a good life🤍

 hello. life here is good. 

october 4-the afternoon was spent working on getting things in our dehydrator..(i will pry mention this again and again but i really love our big dehydrator compared to the one we have used in the past:) i got to connect one on one with one my girls and those moments are the best. 

october 5- one of the rancher's uncle and aunts came to the ranch for the day. we had school in the morning.. and i was really taken aback that morning. i had planned to finish a video i had started with the girls. they had asked about it the evening before and finished it.. i was really disappointed.. but out of this came something beautiful... one of my girls raised her hand and let me know that they had finished it already. i was so crazy proud of her for being honest! i also learned that i need to be a step ahead and communicate with the authorities..

october 6&7- parent seminar. anyone that is interested in attending.. please do. they are so good. i just really loved to be able to connect with the parents. and the one evening we had prayer circle. to be able to sit around and share and then pray together is something that not everyone can do together and feel the connection that we as a Christian people have. 

after the seminar, ms. katie, ms. sam, and i went camping. i tried out my new tent, sleeping bag, etc.. i would recommend watching a video before you set up your new tent, as well as make sure it does not get dark before you are finished...  but sitting by the fire and having supper was 10/10. 

the girls were on home visit from october 7-16ish. 

during homevisit:

one day i went to sewing and quilted.. i think this is something i could get into.. mowed the lawn.. did chores a few of the evenings.. we authorities got together for some team building.. which was really good.

the weekend of the 14th i went to russellville to their school fundraiser... the people that i live with have a daughter that lives in russellville so we all stayed with them.. sunday afternoon we went to mount nebo and then all too soon i had to get on the road to tulsa to meet up with a rancher that was coming back for a refresh.. 

october 16-i was at the ranch with the girls that were back already.. we worked on more backpacking stuff.. i got to make a really cool connection.. the couple that brought one of the ranchers back, happened to be a sister to one of my student's mom and they were on the schoolboard and i spent some time with while i was teaching in center.. (a small moment of happiness) 

october 17- i was to be to mr. todd's house to pick up 2 of the ranchers that had flown home with mr. todd's. (mr. todd's had gone to our newest rancher's home to give a talk about the ranch) i took the two very tired girls to ms. lora's office.. on the way, i got to hear all about their home visits:) once i dropped them off, i went shopping to buy the groceries we needed yet for the backpacking trip.

october 18- we started packing our food for our backpacking trip.. it made me feel that we were ahead of schedule because usually that doesn't happed until about the day we need to pack our backpacks.

october 19- the first day back at school after home visit! thursday is trading post day & i gave them their assignments for the next week. wow. they did so well and i was very proud of them !

october 20- we had school in the morning and had art... 

after lunch, i headed out to versailles for the weekend.. i went to the singles rally there.. there was singing.. good food.. and lots of good conversation ! monday i was in kansas city for the day and completely forgot i was supposed to do chores until ms. sharla messaged me. 🤦‍♀️ thankfully i am part of a great team and they helped this girl out !

october 24- i picked up our rancher that is back for her refresh... when a girl leaves the ranch, a mentor takes the responsibility of staying in contact with her... i wanted to connect with her on a different level.. so i took her to therapy and then we spent most of the day together.. it was so good to connect with her 🤍 in the evening, i got to attend board meeting.. 

october 25- a couple from the conference care board spent the day at the ranch.. i spent the afternoon helping the girls pack their backpacks for our trip that was starting the 27th. :) that evening i went to school to help the youth get ready for the chili supper. was good to hang out with them again after being gone..

october 26- i got to celebrate being born.. it was a busy day.. school in the morning.. over lunch there was a party for both ms. tiff and myself. (the ranch staff know how to throw a good party) we had authorities meeting in the afternoon.. then i left before it was over and hurried home. i packed most of my backpack and then got ready so i could get to school to help with the chili supper. it was a fun evening and they thankfully didn't sing to me.. a couple girls i met at the singles rally drove from pryor.. so we hung out :) then played a couple games of volleyball before i went home. i finished packing my pack and finalllllly went to bed...

october 27- with only 4ish hours of sleep, i made it to the ranch around 5 A.M... we got ready and loaded into our big white van. (aka the chariot). we spent 4 hours traveling to caddo gap, arkansas to spend some time in nature... when we got there, it was raining. we put on our ponchos and put on our rain flys(if we had one).. and away down the trail we went... at one of the stops, i was sitting there and i closed my eyes and i'm quite sure i slept for a minute... ha. when we got to camp, it wasn't raining. we set up camp.. ate supper under the night sky..we hiked 5 miles. God gave me grace and patience.. one of my ranchers was having a really hard time.. she tried to heat water in her plastic cup that is used for hot drinks.. then she left the other one in her cooking pot and melted it.. (this isn't her first time out in nature).. i first thought that she needs to just cook on her own.. but she was not doing well so i cooked her dinner for her.. and somewhere in here, she spilled hot water on her foot.. luckily i had brought alittle thing of aloe vera to use for moisturizer and my heart told me i needed to get it and help her out... we all headed off to our tents and i was oh so happy... i slept so good out in the woods! somewhere in the night, it started raining...

october 28 - rain. rain. rain. over breakfast i had good spirits.. one of the girls was having some trouble.. i talked with another one as we were sitting around having breakfast.. then it was pack everything up.. ms. tiff and i talked.. i wondered about if we really were going to spend the next couple days out in the rain.. we rounded up under our tarp and decided to stay out one more night and then head home sunday instead of monday... after we had hiked 3ish miles and got to the little missouri falls, it started pouring! i was quite done with the rain and the girls were kina grumpy too. i didn't know if the chariot had been moved to our ending spot.. i asked this couple if they would take me to go see.. i hope God blesses them for taking me and bringing me back to my group.. the chariot was there! we could finish the trail if we hiked another 4.1 miles. it still was really hard to think of not spending one more night out there... for it had felt like the right thing.. so we started hiking and hike we did. we thought maybe if it would stop raining after 2 more miles than maybe stop and camp? well.. it did not stop raining... so we finished the hike in the dark using our headlamps.. I know God was with us. i thought the trail was 14.7 miles but due to where we could park, it ended up only being 12.5. it just seems God knew we could do that many miles and He took care of us. it went different than planned... i had to look at it this way.. we hiked the entire trail in in half the time than planned. some of the views were amazing and if we hadn't been out there in the rain, we would have missed them... the girls did really well on the ride home.. they chatted and about 1.5 hours before we got home.. a bunch of them were quiet/slept.. i had good conversation with my rancher that rode in the front by me.

*something cool from this trip. when some of the ranchers that have been here for awhile.. when they were feeling unsafe, they would come to me.. idk.. it just did something for me. it just showed that that we had a connection🤍

*for this trip, we dehydrated most of our suppers.. and it is just very satisfying !

*we had many water crossings and the girls did so amazing !

*the girl's did such a good job on helping each other and giving encouragement when needed..

october 30- i spent the day at the ranch and we got everything unpacked.. cleaned and put away... 

october 31- happy birthday to ms. tiff. 🤍 i have had a really chill day.. worked on cleaning my own gear.. talked on the phone and celebrated ms. tiff at a really yum pizza place :)

-after i moved out of the ranch.. i was wondering what my purpose was. as far as teaching, it's only 3ish days a week.. i talked to mr. todd one evening while we were doing chores.. he told me that maybe this was a season where i get to just 'be'. i really like that. and i also wanted God to show me my purpose.. right now i have the opportunity to learn new things.. take time doing things that fill me up.. i am currently loving my life.  ✨

this comment was made over lunch time last week:)

please continue to pray for us over here in northwest arkansas:)

xo,

ms. brooke