Idaho Farm, Temples, and Family Relations

Earlier this month I had the precious opportunity to visit my family in Idaho. 

My youngest sister is leaving to volunteer for over a year on a mission for our church, so all my siblings gathered together to celebrate her choice and attend the temple with her on her first time. Going through the temple for the first time is such a big deal in our religion. You can read why HERE and learn more HERE

Going through the temple is the most beautiful experience on earth and the Spirit is so incredibly strong. I frequently say temples of God are my very favorite places, and I really treasured this chance to be with my family in the holy temple. It's so humbling and electrifying to glimpse heaven and see what our divine potential is- I never feel more beautiful and cherished as a woman than I do in the temple! It's so empowering and I always leave on a spiritual high. 

My family spent the weekend together on my parent's farm in the Idaho countryside. I don't see my siblings very often since we all live on the far corners the continent (me to the South, a brother on the East coast, a brother in North Dakota, a sister on the West coast, and others scattered in-between). This was a special weekend to talk, create memories, laugh, and talk some more. It was just heavenly!

The weekend was delightfully full with shopping (picking out clothing for Rachael's mission), ice cream parlors, late-night talks, touring the town of my happy childhood, visiting more relatives

My mother made the weekend so welcoming and positive for everyone! (Thanks so much, Mom, for making it a beautiful weekend!) We really appreciated her service in creating such wonderful memories! I love spending time around her and feeling strengthened and inspired. She is such a great example of intelligence and hard work, and this always motivates me to improve myself.  

It was fun to help my dad work on the farm for a bit, walking fence lines and riding the tractor. He's such a wonderfully sincere person! It's always nice to spend time around him because he is truly without guile and is always concerned about everyone around him. His eyes have a magical way of radiating love when he converses with me, I just love it! 

I was so caught up in the wonderful conversations that I didn't take many pictures, but here are the glimpses I snatched on film of the rare moment I remembered to pull out my camera:

Two of my sisters, Lisa and Rachael. What lovely women they are!

My Kingsley-sister Betsy spent a day with us as well. We kidnapped her from college to join the fun.

One of the new livestock babies on the farm. Isn't he gorgeous?!
We had such fun watching  the new colts play in the fields. 

Mom, Rachael, Lisa, and Philip during Sunday lunch.

My brother owns a sweet house nearby and hosted the family for a special lunch after the temple visit. His house is perfectly situated with several nice basement apartments to rent out. What a smart place to live!  I was so happy for him!

My younger (but taller!) brother, Robert. He's such a great person! His future wife will be lucky for sure!

A selfie of me and Betsy in the pasture. 

My older brother Philip and me.
Seriously, everyone should have a brother like him!
He's so full of love and concern for everyone, and never criticizes!

A small glimpse of the relatives who gathered to enjoy a lunch to celebrate Rachael. 

My siblings and I also spent the weekend visiting places from our childhood.  We were all squeezed into my mom's Suburban...the same one we drove on family summer vacations when I was a child. Boy! The memories that flooded back were so fun! It felt like we were all kids again, heading out on a grand adventure!

We drove through our childhood neighborhood and visited our old house. We also spent time on the BYU-I campus, where I attended college and met my sweetheart. So many things are changing in town- my old (really old, as in they were built in the 1920's) college apartments were razed to make way for a new park. It was sad to see the College Avenue of my youth be so empty without all the snug little brick houses I regarded so fondly. I have so many rich memories from that street, and a special kinship was forged between the students who lived there. I'll have to console my heart with old photographs. I have to admit though, it did look much better with a beautiful park rather than beensy house rubbing shoulders.

It's a bit funny, but one highlight of the trip for me was actually the thrift store, can you believe it? I have to explain why- the Mormon thrift stores are so exciting because they have a gold mine of old religious books. I love books, and I particularly love to read scholarly discourses or textbooks on the scriptures, Jewish history, lives of modern-day prophets, etc. In Texas it's a rare thing to find a Mormon book at the used-book stores (Although it does happen occasionally. I scored a leather-bound, gold-leafed edition of the beautifully-written masterpiece, Jesus The Christ.). My sister had pointed out that thrift stores in this area were well-stocked with interesting books since there is such a high Mormon population. We were all interested in collecting more books to add to our home libraries.

My siblings all laughingly agreed to a friendly race to the bookshelves in the store, where we found lots of great treasures. I really love to study my scriptures with the accompaniment of my old university study guides from religion courses, but I had given my textbooks away to friends several years ago. These textbooks were so wonderful, rich with descriptions of ancient Jewish customs to help enlighten Biblical scriptures, or quotes from respected scriptorians add insight to particular passages. I love to copy notes from the textbook into my scriptures, and it really adds depth to my scripture study experience.

Anyway- I found textbooks from every religion course offered at the university. Evidently the college students all dumped their books here before leaving for the summer. Score! I have several years-worth of study material now! I was totally doing my happy-dance over this find, and didn't mind purchasing another piece of luggage at the thrift store so I could bring my treasures home on the plane. (Thank goodness Southwest Airlines doesn't charge for a second checked bag! Whew!)

The weekend was wonderfully-fun and carefree. I felt like a little sponge, soaking up all the positive energy and joy to store away in my memory for a rainy day. My heart was so full of gratitude for this experience, and overflowing with love for my family. I'm so thankful to belong to a good family, that is truly priceless!

Glimpses of our farm

Yesterday I followed Diego around the property while he toddled around exploring for flowers, chased a few butterflies, dug in the dirt, and tried to stalk a song bird. Since a friend asked for pictures of our property, I carried along my camera and documented a few of the places Diego went. 

First we collected the mail. This is what the road in front of our house looks like. I think it's so peaceful and quiet out here! Little one lane roads have such charm. It's perfect for biking with our kids. 

This is the gated entrance to our driveway. Most country properties out here have gated driveways to keep in the livestock. I LOVE the way it keeps away any unwanted solicitors. In our city house we were bombarded with door-to-door salesmen several times each week. Now I don't see any. Score!

Here is one of the children's favorite climbing trees. (See the chair left behind from the last child's play?) They hang from the tree like monkeys, or sit up on top and straddle it like a horse and pretend it's a giant dragon giving them rides to a far off castle. This tree gets more play than any other tree on the farm. Diego always climbs on the chair and tries to reach the tree, but he's not tall enough yet. 

This is the view walking back up our driveway. The trees shade our property nicely, cooling the yard several degrees in the summer. Most of the yard near the house is under a canopy of leaves, so we spend a lot of time there. 

This is one of the many flowering bushes on our farm. It smells just like a rose, but I'm not sure what it is exactly.

Part of our front yard.

This week we counted 49 new fruits on our apple tree.

I love all the different flowering plants we have this time of year. There are different flowers on vines, bushes, grasses, and trees. I love the spring in Texas! The wildflowers are everywhere!

This is a view of one shaded area of the yard. Several clusters of trees completely shade an acre or so of our farm. It's a delightful area to play. My hope is to put picnic tables here and install a couple zip lines for the kids.

This is my favorite tree- The Grandfather Tree. Last year Daniel climbed this tree and became tightly wedged. It's too far from the house for anyone to hear his calls for help. He had to sit there until I found him. It didn't take long for me to find him, but it was pretty funny discovering him trapped in a tree with a cat who climbed up to keep him company.

These are some of the wildflowers who populate the sunny parts of the yard in our fruit orchard. They dot the landscape anywhere there is sun. We also have white and purple wildflowers. It's lovely. I love seeing a field of flowers nodding their heads in the breeze. 

Shots of more trees...just cause I like them so much.

This is the view out of our dining room windows. Diego loves to watch out this window for the school bus and wave 'hello' to the Big Kids as they come home.

Often while we wait for the school bus to arrive, I take Diego out to the tire swing. He loves singing our "Swing Song" while we sway slowly in the shade. It's a song my grandma always sings when she pushes children on the swings. I like passing the tradition on to my own children. 

This is what we see when we recline on the tire swing and look up. 

So. There is a wee bit of our farm. I love it here and feel contentment every time I step outside to listen to the birds. 

There is a special peace that I feel around big trees, and a unique joy that fills my heart when birds fill the air with song.

I wouldn't trade this little patch of earth for anything. 

Fiction in the real world

Imagination is a powerful weapon. 

As a child, I loved the book "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My favorite character in entire world of fiction is Sarah Crewe (this is a big part of why I named our daughter Sarah). She had a truly noble spirit, heart-felt charity, and strong imagination. Her imagination was a coping tool to transform her depressing circumstances into an exciting fantasy full of wonder.

All my life, I've used Sarah's tricks to change my own perspective. 

When I walked to school in the freezing winds in Idaho, I'd be chilled with numb cheeks and frozen fingers. The fierce wind would cut through my scarves and coat, embracing me with icy fingers and robbing my warmth. Oh I hated walking to school! With a mile left to trudge through snow, I'd play mind games to cheer myself up. I'd pretend I had been traversing the Sahara desert for days, and the sun had been blisteringly hot. It made the snow suddenly appear as my welcome cooling friend rather than a freezing enemy, and made my lonely daily travels more tolerable.

When I was in college, our apartment shower had problems and would only let out a trickle of water no matter high we turned on the water. There was absolutely no water pressure, so the water just rained down on us weakly. At first I was very frustrated. Then I imagined I had been hiking through the steamy jungles of Brazil on a science expedition  I pretended I had just crossed a muddy bog and was covered in sticky grime. There were no rivers around, but luckily I found a small trickling waterfall I could bathe in. I didn't care how little the waterfall was- I was thankful to have any water at all! Suddenly this trickling shower was seen as a huge blessing instead of a source of frustration.

When we moved into our farm house full of problems, I played more mind tricks to cheer me up. The house was too filthy to live in, had a rotting roof and holes in numerous walls, had really really ugly paint in every room, the plumbing didn't work well, and everything in general just LOOKED bad.

To make the best of things, I pretended I was an American pioneer who had just crossed the plains in a handcart. After months of strenuous work and living outdoors, I finally built my first cabin in the West. Suddenly my house was wonderfully luxurious! I had indoor plumbing and didn't have to fetch water from a stream! I had a solid roof over my head rather than a thin wagon cover! I didn't have to sleep on the ground at night! I had the miracle of air conditioning to cool the hot Texas summer! I had clean tile instead of a dirt floor! My family was well-fed and healthy! Life improved so much by changing my perspective.

Well, this week our water heater stopped working. It's been three long days since we had hot water. I tried my mind games again when I had to bathe without the blessing of hot water. I ran a tub of cold water, then heated several pots of water on the stove to add to the tub, hoping it would be warm enough to be at least comfortable. As I prepared the hot water, I pondered our ancestors and felt thankful that at least I had a large luxurious tub instead of a little barrel to bathe in. After emptying the contents of my steaming pots into the cold tub, I hopefully tested the water. Yikes! It was barely warm at all! I closed my eyes tightly and pretended I had been walking across the dusty plains for a week without a bath, imagining dust and grime all over me. I revved myself up by thinking what a luxury this was going to be- hurrah for cleanliness!

Sigh.

It didn't work nearly as well as I had hoped. Washing long hair in a tub is no picnic, and the water was still unpleasant and the chilly air bit my skin, causing me to gasp involuntarily. My imagination must be getting rusty.

If you need me, I'll be hiding and reading a good book. 

(Okay, not really. I don't have time to read right now. Wishful thinking perhaps...)

Joseph enjoys a tree swing on a brisk cold morning

Random Happy Thoughts

Each time our sheriff's deputy passes our house, he beeps his sirens for a friendly 'hello!' that I can hear anywhere in the house. At first I didn't notice this, but he cheerfully pointed it out to me one week in church. It brightens my day to see him beep and wave as he passes by.

We shared some home made jam with a neighbor recently, so today she brought a bag of fresh pecans from her tree. I love simple tokens of love like this! Our family sat around the kitchen table cracking pecans and chatting for hours last weekend.

This year I am sewing fabric bags to use instead of gift-wrap paper. I wanted to go more 'green' with our annual celebrations. The biggest reason I'm doing this is that I have oodles of pretty fabric given to me and I couldn't think of what to do with it. Ta-Da! Gift wrap bags were a perfect solution! They are so easy to whip up so I get the satisfaction of instant gratification instead of laboring over a drawn-out tedious project (like the fort I'm sewing our kids for Christmas). It's also been a great opportunity for Sarah and Matthew to practice their sewing skills. It's almost impossible to mess these little bags up.

Diego does a quick little dance anytime he's excited about something. He'll bring me a water bottle  then dance in anticipation while I open it for him. I love it! He looks like a chubby puppy wagging his tail!

Today apple crisp is bubbling away in the oven for our after-school snack, potato soup is simmering on the stove for dinner, and yeasty rolls are rising on the counter. I've sewn gifts, written letters to family, played with our baby a LOT, and cleaned house. I've also stayed in bright blue polka-dot pajamas all day. I look like a poster child for 'white trash' but I've had SUCH a wonderful day!

Daniel builds snakes and snake houses with play dough

I hope your day is beautiful!

Wildflowers in the country

This afternoon my children disappeared.

I looked all over the house and couldn't find a sign of them.

I checked outside, but the swings were empty and lifeless. 

The trampoline was abandoned and lonely. 

The cats and dog looked at me questioningly.

Dinner was ready and cooling on the table.

I called and called for our children. There was no answer.

Becoming impatient, I rang our loud dinner bell vigorously. 

Still there was no answer.

Where were they?

Fighting the urge to yell and feeling waves of anger tickle my soul, I searched on foot.

I began to trek around the property, peering in chicken coops and barns. 

Finally I found them, all singing joyfully and marching together through the back corners of our large pasture.

When they saw me, they all squealed in delight and ran towards me with their hands full of blossoms.

They had spent an hour collecting beautiful wildflowers and crafting a custom bouquet for me!

Our cooling dinner was forgotten and we exclaimed in delight over our beautiful blossoms. 

I felt like a queen being gifted with rare treasures. 

The flowers were so lovely and colorful.

I delighted in their fragrances and scooped my children up in my arms. 

We hugged and laughed together and gloried in the wild jewels of our earth.

I am so thankful we live in the country where flowers can be freely picked without messing up a landscaped flower bed or angering neighbors. 

I had been experiencing a stressful day earlier that afternoon.

This bouquet completely changed my outlook. 

How lucky am I to have such thoughtful kids!

We laughed and rolled in the tall pasture grass together. 

Our dog Bella eagerly joined in the fun, rolling luxuriously in the grass over and over again. 

 How thankful I am to be alive and able to find joy in Earth's bounty!

Life certainly is a treasure!

 I hope you have a chance to enjoy your Littles today!

Better things in life

Sarah and cousins read together on a sunny morning
 (Okay, it has nothing to do with the post- I just love this picture from our summer, that's all)

I've been streamlining my priorities in life and eliminating a lot of the nonessential things to make more space for the things that truly matter. I've been overflowing with joy because of this!

My change came after reading this talk (yet again) and striving to apply it (yet again). Essentially, the point is to stop chasing after 'good' things in life and focus more on things that are even better.

To quote Elder Oaks-

We should begin by recognizing that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.

There's one of my problems. I was spending so much time pursuing good things that I was missing the more important parts of life.

I have found myself repeatedly returning to this principle of time management over the past few years. My almost imperceptible baby steps in improvement each year are finally coming to fruition as I look back and see the progress I've made in becoming the type of person I truly want to be.

It makes me giddy and I want to shout: Look! I'm finally improving!

Elder Oaks continues-

We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.

With that in mind, I'm spending more time each day focusing on these three things:

-strengthening my family
-stimulating my own spiritual growth
-serving others 

What did I eliminate? 

Cloth diapers. There's a shocker (totally sarcastic here). The choice to revert back to disposables bought me an extra 5 hours a week since I'm no longer rinsing, washing, line drying, and folding those undies. Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that I feel liberated.

Home school is off the family plan for this year. (I know, I know.....don't get me started on the turmoil I felt over this decision. That's another story for another day.) While the kids are in public school I can focus on being a better mother rather than a better teacher.

I realized they only have ONE mother in life, and I have certain motherly responsibilities that no one else on earth can fulfill. Anyone can teach my kids to read and write, but only I can teach them how to have faith and integrity. Only I can teach them how to return to Heavenly Father, and that should always be my biggest priority.

I'm focusing more on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in our home, rather than thinking up lesson plans to instruct geology or math. Yes, I'll admit I do still feel a bit guilty over the choice to public school. Tough luck for me.

I cut out our school commute. Instead of driving into town and waiting in line at two schools twice each day, our kids ride the bus. This bought me an additional 9 hours each week! Now they come home to a welcoming atmosphere and warm muffins waiting on the table next to tall glasses of icy milk. I never had the energy to do things like that when I home schooled. I feel like I'm able to make our HOUSE more of a HOME full of love and encouragement since I'm not tired and cranky from the tedious commute.

In previous years, our baby steps on improvement eliminated television (yup, we have NO cable or even the basic channels) and the following year Netflix was cut (I always felt obligated to watch the DVDs and wasted a lot of time there).

I eliminated "Drivel-and-Tripe" books from my personal reading lists so I could focus on books that were truly worth my time investment (now I prefer to read nonfiction books that teach me something new or fiction that can enrich my life in meaningful ways- Twilight was the first book to be axed from my library that year!).

My days this month have been full of joy and purpose. I'm able to spiritually nourish my children because I've made my own spiritual health a priority (instead of trying to read my scriptures at the very end of the day, when I feel so tired I have to prop open my eyelids with toothpicks). My service to others has enriched my life, bringing satisfaction and meaning to my afternoons. My children are happier because I spend more meaningful time with them and our relationships are getting stronger.


I know almost no one reads this blog, but I hope those of you who do read this will leave with a sense of peace and joy.

My heart wonders about you and your unique struggles.. I hope you feel loved.

I hope your own life is filled with joy because that's the whole point of life- to experience joy. 


Life really is beautiful.

Good Life

Nate and Matthew compare 'staches

I'm content to soak up all the good things the Lord has sent my way.

 The trees surrounding my home are majestically beautiful. The dappled sunlight dances across my window, sending spots of light racing across my bedroom walls. It makes my heart sigh in happiness.

I love walking down our gravel driveway to the mailbox and glancing into the eyes of the deer herd standing across the street. They freeze in place and gaze at me warily for several seconds before bounding away in the trees.

Diego is so kissably soft and playful. He shrieks in delight when I chase him across a room. His fat little legs are comical as he toddles and lurches at his fastest speeds.

We have a new van- YAY! I spent an entire day at various car dealerships haggling with salesmen. I found a nicer model than we expected and bargained the price lower than we expected. We are very happy with our purchase, and I feel like this was a gift from the Lord.

We are so happy now when we drive as a family. We each have our own seat belt (yup, we're law-abiding citizens again!)  and are no longer consigned to squishing into our sardine can car.

My darling Mr. Kingsley is so kind and romantic. He brought me home a bouquet of cheerful red flowers and gourmet chocolate for no special reason. The blossoms smile at me from the kitchen table everyday, reminding me of my handsome sweetheart. He rubs my feet at the end of the day and brushes my hair tenderly because he knows I love it.

I can't imagine life without him! How lucky we are to share our lives and grow old together.

What more could we ask for?

Life is good.

Conquering a mountain... Part 3

After resting at the lake for a short time, we faced the descending dirt path and began our trek home.  The Lord really blessed us and transformed our hike from the I-regret-I-ever-suggested-this-idea-now-I-hate-myself trip into a positive and memorable experience.

 The path downhill was so much easier than our grueling scramble up the mountain where we had been fighting gravity with every uphill step.

It was such a pleasant surprise to discover how easy and enjoyable the walk down was. Instead of being my mocking enemy, gravity was now encouraging (friendly even!) and nudging me along.

We all enjoyed ourselves much more and found ourselves bantering and laughing. The surrounding hills echoed with our joyful noise.

Finally we were going home!

With this elation soothing my sore spirit (and sore muscles) we found much to be happy about. Once again the landscape was breathtaking and beautiful.

Halfway down the mountain we paused and gazed around us at the forest, flowers, and rolling landscape.

My spirit was full of gratitude that the Lord created such a lovely place.

I was so grateful to have a body that was healthy enough to even consider this hike. I was thankful for my legs and the privilege it is to be mobile and not constrained to a wheelchair.

We gathered as a family and had a little mountainside devotional about the priceless nature of God's creations. We prayed together to thank the Lord for blessing us with this beauty.

It was a special moment as we stood in silence to appreciate the forest around us.

We felt recharged and fully enjoyed the rest of our excursion..

Thankfully our lunch was still with the van, waiting for us on the pavement. All ended well as we enjoyed our picnic with gusto. We didn't even mind eating our feast in a parking lot instead of on a mountain lake shore.

A love affair to remember

Diego discovered a new passion in life: the watermelon. 

(Rubbing my hands in a sinister fashion: 

The first taste is always free...now he's hooked for life! Mwahahaha!)

We had a picnic for dinner in the Idaho countryside

. Dutch-oven style: BBQ beef, roasted vegies, and baked brownies. 

Imagine this picnic on the Muir farm, 

surrounded by tall pines (or spruces, or whatever they are) 

with the scenic foothills in the distance. 

Birds serenaded in the fading light.

The sunset was breathtaking and the air was cool. 

(I do miss the spectacular Idaho sunsets!)

The children laughed and played on the swings while the adults ate and played games. 

One game we played was a "Getting-to-know-you-AGAIN" game. 

You know, because even though we're related we still don't see each other very often.

Here's how it works- each person is assigned another family member to introduce (preferably assign them a person they don't know very well.). They can ask everyone else (other than their assigned person) for any details to use in the introduction.

It's a great activity for breaking the familial ice after years of being apart. 

It was also very wonderful to hear what everyone thinks of each other. I discovered a lot of talents and character strengths in other people that I hadn't noticed previously. 

It was such a great activity to strengthen our friendships. Everyone felt loved by the group. 

(I'll confess, it also fed my self-esteem.)

One last parting note- don't let your Littles eat just watermelon for dinner. 

You'll regret it and so will he. Just sayin'.

Summer Surprises

This morning we were blessed with a delightful surprise.

We went to check on our broody hen who had laid a hidden clutch of eggs under some brambles and vines in our front yard.

Look what we saw peek out from under her wings: four little black faces!

We hadn't known what to expect from her little experiment with motherhood. We have never let a hen hatch her own eggs before. This particular hen was so determined to hatch her eggs, so we decided to entertain her desires. This has been an unexpectedly rewarding experience for our family.

As we came closer to see her new babies, more heads popped out from her warm feathers.

We counted four, then seven, then ten chicks. We were astonished with the size of her family. When she stood up to get breakfast, we counted thirteen chicks scurrying out from under her body. What fun!

We gathered a respectful distance from Mother Hen and watched the chicks all scramble through the brambles to keep up with their Momma.

I've never seen how a hen cares for her young before. Have you ever wondered how a hen teaches her babies what to eat? She picks up an edible morsel in her beak and drops it in front of  her chicks while she makes a particularly encouraging sort of clucking sound. The chicks respond to this cluck by gathering around whatever food she has given them and exploring it with gusto. It was so fun to watch!

We watched them for an hour today, enjoying the shade under our trees and watching the gentle breeze ruffle Mother Hen's feathers.

I had been worried that her vulnerable babies would be hen-pecked by the rest of the flock. Mother Hen set me straight as soon as the rest of our flock ventured over to her hiding spot. Several hens investigated her chicks and inched too close for her comfort. With a piercing shriek she fluffed her feathers on end and spread her wings (making her look like a turkey) before running full speed at the offending hens. She chased them all away and none of them have come near again.

In the late morning our Pyrenees dog Bella discovered the peeping family. She wagged her tail in excitement and inched ever closer to sniff the babies. She was so eager to lick them I suspected her of jealously wanting to adopt the little brood as her own.

We commanded her to "Leave It" and go away from the chicks. She laid dejectedly on the front step and waited for me to leave the area. When I peered out our window a few minutes later, I saw Bella peeking in the window, watching me. As soon as I left the room (and was out of her sight), Bella began inching her way across the yard to the Mother Hen's family.

I curiously watched her progress as she s-l-o-w-l-y sneaked up behind the little family. Her tail was wagging a hundred miles a minute. She quivered in excitement as she inched laboriously closer to her target. When she was two feet away from her prize, Mother Hen lost patience and bowled into Bella's face at full speed. With a surprised yelp, Bella dashed away. The mother clucked consolingly to her frightened chicks and they gathered under her wings while she led them to a safer sanctuary.

I was surprised that Mother Hen would be so brave. Usually all the chickens run in fear from Bella. Even the boldest, most aggressive rooster flees from before her. She is, after all, just a domesticated wolf...and at times she has played too rough with a chicken and been the unintentional cause of its early demise. I've never seen one of our birds attack Bella before. Suddenly I found myself feeling something unusual: respect for a chicken.

I now want to help this first-time mother because she's trying so hard to be a good protector and provider for her little ones. In an effort to provide an added measure of safety, we moved Diego's playpen enclosure outside in the shade under our oak trees. After adding some water and food, we placed each member of the Hen Family inside its safe walls.

Daniel also took it upon himself to be the unheralded Guardian of the Flock. He moved a chair outside next to the new chicken home (we'll call it the Chick Inn. Get it? It's hilarious, right?) and protected the family from any curious animals. I didn't get a picture of it, so you'll have to imagine this: Daniel was wearing just galoshes and shorts (his shirt was put aside in the interest of fashion I suppose) and leaning back in his chair, propping his black boots on the wall of the Chick Inn, whistling to himself.

It was one of those increasingly frequent moments that made me think to myself, "Who cares about fancy houses, trendy clothes or expensive furniture? Not me. I have the simple joys of the country life and my children are happy. Life is good!"

Sunday country drive

Recently we took a Sunday drive through the countryside near our home. The wildflowers have carpeted the landscape for the past month, blessing us each day with bright colors and cheerful thoughts.

We collectively ooo-ed and ahhhh-ed over each new field full of flowers. It's so picturesque. It's the best time of year to see Texas. Look at this field. It is several acres just full of bluebonnets.

We enjoyed exploring "Get Lost" roads. We haven't done this tradition in a loooong time, thanks to rising gas prices. We used to regularly pick a random country road and say, "Let's get lost! Let's go find out where this road goes!"

In the past we've discovered some amazing places. One time in Idaho our Get Lost Road took us to the tippy top of a volcano. I'll never forget watching the sunset from that viewpoint!

Here are some of our Get Lost views this year:

Isn't this just gorgeous? It's only a couple miles from my house! I feel so lucky to live someplace beautiful. My heart just sings every time I drive into town and pass all these beautiful views.

We packed a picnic and made our drive into a day trip. We found a lovely little park where we feasted and played near a river. Nathan taught the children how to skip rocks and climb trees. I cherish these moments. I loved watching the adoration in my children's faces as they learned from him.

I'm so thankful the Lord blesses us with beauty all around us and lazy afternoons with time to enjoy being alive. I hope your week is full of good things and you are able to take a moment to enjoy the beauty in your spot of Earth!