"Is There No Balm in...the Medicine Cabinet?"

Today since Jonathan took the two little boys with him, I decided to make some one-on-one time with Hannah after working on report cards for semester end of school. 

We decided to clean our medicine cabinet together. 

Hannah enjoyed pulling out all sorts of bottles and tubes and little boxes and chapsticks....

and then scrubbing those dusty shelves.

It was a fun time together. 

And it was a chance to throw out some old, dirty, unused, out-of-date things that were just cluttering--not really useful, not really healing--just jamming the cupboard and taking up space and keeping the shelves dirty.

Bottles with three old pills in them--like empty platitudes with little worth in them--taking up space but not really helpful or healing.

Plastic bags with powdery, broken, discolored pain pills--that aren't easing anyone's pain and don't even look good.

Nasal squirt bottles and sinus remedies that are only useful for looking down your nose at

rather than clearing any relational congestion.

Torn packages of corn removers--that just need to be removed.

A toothpaste tube that has nothing left in it--unless you squeeze it hard with both hands.

And bottles so outdated you figure there isn't any potency in any of the medicines.

And then there are the what-in-the-world-are-those things?

You clear that stuff away--You toss it in the wastebasket. 

That is where that stuff belongs. 

Now you can clean the cupboards 

We cleaned the shelves inside and out, carefully wiped those curly-cue light bulbs of all the dust. 

Life does that to light bulbs. You don't have to purposely pour dust on them for them to get dusty.

They just get that way. 

A speck here. A speck there. 

The months go by; the years go by; and why is it so dim in this room?

Light of the World, Master Duster, gently wipe the dust that has accumulated from just--

life happening.

And all the time, I wiped very carefully, instructing Hannah that if we weren't careful, 

the bulb could shatter. 

And our Master Duster, He knows our frame; He remembers that we are

dust.

Fragile light bulbs.

We wear out; we get dusty; we need Somebody Bigger Than You and I to gently dust us, clean us, clear the dirt and cobwebs; shine upon us; shine in us; shine through us. 

We choose to throw out, to discard, to say goodbye--

to worthless platitudes, vicious cycles, blame games, things that have no value, that cannot heal.

And then we choose to keep...

 the potent Olba's throat drops that make it possible to go to sleep without that awful scratchy sensation when we are fighting something in our throat-

"He giveth His beloved sleep."  

the asthma drops that make it possible to breathe and keep breathing,

when your chest is constricting with the knowledge that you can't do it all,

the fresh antacids for when your stomach is upset upon eating the wrong combination of foods

or swallowing something that wasn't the truth;

the lip balms for cracked and chapped lips--and to soothe where words have hurt;

the floss for all those bits of tiny things that get so easily stuck in your craw;

the garlic that smells awful but drives away the sore throat--if caught soon enough.

And the nail clippers to keep your fingernails only long enough to be useful--

and not to be used as claws to scrape someone else's heart. 

Sometimes music is the best balm.

Today Crystal had on a CD of hymns, including "How Firm a Foundation."

"Thy soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,

I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake!

Running Through the Dark

 Surprise of beautiful tulips from my dear hubby on a January day--that had been a bit dark for me.

And after all the children were in bed last night, I read a story about an Australian shepherd, age 61, who won a famous marathon back about 1984. His name was Cliff Young, and he wasn't supposed to run in the marathon because he didn't have any Nike backers to support him. But he ran anyway--after taking out his teeth, which, he confessed, rattled when he ran! 

"Cliff Young runs on through the dark — because he didn’t know you were supposed to stop.
The accepted way professional runners approached the race was to run 18 hours, sleep 6, for7 days straight. But Cliff Young didn’t know that. He didn’t know the accepted way. He only knew what he did regularly back home, the way he had always done it: You run through the dark.
Turns out when Cliff Young said he gathered sheep around his farm for three days, he meant he’d run across 2,000 acres of farmland for three days straight without stopping or sleeping, without the dark ever stopping him. You gathered sheep by running through the dark.
So along the endless stretches of highway, a tiny shadow of an old man shuffled along, one foot after another, right through the heat, right through the night. Cliff gained ground.
Cliff gained ground because he didn’t lose ground to the dark. Cliff gained ground because he ran through the dark.
And somewhere at the outset of the night, Cliff Young in his overalls, he shuffled passed the toned runners half his age. And by the morning light, teethless Cliff Young who wasn’t young at all, he was a tiny shadow — far, far ahead of the professional athletes.
For five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes straight, Cliff Young ran, never once stopping for the dark – never stopping until the old sheep farmer crossed the finish line – First. He crossed the finish line first. Beating a world record. By two. whole. days.
The second place runner crossed the finish line 9 hours after old Cliff.
And when they handed old Cliff Young his $10,000 prize , he said he hadn’t known there was a prize. Said he’d run for the wonder of it. Said that all the other runners had worked hard too. So Cliff Young waited at the finish line and handed each of the runners an equal share of the 10K. And then the old cahoot in boots walked a way without a penny for the race but with all the hearts of whole world.
While others run fast, you can just shuffle with perseverance.
 While others impress, you can simply press on.
 While others stop for the dark, you can run through the dark.
The race is won by those who keep running through the dark."

"When those reporters asked Old Cliff that afterward, what had kept him running through the nights, Cliff had said, “I imagined I was outrunning a storm to gather up my sheep.”
And I sit there in the thickening dark.
With the One who mastered the dark and overcame the storm to gather His sheep and now there is a Light Who shines in the darkness and the darkness can never overcome it.

That excerpt was from Ann Voskamp's blog, www.aholyexperience.com. I had sat down looking for something to hang onto in a time of darkness, and there was the day's thought:

"The race is won by those who keep running through the dark."

Just because it is dark,

just because it is so dark that you can feel it,

just because everyone else is doing everything according to protocol,

doing it the way that is expected of them by--

other people, status quo, unwritten laws and written ones;

While others sleep by the side of the road,

while even critters curl up and make sure they get their daily nap,

 the way to win is to keep running

through the dark.

Studio Styles, Snowflakes, and Sparrows

Here is one of the 3-D snowflakes our children made during December. We made white ones, white and blue ones,  multi-colored ones, and ones like this green and blue one.

This week were asked for a "studio style" photo of Jonathan and me. So we decided to just get it over with while we were talking about it. After a lot of laughing and giggling like school children about us country bumpkins trying to come up with a "studio style" photo (what is that???)   and making our hair over (Jonathan spent just as long as I trying to make his poor, thinning hair styled the way he likes it by his totally unprofessional barber wife look just right for this important picture :)  :) ...

and choosing a couple possible backgrounds in our prairie home that doesn't offer very many "studio style" backgrounds, Sammy did the honors of taking one picture after another till we got the right expressions and lighting and TRIED to get us centered against the background.

This is the photo Jonathan chose to send. I am so proud of my dear hubby. Don't ask me why, but I think he just keeps looking more and more handsome. (Don't ask him what he thinks about that statement, but I am his wife, and I am the only woman in the world who is allowed to say that!!!)

Now, to be honest, I am not sure what our children look more and more like.

Bad hair days?

The three littlest ones got their hair all wet and acted silly for us while we were taking photos. So while they were looking at us in the above pictures, this is what we had to look at! 

Smile!

And of course, Sam has to go around taking unwanted photos of other people.

Please, picture taker, this is NOT my day!

When life has turned upside down.....

And you are trying to hurry and hide underneath a way-too-small cover after doing the worst blunders of your life (until the next one)...

And you feel like you are all alone in the shivering cold...

or lonely in the midst of the crowd,

pecking at the crumbs you find somewhere down there in the dirt....

 About then, a gentle voice will remind you of the song you used to sing years ago,

"His Eye Is on the Sparrow,

Child, 

And I am watching over you."

Today my sister Dorcas wrote an email from Vermont titled, "The Birds sang to me!" 

She wrote about a walk she took in the woods. "I took off
alone and, as I rounded a corner of the trail, I startled a flock of
robins off their perch on a nearby tree. For some reason on any warm day
we may still see a robin or two around here! They flew into the sky
singing with all their power. It wasn't a spring time  song--since it's
not spring yet, but it was a beautiful loud chorus that I stopped to
listen to. It was so encouraging to hear. Then I thought to myself, I
wonder why God had those birds sing to me?! I was the only one there to
hear the song, so it must have been for me. I thought, I am not anybody
special, why are they singing for me?

Then I thought, over the past year
2013, I've been singing a lot to the Lord in the midst or trials and
worries and burdens; I guess, the Lord thought that at that moment He
would send a flock of birds to sing to me as if to tell me somehow that
He'd been hearing me and He would like me to go ahead and keep singing,
too!! It was a moment of joy! "

That was such a special letter to me. It is not always easy to sing. So when I looked out the window on the snowy days and saw so many birds in the tree, I wanted to take pictures. There was something comforting about those sparrows flocking to our trees and to our bird feeders. I always think about how His eye is on the sparrow.

There is something comforting about remembering what our Lord said about sparrows.

Remembering His love gives us the courage to peek outside of the blanket of despair that we have huddled under, and to look out at life (in the form of a silly camera at times!) staring us right in the face all over again. 

God transforms the "I am going to throw water at you" moments

...into "May I give you a hug?" moments. (It all depends on how you interpret the picture.)

And He has such a way of giving us sweet treats every once in a while. 

The flowers are ones Jonathan bought me on a down day,

and Hannah is peeling the wrappers off of chocolate peppermint kisses for peanut butter cookies.

Kitty's New Year's Advice

So when in this coming new year, 

you find yourself in a bit of a mess,

advice from our cat (according to Jonathan when he looked at this picture he took while he sorted plumbing on New Years Day):

"If you ignore it long enough, it will go away!!"

And in the case that doesn't work...

"just lie down and take a nap!

It will still be there when you wake up."

More Advice for the New Year

Accept each day as a gift.

New Year's Advice from Haiti!

Your best work is done upon your knees.

Let the little ones help.

Turn scraps into games!

Lend a helping hand.

It's okay to be different. 

Jonathan showed us the above cocoa bean that was growing on the trunk  of the tree instead of growing normally.

Remember you could always have it worse.

Or this...(carpentry shop)

Life looks better from upside down!

You always have a choice.

You can carry that 5-gallon bucket on top of your head...

...or you can use it to stand on to reach higher!!

It's your choice!

Don't just sit there--Do something!

Christmas 2013

On Christmas Sunday, our church had a rather impromptu Christmas program, practicing during Sunday School. Crystal and Carrie played a piano duet, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," during the march offering. I had never had a chance to just sit and listen to the whole song through, and I was amazed at the beautiful arrangement! The girls had ordered a piano duet book and then practiced one they liked.  Others of our church sang or had instrumentals as well, and quite a few played the chimes for a couple songs.  Crystal played "Do You See What I See?" and 2-year-old Michael Mosley carried a helium balloon star across the front to the manger as the girls (who asked Cheryl Mosley to please join them!) sang the words about the "star, with a tail as big as a kite." One lady said that she would forever have a changed perspective about that star with a tail as big as a kite after seeing that balloon float across the front of the sanctuary!

We spent Christmas Sunday dinner and afternoon with Jonathan's parents, and then after evening service, several from our church went Christmas caroling.

  Usually we have spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family (or invited Jonathan's clan to our place) and Christmas with Jonathan's clan, but this year we switched and spent Thanksgiving and then Christmas Sunday with Jonathan's folks so we could have Christmas this year at home. With Jonathan working six days a week and traveling to town seven days a week,  and just gone ten days to Haiti, we really needed some time to just be a family on Christmas Day.

To just be--

 instead of doing and running and rushing madly around trying to meet expectations--something almost everybody struggles with.

We hadn't been sure how to celebrate this year--did God want us to forgo gifts and send money to missions or charity? We don't want our children growing up thinking Christmas is all about getting and how many gifts under the tree and going crazy with Christmas. So several weeks ago, we had talked about it, and I had asked about the possibility of just giving each other homemade gifts rather than buying, like my favorite blogger, Ann Voskamp does with their family, and then contributing to charity.

Well, the girls took me seriously, and little did I know how many hours they spent knitting and sewing! Mittens, hats, hot pads, pillow cases--what a pile they had made, and all cheerfully from their hearts! It was just beautiful! I had taken the boys shopping as well, to buy some gifts for their sisters and parents. It was a unique experience, taking my 16-year-old shopping for his sisters!  Good practice for buying nice gifts for your future wife, son!

In the end, we ran across different sales and things we needed anyway, so we had some nice gifts for the children and for each other. It just seemed that with some of the heavy loads we'd been carrying lately, that we needed some cheer for Christmas instead of just doing for others. We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying each other on Christmas morning. 

Above, the oldest four are looking at the Bible games and Bible-themed puzzles I had bought for them for Sunday activities.

Below, Danny is leaping and shrieking with excitement over a 200-piece marble  activity that we had gotten for him and Timmy.

We opened part of the gifts Christmas Eve, in between singing Christmas carols and a devotional and prayer. Then Christmas morning, we had clues on most of the gifts, having each other look up Bible references that would give us clues for what the gift was. For the beautiful 1000-piece puzzle depicting Christ's return, I had verses from 1 Thessalonians about Christ's return, and for the Noah's Ark puzzle, a verse about the animals going into the ark. For Jonathan's gift of smoked salmon, the girls had a verse from Psalms with the name "Salmon" in it! For the gift for me of a food processor (since ours had been broken a long time ago), the children had a  verse about two women grinding at the mill! What a fun way to guess what our gifts were on Christmas, and a great way to include God's Word. The morning was full of love, thankfulness, joy and contentment.

On Christmas eve at Home Depot, Jonathan ran across toboggans for just under $5, so he got some for the children. Here they are running out to the truck to find the surprise. 

Rose bringing in the toboggans

Kenn and Iva's family came for dinner and the afternoon!We were awed at how Kenn had suddenly "aged" since we last saw him!  :) :)

All those red and white hats made a cute addition later in the evening when we went caroling together. 

I told Iva I wanted a very simple meal--so we could have time to focus on 

each other.

  So Iva brought a delicious ham, and we had baked potatoes and corn, and a veggie tray and pickles and rolls.

And in the afternoon we nibbled on the popcorn balls that never turned into popcorn balls.

They wouldn't stick, so the girls just spread the popcorn in pans, and we ate it that way. 

I couldn't stop eating that wonderful molasses-y popcorn! 

In the afternoon, the guys and children went out to target practice.  

The girls played Christmas or other music.

The children played a new Bible game.

And after munching chips and dip, we caroled to a few neighbors. 

Then we came home to warm up with----

Iva's homemade vanilla icecream!!!

It was just toooo good! Mmmm!

T

It's Christmas break for the girls--the boys do the ironing!!

Actually, Timmy really enjoyed learning to iron. He wants to do more!

Jonathan told the boys who were making scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning that a chef is a male cook--and I added that some of the best cooks are men! The manliest thing a boy can do is to help his mother or sister--to lift loads and do it without complaining.