To recognize and express gratitude, is to touch Heaven...

 ...to plant a garden, is to believe in tomorrow...

but to recognize the one you had

no plan in, as a simple

gift from God,

is the essence  in life.

GRATITUDE

We have spent a hysterical couple of days with loved ones.
Busy, busy...lacrosse games, soccer games, parties, brunches and shopping!

Traveled to Utah,  for my Dad's 80th birthday party!  It was a grand gathering of friends and posterity.
And the stories shared...one minute you're laughing, and the next crying.  All in all, the consensus  was we are pretty dang lucky to have him in our lives!

My baby sister shared the conspirator scheme at church when she was younger.  She would throw a fit, and rather than take her out to the foyer, Dad would sneak off to 7-11 and purchase a Dr. Pepper, for himself and a cherry slurpee for the little tyrant.

My brother who was the marathon runner, related a conversation that had taken place as he was training.  Pops, had told him there was NO WAY he was going to be able to finish the race if he could not train with more than 10 miles per day under his belt.
Randy, took it wrong as most teenagers would.
He thought that Dad, was trying to undermine him,
when in reality, he was championing him to run harder...to stretchhhhhhhh!
As it turned out, it was a pivoting accomplishment in his life, with Dad being there for him the whole way.

It was an afternoon that filled all of us, and hopefully let our father know just how much of an influence for good, he has nurtured.

 

...we can never escape, God's lovely essence...


I know that Easter has come and gone, I just wish we could hang onto that lovely sense of rebirth for a wee bit longer.

I am sitting at the computer this morning, the skies are gunmetal grey and there is a sprinkling of new snow adorning the mounds and mounds of "ugly" snow melt we have hiding out
in the underbrush of the this magnificent 
lodge pole forest.  


We have a five year old grandson visiting for a few days.
He will not start kindergarten until the next school year. 

He has been fascinated with the wood chopping, 
and feeding the stove for heat.  
I did not have to convince him that keeping a sweatshirt on all day helps us stay more warm.  
Kids are smart, if we let them be.  

We have baked bread, and homemade biscuits and Texas Fudge cake...and filled our bellies until we couldn't stuff 'em any more, but the best thing of all has been observing him in his play mode.

Watching him create his own "hut" and strategically 
place every kind of need, at the most
opportune place for quick 
access...mainly his play
guns, but a few golf clubs too!!

The best time though, was when Pap, joined us in a game of Dominoes, and acquiesced that for us to use every single piece,  the old rules did not apply. 
 
 It is never to late, to teach an old dog 
new tricks! 

We have played marbles, until my shooter thumb is raw...sang songs till our voice became hoarse, and read stories
falling asleep with the book in
our laps. 

I have slept like the dead.

A sure cure for an insomniac...spend quality time with a 
young'un! 

I have a tremendous love for this area.  My husband and I

came NORTH, to offer a new start for a few of our

family members needing that.

It has been six years of growth, I had not really expected.

We lost a son-in-law and a son two years after 

we moved here.

  

The rest of our

family has moved on, or is living south of us.

Our grandchildren are growing fast

and I am torn in the attachment we have formed here

and in moving closer to where

THE ACTION is!

I have always wanted to offer a refuge for our children, a place they could come to escape, from what they see day in and day 

out, and yet life has a way of throwing things 

into the mix, you really do not anticipate. 

Maybe my guy and I just need a year

by ourselves, to figure 

it out.

Meanwhile, there is bread to bake...

cabins to clean, great books to read, a new bike to break

in, and creating a magic place of refuge for those who can come to visit, along the way.

...every path has a few puddles...

Home Grown: II

 ...experience is what you get, when you didn't get what you wanted,

and experience is often

 the most valuable thing you have to offer...

What brings you here my friend?

I hope it is the promise that truth and experience, still

stand for something, and that we can grow in sharing 

THE GOODNESS.

That being said, goodness takes on a refining fire...whether you're cooking up something scrumptious to eat, planting a garden, or trying to plan a memorable funeral for a loved one.

I recently shared with you about leaving everything that was comfortable, known, tried and true...to follow my husband

on an adventure in growth, to Idaho.

YEHAW...

We got here in '08...ran the gamete...

made a lot of mistakes in working a 100 year old resort.

We learned more about the human spirit in a "Reader's Digest Condensed Version"...than most people would

in several lifetimes.

My daughter recently ran into a man, we had been working with us

the first year we took to managing.  His comment to her was that.

"Your folks are good people."

 She wanted to know what we had done to illicit this kind of statement from an almost virtual stranger. 

I asked her WHO, he was...and then I knew.

It must have been the bacon.

Unless you hate PORK...you know what I mean.

We had a group of men, working the grounds and preparing after the harsh winters at 6,700'.  
It was May, and we were scrambling to get things repaired, and working.  The mornings were more than crisp...at 27 degrees, they were down right cold.

Every morning, I would start the day by fixing my

guy a hot breakfast....and more often than not, that included

crispy fried pieces of bacon.which wafted over the entire resort.

It was the BEST calling card for action.

Often, I would look out our little cabin window, and the whole front yard, back yard, and meadow across the way would be filled

with workers, sprucing up the place...trimming grass, hammering up fallen fences, or jacking up cabins, in preparation for fixing a  myriad of  plumbing matters.

I would open the door and call out..."You guys want to take a 5 minute break?  I've got some extra bacon cooked up?"

I never had to ask twice, 

and I never had any leftover bacon.

It was a cheap fare for a commitment to excellence!

For the most part...they were great young 

men who followed instructions

and got the "job" done.

I learned a long time ago, that you can get a man to do just about anything for you... if you please his stomach.

AM I LYING?

We probably learned more about character in those first couple of years than any other time in our life.  I know it was because

WE were the managers.

We encountered laziness, and excellence in performance!

We forgave a lot, and taught those under our stewardship

that ANYTHING could be accomplished, if we

MADE A PLAN

 WORKED THE PLAN

 and

 EXPECTED TO WIN!

We hauled off tons, and I do mean tons of garbage.

We came to know that the owner bought lots of 

STUFF, hoping to find a use for it somewhere down the line.

It was HOARDING in all of it's glory!

I would  fall in love with reading books again.   If a spare minute was to be found, I would crawl away with a blanket and hide with a flashlight.  Truth be known, more times than not we were too exhausted to do anything other than eat, and fall in bed at night...but on occasion I would flip a page or two of a good read.

We were salary, 

and that meant...there was no such thing as a time clock,

or private time.
  
In other words, we were owned!

 There came a time, when I had to demand that my guy

take an hour to go hold a meeting on the river.

 

It kept him sane...and it proved to me, that a balance is needed

in order to keep things moving in the right direction.

However, those meetings on the river, were far and few.
 They

became the respite for a weary heart.

***

When I started writing this morning, I really did not have a specific

direction.  I am sorry about that.

I wanted to share a little about my father.

It is his birthday today.  He is 80 years young...and I owe to him

my keen love and respect for the out of doors.

No he did not hunt,

he did not fish,

we did not have a cabin off in the hills,

but we would share the most remarkable outings

gathering firewood,

or rocks for the patio...or hikes in the mountains...and

stories under star lit skies.

I owe him a lot.

When I started dating seriously...I wanted to find a man

who did like to hunt, who wanted to wet a hook,

who eventually would lead me to a place  where we could

live in the woods.

And I have. 

My father, has always been the constant in my life.

I have always known, that I could call on him for anything,

and have learned that in my darkest hours, his love would help me see it through.

Even though he will never admit it...he instilled in me,

a greater lover and understanding of my Father in Heaven.  I have been raised with the knowledge that I have the best of everything

at my fingertips...

For this I am eternally grateful.

 I married a man...who has carried on in that tradition.

His love of nature and respect for it,

his love for his children, and wife...and the eternal scheme of 

things, are the most important issues of daily breath.

I am blessed in knowing that I should be more concerned about my character...that's what I really am.

Where as a reputation, is just what others think about me.

HOME GROWN.

The best is yet to come.