We are starting to get into a rhythm here at the ranch.
Christian drives the girls into town each weekday at 5:30 a.m. to be at seminary.
I stay in dreamland with the three youngers for as long as possible.
But usually, I am up around 6:45 to run and slip out quietly as they snooze
At Fox Hill in Utah, the mountains were behind my
house, and the sun hid behind them,
making exercising nice at most normal morning hours.
(I do miss my daily hikes to the Y).
Here in New Mexico, the sun is up, and the blue sky stretches
on for miles and miles. The train rumbles in the distance, and every morning
around 7:15, a small plane zips over the ranch property.
I think it's a courier plane coming from Albuquerque
going somewhere... some days I wave.
The classic New Mexico clouds start forming around 11:00 a.m.,
then in the afternoon, typically after lunch, those puffy clouds turn dark,
and a nice rainstorm falls, usually a downpour for several minutes.
Then the clouds float away as fast as they came in
to open up to a magnificent sunset to end our day.
It's really lovely.
This morning when the girls got home from seminary,
Jane went back to bed for an hour while Claire and I
went to Boss Nielson's beautiful garden.
He spends hours and days in the Spring getting this colorful garden in,
and it is designed to produce the most beautiful and delicious bounty.
Nicholas must have caught (and released) about 50 grasshoppers this afternoon
when a downpour caught him in the middle of the field.
I was swinging on the porch with Lottie and the ranch cat "Kevin."
Then it hit me as I watched him run back to the ranch house,
with rain dripping off his yellow hair: we made the right move coming here.
We miss home, ache for the ease of life, and for our family and friends.
But life here is unique and grand, and my children are only young once.
Oh, I did see a snake slithering in the marigolds.
I don't really like that much.
