Yesterday was quite the day. We were busy tidying, making cheesecake, decorating cookies, trying to do some school in the midst of it all, still dealing with brake issues....it was a busy day, but I was still determined to start it off with Bible reading and prayer. This often happens, as we're praying, RM will walk in from his office with news.
In his hand he was holding the first cheque to arrive unexpectedly that day. It was for the hay we sold to Florida. I think what I love most about getting money in the mail it that you never know when it will arrive. It literally seems to come from heaven sometimes, as if God put it directly in the mailbox. It had actually arrived the day before, but somehow got mixed up in Monday's mail and got missed. It was a relief to get as we still had another dental bill remaining for my son's teeth. We were able to pay.
While my son and husband were out at the dentist for one final adjustment to his new retainer, I got a call from RM saying, "The order came through!" We had been told some towers were being ordered, but once again, we never know when that'll happen. The government has months to decide when they want to push that order through. This was the week it happened. That order will clear all debt outside the mortgage - so we were praising God. Was it the huge 100 tower order that I hoped for? No, but it was big enough for us to handle. The truth is a 100 tower order would probably kill my husband, so God gives us the contracts we can handle in the increments we can handle. Plus, He still wants us to rely on Him for everything and keep us faithfully depending on Him.
Then, still not done....when yesterday's mail came in, the cheque for the grapes came in and another cheque for pork that had been bought last week. Amazing timing, wouldn't you say? You would think I knew what was going to happen before it happened in light of the verse I'd written a few days ago.....what did it say, "pressed down, shaken together, running over....?" Something crazy like that. Those cheques virtually covered what we owed a different farmer for taking care of another section of our property. No more debt owed to him.
On top of it all I found out about a little surprise for the kids which I won't say much about now, but suffice it to say, they might even see a little something under the tree thanks to a random gift from a relative completely out of the blue that we are intended to use for the children!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe it! "With what measure you use.......it will be measured to you......" If I weren't writing this with my own hand, I wouldn't believe it myself.
We were tempted to miss family worship last night as the ladies from church were coming over soon after dinner and I still had some last minute things to do, but RM said, "We've got to stop and thank God for what He's done." I quickly agreed. The funny thing about homeschooling and having the kids around you all day long is you just assume everyone knows what is going on all the time, but they had no idea what had transpired throughout the day, so those little family meetings at the end of the day are so critical. It was a short time to debrief and then to just thank God for His goodness to us. It got the kids really inspired to see we were actually getting closer to the reality of being completely debt-free.
My mathematically-challenged son, who now is feeling like a math expert, suddenly started to do some mental math in his head, "If we could just make this much money a month, we'd have the mortgage paid off!" "Yes!" We started to talk again about the farmer's market...eggs....meat....homemade crafts....it's the little by little thing again. They are starting to picture the freedom! I think they are seeing the home stretch and they are excited!
So the ladies came over, we enjoyed a rich time of fellowship - a little cheesecake always helps the fellowship! I led a brief study on the importance of studying God's Word in the historical and cultural context in which it was written. We're working through a book by Jen Wilkins, Women in the Word. She reminded us of the skill of digging in Scripture like we're archaeologists. Most of us admitted that we don't do this because we are just plain lazy. As moms with many children, we just don't have the time. We are busy! This is a true fact, but doesn't get us off the hook. There will be a season when we will have more time. The challenge I gave was to at least improve in one small area - to just start. To pick up a pen. To write something down. To read a bit more. To do a bit more research than we've ever done. Mining God's Word will only reveal more treasure. It can't ever hurt to go deeper. We are the only ones who lose out if we don't. God's just waiting to reveal Himself to us.
Now, half way through the week....still more things to plan! This is all without the craziness of shopping. I can't imagine how stressed I would be if I had to add that in to the mix. My 2nd daughter's birthday falls at Christmas time. We haven't done a birthday party for a while and have kept it pretty low key, but this year she's having some special friends and cousins over. It's actually a bit of an experiment.
My 2nd son wants to start doing "Pony" parties using our little mini horses. This is his first "gig". He'll take the girls for rides and then teach them how to care for the horse, brushing it, etc. Then they'll get little pony cake pops, pony crafts....you get the idea. If this takes off, we plan on bringing the pony to the farmer's markets to "sell" the pony party idea. That is huge in the city as little city girls all love horses. We want to make their horse-loving dream a reality! It'll be a fun little business for my son, too.
After the party, Christmas is around the corner. We'll celebrate with the church on Sunday and that same afternoon with my family. Talk about lots of eating. My daughter and I have decided to do a two-week shred after all that excess food. That means two weeks of hard-core eating well and, ugh, an hour of working out a day - half hour in the morning and a half hour at night. Good 'ol Jillian. She'll be back in my life for a bit. That is quite unsustainable in my life, working out that long, but I can do it for two weeks, Normally, I only spend a few minutes these days, just enough to maintain a little muscle mass.
One of our favourite lines in the comedy movie Princess Bride is when the King has just delivered Princess Buttercup's love to the torture chamber. He stands outside with his aide talking about how tired he is, "I've got my Kingdom's 500th anniversary to plan, my wife's murder...I'm just swamped," he says matter-of-factly. "Go, get some rest...if you don't have your health, you don't have anything," his evil aide tells him. We always laugh so hard. We'll do that, too, "I've got my daughter's birthday to plan, cake pops to make, dinner to cook...I'm just swamped." Then one of my kids inevitably says to me, "Go...Mom, get some rest....if you don't have your health.....you don't have anything..." By that time, I'm laughing my head off. When did they get so funny?
So, it is true, I'm swamped, but it's all good - if there were nothing going on, I'd be bored silly. This is the kind of busy I like - lots of things to look forward to, not too much that I'm stressed, just enough to keep me on the go, not sitting around.....According to Gary Smalley, who wrote about the different personality types, I'm an otter. He describes the otter as "a party looking for a place to happen". That's me to a "T". My husband just looked at me when we read it together and laughed as they described my personality exactly..fun, fun, fun. And I wonder why my kids like having stuff going on......hmmmm......
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