When You Wish the Beauty of the Moment Could Last Forever

Jonathan captured this happy, blissful moment by the ocean floor one evening on South Caicos after the crew quit work for the evening.

While the rest of the crew who knew how to swim went to one area of beach to snorkel, Jonathan and I went to another place to just enjoy the shore by ourselves.

We found snails...

and some sort of fossil, I guess.

And soft seaweed.

And we just climbed around on the coral reef in the tropical sunset.

Except for the tiny gnats that kept landing on my legs and biting, we could have wished we could stay there a long time!

Instead, we had about 20 minutes before having to go again.

And right now I'm sitting blogging because I couldn't sleep, partly because the harsher realities of life come rushing in sometimes like the ocean tide that you can't stop.

Page after page of school work to check once we got home (and I upload pictures to my blog while checking lessons, to help myself stay on top of the load).

 I go through the stack of mail (mostly bills) and discover one of the highest electric bills ever--partly due to a well pump that has to pump water up 903 feet, and to warming lights for puppies. 

I try to think how to bring that bill down.

Carrie and I unload one freezer,

and pack everything into the other freezers so we can unplug the first freezer, and sell yet another one that we had bought used for elk meat and cider.

Timmy and I look around the property to see what needs to be done about fencing and pens for new puppies, and what needs to be cleaned up or sold. 

We pull 500 feet of old well pump wire from where it has been sitting in the dirt by the old well,

 and we lay it out in the pasture so Timmy can figure out a creative way to wind it up on a wooden "spool" sitting on the property before trying to sell it on Craig's list.

 I help cook meals and wash dishes extra times so the children can do some things they want to do or that I can't do, and there is laundry to hang and sort and put away and iron.

 I am thankful that this last month I've had the most energy day after day than I've had in probably years, thanks to first the Lord, then to wild or homegrown red meat, probiotics, the joy of getting away on a wonderful Mission Helps trip, and also starting to heal emotionally from some very difficult situations. 

Today I cleaned and organized several cupboards in the kitchen,

 as well as sorted and organized calendar pictures, etc., for the school file and taking down the February Valentine bulletin board in the schoolroom, and doing a Resurrection/spring theme.

 So thankful to be able to keep going all afternoon and get more done in a day than I have been able to for years.

There are hours of schoolwork to teach or check or go over. Today I had the younger children fill in blanks on a copy of a map of the West Indies, to learn about the islands down where we were last week.

Loved these sentences Danny wrote for his English lesson!

 No, we can't sit forever on the coral reef by the ocean with the sea snails,

but we can keep walking with God through the winds and the waves and whatever duties stare us in the face. 
I was blessed yesterday with this nugget by John Piper in DesiringGod where he was talking about

"God's plan in your unproductiveness," and how it is not nearly so important how much we get done, as whether or not we trust God in the many interruptions and changes to our plans.
He wrote:

"By all means, make your list of to-dos for the day. By all means, get as good at that as you can get. Prioritize the list. Get first things first. Make your plan. Do the very best you can. Go ahead and read a book about it.
Then walk in the peace and freedom that, when it shatters on the rocks of reality, which it will most days, remember, you’re not being measured by God by how much you get done. You’re being measured by whether you trust the goodness and the wisdom and the sovereignty of God to work this new mess of inefficiency for his glory and the good of everyone involved, even when you can’t see how." John Piper