Spud Harvest is here. The kids are out of school for two weeks. They take it easy and Jaron picks up double load. I am amazed at what lengths he is is capable of in the world of a working man. He works his full schedule at the college, then goes straight to helping in spud harvest. Yesterday he squeezed in mowing the lawn and filling in a grave (another "little" side job he picks up from time to time) in between everything. I admire, as well as feel grateful for the efforts he makes in supporting our family.
My good friend Heidi Pehl loaned me a jogging stroller. Yay for me! I have always wanted one, but haven't wanted to spend the money. So the older kids rode their bikes and I pushed Avynlee in the stroller and we went for a little jaunt through Parker. The weather has been incomparably beautiful-mid 70's, sunny, calm....don't want to relinquish a grip on these good days. We stopped for a break at the school and what do you know? Savannah lost a tooth!
A few Sundays ago (dare I admit this was a Sunday? eek), Jaron had two rental four wheelers from a ride he did with some work-friends the day before. We loaded up after church and took a leisurely roll through the desert. I remembered how when I moved to Idaho, I fell in love with the skies. They are so expansive, so many different hues of blue and brush strokes of grey, with white cotton stretched across and rolled together. A true artistic masterpiece from Heaven. I have no doubt that here is the only place I would want to raise a family and be settled. There is not a more perfect little town than Parker, with a school and a church less than a mile away and everyone waving to each other as we pass by. As much as I love my home and would never want to homestead anywhere else, I do yearn for the lush, tight surroundings of the forest (Jaron might throw in the word suffocating). I sometimes see movies in the setting of Oregon/Washington and ache to be where the hills roll and twist, rivers and waterfalls weave, and the sky is like a grey flannel blanket. Perhaps we will be back to visit, but I now look for beauty in a grain field, beginning the change from bright green to gold, and the silhouette of the rugged Tetons, and an area where the vast majority of the people are saints of God.
