photo hike

last week, i took a photo hike, to record my lovely colorado
summer and to give myself an excuse to take frequent rests.
i walked out my back door to the base of the trail.

a few steps uphill, and i was in the foothills.

hearing the seductive babble of a brook, jackson and i forged through

the trees to stop and play a while.

not a great photo, but i think his little pink tongue is too cute.

onward and upward we ventured, until we came to a "fork"in the road.  

at first, i wanted to take the smallest trail, but then i spied the intriguing 

curve of the road to the left.  i was also weary of the mountains bikers. 

 

and, of course, along came some bikers.  :)

mount crested butte,

glorious clouds.

with great reluctance, i returned to my back door.

"for the beauty of the earth,

for the glory of the skies,"

love,

lea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhokcT7HhEo

"you bring me sunshine"

here is sunday lane's video from her current ep release,
"you bring me sunshine."  the ep is being sold on i-tunes,
but i have no i-dea how to use that site.  hopefully some
of you do! luckily, i don't need to, because i already have
mine.

hope you enjoy this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhokcT7HhEo

the cute little brunette in the opening scene is our youngest
daughter.  am i proud?  am i shameless??  :)

love,
lea

ps.  some have asked if i can send an EP to them, and i
will happily do that.  just give me your address!

first love

dear emily,

hans and i fell in love when i "was sixteen, going on seventeen,"
but he was not my first love.

no, my first crush made me swerve off the road onto the sidewalk.

those powerful shoulders . . .

that confident stare . . .

the clear invitation to jump in and drive really fast and far!

but, this hunk was clearly out of my league - one of those "look,

but don't touch" guys!

sometimes, even now, when i drive by, i imagine i see a little 

steam under the hood.

love,

lea

"some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we remember the

name of the Lord, our God."  psalm 20:7

blackberry cobbler saved by the gun!

now that it's blackberry season, i want to share my favorite blackberry

picking story.

every july, my family hauled hay at our ranch -- ugh.   the heat.   the 

heavy haybales!  the sickening fear while pulling hay out of the blades!!  

the idea of inadvertently grabbing a snake instead!!!

the only redeeming part was my mom's delicious blackberry cobblers.

picking the berries, however, was also dangerous, as there were so many
snakes lurking in the bushes.

in fact, snakes were so prevalent that my dad let my 12 year old brother
carry a handgun to protect us.  that is probably his happiest childhood

memory . . . and my most horrifying.

"seriously, dad?  you're going to let that crazy little kid carry a gun? he
will kill us all!"

one sweltering morning, we were picking blackberries, when "boom!"
wyatt earp had fired his six shooter and nailed a rattlesnake, who was
considering a strike at my mom's ankle.

as i stared in horror at the dead snake, i thought, "we almost didn't

get that cobbler."

love,

lea

"bring forth fruit worthy of repentance."  luke 3:7,8

tiny beauty

as hailey and i were descending the beautiful forest trail, she suddenly
stooped to the ground and pulled out her camera.  my head was in the
clouds and the mountain peaks, but hers had found a treasure smaller
than her toe.

"you'll come to learn a great deal if you study the insignificant in depth."
odysseus elytis

"God chose the things the world considers foolish in order to shame those

who think they are wise."  1 corinthians 1:27

love,

lea

too heavenly minded to be any earthly good?

i have grown up hearing the phrase, "you're just too heavenly minded
to be any earthly good."  of course, they weren't saying that to me!

it is confusing, though, to think we could possibly be that way.  if
someone has truly set her heart "above, where Christ is seated at the
right hand of  God. . . and her mind on things above, not on earthly
things," then she will do as Jesus did.  (colossians 3:2)

He was of tremendous earthly good.

He loved little children, prostitutes, and tax collectors but had no
patience for religious people who lorded it over the humble and
judged the sinners.  He went about doing His Father's business,
healing and restoring bodies and hearts.

He told us to seek His kingdom, to stop worrying so much about
tomorrow, and to not judge others but to pay attention to the  log
in our own eyes. (matthew 6 and 7)

sheesh, how will i have time to worry about everybody else's sins,
when i have so many of my own, which brings me right back to
being "too earthly minded to be any heavenly good." :)

now that's something i do very well.

love,
lea

boys, boys, boys!

in the past few weeks, i have mixed up three boys' names.
not my own sons, of course, but the ones circling around my
girls.  i can no longer even remember which boy is 'friends'
with which of my girls.

"mom!  that's bobby, not billy!  he's here to take hailey out
to dinner, not me!!   sick!!!"

the trouble is, they seem to think that i can keep track of
'friends' from two and three years ago.  that is simply not
possible for my small mind.

"mom!  that's billy, not bobby!  he used to like sunday, not
me!!  ew!!!

(billy?  bobby??)

so, from now on, when a new boy walks in the door, i will
give them a test like, "hey bud, would you please bring the
groceries in from my car?" (the ones YOU will be eating.)

if he does, i will try very hard to learn his name, but if he
can't pass my daughter's test, i won't try very hard to
remember it.  :)

love,
lea

"rejoice, o young man, in your youth, and let your heart
cheer you . . . "  ecclestiastes 11:9