A Fresh Perspective

As of my last post, life has been returning to normal. Thom returned home just a few hours later than scheduled. We are recovering from our illnesses. The weather is slowly warming up. We have all of the goats outside now. Much of the garden froze, but it looks like some of it may come back. We'll have to wait and see. If not, we'll just replant and try again. We also lost a lot of chicks. Out of 100 we lost somewhere between 20-25. I can only attribute it to a bout of pneumonia due to the cold weather. As soon as Thom got home he and the boys set to work building an insulated box for them. With that and a heat lamp in the garage we've been able to keep the temperature in the 90's. It has been about 24 hours since the last one died and the remainder are all looking strong and healthy.

At times like these last couple of weeks when times are hard I tend to get overwhelmed by the darkness. It seems that things will never get better. A major focus so far this year has been the renewing of my mind. We are doing a scheduled Bible-in-a-year reading. When I read I've always had a tendency to think of the accounts in human terms. "What happened to these people? Did they do what was right or wrong? What was the result?" Then I realized that I've been thinking of it all wrong. It's not about us and our deeds. It's about God. It's a difficult habit to break, but I've been trying to think about it this way. "What is this telling me about God? Who is He? What did He do in this situation?" The same pattern of thought applies to all of life. It's not about what I'm going through. It's not about how I feel or even about my happiness. It's about God. Am I bringing Him glory in this situation? Am I honoring Him by how I'm handling this? Life is full of challenges--illnesses, failures, temptations, tough marriages, tough kids, financial troubles, ... We all struggle, each in our own way. It all comes down to this--will I honor God even in this darkness?

As I lay in bed, tossing and turning with dreams, this passage came to mind. I hope you are as encouraged as I was:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim and the Word was Elohim. He was in the beginning with Elohim. Everything existed through His hands, and without him, not even one thing existed of the things, which have existed. In him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. John 1:1-5

God has given us the truth. He has shown us what the darkness looks like from His perspective. Do we believe Him?

Chicken in the Closet, Goats in the Garage

I know that in trying to be positive in my writing I often make life here sound unrealistically perfect, so today I thought I'd give a clearer picture of "real life".

Life here has been completely upside-down this week. It's 10 degrees outside in Central Texas and we are expecting snow tonight. Thom has been traveling this week. He is scheduled to be home tonight, if he can get a flight in. It's not looking likely.

I've had an upper respiratory infection since Saturday, as have 6 of the 7 kids. Theirs is about like a bad cold, but I've had to get on steroids and antibiotics just to get out of bed. School is on hold for now until we are feeling better. My priorities are to keep us fed and the house moderately clean. We are trying to stay on top of our daily Bible reading and do a little extra reading as able. Late this week we've been able to pick up our history again, with the kids doing all of the reading aloud. I hope next week to be back on a full schedule.

January is supposed to be the best time for a garden in this area. Harvester Ants ate all of the chard and the rest is covered to keep it from freezing. I don't have high hopes, as I know several plants have frozen already, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Right now an urgent priority is to keep the animals and pipes from freezing. We had one pipe in the wall freeze, but got it thawed out by turning up the heat and opening the cabinet door. Another outside is currently wrapped and frozen and we are hoping it doesn't burst. I have no idea how to repair it if it does.

The older boys put up a tarp tent shelter for the older goats to give them shelter, which rather than getting under, they jumped on top of and tore down. So far they haven't accepted any of the shelters we've built for them. Our two little orphaned baby goats we are keeping in a corner of the garage. This is working so far. It is easier for the kids to bottle-feed them twice a day there where it is closer and warmer and we don't have to worry about the goats freezing.

Yesterday we picked up 100 hatchling chicks that were ordered before the onset of cold weather. We're keeping them in the bedroom closet under a heat lamp until we can let out the baby goats and move them to the garage. One of them was weak and died by the time we got home and two more died overnight. I think they were trampled by the others. The rest of them seem to be doing well, although parts of the house are beginning to sound and smell like a barnyard...