August 27, 2010

• We may just be coming out of a week’s worth of 7:00pm power cuts, which are annoying mostly because it’s exactly when the boys go to bed… and josh has gotten used to watching tv or playing xbox at that time

  We may also be coming out of the TERRIBLE sleep habits of one Asher Jon. We’ve stumbled upon a bottle routine that seems to work like a dream. These bottles i found at Shoprite with the hole in the middle for easy little-hand-grabbing appeals to him in a way that bottles never appealed to Judah. We’ve started putting warm formula milk in them for sleep times and he goes down with little fuss. in fact, i’ve taken to just putting him in bed with bottle and leaving straight away (what i’ve always DREAMED of!!) much to the consternation of the ladies. But now that it works without (much) screaming they’re more inclined to remark with wonder at the no-fuss-ness of it all. (i smile smugly to myself).
  

  The boys seem to be playing amiably these days as well, which is a delight to watch. Mostly Judah just jumps around and Asher giggles. Judah likes to cuddle though, which Asher detests, so he screeches a lot when Judah feels like expressing some brotherly love. LOL.

  

  This week my gardener is planting grass in the front (4th time’s a charm?) but he has a lot of faith that with the added sunlight due to the loss of all those tree branches it’ll grow this time. He’s also gone to great lengths to ensure that the dirt is well prepped (and flat!) which previous gardeners did not. We use “GuanoMad” bat poop as miracle fertilizer. And Zebu poo too. LOL. I’ve been puttering around the garden a lot more recently also, moving things around, planting the bulbs that were sent to me from SA, fertilizing with plant food also received by mail. Rhonda gave me first go at picking the potted plants from her house, so i’ve acquired a few more azaleas and amaryllis. The azaleas are blooming just now and the amaryllis is starting to push up their magnificent heads. I’m looking forward to the season of their glory.

  

  See how the [amaryllis in the pots] grow.
  They do not labor or spin.
  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
  was dressed like one of these.

  Speaking of clothes, I’m planning to visit the seamstress in a few weeks’ time to get some sundresses made from material i’ve had for almost 2 years, as well as some curtains i’d rather see as a fun strapless frock. Although we cant find much for t-shirt-y kinds of clothes, the only thing limiting one’s wardrobe here is the extent of one’s imagination because our seamstress can make just about anything if you have the photo to show what you want. Many of us ladies search clothing websites, print off the photos of the stuff we like, and then get it made to size. Nice, huh! Unfortunately the fabric selection, although inexpensive for the most part, is limited.

  I’ve been missing family a lot recently. I’ve also felt a bit like there’s some damaged relationships that i’m somewhat at a loss as to how to go about mending from so far away… it causes heart ache.

  Josh is currently reading the Wild at Heart book. I’m hoping that he’ll get through it before the Slaubaughs ask for it back to pack away. One of the quotes i wanted to post from that book comes from G.K. Chesterton on the topic of courage, something i know i need to work on:

  Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to live, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.

  Wild at Heart p 169
  
  

  Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing… Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life; gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather by an expression of breathless expectation.

  (My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers. as quoted in Wild at Heart 209. John Eldredge).

  • 3:06 am
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