I want a "Susan Baker" :o)

 Now, any of you 'Anne of Green Gables' buffs know what I am talking about but, for those of you who maybe haven't read all 8 books this week :o), I will explain.  Susan Baker is the house help at Anne's House of Dreams and then at Ingleside.  I love her. She is a fun, chatty, "old maid" who "knows her place" lol, is hard working, makes pies almost every day, etc.... Now, I realize there is a lot of people who think that because we have modern appliances we no longer need house help, but I disagree. My appliances REFUSE to have a conversation with me, they don't do the work themselves if I am sick, they can't wipe a runny nose if I am up to my armpits in something or other, in short they are just appliances.
ETA:  I don't think I was as clear as I wanted when I wrote this..... A BIG part of what I loved in Susan Baker was the mutual benefit. It wasn't just a job. She became 1 of the family. She couldn't have imagined life without them. They needed her, she was useful, she was loved, she was family. Without that job she most likely would have been stuck living with siblings, feeling like a burden instead of a needed part of the family.  For the Blythes the help was invaluable, but so was the love, the care, the devotion of this woman. The couldn't have imagined living without her either. She wasn't just some person who had been hired and came once in awhile to help out. She lived with them and loved them. The beauty in the situation is the mutual beneficiation of both parties.
I also am developing a LOVE for the naming of homes..... I just love that many homes used to have names and would love for my someday home to have a name.  :o)

 On a slightly different subject, I noticed how much I have changed this week. When I first read the 'Anne' series (tweens/early teens?)  I loved them for the fun story and for the romance, when I read them in my late teens it was for those reasons and for the characters and just plain wonderful writing, such descriptions!  When I read them in my early twenties I still loved them but didn't like them as well, there was something that made me slightly unsettled. Too much "magic" for my very matter-of -fact personage? I wasn't sure what it was....... This time I was able to put my finger on exactly what it was that left me feeling rather disappointed. It was the fact that there was so much religion.  They quoted Bible verses, they talked about going to heaven, etc... but it always stopped short of the mark. They never seem to be absolutely sure of how or why they were going to get there.  I was rather saddened by this frequent falling short of the truth. I realize its a novel but still......  I have noticed this in other books too. They last week I watched 'Fiddler On The Roof'.  I have always loved that movie for the characters, the drama, and the romance, but this time I watched ti with sorrow. It hit home like never before how very lost these people were. Very religious and sincere in their traditions but sincerely wrong.  I about cried over the line " Rabbi, we have waited so long for the Messiah, wouldn't now be a good time for him to come?"  Oh, for people to realize that He HAS come. Our Messiah had come and He is offering the healing you so desperately need! 

  Anyhow, I just thought it interesting that in so many areas lately I am seeing much more clearly peoples need for a Messiah, their longings, and all that He has to offer. I am more sensitive to the evidences of the emptiness and deceptiveness of religion. 

 Anyhow, enough of my ramblings.......  Hope you all have a lovely week! :o)

Foreword

I will probably bore you to death with book talk but I have to share this little incident with you! :o) In perusing my Mom's library I found a copy of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. As it had been several years since I read it I thought I would re-read it...... Now this book is a 1995 printing and the paperback cover makes it look like a ridiculous schoolgirl romance not a literary classic. If I had not known what was inside that paperback cover I would not have picked it up to read!  Anyhow, for some unknown reason I decided to read the Foreword. I have yet to learn why Forewords are in books but they often are and this one had a doozy!  It is written by Elizabeth Engstrom whom, from a quick search on wikipedia, I learned is an author and a teacher at many writing seminars. The impression I got was that she is a rather well known celebrated author. Anyhow, the Foreward was pretty normal until I got about 1/2 way through and then she said this: 
    "Elinor, the eldest sister, is engaged to be married to conservative Edward Farrars, a man of impeccable breeding and reputation.  Marianne, the younger sister, is smitten with Holloway, a man of dubious lineage and questionable activities, but with a theatrical flair that steals her heart." 

   I about fell off my chair! What had they done to Jane Austens classic?!?!?! So, I read the book and found that it was unaltered. Evidently Ms. Ensgstrom didn't actually read the book, she just wrote a general Foreword based on all the other stuff that is our there. I mean, Elinor was not engaged to Edward for most of the book and, worse yet, Marianne is not "smitten" with a man named Holloway!!! His name was Whilloughby for pitys sake!!!!  You would think that an editor or SOMEBODY would have caught that! Anyhow, so the lesson to be learned from this is to read the book before you sign your name to a Foreword for it!  ;o) 

Back?

Wow,  I can't believe its been a month since I updated!  I am not sure exactly why it is so difficult to get to the computer these days, but it is..... In some ways there seems to be so much happening that my head is spinning and yet, at the same time, it seems that there is really nothing to say. All of the long "catch up" posts that I have written are lost in the recesses of my tired mind, and so I am rather at a loss...... How in the world do you write a month worth of posts? So, rather than a "catch up" post I am just going to let you know that I am alive and, if Mom will let me borrow her laptop long termish ;o), then I will try to update more often. So, if any of you still read this, I am back........... I think. :o)

Sharing

Stumbled across this great article and had to share!  I just love her blog. It always has so many encouraging posts..... I have wanted to link and quote her many times but I find that getting time at the comp is increasingly difficult and I am left with nothing to do but write posts in my head. Wonderful, intriguing, insightful, genius posts that I know you all are just dying to read (sorry, sarcasm was a bit much there, wasn't it?).

 Speaking of unwritten posts...... I am still getting in more reading than normal and have to laugh at myself. If I were to write a post every day I am sure that you could tell which author I am currently immersed in..... One day you would read and laugh to yourself  'Oh, she is in the midst of a Bronte' book' or 'Definitely reading Kate Douglas Wiggins' or perhaps you would nod your pretty little head and say 'She is definitely reading Prentiss today' and then filled with horror you would say something like 'Good gracious! Please tell me she isn't reading Jeanette Oake!!!!' (that is for you E! :o) I find that, when I read, my thoughts change patterns to match that of the book which I am reading. If the author(ess) is generous in it's use of good language and a higher level of vocabulary then I find myself thinking in a like manner, if the writer is large in religious sentiment I find my thoughts mulling over the ideas presented and spending more time thinking about my stand on the arguments presented, etc...... Now, maybe this is more noticeable to me because I spend so much of my time with small children, I sometimes wonder if I have been reduced to thinking like a 6 yo! :o) It is also why I choose to be very careful with what I read. Much of the current popular literature would not lend itself to improving my mind but would instead lend itself to the hindrance of the growth in my faith that I desire. If my thoughts are filled with romantic trash that does nothing but excite the flesh and lend itself to discontentment with my spouse and/or my surroundings, what have I gained? If my thoughts are focused on that which are diametrically opposed (though oft times cloaked as the newest and greatest in "christian" literature) to the Christian walk, will my Christian faith grow as it aught?  Or will I, though the battle is hard enough without sabotage, make myself stumble and scatter so many stones in my path that I refuse to walk the path and instead stay as an infant in my faith?

 Anyhow, enough of my ramblings. My time on the comp is up.....  Hope you enjoy the link :o)

Amnesia?

 I am beginning to wonder if I have amnesia...... I thought I lived in the Pacific NW, where the weather never varies too much - never too hot or too cold, where Dec. is synonymous with gray, rainy days, where our river NEVER froze, where cold spells lasted only 1, maybe  2 days, where bundling up in 16 layers was never necessary,  where where wind so cold it takes your breath away was something you only read about, and where frozen water pipes were so rare they were almost unheard of.......... I must have been mistaken...... or maybe I moved and don't remember!  Seriously. what is happening?!??!  The river outside our house (which is a tidal river) has been frozen over the last few mornings and we are seeing temps in the teens!!!  It is absolutely crazy.  I wanted to post pics but they are all still on my camera. Oh well, I didn't go out early enough today to get a pic of the river frozen all the way across anyways. The kiddie pool on my parents deck was full of rainwater that froze solid. There is less now because the kids think it great fun to chip ice out of it.:o) Milo's (our bunny) water bottle is frozen solid every morning and the water bottles in our car are too, the aforementioned ice chips don't melt, and everything crunches when you walk. ( I thought about waxing poetic on you but my brain can't seem to think of the right words to glamorize the cold :oP ) This weather is amazing and I find the cold isn't so bad (since I don't have to go out! lol). At least it is dry and the sun has been shining! :o) I think that I prefer sunny and cold to the normal gray, dreary, moderate temperature rain.

  On another train of thought...... we went to the zoo this week!!!! It was too cold for most of the African animals but we still had a great time. I know there are many families that make regular visits to the zoo but we have never been able to do that.  We had been given tickets so that we could all get in free so we went. It has been 3.5 yrs since we were last there.  J (now 6.5) remembers it a little, B (now 5) not at all and of course my little man (now 2.5) wasn't even there.... Hopefully I will be able to write another post on our trip, complete with pics(of which I took an embarrassing 300+, don't worry you will not have to see them all! lol).  My SIL and her kids met us there and that really made our trip extra special. Woohoo for fun days! They are way too too few and far between....... but I guess that just means we appreciate them all the more when they come.  :o)

*Blush*

 I must apologize for my post yesterday.... obviously stress was getting to me and I was rather whiny. Your kind words are MUCH appreciated though. I am feeling better today about life in general and am actually really liking our current set up. Even the kitchen is going to be o.k. :oP  When we were upstairs I had to constantly worry about the kids getting into my parents and/or sibling stuff, breaking things, etc.... downstairs they really can't get into too much trouble. :o) The space is actually bigger than my house (even after the remodel) and I get to sleep in my bed!!!  I missed my bed. There are couches down there. We haven't had a couch in ever so long and I am really liking it.  Mom's library is down there too and, since I can't seem to sleep when my hubby is out working, I am reading after the kids get to bed! Right now I am reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and am enjoying it. I somehow missed that one in highschool..... Mom said that I didn't want to read it because of some negative impression I had of it. :o/  
I love to read........   
 

Moving

 Well, today is the day my folks return! We have missed them like crazy!!! Last night at dinner my 2.5 yo prayed "Papa home, Papa home. Amen!"  :o)  Now the plan has been that we would have our demolding and refinishing of the interior finished and would move back to our house when the came home. Is this the move we make today? No. Sometimes I wonder why we bother to plan. NOTHING ever goes as it should. The disasters that were hiding beneath our sheet rock were too much to conquer in 1 short month. *SIGH* So, my brother, T, has generously agreed to moving out of the basement and is moving to my brother J's house with his family (J has been an a lot of help on the house and I really appreciate him housing T also) . We are going to the basement. I am trying to be filled with gratitude that we have a place to stay and our own space but I am struggling with frustration. I hate moving and did not want yet another upheaval in the kids lives. Then there is the very limited kitchen downstairs...... with our diet cooking 3 meals a day is monumentous anyways, top that with a tiny kitchen and no dishwasher and you have a stressed out mama. Most of our food stuffs is packed away and what we didn't pack has been consumed.  To top it all off the kids and I have colds and I feel cruddy. I have such a hard time having the right attitude when I don't feel good. Sigh, probably an area I need to work on........ Anyhow, all that to say that the comp I have been using to post is upstairs in Mom's office so I will probably not be on here much until we move into our house.
 Well, off to hauling my stuff downstairs!