The things I don't plan for

What this day may hold is a mystery. We make plans, we set calendar reminders, we coordinate schedules, we prepare for each day with our expectations as priority. Yet, life makes a strange mockery of it all. There will be so much more to this day than I can anticipate or prepare for. There will be challenges I cannot know or plan for and there will be unexpected joy that will overwhelm me. Proverbs 19:21 "Many plans are in a man's mind, but it is the Lord's purposes for him that will stand."

Almost the moment we returned from our rest-filled journey to Oregon, storms hit with a force. Life storms. Snow storms. The copious amount of snow required hours upon hours of snow removal, especially to get our guests in and out. Our heat sources at the big house both decided to die on the night of the biggest storm, leaving our guests bitterly cold and forcing us to replace both units at the same time. Ouch. 

Lochlan is on again and off again in the sleeping department. Some nights he rests soundly and other nights sleep eludes him almost completely. 

The destroyed road (from the flooding of last year) has become a swamp in front of our house, so neighbors have struggled to even reach their homes. We took a full day to try to alter that situation using over 900 sandbags. It has been a vast improvement! 

I came home from a particularly difficult day and decided that I needed order in at least one place: our house. The boy's beds had resided on the back wall of our living room, front and center. It was a massive clutter fest that presided over the rest of the house. No matter how clean everything was, I could not see past that heap of chaos. So, we moved their beds to a useless area of the house between our two indoor gardens. The boys love being near the windows where they can see the sunrise, or pull down the blinds as their hearts choose. It's a win win! 

In response to the challenges of these past couple weeks, we have frolicked in the forests on our sleds or on our feet and we have chased the sunshine and found it. 

Ludwig, the snowman. He is no doubt dancing through the forest underneath the stars at night, as snowmen do when magic is in the air. 

Though we may be weary at the day's end, the sun will rise again tomorrow, and I know that we will learn and grow and become more of who we should be in and through it all.