These last few days have been good, but there's been burdens, burdens I keep casting away on to the back of One who handles things much better than I.
Along with just life stuff, my father-in-law is in the hospital, getting ready to have major surgery. It's enough to make you pause, shake off all the extra things that don't really matter
and remember what really does.
This life is such a vapor. It's fragile.
Those moments of fragility help me to savor the value of people in my life.
I'm thankful to have such a terrific father-in-law.
We've all been doing lots of praying lately. God is mighty.
In times like these, I'm grateful for peaceful times to look back on. Moments of rest in the last month or so, that are times to recharge for just such times as this.
We did a short trip to the cabin on Memorial Day weekend. Though barely more than 24 hours, we soaked up as much peace as we could.
In the midst of the beautiful breezes and the creek-walking, I stumbled on a favorite of mine - a patch of wild mint.
What to do! Why, tuck it above your ear and take a selfie, of course!
There were some family bike rides and walks. It's neat to think that this is only the first or second trip that Blossom4 walked the entire way down the lane and back, all by herself... without being carried.
This IS a different season for us.
There's twilight meanderings.
And so many discoveries are waiting to be made!
I guess if you're strange like me, you nonchalantly take pictures of other people's boots. We took the girls to a children's fishing derby and this lady was attending in style!
Now that I've attended one fishing derby, I'm pretty much set for life. It's a terrific event, meant to get kids interested in fishing. A boatload of fish are released in the fishing area and then, kids get to fish til their heart's content!
The girls had a great time, but it was much too squished for our tastes.
Think lots of tangled fishing lines and hooks flying every which direction.
On the up side, when your kids lands a good-sized fish, everybody starts to cheer, because they're all there for the same thing - to watch kids get fish!
In between baiting hooks and untangling lines, I'm always snapping pics of wildflowers
OR SNAKES!
Not my preference. This cabin trip was definitely the "snakiest" one we've ever taken. I hope we're good on that for a while.
But don't worry,
I solaced myself with ice cream and mountains.
Back at the cabin, I wasn't fooled by Rory's tail. I'm not sure why I was standing on the picnic table, other than maybe that photographing his skunk-like tail probably struck me as something fun and artistic to do.
The Rugged Mountain Man doesn't bat an eyelid at this sort of behavior from me anymore.
At the cabin, the girls just roll with the punches. Sometimes, they are rock collecting and investigating.
Sometimes they are reading. The swing is always a favorite spot. I'm glad there are three now, so I don't have to shoo little people out of my spot.
While we are "dinging" around by the creek, I usually take deep breaths and whisper little prayers.
I open my spiritual ears and try to clear away the white noise to really listen.
There are less distractions here. It's so much easier to be in tune to what God is saying.
The girlies soak up the peace too.
And, so does the Rugged Mountain Man.
Blossom3 is showing Blossom4 just how cool this little toad is.
I'm pretty sure they were fighting over keeping him when I turned around and took a picture of the chimney, which I've always thought was a handsome piece of masonry straight out of the early 1900s.
In any case, Blossom4 thought it was nifty that her "toady" could "climb trees."
There is a cable bridge over the creek that Blossom1 and Blossom2 are finally (barely) tall enough to cross. I held my breath a little. Rory and Jake weren't all that thrilled about the girlies being up there, barking their worry incessantly.
This angle is deceiving; it's not just 4 feet off the ground! I think it's more like 10 feet off the ground.
I've crossed it many times
and my Rugged Mountain Man proved his mettle by crossing it with one of our Blossoms in a backpack carrier once upon a time.
Vacationing at the cabin, for me, is letting the children get dirtier than is socially acceptable, not stressing about it and saying yes, if I can humanly say yes.
Oh yes, and throwing lots of sticks and balls for Jake to retrieve.
This whole cabin thing is liberating, I tell you.
This is a terrific shot of our swimming hole, a revered and much-frequented location. We measure how high the creek is, by how submerged that rock is. The creek is a little on the high side here, though in flash floods, we've seen this rock entirely submerged.
Times of refreshing don't have to be long to refresh us.
We can snatch those rejuvenating moments that the Lord sends. Surely He knows what we need.
Snatch a moment of rest today,
Dominique
