Carnage & Encouragement

Our family attended the homeschool conference this past weekend.  While we were away, ten of Paul's chickens were killed by some sort of animal.  An eleventh chicken died of her injuries several days later.  One day it's chickens, the next it's feathers.  The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  The egg production has been cut in half.  Matt will be looking to replace the lost chickens with new chicks, but they'll take six months to reach maturity and start laying.  If it's not one thing, it's another.

On another note, I was greatly encouraged by the talks given by Kelly Crawford at the homeschool conference.  She wrote a summary of one of the talks she gave at the conference on her blog, Generation Cedar.  If you're a momma, check it out here.

Mr. Paul, Knifeman

Last Monday Paul came to me with a request.  He wanted to send his Dad's knife away to get it sharpened.  It was the day before our annual Seder and fielding knife sharpening queries was not on my "to do" list.  However, I took the time to hear Paul out.  He wanted to send Matt's old Gerber to Indiana to be sharpened by an expert knife guy.  I asked Paul how he knew about the man.  "From You Tube," he replied.

"Aren't there any people here in town that could sharpen a knife, Paul?"  No, he was quite sure there were not, at least not at this particular man's level of expertise.  The man would even give Matt's knife the "spa" treatment to get it nice and clean.

Paul then handed me a pricing list and the man's phone number.  I said, "You call him.  Confirm his prices.  Ask him how we should package the knife for shipping, etc., etc."

So Paul called the guy.  He picked up right away.  The two had about a five minute conversation.  After Paul hung up, I asked him what the man said.  "He said he could do it."  That was all.  No further detail was provided to this curious Mama.  Typical man.

Anyway, Paul got the knife all packaged and we drove to the Post Office.  I jotted a quick note to the man which I stuffed into the box before we mailed it.  This morning, Paul found this video on You Tube:

(Edited to add--I had a super busy day yesterday and threw this post up without having watched the video in its entirety.  Last night I watched it.  Let me just say that both Matt and I are humbled by Mr. Bixby's remarks.  The truth is, we're just a couple of messed up sinners saved by grace who screw up this parenting thing each and every day.  But somehow, in spite of us, the Lord keeps working in our children and we're just flat out amazed by it.)

Joel's First Tooth

Joel finally lost his bottom front tooth.  The tooth had been very loose for a number of weeks.  I encouraged him to keep wiggling it back and forth to get it out.  He didn't want to do it.  The new tooth grew in while the baby tooth was still in place.

 So Lydia decided to take things into her own hands.  She marched into my bathroom one day with a stool and needle nose pliers in hand.  Joel was right behind her.  Lydia had convinced Joel that her plan would work, that he would indeed finally be free of his first baby tooth.  I said, "No way," before she commenced with her amateur dentistry.  If that girls isn't a Dean.

Anyhow, Joel eventually got that tooth out on his own about a week later.  He was pretty proud of himself.

Baby John

In the Midst of Death, Life

A new little cousin was born into our family this morning.  John Daniel's arrival has been much anticipated by his ten brothers and sisters and all of the rest of his family.  God is good.  All of the time.

(As an aside, I was teasing Jessica last week after her failed attempt to have the baby resulted in her being sent home from the hospital.  I texted her:

"Just went into the thrift store and saw a book--'Your Pregnancy After 30' " Hah!  [both Jessica and I have had pregnancies after 40]

She shot back, "Hah.  If you see the book 'How to Deliver Before You're 50,' let me know. . ."

Congratulations, Jessica, you did it--without the book even.

Lent

I've been reading through Bonhoeffer's God is On the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter this Lenten season.  He wrote, "This is my second Passiontide here.  When people suggest in their letters. . . that I'm 'suffering' here, I reject the thought.  It seems to me a profanation.  These things mustn't be dramatized.  I doubt very much whether I'm 'suffering' any more than you, or most people, are suffering today.  Of course, a great deal here is horrible, but where isn't it? . . . No, suffering must be something quite different, and have a quite different dimension, from what I've so far experienced." (from a letter to Eberhard Bethage from Tigel Prison, Mar. 9, 1944).

This Lent has been punctuated for us by the death of a family friend.  She passed away from cancer a couple of weeks ago. She was a very godly woman, a Five Aspects woman if I ever knew one.   Her joy is now full.  She is with her Jesus.  Yet she left family behind. We love them deeply and we grieve with them.

The lessons we've done so far in our Five Aspects of Woman Bible study have concentrated on the first few chapters of Genesis.  After the death of our friend, I was reminded once again of how utterly awful the process of death really is.  Back in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they must have been instantly horrified by what they had done.  When the second Adam, Jesus, wept at Lazarus' tomb, I believe He not only wept for Lazarus, but for the absolute depth of sorrow that death brings. Blackness. Brokeness. Aloneness.  Forever.

A few weeks ago, our family attended our church's Ash Wednesday service.  After the ashes where applied to our foreheads in the sign of the cross, the elder said these words, "From dust you came, to dust you shall return."  Lydia and I sat back down in our chairs and she whispered to to me, "Momma, this makes it so I can't wait for Easter. . . and it's not because of the candy."

"Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."  1 Cor. 15:12-22

 

Belated Birthday Post

My day started off a bit rocky, but got better as it went along.  I had been up with a sick and teething Joseph several times in the night and I think it affected my attitude a bit.  I've never been very good with sleep deprivation.

Anyway, Matt surprised me with a lunch date.  After lunch, Matt presented me with my present--a new key fob for my car.  When we bought the car a little over a year ago, the previous owner told us that it didn't work.  Batteries were not the problem, the key fob needed to be replaced, but they want money for those little buggers.  I told Matt I'd do without one.  For the past eighteen months, it's been like a throwback to high school when I drove an old Ford Custom, except for the fact that I didn't have to enter the car from the passenger side because the driver's door handle was broken.  Woohoo!  Now my car door (and trunk!) opens with the touch of a button.  Some retraining of my brain was required.

Late in the afternoon of my birthday,  I got to go on a walk with a friend.  When I returned home, the girls were making all the fixings for snacky movie night.  I had ordered Duck Dynasty Season 4 to celebrate. All my people thought that was great.  It was nice to have a bit of funniness to break up my January doldrums.

My parents, sister and new brother-in-law came to our house for dinner one Saturday that month.  We celebrated all of the January birthdays (Elizabeth's, Lydia's and mine).  Grace made spaghetti and meatballs and some of her delectable French bread.  It was a fantastic dinner--good food and good company.  The chocolate salted caramel cake that Elizabeth made was the topper.  Yummy, yummy, yummy--another use for Maldon sea salt.  The cake was so good that she made it again when we celebrated my parents' birthdays a few weeks ago.