change

The days are cooler and the nights are colder. 

The leaves are changing and falling to the ground. 

Change is coming.

When I begin to feel like I am in a rut, when things seem to be same-old-same-old, 

I begin to have visions of change. 

How can things be different? 

How can I change things up a bit?

But when it comes right down to it, I don't like change.

Change scares me, change is not comfortable. Change is, well, change. And yet as time goes by, people, places, jobs, positions in life, houses, friends, on and on, things change.

I have the feeling we are in one of those seasons. A time of change. 

I don't know how or when, but I feel a change is coming.

remodeling the camper

Here are the updates that we made to our new a-frame camper.

As you can see, she is very brown. The cabinets, the walls, the counter-tops and the curtains all are brown. My first thought was to paint the cabinets white and re-do the counter-tops. But seeing how much work that was going to take, we decided to put that off this year because we wanted to go camping right away.

The picture above shows the dinette area that folds down to make a bed, but the cushions had been taken out and were not available upon purchase. We decided to not worry about purchasing or making new cushions and we put a full size mattress in here and we would just keep it as a bed.

We knew we wanted to get rid of the brown curtains and lighten up the interior. We went to IKEA and found a duvet for the bed. Then we went to Wal-Mart and found material to make the curtains and the cover for the hinged area where the trailer folds down.

 I painted a couple of flower pictures and made the Let's Get Lost map picture. I hung the paintings with 3-M Command Strips.

The Preacher even made a scarf for the Sergeant!

As you can see, the Preacher enjoys relaxing in his new trailer!

I think the green and yellow helped to give it new life. Next summer I would like to paint the cabinets and even put in new flooring.

We love getting away in our own little tiny house!

opportunities to serve

The Preacher and I got up very early in the morning. 
Grumbling 

The Preacher and I drove 60 miles to a Christian School. 
Tired

The Preacher played his flute and spoke to the kids about spilling God's grace out on those around them. 
Excited

The Preacher prayed -- "Thank you Lord for these opportunities to serve You." 
Thankful

treasuring all these things in my heart

I have always treasured the things our son has said or did.

When he was little I would sometimes write down those things and then. at a later date, use them in my scrap-booking pages. But since he has been living on his own, I have not had the opportunities to hear or see many of these moments.

Recently the Preacher and I traveled to Texas to visit our son during his time off from work. While there, he needed to finish working on his car so we spent many hours visiting him while he had his head either inside the top of his car engine or under it. He also had a couple of friends there helping him.

During these times he said and did some things that I just had to write down and treasure in my heart. 

After purchasing pizza and drinks for him and his friends, our son said, "You guys are the best!"

After the Preacher helped him work on his car and helped with purchasing tools, nuts and bolts, he said, "Dad, I really appreciate it!"

When we first saw our son he gave me a hug, but later on in the day, he wrapped is arms around me and kissed me on top of the head and said, "Come here mom, I haven't given you a proper hug yet."

These things might seem minor to you but having not seen our son for 5 months, they just seemed extra special to me.

Love from the Preacher and I

a wilder life

The Preacher and I went on a three day camping trip this week. We didn't go to far, just up into the foothills here in Colorado. 

On the second day of our trip we decided to go shopping and we ended up in IKEA. While looking through one of their displays, I found a book called " A Wilder Life, Living Outdoors". And inside on the first page was this:

"A WILDER LIFE. What happens when you open the WINDOW and let in a bit of FRESH AIR? The curtains start to flutter, and the room fills up with movement and wind. A bumble-bee flies in, creating a little PLEASANT CHAOS. Your home BRIGHTENS UP, and that tidiness you've been trying to keep on top of for so long suddenly doesn't seem quite so important. YOU BECOME FREER. YOU FEEL A BIT WILD. And it feels good, It feels fun. You also want more. To go outside more, and stay outside more.   LIVE A SLIGHTLY WILDER LIFE -- OUTDOORS. A life with the city, the forest and the ocean as your neighbor. A life full of fragrances and feelings, of hair tangled by the wind. SIMPLE. FREE. WILD!"

We love our camping trips, living outdoors. Sometimes we camp close to a town and other times the campground is a little farther from a city. Either way, we love being outdoors, feeling the breeze on our faces, watching a river run by. These freer moments help us recharge and recuperate from crazy, busy days.

The Preacher and I highly recommend getting outdoors. See and feel the wonders of His creation. Even if it's for just a day, go out and live a slightly wilder life outdoors!

Love from the Preacher and I

Note: I wanted to list the author and/or publisher of this book. Upon calling IKEA to get the correct name, author, and publisher's information, I learned that this is not one of their books but a book they may have used as a display. I apologize to anyone who may want to look for the book in order to purchase.

Happy Birthday to Sergeant!

This dog, this beautiful Border Collie, came into our lives 3 years ago this weekend. You might say he was our son's rebound dog. 

We had lost our precious Max just 3 months before we found Sergeant. Our son missed having a dog in his life so much that he was asking us almost daily if he could get another dog. (You can read all about Max here.)

On the second weekend of September, our town has Old Thresher Days.  At this festival of re-enactment of the old farming equipment and days gone by, there is always a small petting zoo where you can find baby kittens, chickens, goats, lambs, donkeys, and even one year there was a llama. Sergeant was there that year, along with his 3 brothers and sisters. Our son picked Sergeant out immediately and then went looking for us to come and see this puppy, this puppy that he just had to have. Our son knew this was the dog for him, the one he had been looking for these past 3 months. 

The Preacher was not thrilled with the idea of getting a dog so soon, especially when he knew our son would be heading to Basic Training in just a few months. He knew that we would be "babysitting" this dog when our son left for the Army.

But I fell in love with this puppy too. He had the cutest little face, who could resist? The Preacher has a hard time with telling his son and his wife no, so we scooped the puppy up in our arms and off he went to live with us and to become the Church Dog.  

Happy Birthday Sergeant!

Love from the Preacher and I

God of This City

"You're the God of this city; You're the King of these people

You're the Lord of this nation; You are

You're the Light in this darkness; You're the Hope to the hopeless

You're the Peace to the restless; You are

There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come

And greater things are still to be done in this city"

                                                              – God of This City by Chris Tomlin

I hope you have enjoyed this photographic tour of our town, Yuma, Colorado.

Pray this prayer with us -- that God is the God of your hometown and the King of the people who live there. 

Love from the Preacher and I

The Fruits of Our Labor

We spent Labor Day, 2017, harvesting our grapes. This is our third year working with our grape vines. The Preacher has done some research each year trying to get the best crop.

This year the grapes are so plump, sweet and juicy. We're not sure what to do with them at this time, so for now, we cleaned them up, we bagged them and put them in the freezer until a later date. 

God's fruit is the best fruit.

Love from the Preacher and I