Ready or Not

Ready or not here comes the new year. I am finding so many things happen just like this. They take place whether I am ready or not. I always hated that part of tag when we played the game as kids. It made me mad. I am generally not ready!

Just ask Construction Man. He will often go for a ride before we go for a ride, just waiting on me to finish getting ready in the morning.

Ready or not a loved one gets cancer. Ready or not a baby is born. Ready or not the lease is up or the bank forecloses on the house. Ready or not someone forgives and sets themselves free from the prison of not forgiving... or not. Ready or not a person's love grows cold and they walk away. Ready or not love finds us again.

There are many attributes I love about God, but this one is for sure and for certain: Romans 5:6 reads: "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

God's timing is always perfect, whether we are ready or not. That's called trust in His sovereignty. Some days I find this difficult to do. Some days I am stronger in my faith. Ready or not I accept His will for my life today.

So, bring it on... 2012. I'm sure I'll get the date wrong and be scratching it off documents and checks for a month or two. (Yes, sometimes I still write checks.) But, I will adjust. I'm going to have to-- cause here it comes ready or not.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

His promises are all yes and amen.

Bread

I love bread. Every kind of bread. Most women I talk to are the same. I used to try and make bread as a younger woman with poor results. Just like riding/training horses, making bread is a barometer of your emotions. There has to be a degree of peace in your life for such practices to end well.

I bought another cookbook yesterday.

It's a great cookbook with lots of illustrations, tips and descriptions. This woman was an animal in the kitchen! She was not afraid to tackle any cooking venture... whether fish or fowl, salt or yeast, spice and flour. Her techniques are simple and straight forward and highly effective on the palate!

"...the rain yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
~~God


"How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?"
--Julia Child


"There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."
--Mahatma Gandhi

Beauty When Nobody's Watching

Nothing like yummy, hot, thick coffee early in the morning with my nose stuck in a great devotional. I am learning to take one step at a time again and wait for things--not just rushing in all the time.

I desire a great many things, most of which have to do with my marriage and children. I want things to happen now. I don't want to wait!

I have been reading about patience and kindness. However, when it comes down to applying these virtues, I am sorely lacking. Today is a new day. Today I can try again. Little by little I will understand what it means and how to rightly show grace through patience and kindness.

A desert bloom...beauty when nobody's watching.

Bill Pay Day

As I always do on the twenty eighth of every month, (take note Suntrust!) the bills are all paid and up to date. Of course after the mail fiasco this summer when the post office in our hometown held all of our mail in a huge box in the back room and certain bills never even reached me...

Oh well.

I am thankful that we can pay all of our bills each month. Construction Man works hard and is the best provider in the world... the world!

Hard to believe 2012 is coming swiftly and the days are getting longer again. Changes and decisions beg for my attention. Our lease is up the first of May in this house, and we are diligently seeking out a new home in which to reside forever. Our forever home. Oh where could you be? God has the plan! Wherever it is, it's gonna be great!

Farm in Montana

Our farm on Road 8
The apricot tree in first snow

Changes Again

The decor of my living room is fixing to change today. The Christmas tree is coming down. I need to vacuum and get things back in order. All the floors need cleaning. All the kitchen counters need cleared off, wiped down and things put away. "I can stands no more!" Popeye used to say that just before exerted his huge muscles.

Have a great Tuesday during the week between Christmas and New Years! Here we go.....

"A Year In Provence"

"...a few miles away, the proprietor of Le Simiane was offering a six-course lunch with pink champagne to his amiable clientele, it seemed like a much more cheerful way to start the next twelve months."~~Peter Mayle "A Year in Provence"

I do enjoy a good story. The opening paragraph from "A Year in Provence" invites me to take a trip to France with a month by month description on what one may do there as each season unfurls.

How will you start/spend the next twelve months? Construction Man and I are getting a plan together as we speak. It won't be in Italy or France this year, but we do have a trip planned to go to Canada in June and watch one of our nephews graduate from high school.


I am also going to Thermopolis, WY and a Buck Brannaman clinic with my niece and my new horse. This is in the spring sometime as well.

2012. A new year with great potential... we're keeping our chins up and our faces to the heavens. Yep... it's going to be a good one. I just know it. Gotta go and read a book!

The horse "Monte" on the trip to Canyon de Chelly.

Our guide, James, keeping an eye on things.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Hello world. Listening to Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby sing the great Christmas songs of all time.

O Holy Night, Joy to the World, Hark the Herald, What Child is This, The Holly and the Ivy...

Such great lyrics. They just don't write 'em like that anymore.

I hope your day is spectacular.

Thank you Lord for coming to earth. You rock!

A summer field in Red Lodge, MT

Moon set in Red Lodge, MT