Our house has been hit by a virus. Nothing serious, just sore throats and runny noses, but what I love most about viruses is the sleep it brings to busy toddlers! I often tell young moms who have sick children to enjoy the time of sickness! They always look at me a little funny, but then after a few days where everyone has lots of naps and goes to bed easily and early then they understand that it is actually a gift from God! Everything shuts down for a few days.... less school, less busy-ness, more cuddling.... did I mention more sleep!? During the daytime at least.... my night was pretty bad last night as I was in and out of the little boys' bedroom, but that was because they were hungry! So, anyway, I've learned to even be thankful for a virus.
We also made a very significant deadline with my husband's work. He needed to complete a course he was writing by this past weekend. It was going to be very tough to complete on time, but by God's grace he was able to do it. The reason this deadline was so significant is because is means our little vacation we'll be taking in the fall is now going to be completely paid for and then some. I can hardly believe it as this is what the plan was all along, but sometimes you make a plan and things don't always come together as you hope. This time it did! Yeah! We knew if we were going to go away for our 20th we had to go without putting anything on credit. He had had this course to write for sometime, but had put it on the back burner. Now he had incentive to finish it off! The bonus is that this covers all the costs of gas, too, and even gives us some extra money so that we don't have to feel so tight while we are away.
We'll have friends stay at our house while we are gone. We have quite a bit to do on the house to make it safe and easy to take care of all the animals. I thought the list was long last summer. This summer we have so many things we'd love to do in only 3 months time, it seems impossible and hard to know where to start. I constantly have to surrender my desires to the Lord and know that He'll show us what is most important. That always frees me up and takes away the discontentment that always sits at my door waiting to make me feel discouraged.
We had some goal making the other night again with the kids. Now that Bible quizzing is nearly over (the provincials are this weekend), I just wanted to make sure they were going to stay in God's Word over the summer, including myself and my husband. A long time ago we came across this crazy idea of reading the whole Bible in 90 days. I have never been able to do this as it requires reading 15 chapters a day, but somehow my older kids can do and have done it more than once. So far two have taken on the challenge. I've committed to trying, but generally get only a few chapters read as there are so many interruptions! The younger ones are reading at least a chapter a day and we've been memorizing key verses that apply to self-control still which has been super funny. They are still writing them out whenever they lose their tempers. I had to keep myself from laughing the other day as my 4 year old was so angry at one of his siblings and knew he had to write out the verse. He stomped over to the table, picked up his pen and with the reddest face possible he pressed the pencil onto the paper as hard as he could nearly yelling out the verse, "GOOD SENSE MAKES ONE SLOW TO ANGER, AND IT IS HIS GLORY TO OVERLOOK AN OFFENSE!!!!" Uh, kind of missing the point.
The youngest boy has been observing all this writing and memorizing and when I asked one of the kids what the verse was, he piped in, "Good sense makes one look over a fence!" Well, it was pretty close! My husband and I keep saying that now.... we just need to look over more fences! Kind of true! They pick up more than we realize.
I'm also up to something right now. No one seems to notice, although my husband has made a comment or two. I decided I would secretly just start picking things up, leaving rooms tidy wherever I went without making a big deal of it. I still ask the kids to pick up, but I used to think they would just see how messy things were and would do it naturally! It wasn't happening. I wondered if I started to do it if they would wonder what was up. My husband's thoughts were, "If the house is clean to begin with, then the standard is set." No child has seemed to notice yet, but I'm happier. I literally do this all day long, but I've noticed that it isn't as hard to do if I do a little all the time. My kids still have their chores. They aren't off the hook by any means, but I feel like my house is a more pleasant place to be in. Soon I'm going to let them in on the secret, but I'm wondering how long it will take for them to notice themselves. I think they really think that a maid lives here. There is no other explanation! I really don't mind doing it actually. It's been giving me an odd satisfaction to bless our home. Not receiving any thanks has been good for me, too, as I get the sense of true servanthood and what that should look like. Pointing out to them what I've been up to will take that away, so we'll see if I do end up revealing my secret or not.
Well, once again, the day has begun.... way earlier than I intended, but the hungry toddler wouldn't stay in bed any longer. I'm looking forward to his nap later on this morning. I may just need to lay down with him.......
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