Guns {Not My Cup of Tea}

Some couples made time to see a show at the theater or time for a lovely, restaurant dinner by candle light. Espi and I this weekend made time for a gun class. Romantic, I know.

Does this make you uneasy?


[left=Baby Eagle 9mm:: middle=Glock 19 9mm]

It does me.

Up until this weekend, I had not shot a handgun--only rifles, mostly loaded with pellets and BBs and mostly between the ages of 9-13.

Over the years, we have heard stories, many involving wild animals, that got Espi and me talking about having a handgun, mainly for our mountain trips and camping outings.

I don't want a gun in our possession that I don't know how to use and keep safe. So what was Espi's interest became our interest.

By the very end of our day of gun training, I told Espi, "It was a good day..., but it was not easy."

Half the day was books, demonstrations, and discussions. The second half was at the shooting range.


[Espi shoots at the hanging metal targets.]


[Espi and the trainer stop to take a close look at the shrapnel caught on the outside rim of Espi's ear, leaving him a nice minor burn.]

From the book work, I was left wanting to know more about the laws, what protects me and what doesn't. That's another class for another time. The range was hard for me. I haven't been so tense, nervous, and unsettled in a long time. I was the least experienced trying to get a handle on my weapon while a line of men and women along side me were rapid firing and shrapnel was flying. I was out of my element and just didn't want to do something stupid and dangerous...and didn't want anyone else, for that matter.

Overall, our trainer was great. The men and women we spent the day with were a pleasure to be around. As you can imagine, I was the last to use up my ammo, so I got to enjoy shooting at the end with quiet and no shrapnel flying in my face--much kinder on the nerves.


[I got the most comfortable with this Heritage 22 revolver.]


[Espi liked this light weight Glock 19 9mm; however, I had trouble with its recoil or kickback. The Baby Eagle (top picture) was the most comfortable 9mm for me because of its heavier weight, giving me less recoil and more control.]

As Espi and I drove home, I shared that my reservations in shooting rest in the fact that these weapons are incredibly accurate and, obviously, powerful even in the hands of someone inexperienced like me. The difficulty is being safe while becoming efficient.



[For "fun," our trainer brought out a .223 assault rifle at the end of the class. Impressive, powerful, scary.]

Last night while lying in bed, I began thinking about the fear I experienced on the range. I was reminded of a quote I had read last week by Debi Pearl: "What physical pain is to the preservation of the human body, fear is to the preservation of the soul." Scripture says in Proverbs that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Pearl added that "life without fear is a fool's paradise...How differently would we react to our daily challenges if we truly feared God [and His undeniable spiritual laws/order that rule in this world, such as 'sowing and reaping']?" All of the reflecting made me realize I need more of that fear I felt on the range for the Sovereign One who holds this world in his hands and to whom I am ultimately accountable for each part of my life.

Where will this gun training take me? As long as Espi has it apart of his life, I will want to get educated in safety. That's all I can say for now.



The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army; a warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. {Psalm 33:13-19 }

Leaving the Nest in 26 Days

We had the privilege of watching the life cycle of baby robins this month. Espi was in the middle of chopping down an over grown lilac bush, when he discovered a momma robin nesting. Now all the fledglings have flown off to great adventures of their own, and Espi can get back to the work he started.


{day of discovery}


{hatching on day 11}


{day 12}


{day 19}


{day 23--days away from taking off}


{last day 26--Fortunately, I was present and noticed this weekend the last bird waiting to take "the leap."}



When the final jump was made, I followed from a distance watching jumps and flutters all the way across the lawn. AF and AD joined the procession imitating the little bird's movements with lots of hopping and flapping arms, until she disappeared into our pasture to learn to fly without the annoyance or intimidation of on-lookers.

If you care to see a little of the "hopping and flapping" around, please proceed:

Let's Have a Little Fun

I don't think I should ever own Photoshop. I would have way too much fun.

I already have plenty of fun just using a couple free sites that have filters, effects, and photo converters.

I love photography, but at this point, I am far from being a good photographer myself. So when my sister introduced me the photo editing site called Picnik a couple years ago and I noticed that most of their tools and features were absolutely free, that site became a regular part of my blogging and my photo projects, like Christmas postcards and such. I tweak exposure, boost color a bit, crop, rotate often. Also, Picnik's filters or photo effects tab adds a lot of interest to simple, everyday shots. For example, last week my annoyingly long hair needed to be pinned back so I could get some yard work done. I tried out some low Cori Dantini buns. (By the way, she again was introduced to me by my awesome sister; you must check out her art work. Her content has incredible colors, lines, images, words--sweet, sweet.) The buns looked very cutsie, and I started getting playful and silly with a little lip color and the camera that was in the room. Thanks, Cori, for the inspiration. I didn't intend to do much with those photos until I was playing on Picnik last Saturday evening and one of the images turned out really fun and interesting so I shared it on my facebook. As I noted in my facebook caption, these were the simple steps that changed my image to quite-ordinary to quite-bold and fun: cropped, cinema effect, infrared effect fade out about half way.


Interesting, huh?

About two years ago, I discovered a japanese site through The Little Brown Pen that turns current photos into very old vintage versions. Now isn't that cool:





These two photo sites are a couple of my very favorites.

Enjoy and have a little fun!

Firsts at 6

{H reads here during her quiet time. Tonight while I downloaded her videos, she was reading on the couch with AF and AD cuddled up beside her. Next time, I need to get a video of that.}

H is about a month shy of 6 1/2.

On her last birthday, we talked about the many special "firsts" she was going to experience this year, like biking, cartwheels, reading--really reading, swimming, lossing a tooth or two or three for instance.

She hasn't lost a tooth, yet, but she has shown lots of growth in 5 months:


{She and her cousin in Texas attempted cartwheels daily during our last trip in March/April. She's starting to get the hang of it. AF wanted to show off her moves, too, apparently.}


{During H's 3rd swimming class this May, her strokes started taking her places in the water. Next class, she is going to take off.}


{Espi took the training wheels off H's bike about a month ago. It didn't take long before she was off-roading.}


{Last week, H started taking lessons to horseback ride independently. She feels so special and is doing well.}