sunday, a day of rest....

I finally charged my camera batteries...here is Suzanne Eleanor, 9 years old. Abigail Marie, 24 years old...she is always cold, can you tell?

Kathryn and Emily, 12 and 26....

Emily was a nice big sister last night. She let Suzanne and Sonja and their cousin Grace spend the night at her apartment. She invited them earlier in the week, so they had lots of days to look forward to it. They were good this time, as opposed to the last time they stayed there and woke Em up at five a.m. screaming their heads off because they swore that the closet door handle moved....

Emily is also a nice big sister because right now she is at the movies with Kathryn, and some of the other girls from church.

There is roast beef with onions, four pounds of carrots, and 16 potatoes in the oven...it smells quite wonderful in here right now, and if feels cozy. It is the Afternoon Lull. We came home from church, where we had lunch together and talked while the youth aged kids did activity club with the younger kids....I did some laundry, picked up a bit, got dinner into the oven, and here I am. I just finished a cup of coffee, thank you, Ashley. I also just finished passing out some afternoon chocolate, from Aldi...those bars of German chocolate, yum. Almost as good as Norwegian. And a heck of lot cheaper.

Tereza asked a very important question...she was wondering how we can afford to buy all these things I get on clearance. Hmm. I bought Jonathan boots and a coat for next year. For 75% off. Since he is 9 years younger than Sam, and he can't very well wear pink boots, at least not to school, he needs new boots when he grows out of the old ones. It is just plain smart for me to get them at the end of the winter. I always quote Laura Ingalls Wilder, from the book Farmer Boy, "The rich get their ice in the summer, the poor get theirs in the winter.", only I say, "The rich get their boots in the fall, the poor get theirs in the spring....","also their tents in January") and other variations...But, I do have to be careful. Just because something is cheap, doesn't mean it's free, and cheap still adds up.

Isiah 53:2 "He grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground..." This verse speaks of Jesus. This verse speaks to me in many ways. Tender shoots generally don't flourish in dry ground. I think of myself here in my home. I have a desire to put things right around here, which is fine. But just think to remain in love, and in rest, and be good when things around here are NOT neat and orderly. As opposed to getting miserable about things and having to work so hard to make it nice, so that I can feel okay again. When there are babies and toddlers, especially, it is sometimes almost impossible to always have things how we like them. I also find that even though there isn't a baby here anymore, it is still almost impossible to keep things the way I would like it to be....kids are perpetual motion machines, they can leave trails. Mulitply these machines, and there are trails upon trails. And there is the noise, which is obviously invisible, but it can be stressful. Shall I wait until it is all quiet before I am happy? I guess the thing is, no matter the circumstances, no matter what the house is like, or how people treat me, or how things go, I believe that God causes all things to work together for my best. My very best. I cannot control the things around me, not all of the things anyway. But I can control how I react to things, by the grace of God. He can give me victory when I seek Him in the temptations. Then it is only good.

Yeah, so that was my Sunday Sermon.

Just think of how different this world would be if each and every person believed that God causes all things to work together for their very best....(Romans 8)....and if every single person sought not their own, but to bless others.

Ooops, I forgot, I am done with my sermon.

I need to write a letter to my Benjamin tonight, and get the laundry into the dryer and another load put in, and start getting that dinner onto the table...