Another busy weekend has come and gone....more lessons learned!
It started at the wedding we went to on Saturday. Both families lived out in the country, so I wondered what style of wedding they would choose. I only knew one of the families really well, but I knew they were quite conservative Christians and were already making very different choices from the world.
It ended up being very simple, but quite profound because of it's simplicity I think. The pastor, in fact, even drew attention to the barrenness of the decor, saying it was on purpose. That is not to say that they had no decorations, but they were certainly kept to a bare minimum. The pastor started off his homily by pointing out how the average wedding costs $28, 000 (I actually thought the number would have been higher) and how so often the marriage breaks down at a later date, but none of that money is recoverable, nor is the marriage. He was trying to point out that going into debt right at the beginning is a really challenging way to start off. He made a good point. I also thought it was interesting because of where we're at and how my spidey debt senses are so heightened these days. My guess is they spent less than $5000 on this wedding, possibly less than $3000 - incredible. But at the end of the day, they are still married!
The next day I was off to a homeschool conference, the first of several this spring we'll be at. I went on my own, so that was a nice break in itself, but it was more of a challenge this year as prices at these conferences are not low at all. In fact, I find the vendors at these booths cannot compete with the big box stores, so I hate to say it, I found myself not really buying like I had hoped, but instead writing down titles so I could find them cheaper later! So much for supporting the Canadian economy!
However, (funny story coming) it just isn't a good post if there isn't a farm story. As I was heading out for the homeschool conference, I saw a pickup truck slowly coming towards me and then stopping, rolling down his window and saying, "You know there are two horses running around behind the house, don't you?" "What!? You're kidding me!" Nope. He wasn't kidding. Usually our boys are so responsible, but this time, they forgot the gate when they gave them hay. We aren't sure how long they were out, perhaps the whole night. Perhaps even the whole day of the wedding as we didn't get home till after 11pm and no one checked on them then.
The not-so-funny part of the story happened after I left. I asked Renaissance Man if he wanted me to stick around to help get in the horses. He told me to go, they'd get them somehow. So off I went, praying, mind you. Meanwhile the boys were wakened out of deep sleeps to the sound of Dad's voice, "Horses are out!"
They're so good about helping right away and my oldest boy really has quite the touch with animals. It wasn't easy, but somehow they managed to get them close enough for RM to grab one of their manes (the horse didn't have a halter). As my son approached RM, he got spooked and took off with RM's finger tangled in his mane, his pinky finger. Ouch. Eventually he got it loose, but not without first hearing a "click" sound and then seeing it hang at an odd angle from his hand. The pain didn't come at first because his hands were so cold, so he quickly popped it back into place. It seems it was a dislocation, not a break.
The pain came later, however, and lots of swelling. Not that these things ever come at a good time, but this is not at a good time! RM still has a couple of weeks of extreme heavy lifting as he is finishing off his tower contract. It looks like my son will have to be his left hand for a few days. Fortunately we have help right within the family, so that is a blessing.
The weekend brought some relief from the cold weather, but the damage has been done with our plumbing. In addition to the damage from the weather, the owners before us really did a terrible job of plumbing and the whacked way they plumbed thing has led to major issues for us. Basically all the laundry water and kitchen sink water (including the dishwasher) is now running into our basement. Terrible thoughts go through our minds.....maybe we should just burn the house down.....that would solve a few issues! Of course we're kidding....sort of.....sigh....
But church is a refuge, a place to go to worship God, thank Him for His goodness to us, be reminded that He only sends us what is good for us (which we sometimes question and quite frankly find hard to believe....this is good for us?????") The pastor reminded us, too - these challenges come to keep us close to God, on our knees, and here's the big one, to, yuck, humble us. My oldest son said last night as we were all sitting around, ready to pray together, "I don't like being humbled." "Don't say that!" I said. "God will just send more challenges until you love being humbled!"
So we are in a desperate place, but a good place. We don't love being humbled. Not at all! But all it takes is a quick reminder of the many people around the world who don't even have indoor plumbing for me to remember how spoiled I am. We have a home, with a roof, with heat, a few silly animals that love to drive us nuts....we're a privileged bunch.
We have been going through Ecclesiates as a family. We read through part of chapter 10 last night,
"Through sloth the roof sinks in,
and through indolence the house leaks.
19 Bread is made for laughter,
and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything."
We wondered if we are suffering with the "roof sinking" and "house leaking" because of the neglect of those before us. Things were left to rot when we purchased it. We've heard some interesting stories from neighbours who knew these people. Were they slothful, indolent? I looked up indolent in the dictionary. Fascinating definition, "wanting to avoid activity or exertion." Wow. RM looks at the way they plumbed things together and it doesn't look like it was done with a lot of love and forethought. It looks like they wanted to avoid activity and extra exertion. It was done with bare minimum in mind, just to get by.
So our home is teaching us many things. It points back to all those posts on sloth - the consequences are huge! Impacting people we may not even know and in this case it is US!
Funnily enough, the verses I quoted ends with "money answers everything." Did Solomon really mean it is the solution to happiness? It might get my plumbing fixed, but I don't think it means what it seems to mean. We all know it doesn't fix discontentment - only temporarily.
Like I said, we learned a lot of things this weekend, but all that we went through, in just a few short days reminds us of the battle we are in. I've said it before...We've declared war on debt. We've declared war on sloth. We've declared war on discontentment. We've also declared war on this house! It won't win! It won't get the better of us....(even though we still kind of want to burn it down.....)
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