Surprise! A Blessing Brought to Our Doorstep!

Yesterday we had a big surprise when a pickup appeared at the end of our driveway.

It was our friends the Haggertys, bringing a load of firewood stacked clear to the roof of the topper!

I could hardly take in that somebody was just dropping by unexpectedly to do something nice for us!

Here we were just wishing we could take some firewood to friends who are almost out, but our own stack was barely enough for winter, and the logs we do have are twice as long as the pieces have to be to fit in those friends' woodburner.

And here come log after log after log, some short enough that we can split and share with those other friends, too!

The firewood came from trees from a property where Mr. Haggerty is involved in the building of a new house.
He and his four boys (and our Timmy) stacked the logs neatly in no time, while I just stood around saying things that I hoped sounded thankful and grateful and amazed and touched and not too stupid.

I hardly know how to accept unnecessary but nice things being done for us!

But this was sure nice!
And I was so thankful--which made me think of how I have tried through the years to have a personal Sunday focus (for my private devotions) on thankfulness.
I give myself a break from my prayer list on Sunday, and I rest in the Lord--sort of.
 Usually our Sunday  mornings have been terribly rushed through the years, trying to get ready to leave for Sunday School by 8:40 with Bibles, quarterlies, water bottles, picnic lunch and everyday clothes packed in.

And then when we get home, it has often been mid or late afternoon, and Jonathan and I crash into bed for a nap, and then we slog into the evening. (Or as it is half the time now, we arrive home just in time for evening snack, and are beyond exhausted coming home from two services in Denver.)
Often on Sunday, (sorry we can't control our lives so it is ideal all the time), while I try to usually have some personal time with the Lord at some time or other,
I don't have a really great or long devotional time to brag about.

Maybe other people can get up at 4 a.m. and have two hours of Sunday devotions,
or worship blessedly on their way to church with seven noisy children behind them. 
This morning just before leaving for church, I had time to sit down and play two worship songs on the piano--just the Lord and me. And that is what I love to do on Sunday--just sing and praise and read my Bible instead of be pressured to pray through a list.

[And maybe here is a good spot to fit in a quick link to an article I read months ago, and saved the link to share sometime on my blog. It's about how we as moms were made for another world,
so that is why we often struggle to feel comfortable in this world of family and chores and mundane.

But knowing who we are in Christ gives us the purpose we need to fulfill the mundane cheerfully!

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/dear-cinderella-mamas

But back to Sundays and--actually, back to gratitude.

We've been so blessed in the last several months to meet several more homeschooling families, and others as well. The invitations to homes and other fellowship have come right after another.

Here our home school group got together one afternoon in November to help a young mother of five with cleaning up the raised beds, digging carrots, and trimming bushes in her yards. 

It was so fun just getting together to help someone like that, and then the mom ordered in a whole stack of pizzas, SIX of them, and horrors--between our three families, we ate ALL BUT TWO pieces of that stack of SIX pizzas!

The children enjoyed this sweet parakeet.

A few times now we've gotten together with other families (not all home schoolers)  at the Haggertys.
They have a lovely swing that swings loooong swings.
Friday afternoon we were invited again.

Friday afternoon we moms enjoyed visiting and I enjoyed listening to the third mom share her testimony of really coming to know Christ at age 35, when she realized her childhood experience at age 6 of praying to receive Jesus was not actually about surrendering to Him. She lived a "Christian" life for years, thinking she was a Christian. but sin kept getting the better of her and she would justify herself. Then after reading in Jonathan Edwards' works about God's judgment and His wrath against sin, she became aware not only of His wrath, but His love, and that He had died personally for her!

She sat there with tears in her eyes, and tears nearly came to mine as I tingled with the truth of the gospel being experienced by another mom.
Now she loves God, and she loves people. She thought she loved people before, but mostly it was a selfish love, she said. Now she loves people even when they do not give anything back.
Christ made a difference in her life, and now she and her husband are starting a church plant near us, raising three children, and her face shines with joy.
I count it a privilege to get to meet and make friends with such wonderful people.

Last night we had a simple Saturday night meal--grilled, home-grown T-bones, green bean casserole (complete with home-fried onions instead of expensive French fried ones from a can) and potatoes.

We are blessed!

*******

And since it is Sunday and some of you may have time to check out another blogpost, I want to share this link to another Christian mother's blog. My sister Iva ran across this blog last week somehow, and sent a link to me. I LOVE this lady and her blog! I had some hours of weakness this week when I could hardly move anymore, and I hate to waste time, so I spent that time reading some of  the posts. Dorcas Smucker is a columnist for the Register-Guard, the daily newspaper around Eugene, Oregon. I am amazed that a conservative Christian lady like her is still being published in a local paper! She is the author of several books which have come together from some of her columns. 

This is one of her posts that I enjoyed the most:

http://dorcassmucker.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-spiritual-winds.html