Last Week of March

We had some deer visit our back three acres last night! That is actually pretty rare.

Ok, what a week! Like exhausting and some good and some bad and all of it a little stressful. 

Let's start with the bad -- our poor Moonbeam is sick.

He came to us as a stray kitten a decade ago so he is pretty old for an outdoor cat. He developed some upper respiratory infection and I took him to the vet a couple of days ago. Mostly it is viral though we are giving him antibiotics and we have other stuff to try to help him feel better.

I think he is improving. I just saw him eat/drink some watered down tuna so that is a good sign.

It has been stressful, of course. Ever since we moved here, we have rescued/been adopted by various stray cats. We love them but they are not as high a priority as the kids, of course. It has been a balance to know how much money to spend on a cat. Anyway. He is doing better I think and that is wonderful.

So great news, but also stressful -- Miriam found an IT job! She has been hired to do computer support for a company here in Dayton. It is all very good but there is a ton of work that has to be done for it; filling out paperwork and getting fingerprints and all that. She won't start for awhile because she has to have some background check stuff done first by the company.

Joseph also seems to have a job! He is also pursuing an IT job but for now he is training at a sit down restaurant as a waiter. It is surprisingly exhaustive training. He has been at it all week.

So having two kids get jobs is very exciting but there has been a ton of running around and filling out paperwork. Again, good good good. Just lots of work.

It is Holy Week when Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yes, we celebrate his death because He died as a sacrifice to pay for our sins on the cross.

It is an important week for sure but life is life and there has been a ton going on. Also, I am not someone who gets really excited about holidays. I do think they are important. In the Old Testament, God directed the Isrealites to have a bunch of holidays to remember his blessing through the harvest, and the escape from Egypt.

I think since I have so many children, that holidays are not relaxing for me. That is less true now as the children are older, though. But sometimes my brain is still stuck in "I have all these little kids and we need to cook a feast and have an Easter egg hunt and I am tired" mode.

Anyway. I am so incredibly grateful to Jesus for dying on the cross and saving my soul. I have had a really busy week and have not contemplated Palm Sunday, and the events of Holy Week, much.

That is the awesome thing about salvation through faith in Christ. He loves me and I can and do rejoice in my relationship with Him during calm weeks and very busy weeks.

Also, we are very grateful and happy that two of the children have jobs.

 

St. Patrick's Day

 

We splurged on these giant magnetic tiles which can be used to make boats and little houses and all that. It is charming and the three younger kids are really enjoying it.

It is in fact St. Patrick's Day though we don't really do much about it. Veggietales has a little story about St. Patrick, who was definitely an amazing guy. He also had a really hard life. He was abducted and hauled off to Ireland as a slave, among other things.

We had a problem with our plumbing this week. 

Kevin had to replace a tank becuase it wasn't doing something right. So he put in the blue tank in the picture and also moved a bunch of water lines around. It was a big job and he worked on it for like 20 hours with only 3 hours of sleep breaking it up. We also didn't have running water for most of a day. It was "fun".

Well, it wasn't, but that's Ok. Kevin got it taken care of. He is now mostly caught up on sleep.

I have not gotten much writing done lately and it is annoying me so we are going to have a light week of school so I can spend extra time writing. 

A New (Used) Car!

 

Kevin managed to find a new used car for us last week!

This is great news as we have five drivers and now four cars.

Isaac has been hired part time at the Air Force base in addition to college, Miriam is working full time, Joseph is job hunting vigorously, so yes, having a bunch of cars is a huge blessing.

Books!

 I read a lot. A lot. I love to read. It is my favorite hobby.

The last few weeks I have read a few really good books and thought I would talk about them. 

Number 1: All Systems Red: the Murderbot Diaries

This one is science fiction, and I don't read a lot of SF. When I do, I like humor, and All Systems Red has plenty of it. It is an absolutely brilliant book about a self aware cyborg who goes through a bunch of stuff... well, let's just say it is very funny and also very moving. There is a little swearing but not horrific. I have read it twice because it is so much fun and I caught things the second time I didn't "get" the first time. Also, the first six books of the series (yes, there are more!) are on Kindle Unlimited!

Number 2: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout.

I have read this one at least five times before but it is so much fun. Nero Wolfe is a 285 lb brilliant detective and Archie Goodwin is his assistant. Archie is the "voice" -- the books are in first person. This one was particularly enjoyable.

Number 3: How We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich

This one isn't "fun" but it is thought provoking and helpful. The Yerkoviches are a Christian couple who work as therapists. They contend that most people have an "imprint" about how they relate to others, usually based on personality and upbringing and life experiences. It definitely hits the spot regarding me. I am an avoider, which means I tend to manage my own emotions and not reach out for help. I am very smart and have always been an intellectual, and talking about emotions isn't easy. I have learned how to in the last 26 years of marriage which is very good. It was still useful to read the book again, and think about the children and how they talk, or don't talk, about their feelings. Feelings are important, and if they are strong enough, they can cause a person to lash out in anger (when in fact they are feeling fear, or grief). So yes, interesting and good book.

Number 4: Unveiling Grace by Lynn Wilder

This one was recommended on some FB group of mine and yeah, the library had it!  It is the story of a woman and her husband who entered the Latter Day Saints faith (more commonly known as Mormon) and after thirty years in it, decided it wasn't true and they became evangelical Christians.

I am an evangelical Christian. I am confident the Mormon faith is wrong.  The book is fascinating and well written. One of the things that struck me the most, though, is how easy it is to get confused about meaning when people of two different religions are talking. Words that mean something in one faith journey mean something entirely different in another faith journey. Mormonism is largely a works based religion. In order for an LDS individual to achieve the "celestial kingdom", which is the highest and best of kingdoms, he or she has to do a lot of stuff. They need to serve and they need to have a temple ordinance and they need to do this and that and the other.

I believe that there are only two destinations after death, heaven and hell. Heaven is the dwelling place of those who trust in Christ for salvation. Ours sins were washed away by His blood on the cross. We do "good things" out of gratitude for his sacrifice and love, not because we are trying to earn our way into heaven.

These are diametrically opposing belief systems. There is way more than that; the LDS faith has a lot of very, very, very different beliefs. We can't both be right.

But yet, when an LDS person and an evangelical Christian person talk, they may well talk at cross purposes because what a member of the LDS means by "grace" and "salvation" is different than for an evangelical Christian.

Words definitely matter! Probably when talking to an individual of another faith, it is super helpful to define words in common which may mean something very different based on one's faith.

March

 Weather has been lovely today. Yesterday it was pretty nice too. Spring is sort of here, though I know from experience that we will still have some very cold days. Probably. It was a mild winter.

This isn't a great picture as it was taken through a window but the grass is getting green. Today it is mid 60's and feels fabulous.

Kevin kindly bought me some interesting wooden puzzles. The edges are not lines so it is easier to put them together from the inside out, which is weird and interesting and fun.

Kevin and I have a running argument (a jocular one) over whether we have enough blankets. He buys new ones for the children every single Christmas. It is a tradition. I claim we have enough blankets. He says you can't have too many.

Well, last week I pulled 13 or 14 blankets off of Rose's bed and carried them downstairs, and then ordered her to pick her 5 favorite and put them on her bed. She decided that a blanket pile was fun so she ran around the house collecting more blankets.

I am of the view that we have more blankets than we need.  Kevin is still of the view that more is always better :-).

In less amusing news, Lydia has COVID. She was sick all last week and came to visit yesterday. She was lying around and we were chatting and a few hours into her visit she mentioned that everything tasted funny.

I was like hmmmmm, maybe you have COVID!

And she said no, she never has COVID. She has never tested positive for COVID in 4 years and she works in a day care so maybe she is immune but no, not COVID.

So I tested her and the second line showed up very promptly. Poor thing!

She is doing Ok with it but she is prone to asthma so she is being careful. She is also taking next week off of work. 

It was a very busy week here. Miriam passed her driving test!  Hooray!  She can now drive herself to work!

She and Joseph had some interviews, and Isaac has some summer interviews this coming week.

My current book is an octupus. By that I mean there are many plot arms and I am working hard to make it so they converge at the end in a sensible way.

So yes, busy week, we are fine, except Lydia is not. Also we have been exposed to COVID again. We had it over Christmas (Lydia did not) so I hope we won't get it again so quickly.