Hurricane Isaac on it's way

*UPDATE:  Now Isaac has been labeled a Hurricane*

There's a tropical storm* in the gulf and it's predicted to become a hurricane and hit landfall by tonight.

It's ironic that we made it to Nebraska just in time for the massive wildfires and now we're back for our first hurricane this season.

We spent the day yesterday picking up outside and clearing everything off the porch.

This morning we decided to enjoy the calm before the storm, dancing before the rain starts, playing with our friends, eating donuts, and loving the sunshine.

We have a generator this year in case the power goes out and we stocked up on water and sandwich bread.   Joel informed me that all a cajun needs to make it through a storm is vienna sausage and flashlights.  So I guess that means we're pretty much set.

There's nothing like a hurricane to make you want to clean your house.  Maybe it's the thought that you're going to be stuck inside for a few days in bad weather and you want to make it as comfortable as possible.   I've got massive loads of laundry to fold and put away and of course I'm procrastinating at the moment.  The last hurricane that plowed through here we evacuated to Jackson, Mississippi, and a tree fell on our house.  It was ten days before we had power and were able to move back in.  This storm isn't predicted to be as strong, though, and while I'm sure there will be some flooding, we feel like it's safe to stay home.

Now I better go attack that laundry pile before it turns into a national emergency....

In the Desert of the Soul: Beautifully Rooted

Summer brought a wave of homesickness.

I'm a northern transplant down here in the south, and sometimes these roots start aching for familiar soil.

So I boarded a plane with four kids in tow, five counting the one nestled safe in my belly.  And then we drove seven hours to the Sandhills of Nebraska.

"The Great American Desert", so named by Lewis and Clark.  And it feels like a desert this year, parched dry and windy hot.

We pull off the highway and wind our way to the end of the road, to the gently sloping hills of our family ranch.  Where time seems to stand still, it moves at such an unhurried pace. Where the only sounds surrounding you are nature's voice.

And it seems God is louder here, too.

This is where I really came to know Him....

I'm sharing today on Beautifully Rooted. 

Head on over there to read the rest of this post.

at 28 weeks on the prairie

Story and I

on the last day at the ranch

as a farewell to the sandhills.

There's an ancient wind that blows across this prairie.

It creeks through the windmills, bending the bluestems, churning powdered sand in the hollow of these hills.

It squints my eyes as I shield them from the sun,

tracing the edge of a lazy blue sky that stretches wide and yawns across miles of sloping range.

My sandals sink into the sand, leaving footprints where the boots of my ancestors stood.

They staked their claim, drove it into the dirt, miles from nowhere on an endless frontier.

Adventurers.

They had to be.

No one else would have dared such a future.

Homestead survivors of the hardiest sort.

And this land still demands their kind.

our days at the ranch

my little indian boy on Jenny

Legend and Astair on a haybale

We're back home now in Louisiana and our memories of our vacation at the ranch are still fresh.  

Every year that we visit my childhood home is more rewarding than the last.

Joel was able to join us for ten days and it was wonderful to have him with us.  Story was starting to protest that her mommy was driving all over the bumpy sandhills in a pickup truck and even took a few spins on a four wheeler.  The only thing I didn't do was ride a horse (and I was mighty tempted).

I love watching my kids learn to ride on the same little spirited palomino pony I learned to ride on.  Jenny, with her clear blue eyes and her snow white mane, has to be nearly 27 years old now, which is somewhere around 80 in horse years.  If only I could age so beautifully!  Astair fell in love with the "pretty pink Jenny", just as I did when I first laid eyes on her at age seven.  I had prayed and prayed for God to bring me a horse and I'll never forget the day my Aunt drove up to the ranch with Jenny in tow.  She was a princess of a pony and I knew without a doubt that God had gifted her to me.

I love walking with my kids through the hayfield, chasing lizards and other prairie critters, teaching them how to drive the ranch pickup over the sandhills (Thad can finally reach the pedals and peek over the top of the steering wheel).

We made the best kind of memories.

Astair and Jenny

Thad riding into the sunset with daddy and our friend Chris  (Chris and Erin came to visit with their new baby girl Grace.  Erin was my roommate in college and it was so good to see her and her family.)

Boston and Jenny with daddy

after tubing down the Niobrara River

Boston can't wait to float down the river

at Merrit Dam with Uncle Jody and our friends

finding frogs

Legend checking pastures with Grandpa Joe

exploring the Fairfield Creek with daddy and uncovering fossils

Legend and Jenny

we loved having our friends from South Dakota visit the ranch!  11 kids in all!  what a blast!

playing with our friends at the first Fairfield Falls

We enjoyed spending time with family and friends, eating Grandma Chick's fun snack foods and riding across the hills with Grandpa Joe and Uncle Jody.  It's comforting to know there is always a place we can go that hardly ever changes.  The hills stay in the exact same spot I remember them to be, Lost Creek disappears every year and then returns in the Spring.  Even with the devastating effects of fire, the prairie will return to life once again.

We're grateful for a place like that.

looking back: our family photo session

It's the second week into our vacation at the ranch and we are definitely missing daddy.

We're still hoping he can make it here in a couple weeks.

So, feeling a little homesick for Joel, I thought I'd post these family pics of us taken back in February by Amee Sorensen Photography (her blog, facebook).

I was three weeks pregnant when these pictures were taken (unknown to me at the time).  We all wore stripes-- a photographer's nightmare!  Many thanks to Amee for being such a good sport about all our crazy ideas!  She really is the most calm and patient person ever.  I promise to conceal our stripes next time!

I adore this picture of Astair and Thad (with Boston on the bottom).

Just viewing these pictures again makes me feel so incredibly blessed and happy to have the family I do.

I think it's time for some more family pics :)

we're home!

Picture taken yesterday as we drove up to the ranch house:  wildfire still raging nine miles south of our place in the Niobrara River Canyon



Thank you for your prayers!!

We're Praising God right now!  Our home is standing, miraculously untouched by the fire!!

  Sunday evening we evacuated to Valentine.

A backfire was started just a quarter mile from our place and we drove away, watching it burn and not knowing for sure if we would be returning to anything but ashes.

We packed the car with clothes and food, with little time to grab anything else.

Situations like this make you realize once again how trivial possessions are compared to the people you share them with.



The backfire that we drove across to evacuate.  Only a quarter of a mile from our house and right next to our first meadow.



We drove past a mile of ranch trucks and volunteers. 

Some faces I recognized as friends and neighbors.  All of them volunteers, working tirelessly together to save homes and ranches.  

And nearly all, like my brother, had been fighting fires for four days straight.

It was an incredible sight to see a whole community of people, unselfishly rising up to beat these flames.

We are so unbelievably thankful for for every one of them.



On our way back to the ranch, this is the pasture right next to our first meadow.



view of the Fairfiled Fire today from our place



southern view of the Niobrara River Canyon fire taken from the same location on our ranch



As of today, there are still two fires south of our place.  Please continue to pray that these will be kept under control and that our firefighters will be able to rest.

Thank you!  Prayer is powerful!!

Please Pray!!

I had prepared to post this message later tonight and I had loaded all the pictures this morning.

But now I need to post it for an altogether different reason.

Wildfires have been raging near our ranch in Nebraska for days now and it's now made it's way just miles from our place.

Please PRAY for my family and friends that are fighting for their homes right now.

We may have to evacuate and we are packing right now.

Here's a picture of the wildfire taken yesterday evening from a hill on our ranch.

My brother has been fighting fires for three days now and my dad has been on deputy duty and is now in the canyon with him.

Thank you for your prayers, it means so much to me right now!

looking back: a camp birthday at the ranch

I'm leaving this week to go visit my folks in Nebraska.  

I grew up on a ranch in the Sandhills and every summer the kids and I spend about a month out on the range.  They love it.  Miles and miles of adventure, wide open spaces, deer, horses, prairie dogs, and endless acres to explore.  

I was just looking through my photo archives of our trip last year and I came across these pictures of Thad's sixth birthday that I never did get around to posting (at least I don't remember if I did or not).  It was a camping theme and we had so much fun!  I found a lot of old camping gear around the ranch and I fell in love with an old Campfire Marshmallows tin.  It amazes me that I grew up around all this old cool stuff and I just thought it was junk back then.  My, how things change (or maybe the older we get the more we appreciate the value of age haha)

We made chocolate and peanut covered marshmallow pops, cupcakes in cones, and berry angel food cake dessert.  And my brother and hubby cut out some log sections for me to use as food displays.  I really loved the way it all came together.  The kids had a blast with stick horse races and paddle boat rides.

Legend looks so little in this picture!  And his blond hair is barely there!  He's grown so much in a year!

We can't wait to go back.  

Even if it means one mommy + four kids + one in her tummy on a jet plane for four and a half hours and then an eight hour car ride.  We barely survived last year.

It will prove to be an interesting trip, I'm sure.

I'm packing as many diversions in their backpacks as I can!  Speaking of such, I wonder what the airline's policy is on playdough?   I can already see the cringing look on the airline stewardess' face.

Look out, United Airlines, here we come!