So easter vacation rocked....i loved it. i worked while i was there but work didnt even feel like work. i got the privilege of waking up at dawn, feeding the horses and watching the sunrise. it was awesome!! to some it may seem nuts or crazy but i loved it. it was always really cold in the morning and the dew was still on the ground. it was like watching the earth wake up. the horses would always be extremely happy to see me and that made it worth getting up. by the time it was time to go to breakfst i had already started on my work and the day was in progress. it was an amazing way to start my days off right. the time spent with my family was great too. Wyatt was so excited to ride a horse - he wasnt old enough to ride by himself but by the smile on his face he was the champion of it all. i must give props to my mom - she went on a trail ride with me and i really appreciated that. i know that horses aren't really her thing and the fact that she went on a trial ride anyways shows me that with family sometimes you go out of your comfort zone for those you love. she has no idea how happy it made me that she was involved with the horses and me. i find great joy in sharing my interest and knowledge of horses with others and to get the chance to share it with the person that i love and admire beyond measure was like sharing it with a famous rock star or something. mom, i know you're reading this and i want you to know that you rock for riding a horse on easter vacation. :) well i guess thats all i have to say right now...........thanks for reading!
-megan- :)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Happy Easter...
We returned from Crier Creek Easter Family Camp this afternoon ready for Easter - the weekend was full of laughter, relaxation, LOTS of good food and great memories! Wyatt caught a fish and had a bike wreck that landed him submerged in a lake - Megan got to lead me through a trail ride and I did the zipline. I took somewhere around 300 pictures so I have lots to choose from for posting on here:)! However, that will have to wait for another day!! We just wanted to say HAPPY EASTER to all of our family and friends!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Megan here...:-)
hey everyone - this is megan speaking. i like the idea of our family having a blog. i honestly had no idea my mom was so up-to-date on this stuff. jk...mom i know you're reading this. well i am extremely excited to go to crier creek this weekend as a guest. i will be working while i am there but i also get to stay on-sight which is cool. i love being out in the country where i have space to breath. well nothing is really new with me, and i haven't had any cool encounters with the big man upstairs......but life is good. i am continuously raising my hieght of jumps in my horseback lessons. i am up to 3'8". it's so exciting. i am going to be showing this spring and summer. i will post the dates and locations of the shows so you all who are reading this can come watch me. :-) i need to go though considering i havent started packing for the weekend and we are leaving at four. i will hopefully post a new entry filled with details from this weekend. thanks for reading....and i am fully aware that i have not followed any grammar rules while typing this entry and i plan to keep all of my entries this way. i think that when im writing in a blog it should reflect my character and i shouldn't have to worry about grammar. so enjoy reading my thoughts, errors, and grammatical mistakes. :-)
-megan-
-megan-
He showed up!!!
Just a heads up - this post is a little deep, but that's where my thoughts are right now, so bear with me...
This winter has been the hardest one yet since Kyle's death - I have just struggled with everything so much! Thank goodness for fabulous counselors like Betty - I have had her as
my counselor since November of 2001. She is truly an amazing woman. Her perspective is
that I've spent the majority of the last almost four years now making sure my kids were ok
and keeping everything moving forward, so much so that I've essentially stuffed or buried what was going with my own grief. She assures that this is completely normal - the first year was just shock and survival, the second year was a dawning realization that Kyle is
truly gone and not coming back and the third year the grief hit a different level - our kids are hanging in there and even seeming to thrive so my concern for them in this area relaxed a little bit, thus allowing more room for my feelings to surface. And surface they did - trust me when I say it has been tough.
So... throughout all of this I've continued to ask God to show up - to show me that He sees me, not just my kids, but me. I've literally felt as though I was pleading with Him to make Himself audible or visible or something - I've needed a glimpse, a tiny picture - even if just a hint of a ray of sunshine - just something!!! And all winter, it seems as though He's been silent.
Well, yesterday, I had an incident that was quite a blow - in the grand scheme of things a small incident, but at that moment, in my hurt, it was huge. This morning I laid in bed and just prayed for God to again, show up - just show me that He is present in my life. I reached for a Women's Devotional Bible that I have and I want to share with you the devotion that I happened to open it to...
"Remember" by Judith Couchman - A warm letter from a friend. A compliment from my boss. An unexpected refund. A comforting scripture. These arrive as God's good gifts to me. But they usually get overlooked while I'm focusing on what feels like - at least to me - insurmountable trouble. Always, it's trouble that God hasn't solved yet. Often, I complain about His delayed response. Bet really, my myopic vision isn't fair to Him. If I lift my eyes off the problem, I can spot God's gifts all around me. They may not be the answer I'm searching for at the moment, but they're good and continuous gifts that say, "I still love you, my child." They remind me that God doesn't stop caring for me, even though I live with unfulfilled expectations. Now during the hard times, I remind myself to hunt for God's small surprises while I'm waiting for His big solution. It takes my mind off the problem. It helps me to trust Him... It encourages me to know that God still cares." I Peter 5: 6-7 tells us, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's might hand, that He may life you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety (and cares) on Him because He cares for you."
WOW - if that wasn't God showing up at the perfect time, I don't know what would have been! So... this morning, if you are like me, waking up with hurt feelings and some sadness, know that God sees you - He cares for you! He is not silent or distant! Isn't that an amazing thing that we have a personal God who loves us and... SHOWS UP when we need Him most!!!
Have a blessed day - our next post will be in a few days as we're headed off to family camp! Wyatt and Megan are both so excited - we're going to a place called Crier Creek (www.pinecove.com) - Megan works there as a "Horse Wrangler" on the weekends and she's so excited that I get to go on a trail ride with her and Wyatt is excited because he gets to spend a couple of nights where his sister works. I, however; am feeling a bit trepidatious - I'll be hanging out with all married people - those who know me well know how much I just love that (not!), but seriously - I'm going with a bunch of friends who are a blast and God showed me this morning that He sees me and He cares for me so I know it'll be a blast - I promise to post pictures~
Have a blessed Easter weekend ~He is risen~ He is risen indeed!
This winter has been the hardest one yet since Kyle's death - I have just struggled with everything so much! Thank goodness for fabulous counselors like Betty - I have had her as
my counselor since November of 2001. She is truly an amazing woman. Her perspective is
that I've spent the majority of the last almost four years now making sure my kids were ok
and keeping everything moving forward, so much so that I've essentially stuffed or buried what was going with my own grief. She assures that this is completely normal - the first year was just shock and survival, the second year was a dawning realization that Kyle is
truly gone and not coming back and the third year the grief hit a different level - our kids are hanging in there and even seeming to thrive so my concern for them in this area relaxed a little bit, thus allowing more room for my feelings to surface. And surface they did - trust me when I say it has been tough.
So... throughout all of this I've continued to ask God to show up - to show me that He sees me, not just my kids, but me. I've literally felt as though I was pleading with Him to make Himself audible or visible or something - I've needed a glimpse, a tiny picture - even if just a hint of a ray of sunshine - just something!!! And all winter, it seems as though He's been silent.
Well, yesterday, I had an incident that was quite a blow - in the grand scheme of things a small incident, but at that moment, in my hurt, it was huge. This morning I laid in bed and just prayed for God to again, show up - just show me that He is present in my life. I reached for a Women's Devotional Bible that I have and I want to share with you the devotion that I happened to open it to...
"Remember" by Judith Couchman - A warm letter from a friend. A compliment from my boss. An unexpected refund. A comforting scripture. These arrive as God's good gifts to me. But they usually get overlooked while I'm focusing on what feels like - at least to me - insurmountable trouble. Always, it's trouble that God hasn't solved yet. Often, I complain about His delayed response. Bet really, my myopic vision isn't fair to Him. If I lift my eyes off the problem, I can spot God's gifts all around me. They may not be the answer I'm searching for at the moment, but they're good and continuous gifts that say, "I still love you, my child." They remind me that God doesn't stop caring for me, even though I live with unfulfilled expectations. Now during the hard times, I remind myself to hunt for God's small surprises while I'm waiting for His big solution. It takes my mind off the problem. It helps me to trust Him... It encourages me to know that God still cares." I Peter 5: 6-7 tells us, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's might hand, that He may life you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety (and cares) on Him because He cares for you."
WOW - if that wasn't God showing up at the perfect time, I don't know what would have been! So... this morning, if you are like me, waking up with hurt feelings and some sadness, know that God sees you - He cares for you! He is not silent or distant! Isn't that an amazing thing that we have a personal God who loves us and... SHOWS UP when we need Him most!!!
Have a blessed day - our next post will be in a few days as we're headed off to family camp! Wyatt and Megan are both so excited - we're going to a place called Crier Creek (www.pinecove.com) - Megan works there as a "Horse Wrangler" on the weekends and she's so excited that I get to go on a trail ride with her and Wyatt is excited because he gets to spend a couple of nights where his sister works. I, however; am feeling a bit trepidatious - I'll be hanging out with all married people - those who know me well know how much I just love that (not!), but seriously - I'm going with a bunch of friends who are a blast and God showed me this morning that He sees me and He cares for me so I know it'll be a blast - I promise to post pictures~
Have a blessed Easter weekend ~He is risen~ He is risen indeed!
Monday, March 17, 2008
the beginning of blogging
Wecome to the Hodges' Home blog - I'm so excited about trying this out!!!! So here goes... I don't remember when I first heard of blogging, but over the past couple of years it has certainly become more popular and this winter I had several friends start a blog of their own - it is soo much fun to read and keep up with everyone that I just had to do one of my own:)
The night is quiet around here - both kids are asleep and hopefully will stay asleep until tomorrow morning - I don't have to worry about Megan - Wyatt is my early riser, but since we stayed up late tonight, maybe, just maybe he'll sleep late in the morning! It is during these quiet moments that I'm able to gather my thoughts and refuel - it seems like these days need more
refueling than in years past - I think that means I'm getting older!
On a different note -This week is Spring Break and after a super quick trip to Louisville, KY, this weekend (and it was very quick - I only got to stay for about twelve hours due to flight delays getting out of Houston) for a high school reunion, I found all of my ambitious thoughts for the week fading away - at 3:30pm today I was still in my pajamas! Again, I think this means I am getting old - I no longer recover from craziness and hectic weekends like I used to!! However... I did have such fun seeing so many old friends - as soon as I figure out how to post pics to my little blog, I'll put some up here! It was worth the fourteen hours waiting in the airport - yes, you read that right - fourteen long, miserable hours with other unhappy travelers who were also bumped from their original flights! Seriously though, it wasn't that bad - I had some "down time" and spent a lot of the day on the phone catching up with friends that I don't always get a lot of time to talk to. All in all - no complaints!!!
Well, again, welcome to our blog - I'll probably be the one doing most of the posting, but I plan on having Megan and Wyatt add their perspectives from time to time. We'll do our best to keep this updated -that way my family can't say we're not keeping them posted:) So... welcome and enjoy!
The night is quiet around here - both kids are asleep and hopefully will stay asleep until tomorrow morning - I don't have to worry about Megan - Wyatt is my early riser, but since we stayed up late tonight, maybe, just maybe he'll sleep late in the morning! It is during these quiet moments that I'm able to gather my thoughts and refuel - it seems like these days need more
refueling than in years past - I think that means I'm getting older!
On a different note -This week is Spring Break and after a super quick trip to Louisville, KY, this weekend (and it was very quick - I only got to stay for about twelve hours due to flight delays getting out of Houston) for a high school reunion, I found all of my ambitious thoughts for the week fading away - at 3:30pm today I was still in my pajamas! Again, I think this means I am getting old - I no longer recover from craziness and hectic weekends like I used to!! However... I did have such fun seeing so many old friends - as soon as I figure out how to post pics to my little blog, I'll put some up here! It was worth the fourteen hours waiting in the airport - yes, you read that right - fourteen long, miserable hours with other unhappy travelers who were also bumped from their original flights! Seriously though, it wasn't that bad - I had some "down time" and spent a lot of the day on the phone catching up with friends that I don't always get a lot of time to talk to. All in all - no complaints!!!
Well, again, welcome to our blog - I'll probably be the one doing most of the posting, but I plan on having Megan and Wyatt add their perspectives from time to time. We'll do our best to keep this updated -that way my family can't say we're not keeping them posted:) So... welcome and enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
