Meanderings at a Horse Ranch

We recently spent the day at Tyson's Corner Retreat and Wellness Center.  Tyson's Corner is a beautiful, peaceful horse ranch in Lampassas, Texas. 
https://sites.google.com/site/tysonscorners/
My husband went on a soldiers retreat a couple of weeks ago,  where they went through Strong Bonds classes (Army approved relationship training)  and experienced some Equestrian Therapy.  Here is a story about a similar event in the local paper...
http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/story.php?id=6363

To be honest, my teenagers did not want to go.  It meant a day away from screens....(Oh my, how awful! Practically child abuse!) and a day with us, their PARENTS, with no escape. However, whenever you follow your intuition concerning what is good for your kids, no matter how uncomfortable at first, your kids usually benefit.  And such was the case this day.   By the end of an hour or so, they were mounted and riding, and enjoying the serenity of nature and the calm of being near horses.

Gene Tyson (a retired Army Chaplain) and his daughter Joanna run the ranch and retreat center.  Below is a photo of Joanna.  She patiently taught all three of my kids how to calm a horse, put on a saddle, mount, and ride at a walking pace.  Which is actually amazing since it was the first time the boys have ridden a horse at all.  

There are fourteen lovely, gentle horses at the ranch. They are so accustomed to being handled, that they are safe and easy to approach.   

Rose will most definitely be spending some time here in the near future.  She is a natural and loves, loves, loves horses.

Oh look, I shot a photo of Aragorn, I mean James... (otherwise known as "Chappy" around these parts).

 I have said before that Texas is more beautiful than I could have imagined.  This place is ultimate proof of that.  But it is a magical place as well.  A unicorn lives here, of course only some can see unicorns for what they are.  Most will see just a white mare below, but a special few will see her for what she truly is.  (If you have ever seen The Last Unicorn movie, you know what I mean.)
Her name is Bella...

Regardless if she is mythical or not, I fell in love with her.  Her amazing blue eyes were difficult to capture, sadly, with my lens that day.

To sum it all up, we had a fantastic day, and Rose and I look forward to spending more time with the horses.

The Apathy of a Generation X-er

I am so glad that the election is over.  There are SO many people who get SO worked up over such events.  And I am not sure that the process brings about the "best" in a lot of them.  I am tired of hearing the negative comments on both sides, concerning the other sides.

I have been told that I am apathetic, because I don't have faith in politics, but I am not sure I agree.  I have not lost faith in the country or mankind.  Just that we should put so much trust in the government.

During the past few days, these have been my rambling thoughts:
1.  Politicians are not usually the "best of men and women" because the people with the most humanity, compassion, integrity and goodness do not tend to choose politics as a career.  They choose to become doctors, teachers, social workers, you get the idea. Someone with those qualities don't want to control other people. Or events.  Is this judgmental of me to say?  Perhaps.  And I am sure there are exceptions to the rule.
2.  I do not want to  put a lot of faith in any government system. Governments are run by men (and women) and we all make mistakes.   Democracy is a wonderful concept, but every system has its weaknesses.
3.  One thing that I kept on reading concerning why everyone needed to vote is that our soldiers give their lives for this freedom.   Although I think it is an incredible privilege to be able to vote, I do not believe that is why soldiers give their lives or should it be.  I may be naive but I would like to believe we fight for MORE.  Things like stopping tyrants and terrorists from torturing, misusing and killing innocent people.  And to stop such terrorists and extremists from affecting our citizens and families.
4.  Someone of facebook wrote something that talked about whatever the outcome of the election is, it is not to be our main concern, if we are Christians.  Our main concern is His Kingdom, not some temporary earthly system.  And to my understanding, although the Kingdom of Heaven in the Bible is somewhat of a mystery, there are basic guidelines that we CAN understand.  Mercy, Grace, Justice, Meekness, Gentleness, Kindness, Generosity to the Poor, Compassion, Love and Hope... these are the characteristics of the Kingdom.  AND YES I DO SOUND LIKE A HIPPIE!  But, hey, its in the BIBLE.  (Matthew chapter 5)  The concept that is important is that its all in God's hands... this election, this presidency, this government...such things are of little concern when meditating about eternity.
5.  #4 does not mean that we don't get involved and take action on topics that we feel strongly about, or are plain wrong, its just that first and foremost, we trust that God is in control.  Don't stress about things you can't change.  Work hard to change society but with grace and kindness.
6.  Yes, anxiety and worry about things we can not change robs us of LIFE.  We should vote, then move on.  We should respect our leaders.  We should follow the law of the land.  We should love our neighbors AND those in power.

So, in conclusion, I am not apathetic.  I just don't think that our hope and trust should rely totally within any political system or person.  I think the President needs prayer and support.  He is in this position in an extreme time.  He must make terrible, tough and mindblowing decisions.  I certainly wouldn't want that responsibility.
So there it is... the Apathy of a Generation X-er.

Sansa Stark and her Dragonflies

I was asked to make a necklace like Sansa Stark wears in the Game of Thrones series.

   I am a huge fan of the series and I am currently reading the books.  However, I never really gave Sansa too much thought.  Her character is introduced very early on and she is superficial, selfish and , basically a spoiled brat. A "cheerleader".  I never had much time for girls like her.  Now, Danaerys... she is an awesome, strong character.  Arya is spunky and brave.  The Greyjoy girl (Asha in the book, Yara in the series)  commands a ship.  And all this time, Sansa is vying for the affection of a despictable Lannister. 
   But then I realized, I misjudged .  Sansa is a little girl of 11, in the beginning, who loves tales of romance and chivalry.  She loves pretty clothes.  She wants people to like her.  She is actually a lot like I was at that age.  I was mean at times to my little sister, as well.
   I came to this realization  while researching the dragonfly necklace.  I think that her act of wearing the dragonfly is a sign of rebellion against the Lannisters.  Quiet rebellion of her heart against the murderer of her father.  She does not wear the Lannister pendant any longer.  She chooses the dragonfly. 
   The only dragonfly reference I could find was of a song.  In this song, the Prince of Dragonflies was a Targaryen prince who fell in love with a common girl named Jenny of Oldstones.  He should have been the King of Dragons, but gave up the throne for love of the girl.  He was given the nickname, the Prince of Dragonflies.  Sansa wearing the necklace proves she has not given up on love, or chivalry,  but it is also a nod to the great enemy family of the Lannisters.  She is wearing the symbol of a Targaryen prince.  I say...nicely done, Sansa.
   It is interesting how adversity can bring out a person's true character.  Fictional characters can often help us analyze our own character and help us aspire to be more.  Or help us see our shortcomings.
Sansa initially is a spoiled brat who has no sense of reality.  She becomes the girl who although is surrounded by the manipulative Cersei and sadistic Joffrey, knows that she does not want to be like them at all.  She chooses, through various acts and situations, to show kindness and softness.  She decides that she wants people to obey her and help her because they love her.  Not out of fear.  
I am only up to book 3 right now, but I can't wait to see how she prevails.

My finished piece:

 

Outtakes

We went on a trip to San Antonio, and I took tons of photos mostly of buildings and such for inspiration (PHOTOS check out here).   I also attempted to take some photos of my family.  They do not like it when I take pictures of them.  It is a little frustrating. At least I have not been adding onto the piles of photos which need to go into albums .  I haven't scrapbooked in 8 plus years. 

This is my typical good shot!

I like this picture of father and son walking together.  Ethan has the coolest shirt on that I found on a clearance rack.

 The above photo is a pile of rocks which my daughter shot.  She's just like me. And below is my lovely shot of them in front of the Alamo.

 Despite the profanity, I had to post the below pile of bullpoopey......   Only in Texas, Right?

 I was looking for a present for my mother, whose birthday was that same weekend.  I kept finding stuff like this.  Needless to say, I didn't find anything she would really like. 

Ransom's idea of "posing"... they seriously see my camera and turn away all the time!  Or cover their faces.  Or hide behind their siblings.

Hey, if you can't beat them, why not join them?  We have a lot of "fun" memories from the trip, if not pretty pictures!

The Surreal Life

This is my third attempt to write this post. So much has happened this past week.

 I originally thought that I wouldn't have to write anything particular about my husband's job for me to write about our family's adventures.  I am not even sure how much is appropriate to discuss.  Of course, most details, I wouldn't even know.  There is a lot of confidentiality and all with his position.  And even now, I am not sure what is prudent or not.

But the tragedies which have hit James' battalion , and even his sister battalion, this past week are surreal.  And pointless.  And so extremely sad.  He will be holding his first memorial service within the next few days for three soldiers (one of them from the other battalion, two were his soldiers).  He has seen first hand what happens when despair and hopelessness take control of a person's heart and mind.  I don't really know how to support him or help him.  He is working hard at helping others with grief management, and host of other tasks that are before him.

On a positive note, he was able to give the invocation for a homecoming celebration on Sunday.  It was an incredible experience.  These soldiers were deployed for over a year, and the excitement and love in the building were so inspiring.  The funny thing is that as the soldiers entered, they did this smoke thing to build the excitement, and the fire alarms went off.  The whole ceremony (which was around 5 minutes long) was drowned out by the alarms, so no one heard a word of it.  Not that they would be listening anyway.... they hadn't seen their families for over a year!  Anyway, James can reuse the prayer he wrote and no one would know!

This weekend we will be going to San Antonio for a marriage retreat.  He will be teaching/facilitating the workshops or whatever they are called.  The Army believes that strong families = strong soldiers, so chaplains do a lot of marriage building events.  I am looking forward to taking some photos of some old missions and other sites.  I want to go see the Alamo too!

My dream world...

I have had some extremely vivid dreams the past two nights.  In them, I am in a park or woods or other beautiful place of nature, and I want to capture the beauty in a photograph.  By the time, I position myself, and get my Canon out, the scene has changed, or the lighting, and I miss the moment.  I don't know a lot about dreams, but I assume there must be some meaning to it.  Especially since the dreams are very colorful.  Last night, I kept on finding misty ponds with wildflowers growing around them.  The night before, I was in Hawaii (and I have never been there in real life) but I think I was really in Texas, in the way of dreamworlds.... and the ocean landscapes and waves were the boldest blues. 

In real life, I keep on seeing pretty things, but usually only have my camera phone with me, and I miss it.  I love my dslr camera, but it is big and bulky.

Since I don't want to forget them, I figured I would try to find some similar images online.  

This photo is very much like my Hawaii dream, but the waves were bluer and really big.

Anyway, this is not what I usually blog about, my dreams, that is, but that is the beauty of blogging.  Maybe these dreams are more about my desire to see the world, and the ability to see more now, being part of a military family.

Texas Musings

One would think that being a bohemian at heart, one month of living out of suitcases wouldn't be too difficult.  The movers took our stuff on August 9th and tomorrow on September 5th is when we will have our boxes and furniture delivered.  It is a long complicated boring story.  Next move, I hope to move ourselves.
So, before I receive the sea of boxes, I wanted to jot down some reflections. Texas is so beautiful.  Here is the lake which is right off Post, which offers every type of outdoor recreation imaginable for military families.  Everything from horseback riding to paintball to huge water slides. 

Texas is more beautiful than I had thought it could be.  The sky is large and beautiful, and unlike the big sky of Wisconsin, (where we lived for five years) it is full of color.  In the day, bright blue with large fluffy white clouds.  In the evening, pinks, yellows and every  other imaginable hue.  (Did my best trying to capture it while riding in a moving car with my phone).

The flowers and plants are awesome.

Some prickly pear and a hidden trail behind my house.....

The schools on post are very nice, and very close.  Walking distance, but since the times for the elementary and middle school are not staggered, I am still trying to figure out how to get both kids.  Ransom has a 45 minute bus ride to school, but he doesn't seem to mind.



 This flowering tree, whatever it is, is so pretty....


We have a quiet, tranquil backyard with a gorgeous view of the golf course.  So far, Ethan is learning how to golf in the back, and Ransom is skate boarding every day.

There are so many thoughts in my head right now, but I think this is good for now.  A week with no internet survived and ready to blog some more artsy stuff once I am unpacked.

 And for the most important part, James.....
he is a Battalion Chaplain and he has around 1600 soldiers to serve.  He was made for this job. But it is not going to be easy. Anyone who has family in the military or has served in the military knows what challenges he will be up against and the situations he will be trying to aid. So if he is in your thoughts or prayers... THANK YOU!