Monday 30 January 2017

Streams in the Valley of Baca

We have 8 kid birthdays in our family, but now there are 7 more as we are hosting our friend's kid birthdays as well!  So on Thursday, our friends came down as their daughter was turning 16.  That's a big birthday and when you are in the midst of a dark family trial, you make every effort to make it fun and memorable.  This time last year, the family was still "together", so it was a very different birthday for her 15th.

She woke up and within the hour, we had fed 16 hungry children and few adults eggs benedict (which the mom had brought as that is their family tradition).  Then, we led her all throughout the day on a "16 gift" experience where she was given 16 little things that we thought represented her.  We all wanted to do something significant or give her something significant that would keep her eyes pointed heavenward during this upcoming year.  Then it came to me - a plant!  Why a plant?  That was going to be her last gift.  To me it symbolized hope, life, during a time in her life when it seems like there is none.

So, we had tacos for dinner (a family favourite for both families) and then we sat around in the family room to tell stories about her, her birth, all things "her".  I wasn't planning on speaking to her, but suddenly it came to me, I had read many many verses recently where I had put her mom's name in my Bible's margins...I quickly just asked, "Can I read some of the verses I've read recently?"  It didn't matter what she answered, I was going to read them to her anyway.  Here are a few of the psalms I read:

"You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure."  (Ps. 80:5) Has she cried tears this past year?  I'm sure.  The psalmist right before that verse says, "How long...?" I'm sure that this young girl is asking the same question...how long will my tears have to go on?  How long will I be in this situation?  Yet in that same psalm, the psalmist says, "But let your hand be on the man (or young girl), the son of man (or daughter) whom you have made strong for yourself! Then we shall not turn back from you; Give us life, and we will call upon your name!"

Then, "I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.  In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you in the waters of Meribah." (Ps. 81:6,7)  Again, a promise of hope that one day the burden will be lifted and they will all be "freed".  In their distress He says he hears them and will deliver them even though they have been tested.

No surprise, it was getting harder and harder to read, especially this next verse, but I powered through it, amazed that the Bible knows exactly what they are going through, "Give justice to the weak and the fatherless (so amazing that the word "fatherless" is included); maintain the "right of the afflicted and the destitute.  Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." (Ps. 82: 3,4)  Wow.  He knows this girl feels weak, fatherless, afflicted, destitute, yet it is affirmed that justice will be done, her rights will be protected, she will be rescued and delivered.

Finally, I ended with this great encouragement from Ps. 84, "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose heart are the highways to Zion.  As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs....They go from strength to strength..."  I searched the word "Baca" and images of a dry desert came up, a wasteland, cracked and without any source of water.  Yet the Bible says, "they make it a place of springs"!  What a fantastic image.  Nearly 6 years ago when another friend was going through a hard time, she had the gift of a baby.  This baby's name was taken from the word for a "myrtle tree" which was a symbol of hope and God's promises for the nation of Israel when they were in a time of slavery.  My daughter went over to take pictures of their newborn and wouldn't you know it, she looked down and saw some parched ground, but there, in the midst of the parched ground was a little bud of green, trying to come up through the dry land (it was early spring).  She took a picture of that symbol of hope and we gave it to them for one of their gifts.  That is what I'm talking about, the "place of springs".  Is this girl and her family in the Valley of Baca?  Yes, absolutely.  Are they being fed the "bread of tears"?  Yes, for sure.  Are they weak, fatherless, afflicted, needy and destitute?  Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.  YET (one of my favourite words in the Bible), yet, God is there giving them a "place of springs".  They are going from strength to strength. And, even if this young girl doesn't see it yet, one day she will.  One day she will look back and remember what God has done and all the miracles God is doing for her and her family.  And if she doesn't remember I will be sure to remind her!

At that point, we pulled out the plant.  Without meaning to, we had bought her "a money tree"!  I thought that was kind of cool as it felt like another neat reminder that God will even provide the money they need.  As well, we didn't intend this either when it was picked out, but we bought her a plant that had three strong stems, all braided together!  What a neat picture of that Trinity - a cord of three strands is not easily broken.  God even helped us pick which plant to give her.  Now we are praying that she won't kill the plant!  I'm praying that this plant will supernaturally live for years and years and that it will grow to a plant that is higher than we ever expected.

So, that was the end of the "16 Year Old Bible Session/Party".  She is not very verbal, but she looked at me with big eyes.  I was encouraged by it, even if she wasn't!  I can only hope that she will maybe look back and maybe one thing from God's Word will stick in her head.

Thursday 26 January 2017

Abram and Lot Live Here (at least their shepherds do....)

I noticed the other day that my two younger sons don't have the same Biblical knowledge of the classic Bible stories that my older children have.  That's for obvious reasons....they are younger, but by that time in my older children's lives, they did know the classics.  We had been reading a child's version of the Bible back then that takes all the chapters and puts them in story form, a great way to read through the Bible at a slightly more readable way.  I figured, I better start that up again!

So, we started right back at the beginning and are making our way through it.  We got to the story of Abram and Lot last week and we noticed some striking similarities to our own family.  Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds were fighting all the time - over everything.  They didn't like the fact that Abram's animals had more water, or more grass, or more shelter, than Lot's animals.  It was so bad that Abram and Lot had to intervene and even split up, "for there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock."

As I read the story, suddenly this major revelation came to me....Abram and Lot's servants live in my house!  The fighting and bickering that go on over the most ridiculous things happens, what seems like, all day long.  "He has all the pillows for the fort!"  "She has all the Lincoln Logs for her building!"  "He took all the Lego wheels!  Now I don't have any for my car!!!"  As I always cry out, "Oh, for the wisdom of Solomon!!!!!"

But that day, the wisdom came to me.....I read the story and watched what Abram did.  He took Lot and showed him the vast countryside and LET HIM PICK where he wanted to go with his animals. That was crazy!  Why would he do that?  Because he had a right view of God.  He was also a man who disliked conflict and would do what it took to have peace, "Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, FOR WE ARE KINSMEN.  Is not the whole land before you?  Separate yourself from me.  If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left." (Gen. 13:8)

Sure enough, Lot looked and saw the Jordan in the distance and knew.  He figured he would pick the best land for his animals and their pastures.  He did not have a right view of God.  He was so selfish and inwardly focused that he picked what was best for him, never thinking God could have taken care of him even if he had picked the less valuable land.

Abram knew, no doubt, why Lot had picked that land, but didn't seem bothered in the least.  Such wisdom was shown in the whole situation.  I had to stop and explain what was coming to my mind immediately.

First - there was conflict.  We have a lot of conflict with my younger four.  I'm sure I had it with the older four, but I have very little recall of it and sometimes, in my foggy memory, they seem like they were perfect when I compare them to these younger folks!  However, knowing that can't be, I have to come up with creative problem solving solutions all the time.

Secondly, Abram didn't pretend there wasn't conflict, he dealt with it.  He was the older, wiser uncle. So I challenged my kids, especially the older ones in the bunch, to rise up and be like Abram.  He was the more mature of the two and had a view of God that knew even if he sacrificed, God would take care of him.

Third.  He did sacrifice.  He offered Lot a choice.  Could my children not do the same?  Could they not do the crazy thing and say, "Hey, you choose which toy or which pillow or which set of Lego wheels?  And I will choose the ones you don't choose?????!"  Nuts!!  My kids nearly lost it on me when I said that!

Fourth.  Abram was blessed.....after.....for allowing Lot to choose.  "The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever."  That's a lot of blessing!  Pretty much everything that you can see whichever way you look!?  Wow!  And why did he get that kind of blessing?  Because, as fearful as we was sometimes, he believed God.  Even when Lot took the apparent "best" land, Abram trusted God to provide for his animals and family.  Whenever there is a sacrifice, or an apparent overlooking of oneself, blessing often follows.  That is not why we should be selfless, but the pattern in Scripture is often that way.  When we obey, or when we are kind to others, or when we are selfless and let others go first, God sees that and we end up being blessed in the process.  Could my kids trust God for that?  I told them, "Who knows how God will bless you, but he often does in "kid form"."  That week my parents had let us know they'd be taking us out for lunch to the kids favourite restaurant.  I knew that, they didn't.  I hadn't told them.  I wanted them to find out what the blessing might be as they practised what I was talking about.

Fifth.  There are consequences for being selfish.  Lot got captured. "They also took Lot,...."  I warned my kids, do it God's way or there are consequences.  But, it was too hard.  Within minutes of my little talk, I heard a scuffle in the family room.  They hadn't done it God's way and boom!  Instant reminder!  I chuckled to myself.  I reminded them again, but alas, again, they didn't heed my warning and, again, another instance minutes after that!  What's it going to take!  I started to call my family room "Sodom" as every time they entered it someone got captured!  I'm trusting the constant reminders are going to sink in.....you can only get captured so many times!  One time I watched one of the older ones completely disregard what I had said, so I quietly again reminded, "Be like Abram." "Fine!" he yelled.  "He can have all the blocks!"  "Uh, I don't think that's what Abram would have done....That's good that you gave him the blocks, but not like that....That was definitely an Epic fail." Sigh....I wish sometimes I had soldiers I could call on to arrest my own kids at times like that!  I've joked about putting in a dungeon in the basement.  Our basement is already a little dungeon-y looking.  It could work.  I should add that to our renovation list.....dungeon in basement.  check.

So, lots of work to do around here still, but I'm just so grateful for the examples in Scripture and how applicable they are especially with this second set of kids.  There's hope, there always is hope. It's a new day!




Monday 23 January 2017

A Perfect Day

It was a perfect "me" day yesterday.  After church, we were able to meet up with my parents for lunch at my children's favourite buffet.  Food I don't have to prepare always tastes sooooo good.  For most people, that would have been enough socializing for one day.  They'd have gone home, had a nap and called it a day.  Not me.  I was just getting started.

While we were at the restaurant, we got a text from our friends who were in town.  I knew they were coming, so I just responded, "House is open...walk in...we'll meet you there after lunch."  My older kids, as soon as they knew they were there, took one of the vehicles and took off to go meet their friends at the house.  We arrived shortly after and had a nice visit for an hour and a half.  Meanwhile, another friend and her kids were also in town!  They also emailed and said, "Hey, do you have a few minutes for us to drop in?"  "Sure!" I said.  I told her there were other people there and as long as she didn't mind a little activity, she was welcome....She pulled in just as my other friend was about to go. They were able to stay for dinner and took off shortly after that.  I had somehow managed to visit with 3 different sets of friends and family in just a matter of a few hours. For some, that would have killed them.  For me....it just filled me up to overflowing.  I absolutely loved every minute of it!

I think that is what Christian fellowship is supposed to do.  Each conversation, each family member and friend, really had Christ at the center of it all.  We were all encouraging one another towards "love and good deeds", at Hebrews says.  I think that's why I felt so full at the end of it all.  I had spent time with people who were all trying to be faithful to God's call in their lives and were all living it out differently and yet faithfully.

The last friend who came that afternoon had known my kids when they were just little.  We had known her when she was single, but now she was there with a small gaggle of kids under 7.  As grown children, my kids sat there talking with her as peers.  It was so neat to see them listening to her experience as she reflected on how it was when she was their age.  I was so glad she came as we are still working out the final details of my oldest son's school applications.  I am so overwhelmed by the whole process.  Even though my husband is doing most of it, I absolutely hate the paperwork, gathering the material he needs, coordinating transcripts, marks, past courses, etc.  If I'm not careful, this is a great opportunity for the devil to instill panic in me, or give me fear that he won't get in, or fear that he might be delayed a term or even, heaven forbid, a year!  She saw this in me and heard those same fears in my son and just calmly told us her story, her school experience and how God used everything for His good, even what seemed like "delays".   After she left, we were all so encouraged. To me, she was an angel, sent at just the perfect time.  How many times does God do that for me?  I often need God to speak to me, in person, with skin on, and He does just that?

Psalm 77 speaks of this, "Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footsprints were unseen." (vs. 19).  So often it seems like God's footprints are "unseen", no real evidence that He is working.  However, somehow He takes us through the sea and the great waters. Is He really unseen?  The Israelites never saw God come down and open the seas and the waters with an actual hand, but the waters were still moved.  I feel like I am in the middle of the sea and in the middle of great waters in this post-secondary school process, but I know, even though I don't see His footprints, per se, He is still moving back the waters for me.  He brings encouragement to me through people like this friend of mine who basically said, "Calm down.  It will be ok."  And then there's my husband, of course, who won't let me get myself all in a knot.  His confidence encourages me, too.

The next psalm says it best, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?.......Can He also give bread or provide meat for His people?" (19, 20)

It may as well say, "Can He get your son into university?"  "Can He provide the wisdom, the ability, the energy, the resources that you don't think you have?"

I have to believe that He can.  The Israelites, on the other hand kindled the wrath of God, "his anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His saving power." (21) It seems pretty key that I trust in His saving power.  I need to believe that God can do these very things that seem so impossible to me.

Am I in way over my head?  Yup.  But all I have to do is go back and remember all the times God has been so faithful.  Just like with the Israelites, I can recount the countless times He has"divided the seas and let them pass through it."  He has "split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep."  He has "made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down the rivers." (13-16)  He has done that for me so many times.  He can do it again.  The Iraelites, however, "did not remember His power or the day He redeemed them from the foe."  I think that has to be the difference.  They forgot.  I can't.

Wednesday 18 January 2017

More Mom Quotes

I always have some winner quotes, that come from ME, not my kids!

Yesterday, I had a couple of doozers.  Please remember, these are always said in jest!  If someone were to read these out of context, it would sound really bad!

Upon asking my older girls to pllleeeassse clean up the hall/bathroom upstairs multiple times, this was what they heard me say,

"If you want me to turn into a werewolf, I can turn into a werewolf."  Nice, eh?

At that point, one of my kids will usually shout out, "Write that one down!"

Or how about this one...my girls and I went out with my sister and her girls for a cousin date last night.  My sister was offering to shop with my daughter as she had just had a birthday.  As we were leaving the store and running to the car in the drizzling rain and cold, my oldest shouted out,

"I call shotgun!"

"No!" my next daughter shouted back.  "You had it on the way here!"

"It's my birthday!" shouted my daughter in retaliation.

Now, to be fair, I turn birthdays into full week events....for myself.....and usually just for the week before!  Once the birthday day is over, it's over.....However, this girl, whose birthday was a WEEK ago, keeps pulling out the birthday card!  She'll say, "I ate fries today, but it's my birthday" or "I spent this money, but it's my birthday".  I had just about had enough of this birthday stuff, so in the middle of the dark parking lot, I shouted out (something to this effect anyway....)

"YOUR BIRTHDAY IS OVER!!!!!" Again, nice, eh?  We are pretty sure the whole parking lot heard me!  We were all laughing our heads off though.  What a great mom.

I write down the cute things my kids say, my kids write down the ridiculous things I say.  My daughter actually has a place on her phone where she records my funny lines.  It's hilarious.  Those will definitely come back to haunt me some day.  Probably at my funeral.  Oh dear.

Nothing too deep here today....just reflecting on my funny life....we'll see if I want to turn into a werewolf or not today or if I cancel anymore birthdays!


Tuesday 17 January 2017

Eagles Landing, Ridiculous Challenges, and Super Heroes

Friday was a typical day, doing school, cleaning up, working...yet it wasn't typical at all as we all wondered, "Would the cheque come today?"  We weren't pretending when we said, "It doesn't matter if it comes or not."  We were really trying to exhibit true faith.

I tried to walk through what our weekend would look like without it.  Or what we would say to the suppliers who were waiting to be paid.  I really thought, "God will just have to provide in another way that we haven't thought of" and dismissed the thoughts of concern that once in a while tried to enter into my head.

The whole week of waiting for the cheque, I'd been reading a rather shocking account in a book about the Amish Schoolhouse shooting that happened in 2006 in Pennsylvania.  The "shooter's wife" as she became known, was the author.  She's a solid Christian woman who only had God to lean on during her whole ordeal.  She decided to write a book about the event and how she'd gotten through it five years after the fact.  What an incredible testimony.  Though it seems hard to imagine, her faith was so strong that even though she'd gone through the horrible shock of what her husband had done, without knowing he was capable of such evil, and then how he even took his own life, she was still able to walk around in a spirit of expectancy, always wondering, "what is God doing?" or "what is He up to?"  "How will He use this in my life?" But not in a questioning/angry sense, more in a state of hope and anticipation.  Many of the verses she quoted in the book, were the exact verses I had just underlined in my Bible, such as, Psalm 34:4, "I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears."

As I read her testimony, I actually found that I could completely relate to her.  Here we were on the edge once again, knowing it was bleak if it that money didn't come, yet at the same time wondering, "Hmmmm...I wonder how God is going to come through?"  It seemed crazy for her to believe that strongly, but that was how strongly I was believing, too.

About mid-afternoon, my husband walked into the kitchen, cheque in hand, "The eagle has landed....I'm off to the bank...."  Relief swept over all of us, yet, in a way, there was a sense in the room that said, "Of course it came!"  I've written many times how, at least in our lives, God is the God of the 11th hour.  He often comes through at the last moment when there is no other thing to rely on, but Him.  I had read to the kids that morning, "...if riches increase, set not your heart on them."  I told them God is asking us to trust Him, not the cheque.  We are supposed to put our trust in Him, whether the cheque came or not.  Even if it did come, we were not supposed to praise and worship the cheque, but the God who sent it.  It was a beautiful thing that it did come, however, and certainly was a wonderful answer to prayer.  Our kids prayers that night as we sat around together were so beautiful and filled with true awe and gratefulness for His provision.  Is that why God allows these on-the-edge experiences?  So that our kids will see His faithfulness? What will their futures be like? God must know that they will need a strong faith, too, for their future ordeals and trials.

The rest of the weekend was spent at a Bible quizzing tournament where our older four participated and two more went as their cheering squad.  They did great, my oldest son earning top quizzer with his points.  I remained at home with the younger two which is always fun as they are just so busy and fun to watch.  They built forts, watched nature shows, ate popcorn, played outside.  Meanwhile, I got this bizarre urge to go from cupboard to cupboard, drawer to drawer in my kitchen and do a major clean.  Even though I had the younger two, I barely got interrupted.  I made a challenge to myself to try and somehow get the whole kitchen done before the other kids came home at 5.  I started around 10 am.  I have to say, I loved it.  It felt so good to get done as so many drawers and cupboards were driving me crazy with all the spills on them and in them.  By 4:30, I had a couple of "junk" drawers left, which I will finish this Saturday hopefully, but I made the challenge for the most part!  Every glass shelf was washed, all the insides and outsides of each surface was cleaned.  All the horrible fly poop from the summer was taken away (which only stands out more from the white of the paint).  It felt so good and to my kids, I was mom of the year.  Am I allowed to say, "I love cleaning!"?  I really do.  Weird.

My last thing to comment on is about another strange challenge I made to myself nearly two years ago.  In the spirit of trying to save money, I told myself I wouldn't buy anything new for myself, as far as clothes were concerned, for at least a year.  I'm well into the second year now and I can't actually recall anything new except for a few necessary items due to rips or whatever.  I never mentioned this to anyone in my life except my kids, but somehow, I have new items coming in all the time through people who are actually giving clothes to my kids!  They will go through a bag given to us by my sister or sister-in-law or someone else and they'll say, "We don't want the rest..."  So I literally get the hand-me-downs of the hand-me-downs, but most of the time, I love the stuff!  I've acquired so many "new" things lately, it's awesome!  They all fit, they're all things I would have bought anyway.  They're all relatively stylish and, here's the big thing....they're free and I didn't have to go shopping for them.  I really hate shopping these days as everything is so expensive.  It takes so much time.  I can't haul kids to malls.  I can't even get them to a thrift store as they go nuts in those stores, running around saying, "This is only a quarter?  Can I get this?  This is so cheap!  Can I get this?!"  It's worse than a mall because the stuff is so plentiful and inexpensive, it's almost harder to say no.  Then I come home with a bag of junk!  I half-wonder if God looked down and me and said, "Nothing new, huh?  Well, I know you like new things.  I know it would be nice to shake up your wardrobe once in a while.  I'm just going to have to send things to you through other people.  Hope that's ok!"  Yeah, it's ok....keep it coming!  The only time I hated making that challenge to myself was when a special event was coming up like my daughter's grad last year, Christmas events, or any kind of big occasion, but amazingly, I got through them all.  I always found something.

Right now, my son is out with RM in the shop.  Up since 5:30 am, he and my other son are alternating days working outside with their Dad, before he goes to his other job, in an attempt to get his contract finished that is due end of March.  Not having seen dawn for a long time, my son came in so excited yesterday, "I saw dawn!"  Yes, I shook my head.....how funny that he hadn't seen that for awhile!  His other comment to me that morning as he was barely able to stay awake as the morning went on was, "Dad's a super hero.  The people he works with have no idea how much he gets done in a day."  It's true.  Their Dad is a super hero.  I'm glad we know it.

Friday 13 January 2017

I'm a Mother of a Cheetah

Each day my little four year old is a different animal.  It is the cutest thing.  He'll come down with his cheetah blanket (which he calls his "skin") and then he'll roar or purr at me for his first words of the day.  At nightime when I'm putting him to bed, I have to pray for him, I mean, for my animal/son.  I am never allowed to used his name in the prayers.  I can only refer to him as the current animal that he is, such as, "Dear Lord, Thank you for my cheetah/T-Rex/tiger, Please help him to sleep well, in his, uh, tree/nest/cave tonight.  Help me to find an antelope/dino egg for breakfast so that he grows up into a strong cheetah/tiger/dino.  Amen."  Of course, in my mind, I'm praying many more things, but he loooooves it when I pray like that!  If I dare mention his name, he quickly corrects me, "Cheetah, you meant, Cheetah."  "Right, sorry, Cheetah...."  Each one of my other kids enjoys role playing with him so much as we know this can't go on forever.  He's the baby, but not for long, so they'll all play along referring to all his snacks as if he's a real cheetah or dinosaur, cutting up his "antelope" for him, or preparing his "dino egg" that we found in a "cave" somewhere.  He just can't get enough of this and neither can we.  It's another little grace in our lives that makes us all shake our heads at his cuteness all day long.

As for real life, today is Friday......how many times have I written the sentence, "We're waiting for a cheque today...."  But it's true!  We are!  Again!  We, as usual, watch for the mail truck, day after day! This is becoming quite the common occurance in our life.  Suppliers are waiting to be paid and we want to pay them!  This one customer is very interesting.  They get furious when you don't pay them on time, but they have no problem making you wait.  Ironic.  We have learned there is no cause for alarm even if the cheque does not arrive.  My husband regularly prays, "You know if we need it...." and then he leaves it in the Lord's hands.  There's that example again of him being my "tree", unmovable in a storm when he really should be anxious by all matter of appearances.  I'm so grateful when he is like that.

We read the verse yesterday that gives us great hope, "But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.  At an ACCEPTABLE TIME, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness.  Deliver me, from the sinking mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.  Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.  (Psalm 69:13, 14)

It is clear that God's deliverance comes at an "acceptable time".  When He chooses to deliver us, not when We choose.  I always love to play God and figure out how He should do things, but I'm not that good at it and pretty much always make it go in my favour.  I'm quite self-absorbed and think about me most of the time.  It is reassuring to read a verse like that and know He's actually the one in control.

RM is suffering right now with some kind of sinus pain.  He always aches from the heavy lifting, but add sinus pain and a little old age-type symptoms and he is quite miserable.  But he can't stop.  The psalms address that, too.  I read,  "Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent." (Psalm 71:9)  And then, later, it says, "So even to old age and gray hairs, O God do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come." (Ps. 71:18)  The point?  There's really nothing the Bible doesn't address.  God knows that RM is "weary" (Ps. 69:3) and that his "strength" is nearly "spent".  God knows he's even nearing "old age" and "gray hairs".  David asked for help, so do we.  And God supplies the strength we need.  Our job it to proclaim it to another generation, to all those to come.

I'm Mrs. Natural Remedies right now, too.  I made quite the tonic for him.  My son calls it "poison", but my husband claims it helps!  I blended/pureed fresh garlic, ginger, raw onion, cayenne pepper and then covered the pulp in apple cider vinegar to stew in a jar in the cupboard.  I missed the horseradish, but I will run out and get that this weekend as that is supposed to be in it, too.  Then, on an hourly basis, or whenever he needs to, I put a huge spoonful in a cup, cover it in boiling water with a couple of teaspoons of my son's raw honey and then sips it, even chewing the pulp at the end (he smells a little garlicky right now, but it's helping!)  This seems to be relieving his nasal passages and in just one day of taking several mugs of this, he is feeling much better.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but all the reading I've done says it works!  I even got my daughter to drink the poison/tonic and she also was feeling better the same day.  The honey makes it palatable and he claims he actually tastes good! I'm no doctor, but I'd rather him take that then more meds.

Well, I hear a tiger or a cheetah coming downstairs, so I better start preparing his antelope.


Thursday 12 January 2017

Spiritual, Physical and Financial Detox 2017

January is a time for resolve and since we were a little lenient on the food intake in December, like we've done in the past, we've taken this month and perhaps longer to "detox" again.  RM and I are quite determined and we unbelievably cut out caffeine (he still has headaches!), sugar, wheat, and all things bad, really. I only had headaches for a couple of days.  I was drinking gallons of herbal tea which probably helped.   We always like to make these challenges spiritual ones as well, so as usual, we're praying during this detox time for freedom, wisdom for the future, for church, so many things.

I would never suggest anyone go into debt or any other trying situation to learn what God wants them to learn about life, faith, and money, but in our case, that is where we find ourselves.  Yet, I read in a book I'm reading right now, God doesn't "fix" our situations, He redeems them.  And that's what we're experiencing.  He hasn't "fixed" us the way we would have liked, or as fast as we would have liked, but He's taught us so much through the "redeeming".

I read, too, in Psalm 66,

"For you, O God, have tested us, you have tried us as silver is tried.  You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads, we went through fire and through water, yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance."

That's definitely been our experience - we've been tested and tried, felt like we were in a net with a crushing burden on our backs.  We've had the bankers riding over our heads, through fire and water......YET, we've been brought to a place of abundance, in so many ways, materially, spiritually, relationally.  We really can't complain.

I like to read books on finances, if you can imagine, or hear speakers on the topic of money and financial freedom.  I would have a daily meeting with a financial guy if I could.  I want to talk about it all the time!  But this January, I had run out of books and no speakers were in town, but I ended up getting a good friendly reminder from my bff cousin instead!  She and her husband keep meticulous records of their annual expenses.  They have done this from the beginning of their marriage.  Both had parents that set this trend and they were also inclined to do the same.  Very inspiring!  I have lots of excuses why this is a challenge for me.  But.....none of them really hold water, of course.  So this year, once again, I'll be resolving, to keep at it, to do my best, to try hard not to make excuses, to keep tracking expenses.  Yuck.  Not my forte.  But this year, my daughter is finally on board and will be doing the same.  That's exciting!  So with that accountability in the same house....we press on.

Psalm 69 says it best, "For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own people who are prisoners."

Wednesday 11 January 2017

No Rink? No Study Space? No Problem.....

I have a very determined little boy.  All his big brothers and sisters get to go skating whenever they want.  There's a free skate in town every Friday which they like to go to or they'll skate at our friend's house on the weekends with a group of young people.   He often gets left behind, too small, too young, not enough space in the car.  He was very mad about that last week. We haven't done a rink this year or last because of the garden we put in.  That was right where the rink had been.  But this 6 year old won't be told he can't go skating.  He literally went outside, found a giant puddle that had frozen over, walked back in the house, down the stairs to get his skates and then back out with his skates on only to go and skate, without me even really knowing what had happened!

Once he came back in, I noticed he was wearing skates way too big for him which might have explained the blister forming on his ankle.  We quickly found him skates that would fit and sure enough, there he was, back out on the "rink"/puddle, skating for what seemed like hours.  I was so grateful for his determination.  It occurred to him, "No one told me I couldn't skate outside!"  Then, he and his older 10 year old brother checked out our little pond that is covered in reeds, but they, too, turned that into another place they could skate.  They just made the reeds part of the "track".

These may seem like nothing, but to me, they are huge examples of grace.  It is very hard for me to get our whole family to a rink.  The transportation is one thing, but all the gear, the packing up....it's a challenge.  Plus, having little boys indoors all day in the winter is also not good.  They go a little stir crazy and if left to themselves, they would sit and probably watch movies all day, but I know they need to get their energy out!  What to do?  This was perfect.  A strange answer to prayer for me in a way as I wasn't sure how to get them active without spending a lot of money and time going somewhere.  I'm so grateful for the way God gives these little graces in our lives to help us through the cold winters.

Then, I had another problem.  My oldest son who is now applying to universities and college, wanted to step up his studies, and needed a focused place to study.  He went to the library with his sister for a couple of hours, and that was perfect, but that wasn't sustainable.  There isn't always a car to drive or the timing doesn't work.....again, what to do?  I'm sure I sent up a little prayer that sounded something like this, "Can you show me a solution to this problem?"  I knew I couldn't build an addition.  I didn't have a way to eliminate the little brothers who were getting on his nerves and interrupting his studying.  But then, I rethought his room.  I just stood there, as I often do, and prayed for revelation! Suddenly, I saw it. We moved a little shelf that was not really being used anyway.  It was right in front of a beautiful old window overlooking the property and way out into the distance.  Then, I told him to grab the old table that I was about to throw out because it was half-broken anyway.  It fit perfectly in the window space and the broken half folded down so that made it the right size.  He grabbed a heater for the room as it is cold up there, his books, pencils, pens and voila!  His new study spot.  Again, nothing life-changing, but to me, it was a miracle!  It was a great example of how God opened my eyes to an old space and allowed me to see how it could be reworked.  Not a dollar was spent, no rooms were renovated, no additions added, no more driving to libraries for quietness.  Just perfect.  He's so happy up there now and is accomplishing more because he's not down in and amongst the little squirts who make so much noise all day long!

So often the Psalms recall David crying out.  It was probably not for solutions to the winter cold or for new study space ideas, but that's what I cry out about and not unlike David, I get answers from God, often in ways I don't expect.  Psalm 65 says, "O you who hear prayer...." (vs.2).  He hears all my prayers, even the ones about cold and books.

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Gentle Passages and Tears

Today is my daughter's birthday.  I try to find a verse each year for each child on their birthdays that could apply to them in some way.  I usually just take one from where I'm currently reading.  This year, it was just perfect, almost written as if David knew hundreds of years ago that it was her birthday today,

"You crown the year with your bounty, your wagon tracks overflow with abundance." (Psalm 65:11)  That is my prayer for her, that God would crown her year with bounty and that she'd get a wagon!  Just kiddin'....though she really does need a car!

When she and my other daughter turned 12 and 13, we held a celebration, similar to the ones we did for my boys.  Both my older daughters have winter birthdays, so we don't do the huge bbq, instead we hold it indoors with just mothers, daughters, aunts, grandmas, sisters, and friends her age.  We just want to make it a more formal passage into womanhood, so, as I said at the party, that she'll never question whether or not she is a young woman and when that stage of life begins....no, we said, today marks that day.  That was just after Christmas, a few days after her birthday.

I never do well at these things because of the emotional side of me, but oh well, I wasn't going to let that stop me.  I plowed through what I wanted to say.  I began by telling her a story that I had read in a beautiful book called Gentle Passages, given to me by a friend who believes the same way we do about these things.  In the story, a young girl is visiting an older mom and they are having a snack together.  But the girl is mad, mad at her mom and is telling this older woman who happens to be a friend of the young girl's mom, all about the situation.  This mom would not let her daughter go to a movie while all her other friends were allowed to go.  She thinks she's way too protective.

As the young girl and this older mom are talking, food is being fixed.  The older woman takes a dirty paper plate from the garbage and is about to put the chocolate-covered cherries on it when the young girls stops her.  At that point I grabbed one of our oldest plastic plates from our drawer and showed the ladies how I was about to put the beautiful scone my daughter had made on the ugly worn out plastic plate.  In the story, the young girl is horrified!  Why would she do that?  Why would she use an old yucky plate for such a beautiful dessert?!  She quickly asks her what she is doing and suggests perhaps a nicer cleaner plate?  "Oh sure," she says.  "I guess I could use my fine china.  I tend to keep it on this shelf, protected.  I'm probably too protective."  Of course, by this point I've already lost it, as I'm desperately trying to get through the story, but again, oh well, powered through it.  I grabbed my fine china, from my wedding, also behind glass doors, rarely used, protected, and put the scone on that plate.  Suddenly it was much more appetizing.  Long pause to get myself together.

The girl in the story immediately understood.  "Aren't you like this fine china?  You have a purpose, just like this plate, to serve others, to stay pure....and your mom?   She wants to protect you for the purpose you have in life....whatever that may be...."

I spoke these words to my daughter who, no doubt, sometimes feels like she is a fine china plate on a shelf, not allowed to do all the things she wants to do.  I wanted her to see that has a purpose and that we, too, are trying to protect her.....but not forever.  We realize she will be like that plate, being used by God in some way, in the future, perhaps even married one day, and that her spouse will appreciate that she was protected so that she could live her life's purpose uninhibited.  She can't stand on the shelf behind glass for the rest of her life.

As a symbol to the other young women there, we gave each one of them a fine china tea cup with the words written on it, "You are God's fine china."  Taken from 2 Timothy 2:21, "If you stay away from sin you will be like one of these dishes made of purest gold - the very best in the house - so that Christ Himself can use you for His highest purposes. (TLB)

Somehow, I pulled myself together and then a few of the older women spoke words of life to her or verses that meant something to them for her.  Gifts were opened.  More tea was poured.  It was beautiful.  The rest of the day I was still shaky as the realization hit me over and over how I have two "women" in my home now.  This second daughter is just that much older looking for her age, wears makeup, does her hair, is very mature....she grew up fast!  What a responsiblity!

The neat thing about the whole tea party, as we held a high tea for the occasion was that I was kind of worried about the cost of putting this whole event on.  But, as one of our Christmas gifts, we were given a huge gift basket, full of cookies, chocolates, treats, as if it were for a high tea.  I knew we could never have consumed all that on our own without major cavities as a result, so I decided to share and use the goodies for the party.  The only expense was making scones and coffee and tea!  I could handle that!  It was a beautiful spread and I think a special memory for my daughter.

As for my tears, I've always hated that side of me (all of my sisters and I have this "condition".....we blame Mom! :), but then yesterday I read from Psalm 56 and David talks about tears.  I've always assumed they were tears of sadness.  My tears that day weren't tears of sadness, but of love towards my daughter as I thought of her as that fine china plate.  I was so overwhelmed with the idea that I so longed for her to understand why we do the things we do, for her and for our family.  That's not sadness, yet, somehow God still allows me to have these tears.  David says, "You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle.  Are they not in your book?" (vs. 8)  In David's case, he was being chased by his enemies and he had cried, perhaps in fear or dread.  Either way, to me, God has known my emotional "tossings" and He has kept count of them.  He has all my tears, even the ones I wish I had never cried, in His "bottle", in His "book".  Isn't that an amazing idea to think about?  It helps me to cope with sometimes the frustration I feel when I cry.

On a lighter note....we have a Buzz Lightyear alarm clock in our house, I just heard Buzz start trying to wake people up upstairs....so funny!

Monday 9 January 2017

More January "Anniversary" Reflections

This week will bring more "anniversaries" of sorts....it was 7 years ago this week that we started to build our house, the one we then sold, so that we could ultimately live here on the farm.  It is minus minus minus cold out there right now.  We knew then how grateful we needed to be for a mild winter that year. Someone found out that we were digging a foundation in early January and they said, "What crazy person would do that?"  Us.  We never intended to build in winter.  It was just how it worked with the drawings, permits, etc.  Maybe that was another part of the journey, trusting God to keep the weather in check, building our faith even in that area.  How many times have I written about God being the God of the Impossible?  If I had been blogging then, it would have been mostly about fear.  But that is where God first started dealing with me and all my fears, by putting me in a fearful situation.

The whole build took longer then we thought it would, but by July of that summer we had moved into the house, though it wasn't fully finished.  We then worked on it throughout that next year, selling it the following fall.  It all worked out and God was faithful again and again.

It will also be my oldest daughter's 19th birthday this week.  That is mind-boggling to me.  I may look old enough to have a 19 year old, but I don't feel it!  I was nearly two weeks overdue by this time 19 years ago, getting bigger by the second, it seemed.  That was to be the pattern for the next 5 babies after her.....always late.  My body only figured out how to be more on time with the last 2.....so grateful!  She, too, came in the middle of a cold snap, when there was lots of snow, but that was fine as I didn't mind being stuck inside for a few weeks with a newborn that finally decided to arrive on Jan. 10, 1998.

Now, she's a beautiful young woman with lots on the go.  She teaches piano and sewing classes and also works at a homeschool co-op where she teaches a group of gr.1-4 kids.  She babysits weekly for her cousin and on top of all that is finishing her own piano lessons, trying to get her gr. 10 in the Royal Conservatory program.  Plus.....she is kept busy here, helping with kids, meals, cleaning, running errands....she's a busy girl.  She manages to fit in quite the social life, too.  She, and the 3 after her, are always out together with friends  I like that she enjoys hanging out with her siblings.

I know it won't be much longer that I have my whole crew of 8 kids with me, in the same house.  I'm really trying to soak it up and enjoy every moment while I do.

Last week we did school "lite", knowing the public schoolers weren't back in, it was hard to get my kids on board 100%, so we tidied school bins, organized rooms, made new schedules, etc.  This week we'll be at it 100%.  I'm already anticipating some hard times.  David even wrote in Psalm 55, "Oh that I had wings like a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest!"  Homeschooling/parenting is definitely challenging, but I take heart in knowing that David felt the same way at times and wanted to fly away!  His plan?  Not to fly away.....He said, "But I call to God and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice." (Ps. 55:16, 17).  So that will be my plan today, too....just keep calling out to God, morning, noon and night.  Reflecting on the anniversaries of this week is good, too.  I know I was calling out to God then and it is good to remember how faithful He was.  I'm sure I wanted to fly away many times when we were building the house, but I didn't, RM didn't.

Now, I'm off to feed a four year old "tiger".  He just walked up to me in his costume, that he also slept in....so cute!

Friday 6 January 2017

Living the Ezekiel 47 Life, 22 years later....

I'm pretty sure my husband won't wake up this morning and wish me "Happy Anniversary!", but it is an anniversary of sorts for us today.  Today we celebrate the day we got engaged.  It's been 22 years now that we've officially been "one".  I treasure each day because you never know when it will be your last.  We were reminded of that yesterday as we heard of an older lady passing away in our church.  We had just seen her a few weeks ago before Christmas, then she got sick and yesterday at 6 am, she was gone.  I can picture her and her husband, standing together as they always did.  She was quite the fashionista for a lady in her late 80s.  Her younger daughter shopped for her and always dressed her like she was the Queen!  She had a wardrobe that made me jealous!  And she always wore a beautiful hat that made her stand out amongst all the rest.  She and her husband were always so kind to us, giving us little things for our kids that they thought we would like, or an article from a paper that was about large families.  So thoughtful, but now she's gone.  I'm sure he's hurting, but they were at least able to grow old together and that would certainly be my prayer and hope for me and my husband.

Our romance was fast and furious.  We were only in each other's presence for a few weeks the summer of our first date before I was back to Colombia, South America, where I was teaching at the time.  One of the last nights I saw him in Canada, he gave me his engineering ring as a symbol that he was "in this for the long haul"...I knew what he meant.  He then came to visit me in Colombia where he first mentioned the "M" word - marriage.  Inside I was freaking out, well, outside, too...the poor guy saw that I suddenly was so scared.  Where did those fears come from?  I think it's because of Disneyland, dumb movies, ridiculous expectations of what I thought a "dream" romance would look like...very immature.  He left thinking,"It's not going to work."  Little did I know he'd already purchased a ring. Such faith.  But at least I had a faith.  God and I met and through His word, He actually showed me RM was the one for me in Jeremiah.  My parents had been sending me tapes of my pastor's teaching from home and he had been in the middle of a series from Jeremiah.  I read Jeremiah 17 the night RM left,

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." (vs.7-8)

How is that a verse on which man to marry?  I heard God tell me that RM was like that tree, with deep roots, someone that wasn't easily phased by fear, or anxious.  Perfect for me.  I needed to marry a tree!  Then, all sorts of other thoughts came into my head.  I had had many roommates throughout my years since I'd left home at 18.  Each girl had become a close friend and I had joked multiple times that I just wished I could marry one of them!  When I stopped to consider each girl, I realized they were all female versions of RM...a little quieter, strong, smart....complete compliments to my more outgoing personality.  Now, here was someone that could be not just a roommate, but my partner for life?!  I would have been a fool to miss out on that.

And as if I needed further confirmation, at church, I heard a sermon, in Spanish no less, and through my Spanish/English translation I received another word from God.  In Ezekiel 47, God walked Ezekiel out into the water.  First he goes in ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then, waist-deep....then it was too deep except for swimming, but down the river he explains all the life, the living creatures that swarm, the many fish, "everything will live where the river goes...."  As I heard the Colombian pastor speaking, I heard this voice in my head that said, "Jump in....over your head....there is life down the river if you are willing to take the chance and trust me."  Later, at our wedding, I had my cousin write a song based on Ezekiel 47 that he sang for us.

I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, he was the one for me.  It had been confirmed for me three times in three different ways.  I quickly let RM know how I felt.  He breathed a sigh of relief.  He had never questioned our being together.  I was the nut.  Thank the Lord he waited for me to come around.  It was a great faith journey, asking the Lord to confirm for me what I was supposed to do.  My parents played a critical role, too...from the beginning.  I had always been told, "Since you were two, we've been praying for your future spouse."  I know they prayed RM into my life and when they saw me struggling with my pathetic wishy-washiness, Dad intervened and wrote me a game-changing letter that basically said, "You would be a fool to miss out on this guy."  Good call.

That Christmas I came home expecting to get engaged.  One of my friends heard about this and immediately said, "No way.  That is too soon!"  Fear again entered into my heart.  She was right.  It was going too fast.  What was I thinking?  So I wrote him before I came home and said, "Do not ask me to marry you when I get home!"  So much fear! and fear of man!  Crazy.  He was so patient and said, "Don't worry!"  He reassured me he wouldn't do anything that made me uncomfortable. Somehow in the process I had booked a ticket to go visit him and his parents over the holiday at his parent's place in Winnipeg, where they lived at the time.  That was the final clincher.  I saw how he interacted with his mom and dad and knew it was a special relationship.  I wanted in.

I confessed to him all my pathetic insecurities, my pride, my wrong expectations of what a relationship was supposed to look like and how that had blurred my thinking about him.....I went on and on.  At the end of it all, I made it very clear, "I am ready.  Ask me anytime!"  And he did.  Jan. 6, 1995 at a beautiful French restaurant in Toronto.  We joke that he never actually asked.  He told me.  "I want you to be my wife."  "Yes?"  How do you answer that?!  So I just said something like, "Me too!"  Then I headed back to Colombia where I stayed until June....that was a long time to be away from him.  I had one visit home in April to plan a little, but that was it.   All the dresses for myself, my mom and even the bridesmaids were made by "modistas" in Colombia.  They all turned out great! Email had just started up at that point so it was much easier to be in touch with everyone.  Then we were married on Sept. 1, 1995 and have truly lived Ezekiel 47.....the fruit and life down the river has been amazing!  And instead of swarms of fish, we have swarms of children!  And swarms of animals. Love that!

Monday 2 January 2017

Introduction to a 15% Family

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2017!

We celebrated by having two families over - one we knew really well, the ones we've been hosting over the last few months, and a new family our kids met through their worldview camp in the summer.  With just the three families, we had 27 people here.....overnight!  Both families lived nearly 3 hours away, so it only made sense....no one needed to be on the road on New Year's Eve.

What a memorable night, probably one of our best yet.  There was lots of food, lots of hilarious games, kids jamming in the music room, singing in many parts of harmony, laughing, talking and having fun.  Lots and lots of little boys filled the house with activity, running around chasing each other or kittens.  Every house should have kittens just for that purpose!

What struck us was the conversation with the new family.   One of the reasons our kids had connected so well was because they also are familiar with street preaching.  The dad has taken his older boys out since they were quite young.  One of the boys did his first open air sermon when he was just 11! When our kids met him, he was one of the few willing to stand up on a box and preach.

We asked them, knowing we had had our own eye-opening experience 10 years ago, what had been their "wake up" call?  What had prompted them to make such dramatic changes in their own life that would have them take to the streets with the gospel?

They explained how they had heard the statistics about children leaving the faith in their first year of university, a whopping 85% of supposedly Christian kids and it struck them, "How can we make sure we are in the 15% who keep their faith?"  The dad realized if that many kids are leaving the faith, that means that many dads are not doing their job in discipling their children.  From that point on he determined (and this is my favourite line from the night....somewhat paraphrased), "I wanted to be a 15% Dad and I wanted my kids in the 15%, too."  At first glance, that sounds like a really funny thing to say....15%?  Why not 100%!  But, what he was saying, of course, was that he didn't want to be a part of that terrible stat that says only 15% will keep their faith.  He wanted to be part of the rare few that do, the small 15%. When he assessed his own life, his own faith, what he was doing, how he was living, he realized, perhaps he really wasn't living out the gospel as well as he could, discipling as intentionally as he could.  Where to start?!  It struck him that evangelism is what we are called to do yet he wasn't really doing it.  Did he want to?  No.  Did he have a heart for it?  Yes, sort of.  So he started there, doing something that was waaaaay out of his comfort zone and bringing his kids along for the ride where they could see their dad doing something absolutely nuts, on a regular basis!  They began to interact with many people on the streets.  These people would ask them really hard questions that they didn't always have answers for.  This, in turn, forced them to read their Bibles, get answers, seek out knowledge.  Family discipleship happened.  This dad had turned his heart to his children and as a result his children turned their hearts to him.  Their oldest son, married a few months ago, is now involved with the drug addicts and homeless in a town nearby and is a part of a church planting ministry that reaches out to these needy people.  Their next son also has a heart for missions and it will be interesting to see where he ends up.

As the night went on, and new year's came in, we all sat around as families and prayed, singing the doxology.  I went to bed, leaving all the kids on air mattresses spread throughout the house.  I was fairly certain everyone would crash shortly after me.....uh no....a movie started and the kids stayed up half the night!  I had a good sleep at least!

The next morning, after we all got the coffee I.V.s inserted, we chatted some more, played some more games, had lunch, and then everyone started to pack up.  Family one left and started their 3 hour trek home.  Family two loaded their van and came back in to, what I thought would be, say goodbye. Instead, they said, "We are going to stay 20 more minutes and clean your house."  "Uh no," I said. "That's completely unnecessary.  We can do it, no problem."  They wouldn't hear it.  They wouldn't listen. My oldest was happy to delay the goodbyes, so she turned up the loud music and, seriously, all 10 of them, as well as our 10, went at it.  They vacuumed, cleaned bathrooms, made beds, brought down laundry, swept, did all my dishes....my house never looked so good.  As they actually did pack up and drive away, I thought to myself, "From now on, I will do that whenever we go somewhere, especially overnight...."  What a blessing.  My house was quite a mess, especially with all the little boys.  I would have had a lot of cleaning ahead of me.  It would have been the last thing my kids wanted to do.  It was really great to be able to debrief once everyone was gone and not worry about all the cleaning.  Even to wake up this morning and to think, "Oh yeah!  My house is clean!  I don't have to clean all day!" Which would have been what I was doing....amazing......what a blessing!  Did I already say that?

All that to say, it was inspiring to be with them, to not just hear their heart for God, but to see it in action, from the oldest to the youngest.  That's the beauty of Christian fellowship though, spurring one another one toward love and good deeds.  What a great testimony to that verse's truths.

Today, Daddy's back at work, however, kids are still partying with the other family, driving their way now for a huge skating fest.  Must be nice to play all the time!  I guess 2017 and real life will start soon enough.  At least I don't have to clean all day!