Merry Christmas!

Therapy

Some of the people in my life are going through some really tough things.  I've spent many early morning hours praying for them, but beyond that, I'm feeling pretty helpless.  I'm not in a position to make these difficult life circumstances "all better," but I know the One who is and I appeal to His mercy daily.

I fell into bed the other night and prayed, "Lord, I just want personal peace and affluence."  He has a sense of humor, so I knew He could take it.  Something woven into my DNA, whether it be my German heritage, my position as first born child or my melancholy personality (or a combination of the three) means I end up taking on other people's stress.  It's not exactly a healthy practice.  So near the end of last week, I put myself in therapy.

First and foremost, I continued to give others' burdens to the Lord.  I'm not the best burden bearer and as as Matt keeps reminding me, "We play checkers. God plays chess."  Next, I decided to clean. Visual clutter really bothers me, but I've had to become a lot more lax about it.  Having eight kids in the house doesn't exactly lend itself to the "neat and tidy" look that is my personal preference.  But, sometimes I snap.  Something goes off in my brain and I have to get some of the clutter cleared out.

That's what has happened in the last few days.  I sorted piles of mixed up Zoobs, K'Nex and Legos and put them into their proper places.  Then I sorted the Legos by color.  When my brother gifted our boys with his Lego collection several years ago, they were all organized by color, but they didn't stay that way for long.  Now they're back to their former glory.  We'll see how long it lasts--hah!

I tackled Lydia's corner of the girls' room.  This is usually a task for which I'm unable to muster the necessary mental fortitude, but Saturday I did it.  Lydia and I went through every tub and in-progress craft project.  We sorted buttons, yarn, beads and pens.  I washed every stitch of her bedding and put on the winter sheets.

I also sorted all of the kids' books.  We have accumulated a very large library, but everything was out of order.  Golden books were all returned to their rightful place on the book shelf in the boys' room. Early readers were returned to their shelf in the school room.  I went through all the children's books in the house, including Christmas books, and picked out what was borderline twaddle (I got rid of true twaddle several years ago).  I packed two boxes of books to go to Goodwill.

I haven't mailed a single Christmas card, or baked a single Christmas cookie, but I've taken two trips to Goodwill to donate stuff, gone to the recycling center twice and filled our outside garbage can to overflowing.  That was Monday and our garbage pick up day isn't until Thursday.

All this cleaning has been therapeutic in that it keeps my brain from hamster wheeling and going into "impossible problem" solving mode, which it tends to do when not completely focused on a task--a task like sorting Legos by color.  I told Matt "it's cheaper than real therapy, plus all the Legos got sorted."

It's a comfort to know that while I sort Legos and find ten pairs of dirty socks under the beds, the Master Chess Player is making His next move.

  for I am God, and there is no other; 
 I am God, and there is none like me,

10 

declaring the end from the beginning

    and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

    and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ 
Isaiah 46:9-10

The Kids: Paul

Paul  turned fourteen at the end of September.  He's been working with a local knife maker to make a knife, which he completed a little over a month ago.  This, too, was a story of God's provision.

I had been praying for a year that the Lord would find Paul a knife-making mentor.  We had taken Paul to visit a well-established knife maker this past summer.  While seeing this man's set-up for knife making was a dream come true for Paul, a mentoring opportunity didn't present itself.  So, I continued to pray.


Not long after that, an article ran in the local newspaper about a man who makes knives. He had competed on a television show on the History Channel called Forged in Fire.  I e-mailed him.  He was very excited to meet Paul.  Matt and Paul went to the man's house and saw his knife making set-up. Then he offered to help Paul make a knife.

All told, the man donated about 15 hours of his time to Paul in the making of his knife.  (He refused payment for his time).  He is a man who loves to teach, which is exactly what I was praying for.  This man has offered to continue to mentor Paul as he learns the knife making trade.  God is good. We are working on getting Paul the proper equipment so that he can begin making knives on his own. Finances have been the biggest hurdle to overcome, as it's not cheap to even get started with some basic tools.  However, the knife maker gave us some good tips to get the best deals possible.  We hope to get some forward movement on this venture by the first of the year.

Paul continues to be Joseph's favorite, favorite, favorite.  Paul spends a good part of every day tending to that rascally little two year old boy.  He even changes Joseph's poopy diapers with narry a complaint.  Paul also gets Joseph ready for bed and settles him to get him to sleep every night.  It's pretty cool to see that kind of selfless service in a kid Paul's age.

Paul has a great sense of humor and keeps me from taking life too seriously when his dad isn't around to do that job.  He serves as acolyte at the late service every Sunday at church, but he never complains. He also continues to make progress in his studies, reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet Spy by Eric Metaxas (Paul's choice) and a biography of Martin Luther.  He's still plugging along in math, overcoming a motivation issue that he has had the last few years.  Yay for progress!

Boy Scouts continues to be a of great interest to Paul.  He made First Class this past summer, was patrol leader for a session, is currently the chaplain's aid and continues to work on merit badges and pack meticulously for every possible contingency for all the camp outs.

Paul also has put his new hunting license to use.  He passed his hunter training course last spring.  A couple of weekends ago, he and Matt went pheasant hunting.  Just yesterday, Paul went on his first duck hunt as an actual participant. He, my dad and Matt shot 19 ducks.  My dad, who has hunted all his life, said that he'd never been on a better duck hunt.  There were scads of birds and the weather was cold but calm.  Paul was thrilled.  Unfortunately, all future hunts may pale in comparison.

Paul is a joy.  He's a hard worker and does all the jobs I ask him to do without complaint. He's got a soft heart.  God continues to amaze me with His plans for our kids, despite our feeble efforts as parents.  

Paul's First Hunt circa 2006