Monday Morning

It’s been so busy, friends, that I got up super early so that I could write a little bit today.  I was hoping for a few minutes alone with my thoughts, and just let them play out.  Like always, whenever I seek to be alone, at the very least, my husband (if not a few kids) say: you want to be alone?  Great!  Let me come with you! That way you won’t be lonely!

Harvest should finish up this week.  Between the kids’ activities, that I have still not grown accustomed to, and Knut’s constant coming and going and being gone, and then just showing up, life is this crazy all day long running, constant interrupting, train of thought.  Harvest being over should be a relief, but I’m bracing myself for re-entry.

I’ve been a farmwife too long to know that every year after harvest finishes, we have re-entry pains.  They last a few weeks, but we get our footing pretty quickly.  The biggest part of re-entry is that the kids feel the need to check everything their dad says through me.  Knut will ask them to go pick up some toys, and they’ll just say “Um, Mom didn’t tell us to do that.”  “But I’m telling you to pick up the toys.”  “Don’t you think you should check with mom first?”

Basically the kids are constantly questioning his authority, and we may have changed some rules or methods during the months of harvest, and Knut needs to be briefed on all of that, but I don’t always think about what has changed, so he’s kind of notified as we go.  It’s hard because sometimes I feel like I’m just putting out fires between all of them, but then other times I have to step way out of it, because the reality is Knut doesn’t need to establish his authority through me, and the more I get involved in some of this, the worse it gets.

Then in about 2 weeks it gets back to normal.

It has been a lot of running.  I have been trying to catch my breath.  I held an event at my house this last weekend that was so much fun.  I called it “A Peaceful Night.”  I just invited some mom friends.  I hired Silje to watch the 2 little girls in their room above us, and put them to bed, and I asked the 2 boys to help me in the kitchen in the beginning, and then told them they could watch a movie in the basement until bedtime.

I brought out a tablecloth, and bought flowers.  I lit candles all over the house.  I had chocolate covered strawberries, and hot apple cider in teapots and other goodies.  When the moms came in, I told them to find a little nook in my house, and just rest for 5 minutes or so, and just pray about that evening, that God would be with us.  Then we gathered together and did some Bible study.

I didn’t plan this event with a Bible study in mind, but as I was trying to figure out what this event was going to be about, well you know me.  I started writing.  And a Bible study came out as I did.  I’ve never written one of those before.

Friends, I may not have been alone that night, but I’m still flying off of the high of it.  I felt like I took this little idea, and God made it so much more meaningful than I could have.  I so want to do it again.  My mind has been whirling, trying to figure out what that would look like.  We all need a peaceful night, where someone just pampers you and speaks to your heart, and gives you a few minutes alone with the Lord.  I wish I could have you all over.  Oh, the conversations we’d have!

But now there are little feet coming downstairs.  Little voices are talking with their daddy as he’s making eggs before he heads out to the field.  I’m sure when I leave this computer I’ll see messy pigtails, and footie pajamas, and there will be lots of snuggles.  There’s beauty and peace to be a part of there too.

I hope you have a great monday, friends.