September 2015 – Wildflower Muse

We had a wonderful day of adventure in the Little Belt mountains this summer with these wonderful friends. Four wheelers and dirt bikes made it even more fun 🙂 the kids all did wonderful and I’m hoping we can go again next year 😉

The view was breathtaking and we followed such gorgeous mountain trails. Sun scented pines. Fields of Wildflowers (although they were past their prime). Narrow ledges along steep mountain faces. And Rocky terrain that was barren and wind whipped and wild.

(Yep, we went all the way to the top. Talk about a rough ride….but so worth it!)

Our scenery changed so drastically it reminded me of the drastic opposites in personalities. Now please understand these pictures have no reflection on the people in them. In other words….we don’t have drastic personality clashes with them. (Lol.) The colorful personalities brought out parts of this blog post so I just had to share them.
Did you know that with an app on your phone you can translate your spoken words into Chinease, Spanish, Latin, or Russian? And that’s just the beginning.
Guess what the most common phrases are that are translated every day?

“How are you?”

“Thank you!”

And my favorite….”I love you. ”

((This little guy concked out on the bumpiest part of the trail on the way down the mountain. Now I know he can truly sleep anywhere :))

I saw a commercial for this google app recently that grabbed my attention….it started with languages being interpreted. People smiling. New friends being made. And it ended with these words….
Be together. Not the same.

It struck me solid.

Life is full of this. I don’t know of any single other person that is exactly the same as any other single person.

Yet, we all have the same basic needs of survival in life. We all bleed red. We all breathe oxygen. We are all on Earth together.

We are all created by the same God.

We have all sinned. We are all broken.

We are all offered free salvation through Jesus’ death.

As SAME as we are in so many basic fundamental aspects of life, we somehow seem to forget our origin. We all started little. Helpless. We all grow into big people of those tiny origins.

Somewhere along the way in life the glamour and simplicity seems to fade and we forget that simple childish view of life. We don’t understand each other. We jump to conclusions. We speak different dialects. We prioritize in different ways. We have different tastes and preferences. We have different opinions and fight different battles and wear different scars.

And somehow, the different is all we can see.

I am understanding more and more how OK it is to be different from those I love. That’s agreeing to disagree on some things in life is healthy. That my own desire to desperately control makes me want other people to think like me. I am slowly learning to accept and embrace the differences and understand the dialects.

When we don’t understand the language, then we need to bring it to the Interpreter of heart and mind and ask Him for understanding and translation.

So often I am too busy to stop and bring my thoughts to God. I wonder how many heart aches and misunderstandings and fears would be relieved if I would simply utilize this wonderful tool of prayer that is free for all of us.

This praying thing that can be as natural as breathing. Available any time. In any place. For anyone.

We are beautiful together. Not the same. But beautiful. We can lift our faces to the Son. Bask in His peace. Worship our Creator. And pass the Interpretor love on to those we meet every day. Let Him teach us genuine love that makes others feel value, accepted, and LOVED.

Just like the gorgeous Wildflowers that blend into the loveliest bouquet.

They remind me again….of our Wildflower Girl…

And how different is truly SO BEAUTIFUL!

Seven years ago when we got married I would never have dreamed that we would be moving for the ninth time but what an adventurous time we’ve had! . Most of our moves were totally unplanned but totally necessary. Moving is never easy and packing your life into boxes is always eye opening.
Just when I think I have purged and downsized….we move again and I still think there’s too much 🙂 I suppose hauling heavy boxes does that to you.

This time we are actually buying our very own very first house!!! Its one of those milestones we have dreamed about and planned for and saved money toward. I can still scarcely believe this is happening and until we feel the metal of keys in our hands I am holding my breath 🙂

And even then I will have to pinch myself to believe we are in this stage of life…
What will we do without that renters groove of desperately scrubbing carpet stains and stressing out over holes in the walls and turning down pets and staring at plain boring paint colors….or hideous ones 🙂

We are planning to have closing on Monday so I’m hoping I’m not jumping the gun here. The bungalow is a nice size family home that was foreclosed on. It has some nice original hard wood floors and a newly remodeled kitchen with an open dining and family room and also a large living room, two bathrooms, and three small bedrooms. There’s a lot of cosmetic work that we’d like to do but ugly is liveable for now:)

We did a bit of work on it already as you can see:) eventually i will post before and afters. It took me most of a day to scrape off the old wall paper on this wall. And we have more to do;)

Steve tackled a water damaged ceiling

We put in super long hours and were totally shot by Friday so after attending a friends wedding in Gold Creek we headed for some rest and relaxation. Virginia City is an old mining town that has been wonderfully preserved. Its a great family friendly place with a fun short train ride through dredges and country to nearby Nevada City.

We drove up to Boot Hill where a crucial part of Virginia City history went down….four highway men were hanged for robbing and killing miners. They had no mercy and would kill anyone in their way…even women and children. After their deaths, the miners were much more safe and likely to actually be able to keep their hard earned gold.

They were buried with un marked graves but in later years the gravestones were added to preserve history. I wondered who their mother’s were. I wonder if they wept. Or if they even knew.
We got back to our campsight to having our tent literally blowing away. The 40 mph wind would have sent it tumbling if some kind souls hadn’t tied it down. The inside was a disaster. There was a nasty storm blowing in so we loaded up and headed for a motel for the night. We didn’t want to be tossed across the open fields like tumbleweed At midnight.

The next morning broke refreshing and rain whispered. Kobe and I did some fun water color painting at the open window before we headed for home and a new week of work.

Side note…
We bought our house! This post is a week old;) but I’m kinda behind in so many things I thought I’d post it anyway and eventually I will catch up with my own tail i hope;)
Blessings to your day!

Month: September 2015

Of Little Belts and Life

Our Ninth House