yonah and the horses

Today Yonah came with me to help out at Blazing Hope.

He was a big helper! He swept out the barn, fed horses, and helped to groom a few.

A few lessons were also learned (more than once). Normal boy stuff like, no climbing on the horse's pen like a crazy child, no throwing hay at the horse, no using a handful of hay as a lightsaber, no running at horses tied and waiting to be groomed.

I didn't get to help as much as I would have liked, but it was still a great time. I enjoyed watching and helping him. And, anyway, it's all for the kids. I'm just there to help where ever needed - and today, that meant keeping an eye on a very excited, and slightly absent-minded boy as he eagerly worked so hard.

And then . . .

After a long, long wait, while horses were warmed up in the big round pen . . .

He finally got to ride.

This was something he was very excited about.

Until he realized just how big horses are when you're standing right next to them. And just how far away the ground is when you're sitting on their back.

But he gave it a try anyway, and absolutely loved it.

I am so proud of him.

shlump in the night

And poor Mr. Bix!
Every morning at six,
poor Mr. Bix has his Borfin to fix!

It doesn't seem fair. It just doesn't seem right,
but his Borfin just seems to go shlump every night.
It shlumps in a heap, sadly needing repair.
Bix figures it's due to the local night air.

It takes him all day to un-shlump it.
And then...
the night air comes back
and it shlumps once again!

from Dr. Seuss's "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?"

I relate far too easily with Mr. Bix. My Borfin, however, is not some mechanical invention of Dr. Seuss's, the purpose of which is elusive; my Borfin is my attitude. Sometimes I'll fix it and will be good for days. Other times, like the last several days, I have to spend every moment fixing it because it shlumps as I'm un-shlumping it. Regardless of how long it lasts before shlumping again, I'm constantly needing to work on it. It is annoying. I start wondering, why do I even bother un-shlumping when I know it's just going to shlump again? (I had the same mentality toward making my bed for most of my life.)

But when it shlumps, I really dislike myself. If I could get away from me, I would. When my attitude shlumps, so does everything else.

I know I have to work on my attitude a little more than others. For one thing, there's my ongoing battle against depression (just a plethora of skirmishes now); for another thing, I feel a bit controlled by things going on around me, with the deployment, the kids, and the pregnancy. Very little right now in my life is as I would have planned it, and even though I know that God is in charge and is working through everything for His good purposes, it rankles me. Don't I get some say in my life?

I'm not even going to comment on how ridiculous a question that is. I mean, He's God. I'm lucky He doesn't strike me down because of my disrespect.

Now back to un-shlumping.