How Do You Juggle All These Balls?

When the cousins were here two evenings ago, David got out his juggle balls.

He was juggling five balls at once!

Both he and Samuel Morley were juggling. Sometimes they would juggle together!
Wow!
However, that was pretty complicated and they kept dropping balls!

It was much easier to juggle three balls rather than five.
David would sometimes toss one behind him while juggling two others in front of him--
and continue to catch and toss successfully!
I don't know how he does it!

I think juggling would make a great object lesson for Kids Club. Or a street meeting. Or a chapel class. Or a missions class.
It would show what it is like to have to juggle many jobs at once!
Moms and Dads have to do it, too. You don't have to be a pastor or missionary to have to try to juggle a lot of responsibilities!

Today our two oldest were gone, and the rest of us were working inside, outside, and upside down--literally!
Jonathan was out there working under his truck! I guess you could call that upside down.
I was pulling all manner of hunks of frozen goods out of one of the freezers that isn't working too well and seeing that they got stowed safely in other freezers.
I still need to clean my fridge which has too many broken shelves and drawers. ( I need a new fridge!)
Dusting, cleaning, hanging laundry, responding to our oldest son who was letting us know they had arrived safely at the Mexico border,
and then that they were safely across.
He sent us this picture of the six young men going. He's the one in the dark green shirt behind the others.

Lord, You know the many responsibilities that different ones are trying to juggle today.
Give grace and discernment to give priority where it needs to be.
Maybe one ball needs to be laid aside, maybe two.
Maybe temporarily five need to be juggled at once, but give us grace for each other when a ball gets dropped accidentally.
Help us to know what is most important today, this week, this season of our lives so that we can be doing exactly what YOU want us to do.
Amen.

Painting a Room--a Family Project!

Family projects are great fun--
at least after you get started--

like everyone pitching in to help paint a bedroom--

especially when Daddy lets the kids first paint whatever they want before rolling the paint on properly!
There were some grumps at first, I'll be honest about it. Who wants to paint a bedroom when there are books to read and computer games to play? (Precisely why the painting came into us parents' mind!)

I asked Danny to add the heart, and he very happily did so!

Everyone knows that Dad loves Mom, and Mom loves Dad!

And work can be fun when 1)you work together with others and

2) You are more concerned about making it a fun project for the children than just about getting it done fast enough and about perfectionism. (I found paint several places throughout the house later--Yikes!)

I didn't figure I would have let the kids draw with paint on the walls, but Jonathan did, and I liked that he let them.

After all, we were doing this project that evening partly so that the room would get painted and partly so that the children would have something besides computer games to do. 

I admit Jonathan and I are getting older (50 and above) and we don't have the gusto we used to have, so letting the children play on the computer while we do what we want is a huge temptation.

It's not easy to give up our goals and instead think first of our children and what is best for them even if it means giving up my personal preferences.  Whether I'm 51 and tired or not, I am still responsible for my younger children just like my older ones.

It would be easier in the short run to let the children play on the computer while we paint quietly and nicely by ourselves.
But how healthy is that? Is that about unselfishness and fellowshipping and winning the children's hearts or about choosing ease and convenience?
And when would they learn to paint?

 We had a ball together that evening, every last one of us who were home helping in that room. I even painted the top border--please don't look too closely!

In the evenings we ladies try to include the younger ones while we make suppers.

Dear Lord, help me not to forget my younger children just because I am tired.

Help me not to spoil them and ignore and neglect them just because I'd rather do other things.

Thank You that my older girls are so kind and giving. Yesterday afternoon Carrie sat down and taught Hannah how to crochet.
I  was so pleased with Carrie giving unselfishly of her time.

You've been so good to us Lord.  We don't deserve Your mercies.
Thank You for family and home and love!

Too Much Excitement for One Evening!--Prayer for Sam and Cousins Appreciated

Last night four of  my nephews from Pennsylvania stayed overnight on their way to Mexico to work at a  mission for a week and a half. Sam had decided to join them, but he didn't have to travel far to get his excitement!

Half hour before the cousins were to arrive, Sam got a fire call and rushed off!

Timmy could see the orange glow not far away, and the children begged to go see it.

We had supper under control already, so I took most of the children.

As we got closer we were afraid the fire was at a neighbor that we knew, but instead it was a burning vehicle that had apparently gone out of control.

When we arrived, the fire was out, but smoke was still billowing. 

Sam arrived a little later in the brush truck, and was set to work with traffic control.

Jonathan, who was also on his way home, saw this scenario as well, and had to come home a different road.

We watched a Life Flight Helicopter circle and land, and then depart after a while.

Thankfully, as we understand it from Sam, the driver of the vehicle did not suffer life-threatening injury.

Which reminds me of the young 29-year-old policeman who was shot Sunday morning just north of us in the suburbs of Denver while responding to a domestic violence call.

Today, the entire Interstate 25 from Castle Rock to Denver is closed because of a funeral procession, as we understand. Traffic will be a mess up there, but everything is a mess when respect for authority goes down the drain, starting with children' respect for parents and teachers. When authority figures are not allowed to be authoritative, expect obedience, and insist on consequences, what can we expect but more incidents like this where a young wife is now a widow and her two children are fatherless? And the relations of the killer are also sorrowing because he is also dead.

******

It was a joy to welcome Nathaniel, Samuel, and David Morley (my brother Fain's boys) and Ezra (Elon's boy).

Carrie and Rose were such helps with getting on a big supper with two kinds of roasted potato chunks, green beans, coleslaw,

poor man's steak, and banana cake.

Crystal had just arrived back in Pennsylvania Monday for a 3-week Inter-Session course at Penn View, General Psychology, and so with the table pulled out full length, we managed to fit everyone.

Family worship was around the livingroom.

How I enjoyed Ezra and David playing guitar and singing.

Only the Lord understands how much I miss music!

We sang "This Ole' House," and the children played and sang "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

I hope to have more pictures later, but wanted to share this much and the desire for your prayers as these young men travel to Mexico. They started out early this morning after a very early breakfast.

When Sam first asked a week and a half ago, about joining them, I was petrified at first because of all the horror stories. But the area where they will be crossing and working has been safe, as far as we know. They will be helping a young bachelor missionary who is building a little house next to the church. There will be a lot of hard work.

Pray not just for protection and strength and health, but that the gospel will be spread, that God will use them in whatever way He wishes. May our prayers not be simply selfish, hoping for ease and comfort, but may our prayers also be unselfish as we care for the souls of those who need Jesus! In fact, they were involved this morning on the way with another person who needs the Lord.
God has a candle for everyone's darkness! He knows just how to cross up people's paths down wrong roads by sending people who care.

Christ Told Us to Ask--A Prayer for the New Year

It was New Years Day morning.

My zygo Christmas cactus I got in the clearance area at Sprouts market was blooming beautifully.

We were having fresh pineapple for breakfast...

and sausages and leftover bacon-wrapped jalapenos and scrambled eggs.

Before the work day began, I shared verses that I had read that morning.

They would be good for the new year.

"Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and you shall find;

knock and it shall be opened unto You.

For everyone who asks receives, it shall be given; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened."

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?"

Mat. 7:7,8, 12

Lord, what shall we ask? 

There is my oldest son pressure washing the mud and chemicals off the vehicles that have been out on the icy roads.

What shall I ask for him?

Protection--or the whole armor of God?

Pleasure--or that he would seek to please You in all he does?

For  myself as a wife and mother--shall I ask for ease and comforts--

or for the grace to be faithful in the mundane and lowly tasks of every day?

Chopping vegetables for borsch--

enough for leftovers for New Years Day noon!

Shall I ask for more things to make myself happy--

or for contentment with what I have already been given?

There were such lovely gifts for Christmas--new knife sets to replace my mismatched and missing and dull knives. 

Shall I ask for boyfriends and girlfriends for my older children--

or for the patience and wisdom to wait on You for Your choice while they serve You joyfully in these years of youthful energy which they can dedicate wholly to You?

There is the borsch simmering slowly on the woodstove--not quite ready to eat till it has slowly

simmered a long time and the flavors are wonderfully intertwined.

Shall I ask for fewer burdens for my husband to carry,

or for more strength and creativity to know how to carry well the ones he already has?

Shall I ask that my family and I never be tempted to do wrong,

or that we will be given grace and strength to flee temptation and to brush the dirt off that gets shoveled onto us by our mere presence in the world?

There is the furnace filter we are replacing because it is full of dirt and dust.

 Jonathan put a new filter in on New Years Day, to bring us a year of cleaner air.

Shall we ask for clean air, Lord? For the cobwebs and dust in our experience with You to be cleared out and a fresh filter put into our hearts so that the warm air of Your love and joy will be free to circulate to all those around us?

There will always be those who will accuse of not loving when we are simply trying to obey You, just like the neighbors and acquaintances and family of Jesus accused Him of being crazy in the head and anything but what He was, and He had to move on to those many others who did accept and believe Him. 

Shall I ask that my children and family and friends be spared all pain and suffering, that they would always please everyone around them, that life will be all fun and games and coffee with sugar and cream?

Or shall I ask that God will teach us to please Him, that we will leaern the lessons He wants us to learn through whatever circumstances He chooses to allow in our lives?

Shall I ask for a certain kind of friends who fit our every credential, or shall I thank God for the ones He has given us already--precious friends like the Hagertys, who spent New Years Day afternoon with us,  who came out of Catholicism and are seeking to simply obey God's Word?

You've been so good to us, Lord!

We haven't had to spend these holidays alone. In fact, new relationships and opportunities have blossomed and flourished, and You have caused that the things that have happened to us have resulted in the furtherance of the gospel.

Thank You!

So Lord, at the sunset of New Years Day, when both we and our friends are at the door admiring

Your beautiful sunset, Your awesome handiwork, 

I ask for Your presence in our lives, Your glory to be manifested, and Your kingdom to come.

I ask for those things that You already know we have need of before we ask--food, clothing, shelter, friends, healthy and reciprocatively caring relationships, companionship, challenges, protection, wisdom, strength, guidance, communication skills, improvement of our faults, more humility yet more confidence, more dependency on You, needed rest, needed strength, the ability to forget what is behind even when others don't, and a fresh start.

I pray for better understanding of Your Word, harmony in our marriage and home, opportunities for service and spreading the gospel, and for You to light the fires of holy desire after You most of all.

Give us this day our daily bread--and sometimes may it be special--like this sweet roll from a recipe from Croatia, which All Seasons gave Jonathan for Christmas.

And don't let the sun set or the moon rise on any bitterness or anger in our life.

Help us to lay aside any resentments, and move on to green pasture and still water with the Good Shepherd who seeks for those who have been scattered and who cares for those who are lame or ill or weak or uncertain or who need protection for their lambs.

Restore our soul.
Cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!
This, Lord, is my New Years prayer!

Putting Christmas Away in the Attic

New Years weekend we took down our Christmas trees. 

I don't know about you, but it's not very easy for me to put away the pretty Christmas decorations, leaving the house looking bare and almost cheerless in contrast.

I washed the dusty ornaments. (Not sure that was the best idea, as they may end up water spotted. :(

But the ash in the air from the woodstove sure gets them dusty. 

Loved the shiny blue and silver ornaments here by the sink.

I had actually bought several plastic totes this year to pack our Christmas stuff away in the attic. 

One tote after another I hauled over, climbing up two or three steps up the ladder to hand to a tall, strong son up there.

There went the tree top star and lots of Christmas gift boxes and bags and cards for next year,

bought at 50 or 66% off at after Christmas sales.

 There went Baby Jesus.

Well, two of them.

Away they went to the attic.

Jesus, please don't go away from us as the Christmas season passes by and a new year begins.

Don't get packed away somewhere--out of sight, out of mind.
Stay right in the middle of our hearts and lives--our Star, our comfort, our Joy!