it's a crazy beautiful life.

 

 january 5 to 8. three mentors + the ranchers stayed in this lovely corner of arkansas. the rest of the authorities + most of the board took a trip to check out wilderness way ( a girls wilderness camp ) and sleepy creek. one of my formers students is at sleepy creek. he asked about me. wow. that sure did something to my heart:) i had felt really okay with that all. they were leaving, i would  be on duty the entire time. well. reality hit and it looked kind of big. 

jan 6- ms. katie was in charge of horsemanship. ms. shelly brought lunch and did diamond art with the girls in the afternoon. i slept. which was hard because i felt guilty for leaving ms. katie with the girls, even though she said it was fine. after horsemanship, a lady drove up to the house and i talked with her. she believed in God and was talking about His plan. she stopped by because she was wondering if we would have a place where she could help out.

jan. 7 -cleaned house. quiet time. then ms. jenna made peanut butter popcorn and we drank milk and watched a documentary called "more than a thread of hope". in the evening we went to mr. michael's (ms. lora's parents) for tacos. it was fun to get out of the house ! ms. jenna talked with me and tried to do therapy on me. we talked. and i know it helped. 🤍

jan. 8-we went to church like normal. then we loaded up in the car and went to sonic for lunch. we had each of the girls get out and order her own meal. it is really good practice for them :) we took our lunch to the park. after we were done eating, we took a walk. the park has disc golf baskets. one of my girls said she would like to come and there and play disc golf with me:) one of them commented to me, "i really like the fun side of you." we laughed. we concluded it must be my left side, since that is the side she could see. ha. ms. sharla said she would do chores, so we didn't have to. we finished watching "more than a thread of hope" + the child of rage documentary. (you can find the 'child of rage' online) mr. robb + ms. shelly and their little girl came for the evening and made supper. mr. robb's used to have alot to do with the ranch. they will be coming to the ranch one sunday evening a month :) 

jan. 9- i worked with triz . God did a miracle in my heart. i was struggling with one of the girls. i prayed sunday evening and told Him how i felt. come monday morning, i could talk with this girl and i had a change of heart. this doesn't mean it is perfect now, but i can go back to this experience. i feel so often that i have to have it together with the girls. but this morning they seen me cry and i felt really soft. it was really neat tho. after we had turned our horses out i had asked one of the ranchers how her morning was. she told me and then asked me how mine had been. to me. this is so cool. she is reaching out and that is growth.

jan. 10- the ranchers first day of going for therapy with ms. lora at ms. karma's office. ms. lora is doing therapy at ms. karma's office to get hours for her schooling. so now, two mentors will be taking the ranchers each tuesday for therapy. we meet ms. anna marie at the therapy office. she takes two of them with her to the library and three stay at the office with a mentor. ms. anna marie and the ranchers come back for lunch and we switch girls out. it's just that it is too much to have all the girls at the office. this is a big day. 

jan 12- we had mentor training with ms. regina. we talked about love languages. it helps to know the love language of the people around you. ms. judy came in the afternoon and the ranchers made potholders out of old jeans and fabric. it had been awhile since ms. judy had been to do life skills due to the holidays :)

jan 13-i cooked lunch :) in the afternoon, the ranchers went to school for trading post. i went and sat in for awhile. it's a good learning experience to watch how ms. anna works with the girls :) it was really neat to see one of the ranchers help another. our one rancher has some hair product that she has to use. they are quite expensive. so she is really going to have to save. she was wanting to buy some tinted lipgloss. ms. anna talked with her about how much she needs for her hair products. here is the really neat part. another one of the ranchers said to her that they could save together.:)

we had been putting so much into one of our ranchers and it wasn't helping. so we decided we would treat her like a visitor and she could do what she liked. help with chores?  have trading post? her choice. it's important that working on their life comes from within and not doing it just because that is what someone else wants.

jan 14-15. my weekend off. i stayed at mr. todd's. i slept in... and stayed in my pjs until afternoon. i worked on my dad's impact letter. i called home and ended up talking to my dad. he kinda started to cry and told me that he missed me so much and he couldn't even talk about me without crying. he talked to me for awhile about what he was doing. :) this made me feel very loved. 

afternoon/evening- ms. jenna and i went to town to buy a gift for one of the ranchers. her 18th birthday is on tuesday! then we went to a coffee shop and had good conversation.🤍 another highlight was talking to my sister janae.

sunday-we to sunday school and church. a couple of the ranchers sat with the youth girls this morning. we do this to help them with their social life. i went to tyson and kandra's house for lunch. i had a fun afternoon helping them gather eggs, fed some cows, and seen alliya's sheep. :)

*i've been thinking about trusting my gut and trusting myself. i am logical. ms. jenna and i were talking and i was telling her this. and thinking about dealing with the girls. at the ranch this comment is made alot, 'trust you gut'. she said that i have my logic . God has given that to me. so i can just use my logic. i still think that God is working with me on trusting my gut and i can grow in that. also, being okay with sharing what i think and people can take it or leave it.

thank you for your prayers. 

i hope each of you can find 5 things to be thankful for today.

xo,

ms. brooke