Routine--the Blessing of It

 

  One doesn't appreciate the joy and blessing of routine until you are deprived of it, facing gigantic challenges, frightening changes, and frustrating new normals.

I appreciate the strength to still hang laundry outdoors on the warmer days, although I don't have much energy left to bring in firewood for the wood box.  I used to help do that as it got me outside in the fresh air and sunshine.

Now I count it a privilege to be able to make scrambled eggs in the morning,

and make sandwiches and other lunch fixings for my guys who head off to work not long after sunrise.

I am grateful when I have enough normal routine in my day to have my usual morning prayer time when I add prayer to a reading of an oppressed nation to pray about, from a booklet from Voice of the martyrs.  As I read it, I pray, sometimes out loud, over every detail.  

I find myself enjoying simple tasks such as refilling the glass, decorative soap jar by our kitchen sink--and writing "soft soap" on the list for the next trip to Walmart. 

I grind wheat or spelt to make a huge, fresh batch of rolls, as my work guys eat those rolls up awfully fast!

And with leftover boiled potatoes, I make potato salad to add alongside lunches for my 18-year-old's bottomless stomach and a fellow workman, Lance, who has been very faithful to come to work, stay off of drink, and save money for a vehicle. 

I offered to send along lunches for him, too, as he seems to be trying very hard and is such a help.

Sometimes I get out of the routine just a bit and light a candle, such as on a day when all the family is gone at the same time, and the house seems strangely still and lonely.

Have you ever noticed how a little flickering candle seems almost alive?

But candles don't hold a candle to the routine of welcoming a living person who comes home day after day, 

my hubby who greets me with a kiss despite my nearly-bald head and pale face and everything else that can't be described publicly when you are fighting the kind of cancer I am. 

He's one that enjoys something a little out of the ordinary--fresh, warm sopapillas fried by Crystal and drizzled with honey!

Like the sweet, tender, fresh mercies of the Lord that brighten one's day every so often--

in fact, very often,

making our routines a blessing and our out-of-the ordinary treats perfectly blissful!