Getting the Ball Rolling Again

This internet break screwed me up.  I usually am not at any loss as to what to write.  I like being in the habit of writing.  The habit makes the words come easier, but starting to write is actually quite difficult.

My brother came for a visit from California this last weekend.  The guys finished harvest on Saturday.  Knut is able to cut wood today for us to fuel our house for the winter.  School is moving along, activities overwhelm, knitting is frustrating.  I still feel so lost in regards to design.  I keep moving from project to project, and not able to gain some traction.  I’ve been taking small breaks when I’ve reached a point of utter frustration and knitting up another clothing item for the girls’ bunny dolls they’ll get for Christmas.  It was helping for awhile, but now that’s frustrating me too.

Our oven/stove was fixed, and I can’t tell you how much easier life is with it!  Can we all give thanks today for an easy way to cook food?  We are so blessed.

I’m still doing lots of Advent preparations, and it dawned on me that it will be starting in about 2 weeks.  Can that be right?  I’ve been looking for means to turn my kids’ hearts towards the things of God most especially during this season.  We’ll certainly be going through the catalog from “Food for the Hungry” (button for this in the right margin of this blog).  My mom works there, and as picky as Knut and I are in our giving of making sure that the organization is dedicated to preserving the dignity of the poor, and leaving communities intact and working intentionally towards independent communities, not long term dependent communities.  I just love this organization.

I also happened upon a blog of an old friend from the little town where we live.  She felt God’s calling on her life to work with orphans in Haiti, and that’s where she lives.  She’s just living by faith day by day, and making a HUGE impact.  I respect her work so deeply.  You can find her blog about her work at the orphanage here.  In fact, she has an Amazon wish list of items the orphanage could use.  You can purchase a gift there, and it is sent to her.

We’re looking at what we want to give the orphanage for Christmas.  Might I suggest you either visit her wish list or her website and make a donation?  What a blessing of encouragement we could be to her!

I had a long talk with Silje yesterday as the zipper pull on her warm coat got smushed, and we also tried on some of our winter gear from last year to see if there were snow pants and snow boots to fit everyone.  So as we headed into town to pick up a few items, she said we needed to pick up a new coat for her because the zipper was broken on hers.  Also, although she could still fit into her snow boots from last year, David is getting a new pair, therefore she thought she should get a new pair too.

So I told her I was going to look at her zipper more closely and see if I can’t fix it before we just go buy a new coat, and we weren’t going to buy boots just because.  She had boots that worked just fine.  If she grew out of them, I’d buy her new (used) ones.  Until then, we’d make do with what we had.

She then asked me if we were poor.

My child who lacks for nothing, who sits by the warm fire with book after book, with a full tummy, innocently asks what it means to be poor.  That is something we’re studying now as a family.  It’s a painful, painful process to lift the curtain of the charmed life we lead to the other parts of the world that contain unspeakable pain. I feel like I’m robbing them of innocence, but just the same I’m certain it is something that needs to be done.  I want deep down in their souls to know that this world is not just for us.  I want their hearts to be turned towards the work of God.  That cannot be if they’re hearts are so full of themselves.

Today is chess club, library day, and choir practice.  Yesterday was piano lessons and Thursday we’ll have our homeschool co-op.  As the days full of us and things for us and our amusement, and our betterment, Satan would love nothing more than to distract us from our purpose.  It is a fight, an uphill battle.

I’m not sure how to sign off a post like this.  I just needed to write to get the ball rolling again.  We’re so blessed to have internet back again.