The Battle Belongs to the Lord

The last two evenings my husband and I attended two very nice dinners.

The second was Honors Night for Montana State University. The Student Union ballroom was transformed into an elegant dining room. A guitar-cello duo played during dinner. No chicken at this dinner. Instead, we were served a delicious, brie-stuffed filet mignon. My husband, along with twenty other gifted faculty and grad students, were honored for their stellar achievements.

The first, the Spring Celebration for my daughter’s school was both an outreach to the community and a fundraiser for the school. The school gym was transformed into an elegant dining room. We were entertained by several talented musical groups of students and faculty. The high school students served a very nice meal of, you guessed it, chicken. But the similarities end here. The speaker for the evening was Dave Dravecky. He was a talented major league baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, at the top of his career, when they discovered cancer in his pitching arm. Two games into his amazing comeback his arm broke; the cancer had returned. This time, they had to amputate his pitching arm. His faith in God hit a crisis point but also brought him through to the other side where he can now inspire others through his story. He spoke that night about the source of one’s worth. All too often we value people for what they can do, not for who they are. We honor the athlete, the artist, the academic for what they do, for the skills they possess. But when their talent fades, or is yanked away, what happens to them? True worth is found in who we are. We are created by God, in His image. God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins so that we might have everlasting life. Everything else is temporal. There is nothing wrong with being recognized for your accomplishments, for enjoying the accolades of your peers. But, you must always remember that those accolades do not define your true worth. When they fade, as they always do, will you still stand tall knowing you are more than your deeds, or will you crumble in depression and meaninglessness?

My husband and I went to see the Bozeman Symphony for the first time last night. Yes, we’d seen the annual family concert with our daughter several times, but this was the first time we did the formal dress up, eat at a nice restaurant, and go to the symphony. It was a great date. Here are a few things I observed.

1. Bozeman is still a small town. We knew several of the musicians in the symphony and ran into quite a few people we knew in the audience. It sure makes you feel like this is the place to be.
2. If you want to play a lot, be a violinist. The first violins were rarely still. I think they played more often than any other instrument.
3. If you like to sit around and listen to the music around you, play a wind or brass instrument.
4. If you like variety, be a percussionist. They get all kinds of gadgets to tap, bang, or hit together.
5. And finally, don’t start a double batch of apple butter if you plan on going anywhere in the next 24 hours.

We got our tickets through a fundraising silent auction at our daughter’s school. Something tells me if they have the same deal this year we’ll be bidding again.

Do not pass autumn; do not collect 200 colored leaves.

I don’t know what blog etiquette says about answering a blog comment with another post, but I’m doing it anyway. Llama Mama, this one’s for you.

A week ago yesterday I was in shorts and a T-shirt, enjoying mid-70′s weather. Some trees were just starting to turn color. The next day it snowed. Then Monday it snowed again, leaving Bozeman looking like this:

Yesterday it flurried and today it snowed all day.

Predicted lows in the next few days will be in the single digits (Farenheit). Autumn is just nowhere to be seen. If this is any indication, we are in for a wild and wooly winter. Bring it on!

I am blessed to live so close to Yellowstone National Park. The sad part is I hadn’t visited Yellowstone in almost 2 years! There always seems to be some reason to put a visit off until later. Later finally came last weekend as my family and I headed to the Park (as they call it here) for camping and wildlife viewing. The weather was cool and rainy, but we stayed warm and our tent stayed dry. We took a horseback ride, much to my daughter’s delight, and got rained and hailed on. We had our first bear sighting ever in Yellowstone, and then our second, third, and fourth. The bison were more active than I’d ever seen them as it was the “rut” (mating season). I don’t have a favorite time to visit Yellowstone because each season brings its own surprises. Here are a few photos I took. Click on the thumbnails to get a larger image.

My God is an extravagant God. Yesterday I visited a friend with the purpose of encouraging her. But, by the time I left, I had been blessed many times over. She gave me and my daughter a tour of her ranch and we saw amazing things. We saw the baby buffalo, a couple of deer, and beautiful scenery. She drove us to the top of a ridge where there was a spectacular wildflower meadow with great vistas and fun rocks to collect. And yes, both my daughter and I came home with our pockets full of rocks. Here are a few pictures I took.

Buffalo calf and Mama

Montana Wildflowers

Beautiful dead tree with wildflowers

Bitterroot, Montana's State Flower

This is a quiz. What song does the title line come from and who sang it?

We have gone from winter to summer in the space of a week. (No, I haven’t changed the subject.) What were bare trees last week are now covered with small leaves. The crab apple has just started to flower. We have been enjoying the colorful birds that are visiting our bird feeder including gold finches and a stunning Bullock’s Oriole.

Mr. and Mrs. Swallow appear to have triumphed over the English sparrows for the bird house (with a little help from their friends).

Spring is definitely here. As I went for a walk today, marveling at the blue sky, exotic clouds, reveling in the warm wind, listening to the birds sing their hearts out, the song above kept going through my head. Have you figured it out yet? Maybe this YouTube video will help.

Most of the food I buy comes from grocery stores, grown anonymously somewhere “out there.” Tonight, however, we will dine on steaks raised less than 25 miles from here, bought from the rancher who raised it. OK, the steaks weren’t exactly raised. The cattle were raised nearby and they were turned into steaks after the fact. Half Circle Ranch, north of Bozeman, raises Piedmontese cattle which are naturally lean and have less cholesterol than chicken. My parents who are visiting wanted to get some to take home. I called up the ranch to find out how I might get some and the rancher, Harry Armstrong, returned my call and told me he would be at the Winter Farmers’ Market today. Now that’s service. I now have a freezer full of tasty beef. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from knowing where your food has come from.

It was -13°F this morning (yes, that’s a minus-sign in front of that temperature) and the garden looks like this.

I’d say there’s no better time to get my seeds started for the garden this year: peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. I have seen a robin already and a raven having a gopher (a.k.a. Richardson’s Ground Squirrel) for lunch, so spring can’t be too far away.