Riding the horse of life

I should have posted this a couple weeks ago, for my Dad. But I think now is as good a time as any to honor him.

When all of us younger kids got our first horse, we knew next to nothing about riding. So Dad began taking us out once a week, saddling our horse, and taking her for short rides around.

I mainly remember his gentleness in reminding me where to hold the reigns, how to mount, etc. It was always in a gentle voice, with no harsh tones or hard words. When I think of riding horses, this in one of the good memories, looking back to when I first got over my paralysing fear of horses, and was able to actually ride with no fear at all!

Learning to ride that horse was kind of like learning to live. I fell off so many horses when I was younger, and had to get back on. I've fallen off how I should live so many times, and somehow I've managed to get back on. Mainly with my parents direction.

Thanks Dad for being able to look back at how you helped me to not fear, and being able to look forward to training my children in the same way. I love you!

Sowing Seeds

When I was little, one of my homework assignments was to write a story. I really don't remember what I was supposed to write, except maybe that it had to do with bringing people to church. Maybe. Anyway, I can remember staring at that piece of paper, and honestly believing I couldn't write that story. I also remember my Mom sitting next to me, thinking out loud with ideas and words that I could use. Right now, looking at that story, I can laugh at the misspellings, the bad grammar, and all the little things that could never work. But my Mom planted in me a seed to write. I doubt she remembers that homework assignment, although I'm pretty sure she remembers the terrible and mysterious "Wahanee and the great big storm" which had my model horse as a hero. When my Mom helped me write that, it was not just the one-on-one time that I craved. It was sacrificing of her time and lots of energy to help me be fulfilled. It was the encouragement of hearing her say "That's a good idea, can we put it here?" It was the fact that she was never impatient, or in a huge hurry to get things done. Those aren't just good memories. They are a basis for my writing now. My Mom sowed seeds in me. Of writing, of patience, of sacrifice. Do you all have a person in your life who inspired you to do the best you can? Or inspired you to do what you're doing now?

Wyoming

Far up in Wyoming, near the Montana border, there is a small town named Shell. And near that town, is a working guest ranch called "The Hideout" It is run by the Flitners. It is also the most beautiful part of Wyoming.

My family and I just spent the last weekend up there visiting my oldest brother and his wife. It was a great time! On Saturday, we were able to visit an airplane graveyard. A huge field of old airplanes. Passenger, bomber, carrier. Anyway, lots and lots of airplanes! We got to climb around in them, and sit in the pilots chairs, and investigate every corner we wanted to poke our noses into. That was probably one of the funnest (is that a word?) afternoons in my lifetime. Including the rain.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and were able to eat lunch with the minister and his wife. I think we stressed the poor people in that restaurant out, but they did very well with the 20 people who crowded in. Then we traveled back to Shell in time for a bonfire Sunday evening. That was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend!!! We had a wonderful hostess, and I enjoyed talking with and just being around my family and my brother's family. :)

And now I'm home! :)
God Bless!

Book Review: To Save A Soul. By Nona King

Para Sedi and Munwar Meek are just finishing up a fight with some mercenaries at a tavern, when they get the offer of a job. Being warriors hasn't been helping to fill their purses recently, so without knowing what the job will be, they agree to travel to the small city of Pomeroy to find out what the job entails.

On the way to Pomeroy, they meet an irresistible little Sylvan. Henry Sidgwick. Once they get to the city, they find that the job involves a fifteen year old girl who has disappeared. Everyone believes she is dead. They agree to take the job, and get started immediately.

Para soon finds a compatriot in the city. The brother of the chief suspect, he is a priest, and has had one attempt on his life since the disappearance of the girl.

Can the four of them find the truth before it's too late for the fifteen-year-old Alicia Pomeroy? And can they solve the mystery without disturbing the fragile peace between the two main families of Pomeroy?

To find out, you'll have to read this book. Nona King creates characters that will make you laugh. With scenes that will make shivers chase each other up your spine.

Socorro, New Mexico

Leaving town on Friday evening around 5:00, the group started out for a land far away. OK, it was Mexico. We reached Leadville around midnight if I remember right. I probably don't because I had been asleep for a while. I have found that in Leadville, at midnight, it's cold. Even in June. Leadville is the highest town in Colorado. After we got loaded back up, we headed on down the road. The vans were quiet, since most people were sleeping with the murmur of the drivers and the few people who couldn't sleep. We reached Alamosa in time to find that the Wal Mart was the only store open at that ungodly hour. After hurrying through Wal Mart, and trying to keep the group partway together, we finally all got loaded to get on down the road. By the time breakfast came around, we were in Socorro, New Mexico. That town has interested me for a while now. I learned once that in Spanish "Socorro" means "Help" I had to wonder who would name a town help. Finally my curiosity overcame me. So I googled it. (Hard thing that. ;)) And I found that Socorro actually was a town that was a huge help to the first expedition of explorers coming north from Mexico. The town was a Pueblo Indian village, and showing no fear of the strangers, the Indians told the explorers what lay ahead. And then gave them a large gift of corn. The leader of the expedition renamed the village Socorro because of the aid the Pueblo Indians gave them. There is no part of that village now standing, but if you go to the Eastern edge of Socorro county, you can find the ruins of the three large Pueblo's that were a sign of the might and power of the Pueblo Indians. Now that my curiosity has been satisfied, I thought I would let y'all know about it too. As for the rest of the adventures going to Mexico, I think I'll let them wait for later. :) God Bless!

Book Review: Emma, by Jane Austin

Emma is the spoiled youngest daughter of a indulgent father. A headstrong girl, she has much to learn of the world she thinks she knows so well.

Mr. Knightley is a neighbor who has known Emma and her family for at least as long as she has been alive. Sixteen years older than her, he's one of the only friends she has who can see her faults.

The characters in this Jane Austin classic show up in true style. Harriet, the daughter of no-one-knows-who; Mrs. Weston, the true friend, and one-time governess for Emma; Miss Bates, the fast talking, lovable, annoying friend who loves with all her heart, and is the friend of all; Mr. Elton, the village parson...

Emma is a girl who thinks she has a gift for match-making. In a fit of generosity, she makes Harriet Smith, a Parlour Boarder at the school in Highbury, her special friend, and protege. Thinking that Mr. Elton is lonely, she decides that Harriet would be much better off married to him, than to the simple farmer she would have loved without any qualms.

Through a hilarious turn of events, Emma learns of her mistake on a snowy carriage ride with Mr. Elton himself. In hopes of turning Harriet's thoughts away from that dismal failure, Emma starts plotting to help Harriet fall in love with Mrs. Weston's step-son.

When this too falls through, Emma finally finds the truth about herself, and Harriet. About true love, and her real feelings considering certain people in her life. Just when she feels her last chance of happiness has disappeared; the one who can make her dreams come true, appears and shows her the truth about himself as well.

Oh, and if you're wondering how Harriet came out of this disastrous relationship, she had a happy ending as well.

Jane Austen is well known as a talented author and a young woman who could read people very well. She has shown this skill in this book. Emma is often called "Jane Austen's finest masterpiece" And with her startling observations into human nature, Austin shows that anyone can grow, and achieve success. If you've never read this book, I suggest that you do. If nothing else, it will make you laugh at the scrapes Emma get's herself and all her friends into.

Book Review: High On A Mountain

When Ailean MachLachlainn was a young boy he dreamed of being the hero he couldn't be in real life. Fighting for his fathers approval, he struggled with the people of his dreams, and was victorious. But victory came to him only in the annual game of camanachd that his clan played against the Cambeuls. When he fought with Latharn Cambeul, and won the game for his clan.

Marriage wasn't a part of his plan till after he won battles, and the honor and admiration of his clansmen. But life didn't happen like it did in his dreams. Before long, love and cares came to him. He found himself with a wife named Muirne and child named Coinneach-og. A part of the croft to till on his own. And an enemy who still stalked his footsteps in the form of Latharn Cambeul. The man who had loved Muirne before Ailean had even met her

Then Bonnie Prince Charlie visited Scotland. He came to take back his father's throne. Owing to the loyalties of his clan, Ailean was able to do what he'd always dreamed of doing.

But can war and fighting ever be the same in real life as it is in the imagination? After much pain, loss, and hardship, Ailean returns home. But finds that he has lost everything that ever mattered to him.

In the midst of loss can Ailean find anything worth living for? Can he learn to live and love again? Can he survive the ever growing threat of Latharn, who still hates him with a bitterness that is destroying his life? And most of all, can Ailean find the peace that always came to him...High on a Mountain?

This book will keep you in it's grasp. You will laugh and cry with the people as they come alive, and tell you their story for themselves. Tommie Lyn writes with an effect of bringing the story and all the characters into your life, till you become one of them. And their victories and defeats are your own.

I am giving away a free copy of this book to one person who comments on this post. Don't miss out. This one is definitely a keeper!