Huckleberries

I have always thought that Huckleberry was an invention of Mark Twain. After all, he made up a lot of crazy things. But I have finally learned that they are real. Huckleberries grow wild up here in the Montana mountains. No one has been able to domesticate them, so if you buy them at the store, they are about $40 a gallon. By the way, have you ever wondered where the phrase "I'll be your huckleberry" that Val Kilmer uses in Tombstone? Here is your answer.

Lonnie and I have gone out to pick them and can pick about a quart an hour. I got to the point where I just sat down in the middle of the patch, and picked. They are smaller and darker then blueberries and taste like a cross of blueberry and blackberry. We took Lonnie's family out to pick a few days ago, but they were mostly gone. We have been making Huckleberry milkshakes and Betsy and I made a desert yesterday involving melted marshmallow, whipped cream and graham cracker crust. Here is a picture of some Huckleberries.

Cherry season is in full force here though and love them. I have never like cherries much, because I don't like sour fruit. But the ones here are sweet and so good. I just snack on them throughout the day. Of course, I just paid $1.49 a piece for an avocado.

I am pleased...

I am pleased to announce the engagement of my friend Liz to her boyfriend Jeremy. There is a great record of my friends marrying Jeremys. Who could forget Jer-bear or Jeremy-marry-me? (Though I did assist in locking Jer-bear out of the house once, but I digress.) There are also several yet not nicknamed Jeremys married to my friends as well.

But back to Liz. Though I have yet to meet this Jeremy, everytime I talk on the phone with her about him, she is happy. There are always relationships I have seen various friends in that cause me to wonder, what the heck are you doing? But with Liz and Jeremy, they seem to be very well suited to each other (plus he got her the perfect ring). Liz is one of my best friends and I wish her the best.

Here and here are cute pictures of us. I think I will be sending her a copy of The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands for an engagement present. A most excellent book.

Glacier Park

Well, we went to Glacier Park with some of our friends last weekend. We went up to Logan Pass and here is a picture of us on the way up.



Here is a Billygoat mama with her baby goat. Isn't he a cutie?




Here am I (brave Montana woman) walking accross glaciers in shorts.

One of many waterfalls in the area.


If only a camera could really capture all this beauty.

City girl

I have to come to a new understanding about myself. I am, much to my chagrin, a city girl. I have made fun of those who don't know how to function past Frisco, but I have to admit a certain camaraderie with them. The following story will demonstrate this.

Lonnie and I both worked at our respective job on July 4th, but on the 3rd, he suggested we take a drive. So drive we did, in an attempt to find a bison range that he had heard about. Well, we over shot the bison range and found ourselves in Missoula, 121 miles from home. I was so excited, I could barely contain myself as we drove past the wonders that is Old Navy.

We found the college campus in town and walked around, and then my dear husband asked what I wanted to do. "Go to the mall" was my reply. So my husband took me to the mall and I reveled in stores such as Dillards and dropped $75 at the Gap. Though I got 6 items, not to bad. I felt complete and happy. And that is when I discovered that though I am content where I may be, I like the city. I love the shops, the Starbucks, and the vast array of restaurants that do not say "family dining". I love houses that don't have an acre yard to mow, and thought is put into landscaping. I like being on city sewage and having neighbors. I like having more then 2 major roads with which to navigate. I am a city girl. And I love the Gap.

We did find the bison rage on the way back, but it was late and the bison were not to be seen. However, we have decided that we will go again sometime. I just hope we miss it again.

Dang blogger

I am miffed at blogger for not letting me post the song the way I wanted to. It will not put spaces where they shoud be! If anyone can help me, please tell me what to do!

Theology of women. Part One

Wall's of Eden, sung by Pat Green

She holds the key to Eden's gate, Somewhere deep inside

When she gives to me her patience,

And a hundred smiles, none the same

Her eyes are the ocean, I am drowning constantly

I am lucky just to linger in the corners of her scene.

Chorus:

I am lost inside the walls of Eden

Don't you ever set me free

I am lost inside the walls of Eden

I'll never go back, no I'll never go back again.

End chorus

Outside the world's a bastard

The son whose father never cared

It keeps on raging like some crazy storm, but not in here.

Repeat chorus

All it cost me was my whole life, all it gives me is everything

A love like fire, the taste of skin

The feeling of falling again and again

It's a long drink from a cool well

It's everything, baby, it's everything, baby, it's everything

I am lost inside the wall's of Eden, don't you ever set me free

This will probably bore most of my readers so feel free to skip this post. You won't hurt my feelings. If you do read this post, I would love to hear comments, but know that this is only the tip of the ice burg and more thoughts are coming.

I have been doing a lot of thinking the last couple of years about what it means to be a woman, how this relates to men, and how it also relates to my relationship to the world around me and God. To give you some background, I was raised in a conservative evangelical tradition. Women don't preach, they submit to their husbands, and most stay at home with their kids. Now this plays out very differently in different places. Looking at most of the marriages of my parent’s friends and my own friends that are married, the wives are very valued by their husbands and there is a lot of love in the families. Most husbands don't attempt to be lord and master of their wives, and I would say that women still exert a fair amount of power in the home and at church.

What concerns me when looking at some of the more conservative strains within the evangelical church (and believe me, there are many types of people under the heading of evangelical), is that in an attempt to reconcile the family structure with the culture that we live in, we neglect what the Bible really does say about women and listen to some of the most ridiculous notions. All for the sake of being better women or wives, but placing women in positions that are ridiculous as well as, placing men in positions that are ridiculous as well. Most recently is a book that I am reading for a group that I foolhardily joined for the summer. Created to be His Helpmeet will make you want to pull your hair out. The use of Scripture is appalling, and I would add, dangerous. I will go over some of the books fallacies at a later time, but now I want to really look at the story of the first family.

[A quick aside: I am not going to address cases of physical abuse in this post. Most people, even those who believe in submission, believe that physical abuse is wrong. But I am saving that for another day.]

Genesis 1:27 is where we see the first reference to humans and/or women in the Bible. This is a HUGE verse. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The author of Genesis goes back in chapter two to give more detail about the creation of mankind, but in chapter one, he is giving a summary. And in that summary, we find that BOTH men and women are created in God’s image. (This is where you imagine me jumping up and down to make this point.)

So, Deborah, you the intelligent reader may ask, why is this such a big deal? Because it means that women and not just men are created in the image of God. This sets the precedence for the rest of the discussion. I think that often we are confident that men are created in God’s image and we are not quite sure where women fit into all of that. Some readers may be uncomfortable with this, because God is a male, and am I trying to make Him into a woman? Nooooooo. (Again with the jumping!) But God is spirit and as one of my husband’s crazy seminary friends once pointed out, “God doesn’t have boy parts.” Men are created in God’s image and reflect His glory and women are created in God’s image and reflect His glory. God has chosen to relate to us in the male gender and how that all works out, I have no idea. But we are to assume that BOTH genders are created to image God.

This is such a huge deal, because I am running into people who believe that as women, we were created to only an assistant to our husbands fulfilling their dreams and abilities. Beyond the natural cringe that runs through you because if that was the only what we as women are created for, then why did God give us so many other abilities and desires, this verse reminds us of our true calling. To image God and glorify Him.