Girls

While the boys were away, the girls did play...

The boy cousins still had school to attend when we first arrived and with the Dads gone, we decided to show Mari what it is like with older sisters instead of brothers. Of course there was dress-up and tea parties...here we made puppets.

And we danced the mornings away.

Then we went to all the calm beaches in the area...those with small waves so the faint of heart could boogie-board without fear and walk right past the giant breakers to float in the ocean as the waves rolled by beneath us.

As Stitch always says, "Ohana means family." Aww.

Three little monkeys eating bananas at the beach.

This monkey could NOT resist the trees here.  She always made it pretty high - at least until I got scolded by a concerned native. (I was usually distracted by my youngest, who, five feet off the ground, had my stomach turning as I waited for her to break her arm). I was not in the mood to explore the medical prowess of the Hawaiian Islands! Meanwhile, my oldest, who was thirty feet up in the tree, did not have me concerned in the least. I understand that as small as she is, she looks way too young to climb that high. But what they don't know is that she is older than they think, AND, she has great balance and coordination coupled with an over-dose of caution. This is the perfect combination for a parent, especially if the parent has an accident prone sibling to watch. If K is scared, she won't go. If she thinks she is unsafe, she won't do it. It is comforting as a parent...once you learn to trust it. :-)

Anyhow, I took pictures as she got near the ground and everyone was sure she was safe.  Sigh.

The littlest monkey decided she was a fox and waited for the girls to stop climbing. She is very patient!

One of the days, Nati received an award at school. We were all so proud!

It took me the better part of a week to really decompress from all the stress of the pigeon fever and the school year starting up and losing our youth leader, but somewhere near the end of the first week, after a couple of good hikes, I finally started to relax.  It made me realize just how stressed I had let myself get.

Now that the horses are well and school is in a groove, I am hoping not to let my stress build that much again. I don't have a real strategy for doing that other than praying more so I worry less and genuinely leaving tomorrow's worries for tomorrow. I find that the stress I agree to take on to myself can become a habitual way of living, just like worry or fear. Mine comes from wanting to do everything the best way possible - perfectionism. So I strive and strive until one day I realize I have gone too far and I am exhausted. Then I have no choice but to fall back into grace and ask God to forgive me for trying to do it all on my own - again - and ask Him to give me proper perspective on what it means to do things well and to the best of my ability without exhausting all of who I am. It is a hard lesson for me and with an endless 'to-do' list, I am learning that I even need to plan in time to rest and have fun.  Getting M to do the same...we will see how that goes. :-)  Speaking of time to rest, I have ten minutes until my mandatory rest time before bed. Yeehaw!!

So, on the ranch front, I did lose one of my workers the day we got back so I am on chores for half the month, but other than that, the ranch did well while we were gone and we have even had some rain. We are cold! Well, for here and it was a rough transition back, but in so many ways, it is nice just to not to be hot.  I am a cold sissy. I admit it. But even for me, that was a very long summer of very hot days and it's nice to see it go!  My midwestern family will appreciate just how sissy I have gotten - I just bought ski pants for doing the chores in the morning because it gets down into the high thirties and low forties at night and I don't like to go out in it in the morning. :-)  In my defense, it will often be raining as well, but really, I just don't like to be cold.  You would think it is twenty below the way I am dressed! Hope they don't get beat up by the work!

Have a wonderful day! God bless!!