Lily Among Thorns

My cousin's daughter, a lovely young lady named Rachel, has started a blog. Check it out here: Lily Among Thorns.

Time is a precious commodity.

It is time we came to an understanding. I have always said that if there is one thing I wish our family could do without, it's the internet. Not e-mail, but the whole rest of the world wide web. There was a time when we did without, and enjoyed ourselves. Can we get there again?

Today I sat on the couch and informed my daughter that the old run-down house she wants is up for sale. There I was with Sarah on my right, Elijah on my left, and Tom across from me on the chair. We began a conversation about how we could buy this house for Sarah (we can't but it's a nice dream) and it would be a nice dowry for her. (No, you do NOT hear wedding bells yet, don't even think it.) That led to a discussion about what dowries biblically are meant to be (protection for the bride, and something for her to fall back on in case her hubby died or turned out to be a wife-deserting scumbag) compared to what they became in American history (totally turned over to the husband to enhance his estate, leaving her with nothing if he turned out to be that worthless scumbag).

Tom got up, to go do whatever pastors do on Saturday nights (go to bed early), leaving me to supervise the bath/shower routine. Josiah took his place on the chair, then Lizzie snuggled up between me and Sarah, and Abby snuggled in on the other side, between me and Elijah. We continued to speculate on how we could get that house for Sarah, with Josiah adding a half-dreaming plan or two of his own. (Seriously, if I had the money I'd get it, if it were structurally sound enough to be worth fixing--old houses are so much more "alive" than the factory made, cookie cutter houses of today.)

The point of this post is not to discuss the topic of tonight's conversation, but to emphasize the fact that a conversation took place at all. Sarah did NOT have her laptop in her lap, I was NOT on my computer, and NObody had mp3 players plugged into their ears. I was snuggled up with some of my most favorite people in the whole world, just talking.

It was nice.

If, in a year or two, you come back here and still don't find anything new, it's because I'm doing something more important: spending time with the people I love the most.

P.S. In case you think I'm being extreme, here's a good video to watch: A Journey Home. Set aside 45 minutes of your time to watch this with your family. Seriously. I've been praying for a long time for something similar for our family. Tom hardly ever watches a video with us, but he found this one, watched it, recommended it to me, we watched it with some of our children, then I watched it yesterday with the rest of our children.

Holy Ground

Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. --Acts 7:33

Acts 7 is Stephen's narration of the history of Israel just before he was put to death by stoning. The chapter makes interesting reading, but I was looking for something I could apply to my life today. When I read any given chapter in the morning, I like to pick out one or two verses to carry with me through the day, verses that give me a sense of the whole passage, or that especially fit what the Lord has already been teaching me.

I read over the chapter again, and the "holy ground" verse stood out to me. I live life in bare feet as much as possible. I am the first to go barefoot in spring, and the last to give it up in the fall. The thought came to me this morning that everything I do as a full-time wife and mother is to be holy work. It is to be offered up as worship to my Lord as I try to do everything for His honour and glory.

As I went bare foot through my day, hanging clothes on the line, changing diapers, baking bread, wiping noses, reading storybooks, editing something for Tom, giving spelling tests, checking math, supervising chores, and all the rest of it, I kept this thought in my head: "This is holy ground. This is worship. This is for You, Lord Jesus." And anytime I found myself getting impatient or frustrated, I stopped myself by remembering that bad attitudes have no place on holy ground.

Pictures of life at our house

Abby climbed a spruce tree in our yard to get this picture. The brown is our new roof, with new front porch.

A good view of the back of our property. All the trashy junk in the front of the picture has been cleaned up. :)

The whole gang.

Sam, before his haircut. He looks a LOT different now.

After the haircut. This is what he plays with when I'm on the computer. It's a multiple USB port, with coffee warmer.

Digging my garden, getting ready to plant the early crops.

New baby rabbits.

New kittens.

Some of the chickens. They are not as good layers as we've had before, but they're doing okay.

Sarah's little dog, Tomo, saying hi to Snickers, the big dog outside.

Coming back

It's time to get back to blogging. I've been very negligent of it since being on facebook.

It's spring! Today I did some more trash clean-up behind the garage and worked in the garden some. The ground is still too wet, and in some places still frozen, to work the soil, but I'm trying to clean things up and get ready.

This is going to be a busy summer. We have got to find a better way to grow and store garden produce so that we can actually live off the vegetables instead of having them rot on us. :( We tried storing the pumpkins in the barn last fall, but before I could get them processed, they froze. And the tomatoes didn't ripen before frost, partly because of not having much sun, and partly because I planted them too close together.

We're getting the living room redone this year, and installing our new woodstove! The woodstove was a gift from some friends. They had gotten a couple of new ones, so when they heard we wanted to go with wood heat they offered us their old one. We offered to pay for it, but they wouldn't let us.

So another thing to do this year is get wood in. And fence in the back third of the property so that the chickens and ducks don't migrate to the neighbours'. And dig a trench to drain the area we hope to fence in. And get my raised beds ready to actually use. And do a major clutter cleaning inside the house.

And go on a trip! We are going to Maranatha again this July, and then to a family reunion of sorts. My brother, his new wife, his two sons, and their adopted Papua New Guinea son are coming to the States for a visit. I've never met Johanna, so this is going to be a special time for all of us.

I'm also going to get a preview of what life without Sarah will be like someday when she leaves home. She is going to be spending a couple of months with my parents, from mid-April till mid-July. This is going to be fun for her, and I'm glad for her sake, but we are going to miss her.

On the days when we are totally bored and there's not much else to do, we will fit in some school work. That probably won't happen much, but I'm thinking we're going to have to do some sort of year-round schooling just to get a year's worth done in a year.

The four youngest have been trying to recover from colds. I let them go outside today since it was so warm and sunny, but I think at least Sam will be staying home from church tomorrow.

And now it's time to start supper.

So Much More Giveaway results

Not surprisingly, I had only four responses to this giveaway. All four respondents win. So: Tabitha, Crystal and Victoria, e-mail me your street address and I'll get your copies in the mail hopefully this week. (Christy, I have your address already. :) )

Use this e-mail address, and put "So Much More" in the subject line: svcfbs "at" yahoo "dot" ca, replacing the "at" and the "dot" with the standard symbols. :)

Hope you enjoy the reading! And stop by Grace and Truth Books (link on my sidebar) for more fantastic reading material.

By the way, I was not surprised at the response for two reasons: one, my blog is not well-known, and two, this is not a popular book. In fact, it is quite a controversial book. But I hope it makes you think and study the Word.

So Much More give away

I have five copies of the book So Much More to give away. If you want a copy, leave a comment. At the end of this week, I'll pull five names out of a hat to see who wins.

For more info on the book, go here. Warning: This is NOT a book you can be neutral about! You will either love it or hate it. Or you might be one of those rare, rational beings who is able to glean all the good you can and leave the bad.

Be sober, be vigilant

Years ago, in a church we once attended, was a couple who loved the Lord and His people dearly. He was a deacon in the church, a true servant. She was one of the most hospitable people I knew. Many were the hours of true Christian fellowship we spent with them. We lost touch with them after we moved, but I have always remembered them fondly.

Recently I was shocked and saddened to learn that, some time ago, this wife gave up 20 or so years of marriage and left her husband. I could not have imagined a more impossible thing. I have no idea what happened, but two verses came to mind.

One is found in Titus 2. The list of all that men and women, young and old, ought to be ends with this admonition: "...that the word of God be not blasphemed." When our homes are not operating according to the Scripture, we give the unbelieving world cause to blaspheme God's Holy word. They call us hypocrites, and rightly so.

The other verse is this: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). I don't know what this woman's point of departure was, but there came a point when she ceased to be vigilant. Her adversary, who was already stalking her, seized this opportunity and devoured her. From what I hear, she is far from happy in her chosen lifestyle.

My prayer is that God will deal in mercy with this woman. But she will never be able to gain back what she threw away: her husband belongs to another woman now.

Oh, my fellow sisters in Christ! Let us be sober. Let us be vigilant. Let us not blaspheme His Word by failing to be what we should be in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, in our world.

John's day off

John (age 4): Mommy, what's a day off?

Me: It's when you take time to do something fun instead of all the work you would normally do on that day.

John: So when I knocked all my clothes off my bed and played, that was a day off, right?