hello from northwest arkansas !

sometimes the sun doesn't shine for a week. on days when there is no sun, it's fun to wear yellow and bring sunshine to the house :)

december 9 - the emotions were high on this day of december. home visit was fast approaching, and their parents were arriving. this was not a normal day at the ranch. we practiced our christmas program and then headed back to the house so the girls could pack. 

a really cool moment that happened. the bags are packed. the girls are sitting in the living room. mr. todd's were there and ms. jenna. some songs were being played. lunch was ready and i just had to stand there and look around. i felt overwhelmed with emotion. it was just so lovely to have everyone around. 🤍

after lunch, ms. lora did short therapy sessions with the girls. the girls had quite a long quiet time. i sat in a few sessions. one of the rancher's parent's got to the ranch to unload alfalfa. her mom came in and spent some time with her. i took the girls outside because it was a lovely day and the sun was SHINING. we ended up going down to the horses. she wanted to show her parents and brother the horse she works with. it was really fun to let the girls spend alittle time with their horses. we ended up staying down there since another set of parents got to the ranch. they wanted to show the couple that came with them the ranch house. we stayed down by the horses and did deep breathing, jumping jacks, and taking a few moments to look inside and see what we were feeling. i can not express enough how many emotions were going on. after we went up to the house, the girls showered and got ready for the program. it was a special night, so they got to have a longer shower and their hair done by one of us. i got to do most of them. they all were so pretty ! we all had new dresses that we had ordered. i got to wear green. i was very happy, because well ... i love green :) 

we put on a christmas program for the rancher's families, the board, and some of the people from the congregation that are connected to the ranch. we acted out the story of the crippled lamb by max lucado. we had our program in our barn (an old chicken house) , which was perfect. each of the characters dressed up. yes, some of them dressed up as the sheep and the cow. mr. todd's were joseph and mary. we have a donkey at the ranch and mr. todd led it in, so that was really cool:) afterward, we had snack in the tack shed.

after the program, we were free of responsibility. it was so weird. like what do i do with myself. ha.

h o m e v i s i t

december 10 - sleeping in is really fun. we met ms. sharla, hannah,  and ms. eddie (the mentor i replaced) for lunch. i spent part of the afternoon talking to my family that was all together having christmas.  in the evening, we went to a candle light service at John Brown University (this is where ms. lora is going to school). it was the neatest service. the music instructor was amazing to watch. also, it did my heart good to see that in their choir, they had someone who had down syndrome and someone that was blind.

december 11- ms. katie went home for the week :) 

december 12 - ms. jenna and i gave blood . then we went to a coffee shop. she worked on her highschool so that she can get her diploma and i worked on christmas cards.

december 13 - i baked muffins and took them to the teachers. ms. jenna and i came to tulsa. we are going to see some christmas lights after awhile:) 

a few things for the rest of the week, i plan to carol with the youth either tomorrow or friday night. ms. jenna and i are going to silver dollar city on thursday. friday evening is the school christmas program. and well ... teaching is still close to my heart 🤍 

7 random things:

*birkenstocks and socks are the best.

*it's weird when ms. jenna wonders if you are going to have therapy... guess i needed her to point out i needed to🙊

*tris (my horse) had a treatment from dr. katy and she seems to be doing better and hasn't bitten me in awhile.

*i got to listen to both center and home youth's christmas programs and that was happy.

*i was wearing my rainboots and though i could make it through the creek. well. it was deeper than my rainboots were tall. 🤦‍♀️

*with it being the holidays, it had made me really wish to be at home. looking for happiness in the here and now. sometimes when you make a commitment, you know you will be away, but you don't think how it will truly affect you. i just think, oh it will be fine. but truly. what kind of feelings do i have with being away. i guess i get to learn acceptance and being filled differently than maybe i had in my head.

*i have been thinking some about being idealistic. i realize that i am idealistic and life doesn't necessarily work like it does in my head. 

-i'm curious how you feel cared for or how you care for yourself ?

okay. that is all for now :)

thank you for your prayers🤍

xo,

ms. brooke