Check out my Slide Show!

Those Where The Days!

Lost In The 50's

Visitors!

On Tuesday the Simpson family came to visit here in Montana.

(L-R) Back Row: Daniel, Mr. Simpson, William

Front Rows: Suzanna, Sarah, Sophia, Hannah, Mrs. Simpson

We all decided to go hiking in the Bridger Mountains at Sacajawea peak

(L-R) William and Hannah, Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Simpson and Sophia,

Daniel, Sarah, Bryce, Me, Laura, Renee

On the trail (L-R) Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Simpson, Laura, Sophia, Bryce, Sarah, William and Hannah, Suzanna

(Back-Front) Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Simpson, William,
Laura, Sarah and Hannah

The peak behind me is our destination. Isn't the snow in June great?
...I don't think we got any pics. of our snow fight.

Mr. Simpson and Hannah, Mrs. Simpson, Sophia in pink

Taking a break

*whew* it's quite a hike

The flowers are great

I made it to the saddle!

Here's a view of what we just hiked from the saddle of the mountain

We're so happy to be up here!

(L-R) Sarah, Me, Renee

View of the other side of the mountain

You can see the city of Bozeman off in the distance

The wildflowers scattered randomly made such a pretty picture of spontaneous beauty

"Wait...is that Daniel at the top of Sacajawea Peak...
forty-five minutes ahead of the rest of us? I think we should follow him up..."

"Yes...but first let's take a few more pictures."
(L-R) Susanna, Sarah, Me, Bryce, Renee

You can just see the little trail which leads up to the peak behind us
(L-R) Susanna, Me, Sarah, Renee

The mothers wisely decided to stay behind and rest

I had a few problems on the way up

I think Sophia did too!

Renee didn't seem to have as much difficulty

Almost to the top!

We made it! 9,300 ft. up!


"Seanna...did you see the mountain goat?"

Seanna and Sophia looking for the mountain goat

There it is!

(B-F) Daniel, Mr. Simpson, William,

Sarah, Susanna, Sophia, Seanna, Bryce

Mr. Simpson is enjoying the rest from
having momentarily unloaded his bundle of joy

View from the top

The boys engraving their everlasting mark atop the mountain

I figured if they could do it...why shouldn't I try?

That was when...oh no...

Help! Could someone give me a hand?

Did they help me up? I'll let you figure it out for yourself. I only have two things to say. You will note I am not in this picture. You will also note...they are all smiling...broadly.

William decided to get adventurous and go rock climbing.

I'm putting these pics. up as a good illustration of something I am way to fearful to do myself.

(I also have to pause and say...This young man is such a gentleman. He helped me several times down some steep places and was very considerate.
Thank you William!)

He climbed higher...

And higher...

"William please come down?"

William wasn't the only one to be adventurous. Bryce tried skiing in his hiking boots. It worked!

Daniel thought it looked like a good idea...

William followed with the amazing, brave, endurance walking,
(don't forget) resiliant, 7-year-old Sophia

Back at the top. As Daniel (white shirt) walks away from the scene of the crime a nasty little plan is hatched. What should we do? ...I know... let's put rocks in Daniel's backpack!

Sarah and I deep in contemplation concerning concealed rock placement

Halfway down the mountain Daniel is pictured here discovering what the extra weight in his backpack really was

Sachegewia peak where we ended up (Left peak)
It was a gourgous day, lots of fun with friends... and an absolutely amazing hike!

Staying With Friends

The last week I have been enjoying the excellent hospitality and company of our friends Laura, Bryce and Renee in Montana. Here are some scenes from my week.

Calves Are So Darling:

This one reminded me of some I used to take care of. They're so soft and warm. Their tongues feel like sandpaper and their noses are so wet and sloppy. They are so cute!

The Flowers in Montana are Beautiful!

This is an orange Prickly Pear Cactus

Wild Roses



Field of Lupin




Indian Paint Brush



Yellow Prickly Pear



Thistle

Hiking:
We Decided to go hiking at West Boulder Meadows up in the hills south of Big Timber. It was about a four mile hike round trip. Lots of fun and a pleasant trail.

Road sign pointing the way to our destination

Renee and I on the trail


( L-R ) Bryce, Laura, Terra (the dog) and Me

We saw lots of burn area-it's amazing how black the trees will stay so long after a fire

Here is healthy bark underneath coming out

Beautiful River

It's Friday

I was a book coordinator last Tuesday at a writing conference given by a famous author. It was really fun to meet him and discuss my own personal writing problems and get his advise on things. It was a good experience and I enjoyed the lectures. I hope I'll be able to apply some of his principles on this new storybook I'm working on for kids.

I'm really excited about the new Hebrew workbooks I ordered to supplement my other curriculum. They look really good. Hopefully I'll be reading the Bible in the original text soon! That will be soooo great!

Also, I just bought some new piano music! I was getting a little tired of my mountainous stash of played-through-50times-already sheet music. I'm really excited. I bought the Pride and Prejudice theme music book, "Who am I" by Casting Crowns, and Charlotte Church's Voice of an Angel. Should be coming in soon. Can't wait.

I should get to work on the presentation and information for a series of etiquette classes for girls I am hoping to start. "Finishing Classes For Young Ladies" "Finishing Classes and Refinement School". Hmm...I'll call it something like that.

Oh...and then there's that scarf and hat set I'm supposed to finish crocheting for the dear lady in town.

But first, we've got to get our business products finished and delivered to Colorado. Fun... These next couple months should be crazy.

Happy Birthday Mom

My Mom celebrated her birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday Mom!

Mrs. Lisa Hollinger with Miss Genevieve Smith

Your Vote Counts!

Here are some small excerpts from a Valentines Article entitled "Surviving Valentines When You're Missing In Action" which I was writing and didn't finish in time.

"It was February 14th, 2004. Valentines Day. The day created specifically as purgatory for the unattached. All during the week I had passed windows filled with valentines, roses and chocolate boxes. I fancied to myself what it might be like to receive one. A small card would be attached to the beautiful wrapping paper signed "With all my love..."Well! Unless I became engaged in the next 10 minutes of my life, that was not likely to happen!...

I guess the first step is to understand our unmarried years and recognise them for what they are. If we view singleness as a new sort of "death of ten-thousand screams", is it any surprise that we're in a hurry to get out of it?

...Then again, maybe the problem is that we have an unrealistic view of marriage. Expectations can alter your view of reality. "

So, tell me...should I continue on and finish? Or is it dead weight until next year? Can a Valentines Article hold it's own during the other 364 days on the Calendar? Vote now. Let me know what you think!

New Year Resolutions

Do you believe in New Year resolutions? I do. I don't necessarily believe in swearing an oath to "fulfill them...or else", however, it is my firm conviction that at least "setting" goals is vital to my success in the coming year. If you don't know where you want to be at the end of the year, how will you know whether or not you've gotten there? Goals are very important. Proverbs says that a Wise Man looketh well to the ways of his going and that the Prudent forseeth evil and hide themself!


My New Year resolutions...no I will rephrase that. Many of my New Year Goals for 2007 have to do with self government. Checking my spiritual imput/output. Health habits. This is the first year I have ever had to make a real resolution concerning my weight. Ah! It must be my age and metabolism catching up on me. Gone are the carefree days of unmonitered eating! :) From now on I suppose I will have to weigh in the balance (no pun intended) the benefit of consuming "this" or "that!"


I have a funny approach to New Year resolutions. I make them at the begining of the year and then glance at them about once every couple months, modifying them and just keeping the idea of them in the back of my mind. Otherwise, I completely forget about them in the BIG sense. I find if I make a HUGE resolution and try to live it out all at once, I only get discouraged by my lack of progress. Pretty soon I fizzle out and give it up altogether. So, I came up with a way to overcome my timid, untenacious, tendancies.


We've all heard of the revelutionary principle "Divide and Conquere". It works in war and it works in life. So, I make two resolution lists instead of one.
The first is just the regular list of what I want to change about character, spiritual life, habits; or things I want to learn, such as a new skill or refinement.
The second list is a twelve month breakdown of each specific goal.


Then I simply focus on small goals for that month and forget about all the others.
For instance, one of my desires has always been to learn French. That is not one of my resolutions this year, however if it was this is how I would go about it.
List 1:
Learn French

List 2:
January:

Check out french related "general interst" books from the library (such as titles as "Parisian Gourmet", "Country French Decor'", Provincial Gardens", "Marsaille Archetechture" and "Travelling through Metz.") I wouldn't really read them, just glance through them and read small sections that I find intriguing.

I might also check out a subtitled French movie such as "My Mother's Castle" or read "The Conquests of Napolean", "The Refugee's", or "A Tale of Two Cities". (BTW you do have to be careful with french movies...I'm not in any way recommending them. I've had a few that once they've gotten home, had to go straight back to the library!)

All of the above serves to arouse my interest and give me a reason to learn French. At this point, I now know more about French humanity and culture. None of the above takes very much time out of my day-to-day life during the month. Perhaps an hour or two one day to scope out some books at the library. A few hours during the next couple of weeks to glance through and read the intersting parts. Two hours to watch a movie some Friday. Maybe a week of reading at night for a book? Not much time really in the large view of things, and when I'm finished, I'll be more motivated to stick to learning a language about people that I am slightly more aquainted with.

February:
Search for good curriculem. Learn the alphabet and pronunciation.

March:
Learn the 100 most commenly used verbs. (3 words a day for instance)

April:
Learn sentance structure and the most commonly used connecting words such as the, in, but, and, is etc...

May:
40 most commonly used phrases. (A phrase a day)

June:
Learn the most commonly used nouns.

July:
Begin building your own sentances using a dictionary to suppliment.
By now your already speaking basic French and you haven't taken too much time out of your life to do it. If you wanted to take two months on each of the above activities, it would take even less time and there you would have your entire year planned out. Hooray!

Looking back on last years 2006 resolutions, I find that I did accomplish, at least, all of the most important goals I made using this "divide and conquere" method.
Remember, no one was ever unsuccessful because they spent time planning ahead!