor Drive Day 28 September 2015

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Our annual antique tractor drive was yesterday. It was a bright and beautiful day, although very hot and dusty due to the sun and no rain in weeks. Still, spirits were high as eighteen tractors took off, including one father and son team: Eric and Bryce on a John Deere 730, and Heston who traded off between Dad and Grandpa on a couple of John Deere propane tractors.

We had a great time enjoying fields and pastures, waving at farmers and families enjoying IMG_3946their Sunday, and giving each other a hard time about which is the better tractor manufacturer, of course it is Minneapolis Moline! We chatted over lunch, relaxing and “neighboring.” And then we mounted up for the dusty drive back to the trailers and a cold drink.

After all the goodbyes were said, We made a couple more trips to drive our own tractors back home, clean up, and enjoy that huge full moon ourselves. What a great way to enjoy the Sabbath Day. Many blessings were shared.

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Beauty 24 September 2015

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Something beautiful is morning, when the stars are still bright but the pale beginning of dawn begins to shimmer on the eastern horizon. The setting sun is equally as breath-taking, taking the worries of the day with it as it sinks and pulls the darkness down to cover up the cooling Earth.sallys camra 392

Riding a mountain trail through aspen and Ponderosa along a cool flowing crick with the blue sky overhead and a soft layer of pine needles and leaves spread out like a carpet on the path. IMG_3680The horse’s hooves crinkling the crisping leaves, releasing the smell of fall.

Snow falling thick and wet through grey skies and covering the bare land with a cold white layer, inviting you out to play and then back inside for some rich hot cocoa. The swish of snow shoes making a path where it seems like no one has ever traveled before this moment.

Hiking through meadows of wildflowers, all yellows, blues, purples and reds with a IMG_3804skittering of tall aspen trees on the borders and coming to rest on the rocks at the edge of the stream wandering down the mountainside.

So much beauty in creation-is it any wonder that our God is an awesome God?

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Loving Life 23 September 2015

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I’ve fallen in and out of love with my life at various times. I loved my life at summer horse camp, falling in love with the horses, the mountains and the old log cabin I lived in. I loved drinking coffee in the early morning at the kitchen table and looking out into the grove of aspen and pine as I sat to write. 100_0451

I fell in love with brining horses in to feed, morning prayer with campers and the cool of mountain mornings. I fell in love with trail ride after trail ride, arena work on basic riding skills, sallys camra 346and pack trips-oh, the pack trips: star-gazing before climbing into tents, Mountain House suppers and trail mix with lots of M & Ms, hard cinnamon candies and the night sounds of horses settling and campers giggling.

I fell in love with what horses can do for kids and adults who’ve had a hard life, Meadow Mountain100_0713 Cafe, weekend trips to Estes and Sunday morning cinnamon rolls before worship in the outdoor chapel. About twenty-five years of loving this mountain horse camp life are woven into who I am and I cherish that part of me-it is a good and true piece of who I am.

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People you Meet 22 September 2015

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I am constantly amazed at the compassionate, kind, generous people we meet. Watching the news, you get the impression that in general, people are terrible, rude and difficult. I haven’t found this to be true.

Recently we traveled to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa for a humongous antique farm show. Everyone we met there, in the throng of thousands and the hot humidity, was friendly. The very first evening, after traveling 800 miles since before dawn, we sat across the table from another couple, eating our local Presbyterian Church supper fair. Starting a conversation, we discovered this couple to be local and long time supporters of the show. They helped us get oriented to how the show was set up and told IMG_1237all of things we wouldn’t want to miss. We ran into them several times over the two days we were able to explore this show and they greeted us each time, asking if we needed help finding anything and answering our questions.

I found that everyone, from the crowd to the vendors to the exhibitors were good for directions, a laugh over something going on, and lots of great communication. Each time we hit the food tent, we met new folks and shared our lives in that breaking of bread together. I broke bread with so many people: the snow cone man, the sugar cookie lady, the honey seller, the Christmas ornament guy, the caramel popcorn-making church, some Amish families-over and over. Blessing.

IMG_3874More recently, I “met” an internet friend. We’ve been reading each other’s blogs for some time and now, he has agreed to officiate at our wedding in February in Nebraska. I’m thrilled that the community of God works this way. We attend Cowboy church, but don’t have a home church close by, and we’re marrying at a little church with a big plains history, but a couple hundred miles from home. People are good. People are kind. People are compassionate. People need community. Blessing.

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Camaraderie 21 September 2015

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One of the best “friends” stories I have is one of our WNO (wranglers-night-out) nights. Anyone who has ever worked at a resident summer camp knows the long, joyous hours filled with all manner of activities and youth and adults. It’s even more intense when you add horses into the mix. In order to keep my wranglers motivated and acknowledge our hard work, I instituted a ‘wranglers-night-out’ in Estes Park every so often: code name-WNO.

We left camp after a full day of campers and rides, feeding, mucking turning the horses outhorsecamp2005 153 (1) for the night. Showering and changing, we piled into my 4-runner for a night out. We dined at Mama Rosa’s, one of our favorites, and then wandered in and out of stores on our way to the ice-cream parlor and chocolate factory.

sallys camra 407 (1)We tried on matching blue cowboy hats, played on the swing sets in the park, bought rubber tomahawks and jawbreakers, ate birthday cake ice-cream cones and bought fudge. On the way home, we stopped at every stable along the way and breathed in horse-giggling at our attempt to “sneak” in. No one was around anyway! We took night shots or ourselves with these ‘other’ horses, headed back to our own camp and drove the half-mile dirt road in reverse to our corral.

Then, we went inside and ate our fudge. It was an evening of silly camaraderie-stress relief and the joy of good friends.

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Pleasing 17 September 2015

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What pleases me:

A long ride on my horse, a good book, a tractor drive on a sunny crisp day, fresh flowers, a job well done, connecting with people, a good cup of coffee, a delicious meal, breakfast when Robert cooks, going out to eat with friends, seeing others succeed, getting things done, going to live theatre and especially musicals, music, playing my guitar, riding along in the pick-up with Robert, small surprises, yummy treats, snow IMG_3684storms, Christmas lights, forest trails, snow shoeing, going to movies, running, time to write, hot cocoa with marshmallows, Zotz, birthday cake with lots of frosting, good juicy steak, cowboy church, romance, my boots, bookshelves full of books, the barn loft, long walks, bike rides, spending time with family, baking, making someone happy, prayer, getting a letter in the mail-

It isn’t Earth-shattering, but it is the simple joy of living in all the blessings of God.

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