Friday, May 1, 2009

Little Victories (part 3)

We played Chicken Foot for some of our schoolwork today. It was the right kind of weather for gathering around the kitchen table with the dominoes - wet and overcast.
After eating soup and crackers for lunch, we sat on the front porch to listen to and smell the rain.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This morning I woke up feeling weepy. Ready to crawl into a hole. By myself. Those two things are a little hard to come by right now, a lonely hole. But somehow, with gentle kindness and tender compassion the Lord picked up the pieces of me and redeemed the day. A day which had hardly begun, but appeared lost from the outset.
Not to be.

After our traditional Fried Egg Friday breakfast, with something hot to sip on and some instructions for a boy who needed work to do...
I read up on Elderflower blossoms (more pleasurable schoolwork for us all), and over the course of 30 minutes plans and aspirations were popping into my head one after another. The children were already drawing at the kitchen table when I wanted to sing hymns, so I allowed them to continue drawing as we sang today. We also managed to clean out the car in between light rain showers. That was long overdue, but will be much appreciated by the hard-working dad of our family! We napped this afternoon. In silence. Another two things hard to come by, a silent nap.

Now at 5:00 the pizza fixings are ready to go, only needing the whole wheat dough to be made.
There's a fire in the fireplace, rain on the windows, and happy voices that are neither too soft nor too shrill.
We eagerly prepare and await the arrival of daddy!
And I shake my head slowly in amazement that beauty indeed, came of ashes. The God of all heaven and earth met me today, and found mercy to scoop me up and give me more than one little victory.

"Blessed be the Lord: for He hath shewed me His marvelous kindness..."
Psalm31:21

1 comment:

Lady Jess said...

Amen to the clean car and God's mercies! (Not exactly in that order ;)