Ok, so I keep intending to return to blogging more frequently, blog ideas float around in my head often, and still somehow I do not post them. That being said, I do enjoy blogging so here is one that I've been thinking about since last weekend....
Living out of town has it's advantages, plenty of room to run, no need for shades to keep your neighbors from peeking in your windows (accidentally or on purpose), wildlife viewing, lots of quiet...I love it. Up until now I have mostly blogged about the positives, it does, however, also has it's disadvantages. Take last weekend as an example, we went without power for a solid 16 hours. Maybe not such a big deal to many of you, but less than a week away from solstice in Alaska meant we *literally* spent most of the day in the dark. The lack of water, use of a refrigerator, cooler temperatures, cold food I can handle, even the toilets being un-flushable (while gross) doesn't send me over the edge, but a day spent in near darkness is tough to handle. You would think we were prepared for such an occurrence, knowing we live in an area prone to outages (although up to this point we have had only one other outage lasting this long) but, as it turns out, we are not. One lantern, a few candles and a flashlight was all we had to keep myself and four kids (I was plus two) from tripping all over and illuminate some kind of entertainment for us all (my poor husband spent several hours working by headlamp on our new heating system in our shop).
The kids were pretty good and we held up ok, even had some laughs together. We spent hours coloring, playing board games, the kids played in their tent with the lantern, sat together playing a new iPad game all about words and imagination, had dinner by candlelight....all in all not a bad day. I confess though, when the lights came back on (right after David enjoyed a "yummy" freeze dried dinner haha) I danced around the house in excitement. Despite being a decent day, perpetual darkness can really start to weigh you down, I hadn't even fully realized how much until the lights lit up my dark home.
There really is something about light over darkness that brings life to your heart. I suppose that is why Jesus used light when talking about himself. We wander in the darkness of this world, thinking we are living well, making due with what we have but when the light shines into our life suddenly our hearts are lighter and we see what we have truly been missing.
"Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, 'I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.' "-John 8:12 (NLT)
 |
| Cards by lantern light |
 |
| Coloring by candle light |
 |
| Joshy being silly with the candle, looks kinda freaky haha |
 |
| Abby & Isaiah, cousins & buddies since birth |
 |
| And there always has to be a "silly one" |
 |
| Cutie Lila Mae |
No comments:
Post a Comment