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!