it hurts to love.

 hi from 1000 rachel street. this place is also known as mr. doug and ms. sharon's place of residence. :)

august 28 - i went to ms. karma's in the morning. had school in the afternoon. alicia came by the ranch to see my classroom :)

august 29 - took the girls to have counseling with ms. lora.

august 30 - i did morning duty.. the girls went off to horsemanship... i went to one of the rancher's zooms.. it was really good to connect with the rancher's mom :) in the evening, we mentors had off :)

august 31 - ms. katie left on her 3 week break 🥲 ms. regina left with her daughter to go to las vegas, nm, where she is teaching this year! 

september 1 - dr. katy came and gave treatments to each of the girls. one of the ranchers asked me if i would sit in on her treatment.. she felt more comfortable with me . i worked at school getting ready for the next week. we had school in the afternoon... we didn't do much. we spent a good share of the time in a circle up. two girls were having problems with each other.. mr. doug and i did horse chores.

september 2 - the ranchers and i cleaned house in the morning. i left around 1:30 and headed 3 hours away to okc to go to REI. i am currently buying my own backpacking gear :) we are going backpacking the end of october. went to a couple other stores, ate supper, and headed 3 hours back home :) i came home with a very happy package of a down sleeping bag !

september 3 - sunday. i went to sunday school and church. then i went to mr. eric's for lunch. came back to mr. doug's and took a nap and spent the rest of the evening chilling :)

september 4 - in the morning, i had to go back to the ranch to finish getting ready for school.

september 5 - while the girls were in counseling, we went to the library and they all loved it! i'm so very proud of the rachers that were with me.. they had school work and worked on it for some time before they read:)

september 6 - i did horsemanship/zoom. did some liberty work with triz. she was doing so well.. ms sharla made a comment and then triz decided to run away.. a coment was made about rejection.. and well.. that really affected me... in the evening, ms. tiff, ms. sam, and i had off.

september 7 - trading post day ! this day the girls creative writing assignment was 'what if the world was made of jello?' :)

september 8 - i did morning duty... while the girls were at horsemanship, i worked at school :) we did watercoloring in the afternoon.. it is so fun to see what the girls come up with :)

september 9 - cleaning day! in the afternoon, i went with the youth to wood cutting at an elder's place from here:) she is one of my friends here🤍 after, we went to school and played volleyball.

september 10 - i love sunday mornings ! it is so fun to sit and have breakfast and visit with mr. doug's. for lunch, i went to david and janell's. (this is where i am moving). 

september 11 - counseling in the morning... school in the afternoon :) this day was the first day for typing ! thanks to mr. todd for getting the laptops ready . our 12 passenger van arrived at the ranch today! 

september 12 - today we celebrated labor day. we had a relaxing morning. we slept in abit.. the girls did chores and we had breakfast in our pjs. (this hardly ever happens) mr. doug and i cooked pancakes out on his outdoor grill.. and we ate on the back porch. then the girls and us mentors got ready. the girls had alittle bit of quiet time. then around 11:30 we loaded up in our 12 passenger van. this was the first time any of us took a ride in it. we are so thankful that mr. doug's, us mentors, ms. sharla, and ranchers could all ride together. we headed out to branson! we stopped and had a picnic lunch then... the long awaited. most exciting place to go. the sight and sound queen esther show. i cannot portray the joy that was had. the rancher i sat next to.. just beamed and beamed. they all loved it. 😌 

*the days leading up to going to the show, we had read the story together and had talked about it.

*in the show, they use live horses.... so i had told the girls to take note of the horsemanship. :) quite amazing for the horses to be desensitized to the lights and noise.

september 13 - i played with triz.. i even got a personal riding lesson from ms. sharla :) in the afternoon we got our dehydrator going.. we are going backpacking and need to get started getting our food ready. in the evening, we mentors went to singing with the youth.

september 14 -happy birthday ms. sharla 🎉 the horse dentist came. the girls got to watch and learn. one of them got to file her horses' teeth. a happy thing from today was that some of my backpacking stuff came in the mail. mr. todd's visited with me. i am so very thankful for them and their care and help.

september 15 - at snack time, we had a little birthday party for ms. sharla. i worked at school . as i was walking to the house for lunch.. mr. doug and a rancher came outside and sat on the porch. i joined them. this rancher had had some problems at horsemanship. mr. doug and her talked for some time. i sat there and listened.. and it just really hurt me.. i care and love her so much. and no matter how much i give.. it seems it is never enough. i needed some space .. so i did not eat lunch with her.. the girls had quiet time and then they came to school. we did art and then headed to chores :)

september 16 - cleaning day. the girls had wanted to listen to some songs... ms. sam and i had already decided that we could listen to the songs from the esther play. i had to stop them before we were done because it seemed they could not focus.. one of my girls had some trouble then... it ended up that she had to finish her cleaning after quiet time.. which was hard for her because she has fomo. but this was just natural consequence. 

another thing i got to deal with was.. i had told the girls to have some quietness. i had to go upstairs.. and well i heard things from downstairs.. a couple of the girls had to do a writing about respecting authorities word.. one of them got to write more than she would have had to since she talked back to me. 

after lunch and the girls went to quiet time, i left and headed to town.. in the evening, i went to david's for supper with a bunch of people.. janell threw a surprise party for david.

september 17 - i went to church. we had a good sermon. i went to mr. todd's for lunch with their lunch company.. i did alot of listening and it was so fun.

joy moments.

-a rancher that you have been through a lot with says she feels safe.

-a rancher being so pleased with how neatly she wrote her letter.

c h a n g e : 

these last weeks i have been wanting to enjoy and give my best my last weeks as a 'mentor' and yet giving enough to school. 

this is the last week i will be living at the ranch house.

ms. katie gets back on friday 🤩

ok. that's all for now.

xoxo,

ms. brooke