I’m Blessed

It’s a pretty frazzled Monday morning around here.  I think it’s a good time to write this out.  It’s a good de-frazzling exercise.  This morning I didn’t get to have devotions.  Well, I woke up at 4am with the prompt to get up and pray for the day, and I thought it was flukey, because I normally don’t get up until 7am at the earliest.  So I just chalked it up to weird hormones and went back to sleep.  Turns out that Solveig decided to wake up at 5am for the day, so God sorta knew that I needed an earlier wake up call.  She woke up her siblings, and even though Knut was the one who went downstairs and got them breakfast so I could sleep, let’s just say it wasn’t so restful.  (The kitchen is directly below our bedroom, and our children aren’t especially known for being quiet.)  So I ended up just getting up.

Last week, before the first day of Fall came on the calendar, the guys on the farm finished soy bean harvest.  That is a huge blessing.  That means harvest is going at warp speed, and that means there’s a good chance Knut will be home for trick-or-treating with us this year.  That’s my hope each harvest, and that goal is in sight.  Today they start the corn harvest.

Corn harvest is much more intense than soy bean harvest.  The main reason for that, I’ve learned, is that soy beans don’t like to be harvested when wet.  They get all smushed, and not much value when they’re smushed.  So even if it hasn’t rained, the dew of the morning prevents them from combining it too early or too late.  Corn doesn’t have that issue.  You can combine it when damp, when dry, and I’ve even seen them combine it with a bit of snow.  What that translates to is farmers who don’t stop until it’s done.  This is the harvest where some nights Knut only comes home for 4 hours to sleep and the only way I know he was in the house is the imprint in his pillow when I wake up in the morning.

As we approach the intense portion of harvest, I’d ask for prayers for our family.  I’d ask that the kids manage while they miss him, and that I manage without much break.  Well, that’s not true.  I hired a babysitter tonight so I could go to a women’s ministry dinner at our church.  We don’t often hire babysitters, but Knut has been encouraging me to do so during this harvest so I don’t get too burned out…especially in my condition.  I thank him for that push.  Grandma is our normal babysitter, but since we go to the same church, she often wants to go to the same events I do.

I’m so blessed to get a babysitter tonight.  The kids love her to pieces, and she made a point to tell me yesterday how excited she is to come..  She plays with them non-stop, and reads them endless numbers books, and she’s even done my dishes before without me asking.  Seriously, she’s gold.

I’m also a bit stressed because my magazine sample and final pattern needs to get in the mail this week.  The bulk of it is done, but I’m approaching the finishing work and the math portion.  I’m a bit worried about the math part.  With quiet evenings, it shouldn’t be too hard to get done, but I worry that if the kids don’t sleep well, or if I’m too brain dead at the end of the day I’ll fail this job.  I’m not sure the stress will leave me until it’s packaged and on it’s way.  So where’s my blessing in that?  Today I’m going to choose to be thankful that God has given me this opportunity to be published again.  I’m going to be so thankful that I get to knit with this soft yarn.  I’m so blessed that I get to make some extra pocket money doing something I absolutely love.  I’m going to be thankful that people that I respect in this field have been encouraging me along.  I’m so blessed.

I was also so blessed last week to have a whole day in the big city by myself.  I had a great appointment with my midwife.  Our appointments are around 45-60 minutes long, but we went over because we were talking and laughing so much.  I love the relationship forming, and how she really takes the time to get to know me.  I did some shopping, had some dessert at a fine bakery with my sister-in-law, etc. while Grandma took the kids.  I still feel so refreshed from that.  I don’t want this post to turn into “I’m so blessed that I didn’t have to be with my kids all the time” post.  I do love them.  However, I don’t know how single moms do it.  Children are such blessings.  So are support systems. 

Knut left for work this morning and I already miss him.  It was so nice having him home yesterday, even if we just watched football all afternoon.  I probably wouldn’t miss him so much if I didn’t know I’d only see him for meal exchanges for the next 6 days.  I’m so blessed that he and his family still take Sunday’s off.  I don’t think we’d make it through harvest otherwise.

How have you been blessed this last week?  Was there a moment you thought you’d drown and someone was there to rescue you?  Did you get any encouragement?  Did God just speak to your heart in a way that was just right for that time?  I love hearing what God is doing in all of your lives.  That’s a really neat blessing too.