The Big and the Little of It

No pictures today.  Just words.  So if you want to turn back now, I'm giving you fair warning.  :)  My Man tells me, "The words are great, but people like to see pictures of what we see."  So I try to give you lots of that.  But tonight...or rather in these early morning hours when I can't sleep...I just feel the need to get some thoughts out there.

I just finished a book called "Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World", by Tsh Oxenreider.  (Yes, her first name has no vowels--fun!).  She gave me so much to think about.  She's a young wife, mother of three, writer, blogger, etc., etc.  Some of the things I highlighted:

"Live the life you long for.  Period."

"...realize that the real hidden cost of everything you buy--is how much life it cost you to get it."

"...life is not an emergency but a gift to slow down and savor.  That it glorifies God to spend our extraordinary life by paying attention enough to the moments that you enjoy God."

"...the moments all matter.  The daily decisions add up to the sum of your life.  And a pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over.  A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted, small moments missed."

There's so much more I loved about her book and could share but I'll just say I definitely recommend it for some thought-provoking reading. 

She defines living life "intentionally" as making conscious decisions...conscious choices about the things most important to us.  And then doing everything we can to make sure we live to those decisions and choices.  Not just letting things happen TO us and having that be the sum total of our life. 

How much of that have I done?  Hmmmmm.  Way more than I care to admit.

I've tried to get better at this "intentional" thing.  So has Max. That's a big part of the reason why we embarked on this Big Adventure.  Sometimes we've been good at slowing down and savoring the intentional.  Sometimes we (mostly me) have let our inner egos screaming for "What's next?  Do something IMPORTANT with this time!  What are you doing just sitting around?!" define our adventure rather than letting the peace in our souls and God define what this time is all about.

People ask me what we've done on our adventures so far.  Typically I think they are looking for the "big things"...the famous or popular places we've seen.  After all, we're traveling, right?  That's the most obvious question!  And we've seen some of those.  We hope to see a few more before this deal is done.  But the moments I will remember the most (I can't speak for Max) I think will be the small ones.  The more personal ones.  The people we've met.  The friends we've made.  The extra special time we've been able to spend with family.  The traveling down the highway to the next place...watching the world go by outside the window...sharing the picnic lunch I've packed as we drive on down the road because it's healthier and way easier than trying to find a place to pull in with this rig...and sharing and talking about the new sites we're seeing with My Man. 

I don't think we've made one plan yet on this journey that hasn't been changed.  It's become quite the joke between us.  And it's taught us to be a bit more flexible.  I used to think I was pretty good at rolling with the flow.  Oh, but God had so much more to teach me about that.  Still is.

So how do all these changed plans mesh with living life "intentionally"?  Maybe some of the things I thought were most important...even some of the Big Reasons we embarked on this journey to begin with...He is telling me weren't the most important after all?  Checking off the items on our Bucket List is fun.  But I think I'm learning the Bucket List should include more than just places to travel to. Maybe I've gotten some of the Big Things and some of the Little Things switched around?

See what happens when you wake up at 3:30 in the morning and can't go back to sleep?  :)

Until next time...  (And next time, I'll try to have more pictures and less philosophy--I promise!),

Hugs to all!

Paula

Texas Hill Country

We've been in Fredericksburg (well, Stonewall actually) since February 24.  We came down to meet with some RV friends from Colorado Springs and have stayed on to enjoy the pretty Texas Hill Country.  It's still too early and cold for the spring flowers--bummer--but it's still a beautiful part of our country, and we love it here. 

One afternoon we drove just down the road and visited the LBJ Ranch - http://www.nps.gov/lyjo/index.htm.  No matter your political beliefs, it's a beautiful place to visit with a lot of history to explore.

This letter, found in the main park building, absolutely cracked me up.
Love the last couple of sentences in the second paragraph.
"You think you've got problems with Fulbright and a measely war?
You should meet my mother-in-law."

View of the ranch house from across the
Pedernales River

Fun with the camera.
Dinner bell in the backyard of LBJ's reconstructed birthplace home.

Johnson family cemetery.  The largest two headstones
are LBJ's and Lady Bird's.  I didn't remember that he
died in 1973, only 6 years after his presidency ended.  He lived
hard and fast, with a lot of drinking and smoking.  And stress.
The Vietnam War obviously took its toll.
You look at pictures of him before and after his presidency, and the
difference is amazing.  He was only 64 years old, but he sure looked a whole lot older.

Obviously the livestock are used to having the right-of-way.  This big lady
lumbered right out in front of us.  It was obvious she expected we would stop.

This old wire gate reminded me of some we had when I was a kid.
They were really difficult to open and close.  Took a lot of muscle.  I never had
enough to get it done.  Kerby would say I was just spoiled, and
others had to do the work for me.  Not true.  At least in this case.  I was just a wimp.

I'm an old country girl.  I thought these cattle were beautiful.

Workampers!  The park volunteer that gave us a tour of the ranchhouse was
a workamper from Wisconsin, down in Texas for the warm weather. 
She did an awesome job.

LBJ's "Air Force One-Half", he called it.  LBJ used it to fly
back and forth between the White House and his
"Western White House".

The view from the front of LBJ's home.
They say he held a lot of Cabinet meetings
under this old oak tree. 

Instead of a guest register, he had his guests sign "friendship stones".
Quite a few famous and influential people visited the Western White House.

Another day, we visited the National Bridge Wildlife Ranch close to San Antonio.  It's one of those drive-thru zoos, so to speak.  400 acres.  Over 500 animals including more than 40 exotic species.  We definitely recommend it.  Would have loved to have had some niece- and nephew-types in tow.  It would have been even more fun.





Gemsbok - native to Africa.  In ancient Egypt, they were kept in large
numbers for sacrificial purposes.



Good ol' ostrich



Good ol' CURIOUS ostrich.  Ackkkkk!  Not so close!



Watusi - native to Africa.  "Largest horned animal in the world.  Tip to tip,
spread can be over 6 feet." 





You go first, Mr. Watusi.

More Watusi.  Yes, I was fascinated. 
See that one on the left?  Going after that jeep? 
Those people were hand-feeding that thing!  Hand-feeding him!
With signs everywhere that said, "No hand-feeding the animals."  !!!
Those people obviously don't watch the same shows we do.
When Wild Animals Go Bad.
Don't hand-feed the animals!

Of course a Texas Longhorn.  Isn't he a bute!

Loving the giraffe

This young one seemed to be saying,
"Whatchu looking at, Mister?"



No zoo is complete without zebra.

Horned Oryx - native to Africa.  "Put up a strong resistance
against predators...even spearing them to death."  I can see that. 

Called a Bluebull - Native to India.

White Rhino.  Look at that dude's horn!

Bactrain Camel - native to Asia.  Critically endangered species.
Larger of the two camel species. 

The cutest little donkeys you've ever seen.
Sicilia donkey - native to Italy.
My little bro told me some people refer to the Sicilian donkey
as the Christian donkey because it has a cross on its back.
Riding a donkey was symbolic of coming in peace.
Legend says the cross is on his back because a donkey at the
crucifixion wished he could have carried Jesus on his back.
The donkey couldn't bear to see Jesus on the cross
and turned his back.  When he did, the shadow of
the cross fell across his back.  Because the Lord
knew how much he loved Jesus, God put the cross on his back forever.

Blackbuck - native to India and Pakistan.  "During mating season, the males
strut with a comical mincing gait with their heads tossed upward and
horns flattened along their backs."  Hmmmm. 

Mr. Emu

Aoudad - native to Africa.  "Called sheep, but actually more closely related
to the goat."  Hence all the rock, I guess.  How can anything
get comfortable amid all that rock?  God's creatures are amazing.

And then of course, what visit to the Fredericksburg area is complete without a drive out to Luckenbach?



 

This is not all of Luckenbach.  But pretty much all.  This was the "Luckenbach Loop", they call it.  What a cute, funny little town.  Thank goodness for their claim to fame; otherwise, they might not be there at all!

 

We're here in Fredericksburg until next Monday.  Then back to Brownwood to meet that new little great niece. 

 

Until next time....take care!

 

Max and Paula

Lovin' on Them Babies!

Our niece Jessica's baby shower for Avery was Sunday, February 16.  They had it at my brother Terry and sister-in-law Ranita's lake house.  They did such a wonderful job with the decorations and the food.  Some pretty creative people in the family!  No more of the plain ol' "cake, mints, nuts, punch" kind of thing these days.  So much more fun! 

Diaper baby carriage



Cupcake bouquet

What a pretty cake. And it was delicious!

The cutest cupcakes ever!

Big sister Lynlee was the first to dip a finger into the cake.
Yummo!

Gifts galore!  Lynlee has been a Bow Baby since Day 1, and Avery will be the same.  It was a "Diaper and Bow" shower, and she got plenty to get a good start.

It was a beautiful day, and we all got outside and caught some rays.  Bike rides and swing set kept the kiddoes happy. 

Sunny and Lynlee

Sunny, the acrobat / gymnast / monkey in the family.
If there's something to climb on, flip over, or jump off of,
she finds it.

And a little one-on-one time with that little gymnast.  As it seems all these little kiddoes are these days, she's fast and sharp with anything electronic.  I didn't think I had any games on my phone that were designed particularly for the young set, but I obviously wasn't being creative enough.  She found several right away.  She sat there with me for quite a while and showed me just how smart she is.















The next Sunday, February 23, was Tommy's party for his big 5th birthday.  As you may guess from the pictures below, it was Army Camo theme.  Some of us didn't have army camo so we had to settle for hunting camo.  Some of us didn't even have that and had to either borrow something or just beg entrance into the party without proper gear.  He was forgiving and let us attend anyway.  :)

The Birthday Boy!

Tommy, his daddy Ron, and a friend.  They have the coolest
fort, complete with zipline!

Lynlee in her pink camo.  Whoever decided camo could
also come in pink has to be making a fortune.

The gymnast Sunny.  More pink camo.  What did I tell ya?

Look at that face.

Birthday Boy with his daddy

And Lynlee with Aunt Buddy, the Birthday Boy's sweet momma

Do you ever see a picture of yourself and think, "Who is that?"  And then
you realize it's you.  Sheez.  With Colton (Stephanie's boyfriend)
and the Ronnie Max

My Driver.  What would I do without him? 

B

Big brother Terry

Friends

Whatever she has hold of, she's got it good!

This is his third deer.  All from last season.  Yep--3 deer, 4 years old at the time.
I told him that's more than I've killed in a lifetime and asked him how he did it. 
Practice, practice, practice. 
This conversation was accompanied by a lot of eye-rolling at Aunt Paula.
You just had to have been there.

Niece Stephanie, boyfriend Colton, and their "child" Ryder. 
Ryder Rou to family.  He's used to modeling.  Can you tell?

 

Now aren't all these babies just so stinkin' cute?  I don't know how anybody ever survives being a parent.  Or a grandparent.  As an aunt and a great aunt, I look at them and feel like my heart will burst.  To the rest of my babies who couldn't be here, we sure miss you.  More than you know
 
Until next time...go out and hug your babies!