A Little Break

Our family enjoyed a little down time after Christmas.  Grace took some time off of work.  Matt and I went to see the new Star Wars movie (the three big kids took themselves to see it before Christmas). We liked the movie, but I'm glad we paid the matinee price for it.  It's been so long since we've gone to a movie in the theater that the matinee price was the same as our last full price movie viewing.

Two days after Christmas, the whole family went to visit the farm.  We drove  there in a snow storm in the dark with the trailer filled with sleds hitched to the back of our van.  The kids thought that was an adventure.

It was great to have a few days of R and R.  The kids had a blast sledding.  I took a little walk on the original homestead.  It's always quiet there, but it is really quiet when it is blanketed in snow. My life is so full of NOISE, I relished the silence of that walk.  We also had some good talks with my aunt and uncle, ate some good food, celebrated Uncle Keith's and Isaac's birthdays and played a couple of games.

I even read a book.  A real book--cover to cover in two days. I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  That was not the book I intended to read over the break.  I had already started Almost Amish and thought I'd finish that, but then one of the bloggers I've been reading for years posted and said that she had started to read Redeeming Love.  It came highly recommended to her by Angie Smith (wife of Todd Smith, singer in the Christian group Selah).  I'm not a fan of this genre at all, but I was intrigued by the fact that the book is based on the book of Hosea from the Bible.  I've always loved Hosea.

So I borrowed a digital copy of the book from my library and started reading at 10 p.m.  I conked out at midnight, but almost completed the book the next day.  The day after that, I finished it off in a couple of hours.  It's been a good long while since I've indulged in a reading binge. Since I finished the book, I've been mulling over the truths it presented.  God loves me.  He chose me.  Even though I have nothing to offer Him.  And even worse, though I'm the most wretched of sinners.  It's been rather overwhelming, really.

This week it's been back to the old grindstone.  Phonics lessons, cooking, laundry, chauffeur duty, picking up stuff off of the floor, kissing boo boos, reading aloud These Happy Golden Years, and laughing at the littles' antics.  All the usual stuff.  And in the midst reflecting on all He has given me in Christ.