Horses and Peppermint Pie

Now, people are not generally huge fans of Valentine's Day unless they have a steady beau, and typically I tend to be the same way. It's like Mother's Day- if you're not a mother, you don't get anything good. If you're not a Lover on Valentine's Day, you do not get anything good except maybe those pink m&m's you bought to pacify yourself. A friend today wished me a happy Singles Awareness Day. But I digress. The point I wanted to get to was that despite it being Valentine's Day, today was one of my best Sundays since I've been here. It started like any other Sunday, with me waking up late because I hit the snooze button too many times, but I got ready in plenty of time and headed out the door slurping my coffee and feeling confident about my outfit. (I've been reading too many fashion blogs) Church: educational. One of the things I like about this church is that they don't worry too much about feelings. Yes, it can be a little blunt, but it is hard for me to accept things that are based in any way on emotions. I don't have any problem with experiencing raw, pure emotion, whatever it may be, but I don't trust its influence when it comes to decision-making, especially when the decision is something serious like whether to believe the Bible. One of the things I don't like about this church is that the music is as even-tempered as the sermons. The songs are good songs, and don't get me wrong, I know the demographics and the reasoning behind the style, but I miss the passion of the worship at Hope. It's a minor issue, however, and heavily outweighed by the positives.
So, to continue, the rest of my day was even more glorious. I was invited to lunch at the Folks house, after which Hannah and I made lattes and we all ate peppermint pie. Then I got to tag along on their hiking trip, and even got to ride their Aunt's horse! I've been on a few horses, but Aunt Dawn was the first to really teach me something about riding, and I thoroughly enjoyed being on that beautiful animal surrounded by sandstone and lava rocks with Pine Valley Mountain straight ahead of us. In summary: good church, good lunch, good coffee, good hike, good home.