My husband gave me a tour of his new "stained glass studio". It's starting to look really good! In addition to teaching courses now, he's always selling all the supplies, tools, glass, etc. When he went to go pick up the glass with one of my sons a couple weeks ago, my son said to him, "Uh, did you just start another business?" "Yaaaa?" And that's literally what happens around here nearly weekly, or so it seems. We didn't sit there thinking, "Should we start another business?" It just kind of happened. We needed the teaching income from the stained glass and, well, you can't just teach stained glass and hope the students know where to get the glass and tools, so suddenly we were selling all of that, too. Turns out, it's been a lifelong dream of my husband. He's been doing stained glass since he was in his 20s and has always wanted to have his own stained glass studio. How cool that he's able to do that now! This is the thing I'm noticing about his retirement - he's trying to pack into a short time what he's always wanted to do his entire life! That might explain why we're so busy. I know you can't live in regret, but it kind of makes me wish we'd figured this out a little sooner. When you look back with hindsight, it was always fear-driven, in a way, that motivated us to get "regular work". And, we didn't know where to start, even though he's had these skills as long as I've known him. I was never the entrepreneurial type, but he was. It's a funny thing to be married to someone so long and just be figuring him out and myself out only now. I wonder what would have happened if we'd discovered these things about ourselves earlier on. Just as an aside - people always say don't get married young because you don't know who you are when you're so young and you'll drift apart. But I say, when you marry who God planned for you, then you figure each other out as you get older and you become one as you get older. I'm really loving this whole marriage thing. I wouldn't be who I am today without him and he wouldn't be either. I think that other way of thinking is hogwash (love that word) and is entirely worldly thinking.
Meanwhile, I have overwhelmed kids - by us, by school, by lack of work (one needs a job BADLY). As I read in 1 Chronicles yesterday, I was immediately struck by how David longed to be the one to build a temple for the Lord, but God said "no", it'll be your son. So, David, in his fatherliness said to himself, "Ok, if it can't be me, then I'm going to prepare everything I can for my son so that when he's ready he'll have a better head start". Well, ok, not in those exact words, but pretty close. That kind of describes how I feel. I want to be the one who experiences success in my lifetime, but it's starting to look like it won't be me, maybe it'll be the next generation. We are running out of life to be as successful as I'd hoped. However, maybe we're just the ones to set up the next generation. RM's parents moved to Canada so that their children would have more opportunities and "success" than they did in Europe. In so many ways, that's exactly what they've done. Each generation stands on the shoulders of those before.
When David finally gets the gold, silver, bronze, cedar and iron all ready for him in quantities so large that they can't be measured, he then charges Solomon with amazing words, "Arise and work!" And then later, "Arise and go build!" It's as if he's saying, "Ok, I did the background work for you, now it's your turn to finish up...." I love that he didn't leave him like a rich teen who doesn't have to do anything. No, he says, Go, do it. The rest is up to you. So that's what I read to the kids yesterday. I told them, "I know school is hard - one child is really suffering in his science classes and wants to quit - but you can't! Arise and work!" So I was encouraged and I tried to give them the pep talk of a lifetime (which I do just about every day). If Solomon was told to go and do it, so can you. But you have to ARISE - get up! Move forward! My job as a parent is to gather the supplies, which, Lord help me, I feel like I'm doing. I tell my husband almost daily that this would be WAY EASIER if I didn't have to homeschool my children, and oh, also homeschool 9 others (not including their parents) on a daily and weekly basis. But, that's not changing any time soon. So we press on, trying so hard not to complain.
It's Thansksgiving weekend this weekend. Back in the olden days, this would have been a relaxing wonderful weekend sitting around a table, eating great food and enjoying family. Now, I'll be running around like a mad woman, stuffing food in my family's face and scrambling to pull off a dinner while entertaining my entire town. What a different time. I'm still thankful. It's still fun for me. In the last two days alone I've met people I never would have met from our town and we are making really cool connections in our community that we would have never made. I'm feeling very connected to the community for the first time and I'm really loving that. There's a cost for sure and I'm praying God will use us for His glory. There's a big picture I haven't quite seen yet, but I'm praying our farm, our family, will draw people to Him somehow.
It's only been three months since this went nuts. Three months since RM quit his job and there's no looking back. Every day we feel like we are hunting and gathering for our food and in so many ways we are. The first month or two there was only a few cars on the weekend. But now there are people every single day. We are seeing regular people and they are slowly, unknowingly helping feed our family and get what we need to pay our bills. Every time someone pulls up we shake our heads in awe. Then when they purchase, we shake our heads again - unbelievable. So there are lots of reasons to be thankful. Hopefully, it'll be our way of gathering up gold, silver, iron, cedar and bronze for our children.
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