Pruning and Being Pruned

After days and days of being without the internet, we finally found out it was as simple as a cut wire and as of yesterday, we're back on.  I had so many things I wanted to write during those days that it'll be hard to keep it all down to one post.

First of all - I love Spring!  The warm weather has been fantastic and has turned my stuck-inside-kids to I-won't-do-school-because-it's-warm-kids.  We've had to do some school outside for sure to keep everyone happy.  We were all inspired at a recent homeschool meeting to get our kids to really appreciate nature, and therefore God as the Creator of it all, by getting them to pick some twigs off of trees all around our house, identify them and then bring them inside into a jar of water to watch them bloom.  There is a new and awful phenomenon out there called Nature Deficit Disorder, if you can believe it.  Yet can't we believe it?  After that short little walk, my children started saying the funniest things like, "Look Mom!  The leader bud!  You can see its scales!"  I love hearing them talk about buds!  I had been given a water colour set a loooong time ago and the lady at the talk encouraged us to get our children to paint what they saw.  Out came the paints and suddenly I saw beautiful artwork of just these twigs in a jar.  It was really beautiful. 

Meanwhile, we are fighting Spring in the little vineyard we have.  We're trying to get these grapevines pruned before they do go to bud.  We took on quite the project, but we are loving it!  When we bought the property it was covered in concord grape vines.  They were all pulled out before we moved in by the guy we bought it from, but he kept one little section at the back of the property, 23 rows to be exact, probably so that he could look at something pretty from outside his window (the person who sold us the property lives at the far end of it).  We had rented it out for the first 5 years of living here and had basically made peanuts on it.  This year we decided we would try it ourselves and actually try to make a little money off of the crop.  We bit off way more than we could chew!

What is happening, however, is that we are learning and learning fast that this is something we can do and do together as a whole family.  It has turned into one of the most amazing little projects we've ever taken on.  And, because of the time pressure to beat the buds blooming, almost everyone in the family is getting up while it is still dark, grabbing a quick bite to eat, then off to the little vineyard for 2 hours in the morning and then another 2 hours in the late afternoon.  The early morning has been amazing and is almost deafening with the sounds of birds.  The 3 older kids have all learned how to prune the vines back to just 4 branches.  They have to pick just the right branches as they must anticipate what the vine will need to grow next year.  So many spiritual lessons being learned once again!  We know that God is pruning us in the same way, as He knows what we will need further down in the path of life.  This is why we must trust Him as the vinedresser in our lives!  So great!

Later on in the day, the little kids come out and they tie the branches to the wires so that the vine will be trained to grow the right way.  They are good at it!  Everytime they find out RM is out in the vineyard with the older kids, they grab their boots and run.  No one wants to miss out.  Everyone is sleeping great and hard these days.  Lots of sore muscles and even sunburned faces.  I will have to get a picture of what's going on this week as it is just so picturesque out there.  They hope to have this all done by the end of the week.  At the rate they are going, it is amazingly possible.

As for the financial picture....well, we just plug away at what we are doing.  I have to admit, I tried very hard to stay on top of that budget tracking idea I had - that was hard!  If I missed one day, or one grocery bill, the task became rather insurmountable.  I haven't given up entirely, but the detailed tracking was a little much with all the other things I was doing just as a mom and a wife.

Our grey water situation hasn't changed, but now I'm dealing with it very differently.  We installed a pump and a hose and now every time I do the laundry or start the dishwasher, the pump goes on and out goes the stinky water, so we were given a solution for the time being which keeps the puddles down to a minimum in the basement.  The smell hasn't entirely disappeared, but now that we can open windows, it should start to dry up and be less stinky! 

Though we remain in this stage longer than I would like, I'm realizing the lessons being learned are for a much greater purpose, just like with the grapevines.... I'm being pruned for next year!   And as it to confirm it, I was reading in the devotional that my friend gave me, Streams in the Desert, and it talked about just that and also that there is a purpose to dark and hard times in our lives.  "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs." (Matthew 10:27). The author, a missionary from the 1800s, L. B. Cowman, wrote, "Our Lord is constantly taking us into the dark in order to tell us something... It is there He tells us His secrets - greater and wonderful, eternal and infinite..... Yet these revelations always come with a corresponding responsibility:  "What I tell you... speak in the daylight... proclaim from the roofs." We are not to linger in the darkness or stay in the closet... we are to speak and proclaim what we have learned."  This is perhaps why I love writing so much.  I am trying to learn what I am supposed to learn and then I try to get it out on "paper".  It is actually a responsibility to speak it and proclaim it otherwise there is no point to all the trials.

That helped me to appreciate the darkness a little more, knowing He takes us there on purpose.

That's all for now..... the little people will be up soon!